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PWINSIDER Q & A: CROSS PROMOTING WEEKLY MATCHES ON RAW-SMACKDOWN, REY MYSTERIO'S RETURN, ZUBAZ, TESTOSTERONE IS A STEROID AND MORE

How come the media, when reporting on Benoit’s toxicology results, keeps saying he had steroids in his system. He had testosterone, which to my knowledge is a hormone and used for specific reasons (such as replacement therapy), but no anabolic steroids. Are these media outlets just ignorant or do they want it to be steroids so badly that they will distort the truth to fit the all of the stories they ran proclaiming that steroids killed the Benoit family?

Here's your answer, from the DEA website: "Concerns over a growing illicit market, abuse by teenagers, and the uncertainty of possible harmful long-term effects of steroid use, led Congress in 1991 to place anabolic steroids as a class of drugs into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA defines anabolic steroids as any drug or hormonal substance chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins, and corticosteroids) that promotes muscle growth."  While there are medical uses for testosterone, when the levels are as high as they were in Chris Benoit's body, their usage is very clear and it is seen universally as steroid usage.

With all the troubles WWE seems to be having with injuries lately (especially Smackdown), what do you guys think of this idea? It seems WWE never knows what or when injury is going to strike. So, why not every week, on at least Raw and Smackdown, hype an inter-promotional match for each show. For instance - If they had hyped lets say Booker T versus Batista, then there would be a storyline reason for Booker T to have been on Smackdown this week - then when something like Edge getting hurt happens there would be a reason for Booker T being there and him being entered into the battle royal, thus winning the championship and having the belt on a well known personality? This way, they always have a secondary option to go to instead of rushing to a horrible alternate plan? Let me know what you think.

I don't like it for a few reasons.  One, injuries don't happen all that often.  More importantly though, it would make the company run through upper card match-ups quickly and get nothing out of them when instead they could use them down the road and make money from them.  Guys are going to get hurt and when they do, WWE will have to scramble.  That is just a fact of sporting life.

I was wondering, will the news of Rey Mysterio's links with Dr Astin have any effect on the push Rey gets when he returns (I hope it doesn't for the record)? Also, I remember JR commenting that Rey has been able to heal from other nagging injuries as well as his major one, so will we see a more "old school" high flying, lucha libre Rey Mysterio of old, or the current, a bit more watered down, long promo Rey Mysterio?

So far, the plan is to push him hard on his return.  I think the only way that will change is if a serious media hailstorm or government intervention happens.  What has happened so far probably wouldn't be enough to make an issue.  With that said, I think it would be a smart move for Rey to come back smaller than he was when he left.  Whether he does or not we will see soon enough.

This may be a weird question, but, I have noticed that several wrestlers wear Affliction Clothing when doing in-ring and backstage promos. Samoa Joe even has their banner on his website, as they are sponsors. This has got me thinking, have any companies ever used or consider using pro-wrestlers as endorsers? Many other pro-athletes have moved beyond just being spokes models for athletic companies (Nike, Adidas, etc.), and are now utilized by mainstream fashion designers (Dwayne Wade for Sean John, LeBron James for RocaWear). I think wrestling has enough of a following that is could bring an additional demographic to a clothing/shoe line.

The only one I can think of was Zubaz, who used The Road Warriors/LOD as the spokesmen.  For a while, those zebra pants and hats were huge, with NFL teams even coming on board and making branded clothes with the team logos on them.  Other than that, I can't think of any.

You get lots of questions asking your opinion about someone's chances of making it into the WWE Hall of Fame. Do you think Jim Johnston or Kevin Dunn will ever be inducted into the Hall? Other than Vincent J. McMahon and James Dudley, all previous inductees have been either wrestlers, announcers, or managers. Johnston and Dunn are probably not well known to the average wrestling fan, but both have certainly contributed greatly to WWE. I could see them easily making a video package explaining who Johnston is and how he has contributed to WWE, but making a video package of Dunn's work would be a challenge.

I definitely think Kevin Dunn deserves to get in.  Whether you like him or not, his innovations in the TV aspect of WWE makes him a no-brainer, and that doesn't even take into account the power he has and his ownership stake in the company.  As for Johnston, he's iffier to me.  His music has been important, for sure, and that is probably enough to get him in but he is not a slam dunk like Dunn is.

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