Congressman Bobby L. Rush, the chairman of the Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee meeting on drugs in professional sports, addressed Vince McMahon and the steroid problem in professional wrestling during Wednesday’s hearing. The hearing is being attended by the commissioners of all major sports. Vince McMahon was invited to the meeting, but he declined while citing his lawyer’s unavailability to attend the conference with him. McMahon claimed that he would be willing to meet with the subcommittee whenever his lawyer’s schedule permits.

Rush made the following statement: “Steroid abuse in pro wrestling is probably worse than in any professional sport or amateur sport. And while I recognize that professional wrestling is not actually “a sport,” it certainly requires a great deal of athletic talent. It is immensely popular with young people, including children, and many of the high-profile athletes and entertainers have fatally abused steroids and other drugs.

“The number of deaths in the professional wrestling ranks is startling to say the least. And the tragedy of Chris Benoit (name mispronounced) has been well documented. I want to insure Mr. McMahon that this committee—his subcommittee—fully intends to deal with the illegal steroid abuse in professional wrestling. And we hope he will be part of the solution and not part of the problem. We intend to see procede deliberatively on this particular matter. We have options and Mr. McMahon should and must be willing to cooperate with the undertakings of this subcommittee and we expect no less.”

Powell’s POV: Rush made these comments before introducing the various sports commissioners to the committee. He clearly said more about Vince McMahon’s absence, but ESPNews, which is covering the hearing live, missed the first portion of his comments while in commercial. Anyone in WWE who thought the storm had passed and they could return to business as usual was clearly mistaken.

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