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BRET HART, JOANIE LAURER, WIKIPEDIA FOUNDER DISCUSS BENOIT TRAGEDY WITH FOX NEWS

By Mike Johnson on 2007-06-29 12:50:00

Fox News' On The Record with Greta Van Susteren covered the Chris Benoit tragedy yesterday.  Van Susteren spent the opening moments of the program discussing facts we've already covered on PWInsider.com as well as conjecture stemming from the DEA raid of Chris Benoit's physician's office and the role of steroids.

The second segment featured the founder of wikipedia, Jimmy Wales discussing the wikipedia change to Benoit's profile.  Wales noted that anyone can edit wikipedia and that after the Benoit story broke they noticed, "That something interesting had happened" and contacted the police.  Wales explained that all edits and IPs are traced and while they can't look for the actual person, investigators can get a subpoena for that information.  He said his volunteers "wrote a fantastic report" about the situation but it's up to investigators to get further.  Wales said there was no glitch to make it appear as if it was posted before the deaths.  Van Susteren spent the remainder of the segment discussing basic questions about how often Benoit's profile would have been changed.  Wales noted that the person responsible had made several other edits to other wrestling articles, but failed to note the extent of those edits at all (they had been poorly written, explicit comments).

Former WWF champion Bret Hart appeared.  He said the wikipedia situation was just bizarre and he hopes the authorities figure out who that was.  Hart was asked if he knew anyone Benoit had texted that his wife had past and Bret said that he didn't know anyone who he had texted.  When asked about the raid on the doctor's office, Bret said it sounds like the doctor was friendly with Chris and his whole family but didn't know enough about the doctor.  He said he wouldn't refute that Benoit may have been taking testosterone because his levels were down.  Bret said that he, like everyone else, just wants to get to the bottom of this and find out how this happened.   Hart was asked about whether steroid use was a problem in wrestling.  Hart said that it was a problem in the 1980s during the Hulk Hogan era but not so much during his era,  He said WWE adopted a policy that was discarded in 1997 around the time he left the company, but a more stringent policy was adopted after the passing of Eddie Guerrero.  He said in the 1980s, steroids were taken by many because it was the only way to stay competitive, the same it would have been in the NFL or the Olympics.  Hart said that he was never asked to take them and he felt the best stretch of matches in his career was when he was steroid-free.

They brought in Joanie Laurer who said she was tired and sad and disgusted by the entire thing.  Laurer rambled, saying that seeing what happens in an industry that has so many red flags and now that it's come to a double murder with a child, she's disgusted.  Laurer looked as if she was going to crack at any moment.

Laurer was asked about steroid abuse in the company.  She said she couldn't say because she was never tested when she was there .  The company wasn't testing during that time frame, so she's telling the truth, although if they suspected a performer had a problem, they would ask you to submit to a test and then handle it on a case by case basis.  She said they should test everyone for a few months, spend the dollars and see if that's the issue. Laurer seemed completely unaware of the Wellness Policy. 

Laurer was asked about steroids.  She said that she never used them and she doesn't know if there is such a thing as roid rage.  She said that she's thought of using them to get a better look but being a female, she didn't want to cause any long-term effects to her body.  She rambled through the answer.

Laurer said she didn't know Nancy Benoit but Chris was very quiet and very talented in the ring.  She said he was "one of the few people who trained in Japan." [While Benoit did train in the New Japan dojos, there are many others who trained there and he wasn't originally trained in Japan, but in Canada by the Harts.]  She said he was technically very good and had a very long career, but what, "I didn't know about him was that...here were some issues there and he was, you know, murdered his wife, his child and himself.  So, obviously disturbed....violent"

Laurer was asked about Vince McMahon and said, "I think Vince McMahon is happy to put his trademark on you and own you on a family-oriented personal level until something happens and then, I don't know, maybe he feels for it or something.  I don't think he has taken enough responsibility from what I know of him as a person from working with him, but from what I know of him as a person, he hasn't been a very kind gentleman that deserves my respect, let me tell you that."

As you can imagine, Laurer was all over the place, rambling and stammering and not really making any points.  She and Bret Hart were night and day.

 

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