TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
Guest Editorials
ClassicsGuy BLOG: Clueless Danny Bonaduce disrespects the wrestling business - suggests all wrestlers should be on steroids Apr 17, 2009 - 12:36:34 PM
PWTorch VIP members have first-look access to all of Torch VIP forum member ClassicsGuy's latest blogs in the newly upgraded VIP Forum. His blogs posted under the ClassicsGuy screenname are published first in the PWTorch VIP Forum.
I'm used to people in and out of wrestling making ridiculous statements about the business. But I read something today that seriously ticked me off.
Danny Bonaduce, a bit-part actor most famous for his role as Danny Partridge in the 1970s sitcom, "The Patridge Family" that ended 35 years ago, is "wrestling" ten-year-plus veteran pro wrestler Eric Young on the pre-game show before TNA's Lockdown this Sunday. Bonaduce, long time wrestling fan and mark, has used his stardom to get gigs living out his fantasy to be a "wrestler" in an odd gimmick match or two over the past 15 years, dating back to a match before the 1994 WCW Spring Stampede PPV.
He's also a highly-rated radio host in the Philadelphia area, and in exchange for frequent plugs on his show for the Lockdown PPV in the area, he gets to live out his little fantasy again vs. Young this Sunday.
Now none of this is what actually annoyed me. Some yahoo non-wrestler basically walking in off the street and pretending to be a wrestler and able to hold his own with a pro.... yeah, it's not great, but we're kind of used to it in wrestling. Shane O'Mac "wrestled" Cody Rhodes on the debut edition of "WWE Superstars", after all.
But it was these comments that annoyed me greatly:
Danny Bonaduce, in building up Saturday's match with Eric Young which will air at 7:30 p.m. for free before Lockdown on the channel carrying Lockdown, said to the BWR radio show he thinks the lack of steroids in wrestling is hurting business because wrestlers are supposed to look like giants. He said he thinks usage of steroids should be mandatory for pro wrestlers and talked about his own use, saying the only problem is because your ass gets sore from shots it hurts more taking a bodyslam.
Bonaduce kept talking about how if the fight was real, he'd beat Young easily, but has to stick to the script and that it doesn't make sense for Young to lose since he's a full-time pro wrestler.
The second paragraph, where he completely disrespects the business, exposes it to the extent where he basically acknowledges he will be losing to Young, and makes a total joke out of the whole thing - well, that would be bad enough normally. But the first part...
What kind of warped individual would make a public statement saying that he thinks that all aspiring wrestlers should be forced to take illegal steroid drugs in order to participate? Possibly the type who participated in a famed steroid user's reality TV show (a person who coincidentally goes around making statements sympathizing with O.J.), but I digress.
What gives Bonaduce the right to think he can make such a suggestion or remark? You lift up the curtain just a little bit, and some schmuck who has absolutely no business being in wrestling just tears the whole thing down - curtain, rail, and all. I wonder if this no-nothing know-it-all would be making similar ridiculous statements if he was busting his steroid-addled butt 250 nights a year on the road, traveling 1,000s of miles, away from home, family, and loved ones?
Or would he say it to the faces of the families of Eddie Guerrero, Brian Pillman, Rick Rude, and the many, many others, all left behind thanks to the usage of steroids ruining their lives and taking their loved ones ridiculously prematurely?
People like Bonaduce, with his ill-advised and disgraceful remarks damage this business far more than anything TNA can ever do themselves with their so-called "reprehensible product." They would be best advised to cut ties with such a dangerous, garbage-spewing leech.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
