Dark Side Of The Ring - The Steroid Trials FULL RECAP
In the '90s, the US government attempted to take down Vince McMahon and the WWF amid a series of steroid scandals. Read the full Dark Side of the Ring episode recap below.
The Intro
Through the 80s and into the 90s on the back of Hulk Hogan’s larger-than-life physique, the World Wrestling Federation was a merchandising machine, generating hundreds of millions in revenue. But then, news broke that the mastermind behind the WWF’s unrivalled prosperity was accused of pushing steroids on his wrestlers.
Authorities sought a high-profile case to make clear they would prosecute steroid users and pushers.
With two trials looming, everyone involved found themselves tangled in a world of paranoia and espionage.
WWF head, Vince McMahon, faced down a parade of superstar witnesses who held his fate in their hands.
The Episode
Lawyer Jerry McDevitt kicked off the episode by showing producers around his office. He has represented WWE for approximately 30 years. Ranging from the whole Chris Benoit situation to the unfortunate death of Owen Hart’s death, he has been side by side with Vince.
Jim Ross described Jerry as one of the most intelligent men he’s ever met. In fact, if he found himself in a heinous situation, by hook or crook, he needed the best money that money could buy, he would reach out to Jerry McDevitt to save his ass.
Editor of Pro Wrestling Torch, Wade Keller described Jerry as tall, brash and fearless. Wade was on the site for the entire Vince McMahon steroid trial.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer noted that in terms of Vince McMahon’s success, if you were to take Hulk Hogan out of the picture, McMahon would not be anywhere near as successful.
At the time, Hulk Hogan was the All-American Hero and fans were responding to cool-looking guys with great physiques.
John Arezzi of the Pro Wrestling Spotlight made his introduction and noted professional wrestling was very cartoonish at the time.
Terry Szopinski, known to wrestling fans as Warlord appeared and briefly described his career.
Arezzi noted that there were estimates that 90% of the wrestlers in that time period were all on steroids.
In the late 1980s, steroid use was legal if the drugs were prescribed by a personal physician for the treatment of an injury or disease. WWF wrestlers had unlimited access, thanks to a willing accomplice.
Warlord is asked if he knew who Dr. George Zahorian was? His response: “Oh, yeah” with a smirk.
George was a Pennsylvania doctor who had worked as a ringside doctor for the WWF. He also happened to be a fan of wrestlers.
As the state’s representative, Dr. Zahorian was responsible for examining each wrestler to ensure they were healthy enough to perform.
Warlord remembered that Dr. Zahorian always had a big doctor bag by his side. He would open it up afterwards and it would be full of steroids. The doctor would ask, “Is there anything there you would like? If it isn’t there, I can get it for you and send it to you.”
George set up shop every taping and the guys lined up to purchase their “candy.”
B. Brian Blair of the Killer Bees brought up how you could receive Valium, T3, Percocet, Percodan, Somas, pain pills and steroids, He noted that people do not understand that pressure you are under to look the best you can and to keep your spot in the business. It was high pressure.
For over a decade, steroids were an open secret in wrestling. In the late 80s, despite athletes being exposed as cheaters, steroid abuse was becoming a political lightning rod.
Jerry McDevitt noted there was a lot of hysteria about steroids back in that era. They always sort of portrayed it that the athletes who were using, that were somehow misusing a drug that was made for some other purpose. Steroids are, as far as he can tell, the only drug that was ever made in this country’s history for which the drug manufacturers were not required to give dosage, duration and adverse effects for the purpose it was made, which was athletic enhancement. There’s a lot of good, truthful reasons to tell people what damages can be done by taking these drugs that you don’t need to lie to them about the truth. But the government never did that. The federal congress was reacting to some of this hysteria by the Anabolic Control Act of 1990, which made it for the first time, a controlled substance. This meant trafficking steroids would be treated in much the same manner as trafficking in cocaine.
With a new law in place to curtail steroid dealing, particularly to teen athletes, the FBI targetted weightlifting coach Bill Dunn, who quickly agreed to hand over his supplier, Dr. Zahorian.
It’s gathered that Dunn had been caught with a large number of steroids then flipped and became a government witness. He agreed to wear a wire.
Jerry brought up how Dr. Zahorian was not functioning as a doctor since he agreed to provide Dunn steroids and knew he would be providing them to kids.
As authorities built their case against Dr. Zahorian, a Federal official mentioned the investigation to a colleague who had ties to the WWF. The news reached the desk of Vince McMahon’s wife, Linda, who commands the company distance itself from Dr. Zahorian.
Internal memories were shown from Linda to Pat Patterson stating she didn’t want Dr. Zahorian at the shows anymore.
A tape between Dunn (wearing a wire and recording the convo) and Dr. Zahorian was used to get a search warrant. On the wall of Dr. Zahorian’s office was the famous picture featuring him with Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon.
As authorities probed Dr. Zahorian’s drug dealing enterprise, a trail of evidence led them straight to the doorsteps of WWF wrestlers.
B Brian Blair received a knock on his front door and the man introduced himself to him as an FBI agent. This agent would explain that Blair received three FedEx packages from Dr. Zahorian. They knew everything that was in the package. Feds went right into the mail center and asked for any packages sent out of Dr. Zahorian’s office. They would open and film it for evidence. The Feds would then shut out and seal it shut. You would never think in your wildest dreams that the FBI was looking at your package at the FedEx mail center. The agent told Blair, you can come to testify and in exchange, we won’t prosecute you. Blair would say, “Fair enough.”
Five wrestlers were set to testify against Dr. Zahorian including Hulk Johan, whose appearance could have spelled disaster for him, Vince McMahon and the entire wrestling world.
Seeking to avoid the publicity linking him to steroid use, Lawyer Jerry McDevitt was enlisted to get Hulk Hogan excused from testifying. Hulk was riding high and on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Jerry felt he was as big in that time period as Michael Jordan was in basketball.
They wanted to have a big, high-profile trial at that time to sort of get it out there that the law is different now with respect to steroids.
John Arezzi wondered why some wrestlers such as Roddy Piper were forced to go and others weren’t.
Jerry felt Hulk had a doctor-patient relationship with Dr. Zahorian. Hogan had consulted with Dr. Zahorian about various medical issues involving him and his wife and having children. So, Jerry decided that he would present an argument to the judge that the government had no compelling reason to do this because it would compromise his medical privacy rights to have to get on a witness stand and explain why he did what he did. It would just serve to victimize somebody who had not committed any crimes.
Sports Columnist Phil Mushnick of the New York Post felt Hulk was dismissed from testifying because it might be injurious to his career. “Well, it should be injurious to his career if he was on drugs, if his whole persona was, say your prayers, take your vitamins, kids. Phil began to write about the drug scandals of the 1980s. Phil wondered, “How do you get dismissed from testifying because it might hurt you, to tell the truth?”
Jerry explained, a person in the media called him up and said, Ronald Reagan had to testify in Oliver North’s case despite his not wanting to testify. So, this media person asked, “How did Hulk Hogan get out of testifying?” Jerry remembered saying, “Well, maybe Regan had the wrong lawyer.”
After just 3 hours of deliberation, the jury found Dr. Zahorian guilty of selling steroids to wrestlers who were not his legitimate patients. But despite the disgraced doctor taking the fall, Vince McMahon and the WWF did not emerge unscathed. On the last day, the lawyer for Dr. Zahorian goes, “Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan bought their steroids from Dr. Zahorian.” This is when Vince and Hulk had to speak to the media.
Clips are shown of Vince announcing at a press conference that WWF would be enacting a drug testing policy that would include testing for steroids.
Jerry was asked if he ever discussed appearing on Arsenio to which he would reply, yes, but I can’t tell you what the discussion was because that’s privileged. Then laughed.
During the appearance, Hulk Hogan weaselled his way down to something that sounded less offensive, but still to his mind felt like an admission of something.
Dave Meltzer summarized the appearance, “I took steroids 3 times back in 1983. I tore my bicep, I used it for rehab.” Dave pointed out, it was a complete and utter lie. Meltzer also pointed out that in chatting with Vince, McMahon was hoping Hulk would tell the truth and not some incomplete one.
Wade Keller mentioned, what Hulk Hogan said did not pass a public sniff test.
After Hogan’s appearance on Arsenio Hall, McMahon was called to answer for a range of scandalous allegations on the Phil Donahue Show. During the panel, both John Arezzi and Dave Meltzer were featured called out Vince on a lie by denying he wasn’t devastated at the fact Hogan wasn’t truthful on Arsenio. Vince would give John a visible death stare.
John Arezzi then described a scary incident following the appearance. He had a Long Island apartment and there was a knock on the door. He wasn’t there, but his mom who used to live with him, opened the door and there were two gentlemen standing there asking if John Arezzi resided there. His mom confirmed this. The two would tell her, “Please tell your son he lives in a dangerous neighbourhood.” John wondered, what was that all about?
Jerry McDevitt went on to say, the problem with those types of guys is they have vivid imaginations. They say these things and nobody would care enough about John Arezzi to send black-suited guys to his house.
Jerry pointed out that writer Phil Mushnick started writing hit pieces saying that Vince McMahon was worse than Hannibal Lecter. In one of his columns, he called for an investigation of WWF and that’s exactly what occurred. Phil was flattered he had that much muscle.
Jerry was up at WWF’s Headquarters when they received the first of what became 7 or 8 grand jury subpoenas issues from the Eastern District of New York that commenced an investigation. He believes this was on April 2 of 1992. Jerry felt this was a witch hunt.
The grand jury investigation would allow prosecutors to assemble evidence and gather witnesses for an eventual indictment. Under a cloud of suspicion, McMahon and his legal team brace for the inevitable. Jerry would learn everything he could about steroids and advised Vince to hunker down since it will feel as though he would be stalked.
Phil noted that because Vince believed he was an FBI informant, McMahon had him trailed by a group called Fairfax Partners, who were former FBI agents. They were looking for anything to get on him. Phil ran into one of the guys and they actually had a beer and got along well. The agent told Phil, “You’re a good guy. I’m just doing my job.” Phil sarcastically said, “I smoked a lot of pot in college. Go with it and take me down.” The agent was laughing.
Vince’s limo driver, James Stewart was also prepared to testify that McMahon ordered him to deliver a shipment of steroids to Hulk Hogan.
The producers asked Jerry, “Why do you think they didn’t call him as a witness in Vince’s trial?” Jerry noted, “Probably because he had brought a lawsuit against the WWF for some, I can’t remember what reason he conjured up. And, when I took his deposition, I caught him dead to rights perjuring himself. And I don’t think you’d want to put on a witness stand somebody who admitted to committing perjury in other proceedings.”
In the midst of the federal investigation, the WWF initiated a dramatic overhaul of the types of physiques it featured on television.
Wade Keller pointed out, because of the steroid scandal, Vince McMahon couldn’t keep Hogan around.
Jim Ross said, “Hogan was the star of the show and had been for years, and years, and years. But it was coming time that Vince to get younger.”
Vince shifted his focus to smaller wrestlers who were more athletic such as Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.
In November of 1993, the hammer finally dropped. Vince McMahon was indicted. The indictment said that McMahon and a doctor conspired to distribute steroids to the wrestlers to enhance their size and muscle development.
When reflecting on the trial, John Arezzi said it was a circus featuring wrestling fans, wrestling writers, Vince’s family would show up every day in the courtroom. Vince showed up wearing a neck brace, which everyone laughed at.
Dave Meltzer noted that Vince was the babyface and everyone was oddly cheering for the guy on trial.
This essentially played out like a wrestling angle.
Jerry dismissed the neck brace being leveraged for sympathy as it was real since Vince just had neck surgery.
The prosecution team led by Sean O’Shea had a lineup of WWF Superstars witnesses set to testify, including Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. Jerry McDevitt’s prior representation of Hogan at Dr. Zahorian’s trial was regarded as a conflict of interest, which forced McMahon’s team to bring in reinforcements. Former Federal Prosecutor, Laura Brevetti was brought in. Jerry represented WWF and Laura represented Vince, personally.
Warlord received a subpoena and noted, “The best thing I did was just tell the truth. Vince never came to me, face to face and said, Terry, if you don’t take steroids, you don’t have a job.”
Jerry pointed out that many of the wrestlers admitted to using steroids and they didn't buy them from Dr. Zahorian, since he was too expensive.
Warlord found it to be a giant witch hunt as well.
Wrestlers who testified brought up how they used steroids up until the law changed in 1990 and everything was going to plan until Kevin Wacholz, Nailz gave his testimony. His story was that Vince told him, “We need you to get on steroids.”
Jerry brought up how they showed the jury a picture of the orange jumpsuit Nailz performed in that covered his body. So, he wasn’t a performer like an Ultimate Warrior whose body you actually saw.
When asked if he had any animosity towards Vince McMahon, Nailz said, no. It was obvious he didn’t understand the word because when it was asked if Nailz hated Vince McMahon, he said yes.
Ultimate Warrior could be heard saying, “I think Vince took wrestling to new heights and made a lot of enemies.”
Dr. Zahorian was then brought in, directly from his prison cell to testify against McMahon. Jerry brought up how during the doctor’s direct examination, Zahorian kept vaguely referring to some letter he had written, but Jerry didn’t have a copy of it. Finally, the judge ordered Dr. Zahorian to turn over any letters that they had received.
While Dr. Zahorian is on the witness stand, Jerry was stunned by what he read. Dated May 19, 1993. The letter described the doctor’s horrendous experience being taken to various prisons and forced into solitary confinement. This was done to influence his testimony.
On the stand, Dr. Zahorian recounted a meeting with McMahon where he disclosed that he was selling drugs to his wrestlers and that McMahon never told him to stop. This one conversation became the only basis of charging Vince with having some conspiracy of any kind with Dr. Zahorian.
When questioned by prosecutors, Dr. Zahorian denied his treatment was malicious or influenced his testimony.
Pre-trial interactions with witnesses were apparently not only limited to prosecutors. Vince McMahon’s personal assistant, Emily Feinberg had intimate knowledge of his own steroid use and records of financial transactions between McMahon and Dr. Zahorian that could shatter his defence.
Dave Meltzer remembered watching Laura Brevetti cross-examining Emily Feinberg. Even more impressively, Emily had a quick and detailed response to every question. Apparently, Marty Bergman was the secret husband of Laura Brevetti. Her husband was talking to Dave Meltzer as like another reporter discussing the trial.
There was speculation of witness tampering regarding Emily, but Jerry shut that down and noted if that were the case, it would have come out on the stand.
Vince McMahon, himself, addressed the allegations shortly after they appeared in print.
The Prosecutors needed to prove that some of the distribution occurred in the eastern district of New York since that’s where the trial was transpiring and Dr. Zahorian distributed steroids in Pennsylvania.
Phil didn’t understand why the government indicted McMahon on Long Island when all the paper trails were right there in his backyard in Stamford, Connecticut.
They principally tried to use Emily to establish venue by suggesting that she had taken some steroids and delivered them to Hulk Hogan through a driver.
The witness who could do the most damage would be Hulk Hogan, who had recently signed with McMahon’s rival, WCW. Hogan was granted immunity for anything he would reveal on the stand about how he got his steroids from Dr. Zahorian.
There was no doubt the steroid scandal caused a rift between Hogan and McMahon. There were even expectations that Hulk was going to bury Vince.
Dave Meltzer noted there was a loud gasp as Hogan entered the courtroom.
Hogan testifying could have potentially sealed the deal and sent Vince to prison for years.
During a Hulk Hogan Torch Talk interview from 2002, he can be heard saying, if they were going to throw Vince in jail, they might as well throw the entire wrestling community in jail. Vince didn’t sell them, he didn’t inject him and he didn’t do it.
Hogan framed it, to the shock of the prosecutors, and to the people gasping the courtroom. “We were gym buddies. We were friends. Sometimes I had extra steroids and I gave them to Vince. Sometimes Vince had extra steroids, he gave them to me.” That doesn’t make him a drug dealer.
Jerry noted, “He was the big dog and when he walks in and says, this doesn’t have anything to do with a conspiracy, there goes their case.”
Despite the fact Hogan’s testimony was very beneficial to Vince, McMahon was furious that Hogan testified against him.
Sean O’Shea, in his closing argument, went from reserved to explosive and bombastic. It was apparently a flurry of language that painted Vince in a villainous way. Essentially, Sean was painting the picture that Vince profited off of the wrestlers as slabs of meat to gain power, fame and money.
Stephanie ran out into the hallway crying as she was very upset about the things said about her father. Jerry would say to her, Steph, you haven’t heard me yet. Just wait.”
Jerry demonstrated how inept the FDA was in regulation when your internal memos say that you have determined that Anavar is unfit for human consumption and should be removed from the market, and you know they didn’t do that. The jurors asked to judge to know for sure if they did not remove Anavar from the market. The judge won’t say, “No it wasn’t removed from the market.”
The government failed to protect the individuals taking this drug.
When Vince and the WWF were found not guilty, John joked that it was as if Hulk Hogan won the World Championship at MSG based on the pop.
What it boiled down to with the jury was the fact that conspiracy was a big overreach from the prosecution.
Dave Meltzer pointed out that while it wasn’t a big conspiracy, it still proved all of the wrestlers were on steroids. If anything, all the testimony, in that case, proved what everyone assumed to begin with anyway.
When Vince was exonerated, he became an even larger-than-life personality.
Jerry brought up the celebration back at the hotel they were at. After too many cocktails, Jerry would say, “Hey, Vince. You can take that neck brace off.” Kind of kidding him. Vince would take it off, wave it around and then put it back on.
When asked to describe the bond between himself and Vince, Jerry called it unbreakable.