Torch Today BENOIT STORY REFERENCE ARTICLES: List of Torch articles covering call to action for industry
Jul 2, 2007 - 12:00:00 PM
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The following are key articles featured on the Pro Wrestling Torch during different eras of covering the industry. Despite the time differences between some articles, the key thread that links them all together is a focus on industry problems, their probable solutions, and a call to act for wrestlers, fans, and promoters.
While some wrestlers, employees of wrestling companies, and media members write off change to the wrestling business, Wade Keller looks at the heart of pro wrestling's problems to discover changes that can improve lives, keep wrestlers alive, and clean up an industry that's over-due for change.
Shortly after Eddie Guerrero's death in late 2005, Wade Keller looked at the history of crookedness in the wrestling business that has prevented change in pro wrestling. He looks at how adding a few simple, logical, yet never-before-implemented occupational changes would enhance the lifestyle of wrestlers in the sport.
After Vince McMahon went on HBO's "Real Sports" show to defend WWE from hard research into their business's contribution to premature deaths in wrestling, Bruce Mitchell looks at all the reasons he's been told WWE isn't responsible for the deaths, but how all of those reasons can be refuted with one simple reason that Vince McMahon has had more to do with creating the culture of death in wrestling than anyone else.
After WWE implemented its Wellness Policy following Eddie Guerrero's death, Bruce Mitchell looks at the key issues of what happens when the results of a random drug test don't work in WWE's favor, and what their response would be. The relevance to the Chris Benoit story is important, as the Policy has come under harsh scrutiny from drug testing experts now that the Benoit story has generated mainstream interest.
Days after Eddie Guerrero's death, Bruce Mitchell looks at the problem of smaller wrestlers - such as Eddie and Chris Benoit - having to look a certain way to mask their size and be considered "heavyweights" in a world of giants. Mitchell looks at how Eddie's body began to break down as he tried to maintain unnatural body size, which eventually took his life.
Wade Keller's "Torch Talk" interview with Sean "X-Pac" Waltman was conducted in November 2005, right after the death of Eddie Guerrero. This is one of the most in-depth, insider, frank discussions from a long-time drug addict wrestler who had been through Vince McMahon's drug testing system and was friends with many wrestlers who have died young. The article contains a majority of the 90-minute interview that focuses on problems permeating pro wrestling and costing too many lives - unnecessarily. This interview originally ran in three installments in Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter in late 2005.
Excerpts of a "Torch Talk" interview PWTorch editor Wade Keller conducted with Chris Benoit in August 1995, before he became a nationally known star in WCW and later the WWF.
Following the death of Eddie Guerrero, WWE instituted a company-wide Wellness Policy to test wrestlers for the abuse of drugs. The cover story details the policy's nature and intent, as well as its potential effectiveness, which has been criticized following Chris Benoit's death.
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PWTorch editor Wade Keller has covered pro wrestling full time since 1987 starting with the Pro Wrestling Torch print newsletter. PWTorch.com launched in 1999 and the PWTorch Apps launched in 2008.
He has conducted "Torch Talk" insider interviews with Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Eric Bischoff, Jesse Ventura, Lou Thesz, Jerry Lawler, Mick Foley, Jim Ross, Paul Heyman, Bruno Sammartino, Goldberg, more.
He has interviewed big-name players in person incluiding Vince McMahon (at WWE Headquarters), Dana White (in Las Vegas), Eric Bischoff (at the first Nitro at Mall of America), Brock Lesnar (after his first UFC win).
He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)
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