Report: 11 pro wrestlers linked to pharmacy probe
 

Just saw this on ESPN.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2805155

Updated: March 19, 2007, 9:57 PM ET
Orton, other wrestlers, linked to probe of pharmacy
Associated Press

Eleven professional wrestlers, including the WWE's Randy Orton, have joined the list of athletes linked to a nationwide steroids investigation.

SI.com reported Monday that Orton allegedly received eight prescriptions for six different drugs -- including stanozolol, nandrolone and testosterone -- between March 2004 and August 2004. According to the documents SI.com reviewed, two doctors whose names also appear in Gary Matthews Jr.'s file, wrote prescriptions for Orton.

Orton, through the WWE, declined comment, SI.com said.

In its review of documents, SI.com reported it found Adam Copeland, a.k.a. Edge, and Shane Helms, a.k.a. The Hurricane, received HGH from Applied Pharmacy in Mobile, Ala., one of the pharmacies raided in the investigation led by Albany, N.Y., District Attorney David Soares.

Through the WWE, Copeland and Helms didn't respond to a request for comment, SI.com said.

WWE spokesman Gary Davis told SI.com that WWE policy prohibits performance-enhancing drugs but would not say whether any wrestlers have tested positive since the policy was enacted.

Also linked to the scandal, in various reports, are baseball's Jose Canseco, John Rocker, Jerry Hairston Jr. and David Bell, former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, Pittsburgh Steelers doctor Richard Rydze, 1996 Olympic wrestling gold medalist Kurt Angle and bodybuilder Victor Martinez.

Monday, SI.com also reported Arizona doctor David Wilbirt's name has come up in multiple files, including Angle, Oscar Gutierrez (stage name Rey Mysterio) and former WWE star Eddie Guerrero, who died in 2005.

Through the WWE, Gutierrez declined comment to SI.com about the report that Wilbirt had prescribed him nandrolone and stanozolol.

Wilbirt told SI.com he's not practicing medicine now.

"I'll tell you one thing and then this conversation is going to end," Wilbirt told SI.com when asked about the professional wrestlers. "They had done blood work and had laboratory work done and they had come to see me."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

So wrestlers are athletes now?

Also from SportsIllustrated.com
 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ers/index.html

Wrestlers allegedly tied to drug ring

Documents: 'Edge,' 'Hurricane' allegedly ordered HGH
Posted: Monday March 19, 2007 5:33PM; Updated: Monday March 19, 2007 5:43PM

Also in this column:

• Orton allegedly ordered drugs from same doctors as Matthews Jr.

Since last summer Sports Illustrated reporters Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim have been investigating an alleged illegal steroid distribution network that has implicated numerous pro athletes. On Feb. 27 the two SI writers accompanied federal and state drug enforcement agents on a raid of a Jupiter, Fla., anti-aging clinic that investigators allege conspired to fraudulently prescribe steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs over the Internet.

SI.com: What's the latest?

Llosa/Wertheim: Investigators in Albany and Orlando continue to go through the material from last month's seizures. This means everything from testing drugs found in desk drawers to cross-referencing names that, we're told, include athletes of all levels.

SI.com: Any sense when these names will be made public?

Llosa/Wertheim: No. Obviously the "big names" are what have made this investigation a national concern. And, in all candor, it's the main reason news organizations -- including Sports Illustrated -- are pursuing the story. But investigators insist that athletes are really ancillary to their investigation. They're much more interested in breaking up the distribution pipeline which, they allege, is a marriage of fraudulent anti-aging clinics, complicit compounding pharmacies and doctors who rubber-stamp prescriptions for human growth hormone (HGH), testosterone, steroids, etc., often without examining the patients.

For example, David Wilbirt, an Arizona doctor, was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency from 2001 to 2005 for allegedly writing 3,879 prescriptions between November 2004 and April 2005, all for "patients" who had requested drugs over the Internet. Though that was two years ago, his name has surfaced several times in the official documents we reviewed from the "Operation Netroids" investigation.

SI.com: Do investigators believe any of Wilbirt's "patients" were athletes?

Llosa/Wertheim: Yes. We'd already seen his name come up in conjunction with Kurt Angle, a 1996 Olympic gold-medal-winning freestyle wrestler and now a star professional wrestler who allegedly received two prescriptions for trenbolone and one for nandrolone between October 2004 and February '05. It turns out Angle isn't the only pro wrestler alleged to have received prescriptions from Wilbirt. According to the official documents we reviewed, Wilbirt was billed for HCG and the steroid stanozolol that were sent to WWE star Eddie Guerrero in early 2005. (Guerrero died on Nov. 13, 2005, in a Minneapolis hotel room due to what a coroner later ruled as heart disease, complicated by an enlarged heart resulting from a history of anabolic steroid use.) Wilbirt also allegedly issued prescriptions for the steroids nandrolone and stanozolol to Oscar Gutierrez, whose stage name is Rey Mysterio. (Through the WWE, Gutierrez declined comment.)

When reached at his home Wilbirt spoke with us briefly, asserting, "I'm not even practicing medicine now, so... I don't remember doing half the stuff you're talking about." (The Arizona Medical Board confirms that his license is currently suspended.) Asked specifically about the professional wrestlers, Wilbirt remarked: "I'll tell you one thing and then this conversation is going to end. They had done blood work and had laboratory work done and they had come to see me." Wilbirt obviously remains a "person of interest" for the investigators.

In total, there were 11 professional wrestlers listed in the documents that we saw. Some of these wrestlers are working as independents; some are out of the business entirely; others are first-tier stars. Consider Randy Orton, who allegedly received eight prescriptions for six different drugs -- stanozolol, nandrolone, anastrozole, Clomiphene citrate, oxandrolone and testosterone -- between March 2004 and August 2004. (Through the WWE, Orton declined comment.) Interestingly, according to the documents, Orton's prescriptions came from the same two doctors whose names appeared on the prescriptions in major league outfielder Gary Matthews Jr.'s file.

SI.com: Most of the athletes named in your previous stories were allegedly receiving human growth hormone. It sounds as though the professional wrestlers were allegedly mostly receiving steroids.

Llosa/Wertheim: Right. At some level this stands to reason: The skill-set required for pro wrestling is obviously different from that of most other competitive sports. According to the documents two prominent wrestlers, Adam Copeland, a.k.a. Edge, and Shane Helms, a.k.a. The Hurricane, received HGH. (Through the WWE, Copeland and Helms didn't respond to a request for comment.) But virtually all the others allegedly received a wide variety of anabolic steroids. In each case these were supplied by Applied, the Mobile, Ala., compounding pharmacy that was raided last fall.

SI.com: Does the WWE have a drug policy?

Llosa/Wertheim: Gary Davis, a WWE spokesman, pointed us to a Talent Wellness Program instituted in February 2006. As to whether anabolic steroids and HGH are banned, Davis sent us an email quoting the policy: "The WWE policy prohibits the use of performance-enhancing drugs, as well as other prescription drugs which can be abused, if taken for other than a legitimate medical purpose pursuant to a valid prescription from a licensed and treating physician. For purposes of WWE's policy, prescriptions obtained over the Internet and/or from suppliers of prescription drugs from the Internet are not considered to have been given for a legitimate medical purpose."

Citing privacy issues, Davis declined to say whether WWE wrestlers have tested positive for banned substances since the policy was implemented.

Oh, man, Heads are gonna ROLL because of this! Orton is SO getting a minor depush for a week or so!

wrestlers using steroids?!

They should all be stripped of their championships and accomplishments because they weren't won fair and square

So who are the other wrestlers?

Randy you're fired ( for 30 days )

Armando Estrada is betting on matches, including UMAGAS!! And it's possible that he's even placed bets AGAINST the wrestler he manages at Wrestlemania. This is clearly corruption and a conflict of interest. He should be banned from Wrestling.

Eddie Guerrero should be stripped of his coffin.

ROFL

Maria should be stripped of her clothes and I'll inject her with testosterone

I'm against steroids, but I honestly don't care. You can pretty much tell which guys are on them, and which aren't. When Edge came back from his neck injury, you could clearly tell he was on roids. I don't think he's currently on them, but I couldn't care less. It's a fake sport.

Remember when Randy Orton was out for a couple of months and got pretty skinny? How do you think he gained all that mass back so quickly?

This isn't shocking in the least.

If you get a chance watch any Randy Orton footage from 2004. Then watch footage from 06. I mean come on.

And listen to his voice too. Same with Kurt Angle's.

Their VOICES have changed because of the roids and chemical levels and what not.

Is there really any problem with a bunch of guys in a fake sport doing drugs that enhance your performance? Will it ruin the sportsmanship or image or sanctity of pro wrestling?

It means shit. Any steroid use in any walk of life that isn't some kind of professionally competitive playing field (ie Major League sports, Olympics, Bodybuilding, etc.) simply doesn't matter. It's a personal choice and if you're willing to go out of the way to aquire roids, knowing the dangers, and use them just to get cut, then it should be nobody's concern.

You're not hurting anyone else. It's not like alcohol or drugs where you're gonna take roids and get into a car and endanger yourself and others on the road.

*save some crazy road roid rage freakout.

Shit, I called it fake. Now edge is gonna shoot on me...:eek:

THEIR MASS IS STILL REAL TO ME DAMMIT!

Especially in wrestling where it would be more headline worthy that a wrestler DIDN'T take steroids than the "revelation" that they do.

After all, the mainstream expects professional wrestlers to be "roided up freaks in tights"

Next thing you know they are going to tell us that wrestling is pre-determined.

VINCE: YES!! Publicity!!!! :love:

*** Orton wins the Heavyweight title 2 months later ***

I'm just content knowing that Steiner isn't involved...his muscles are all genetics...

I think Melina's face was using roids for sure.

:y:

lol that was Orton's highest point in his career

They can use this as a new catch phrase for John Cena...

YO YO YO YOU CAN'T SEE MY ROIDS

I missed the humor

Guess we now know who the next big things are...

Dumbasses. Everybody knows his real name is Gregory. :shifty:

Steroids really aren't as dangerous as folks make 'em out to be. Most of the claims that are made about steroids are despite the FDA's findings on them.

I mean, you can choose to believe that steroids are insanely dangerous, the world is flat, or that negroes are too unlike us to understand how to drive a car, or you can go do some research and find out that the arguments for banning steroids are largely bullshit based on superstition.

In the States, they were banned by a Congress that likely thinks Masturbation causes hairy palms and blindness.

...Come to think if it...My vision is getting worse.

Well I'm black and half my family can't drive.

Mine too. Damn white women.

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Where are the ESPN reporters going bat shit about this story at? :shifty:

I actually heard this report driving home on the radio today.

Pretty much every wrestler takes some shit.

The guys taking illegal stuff should lose their jobs and be criminally prosecuted.

Simply as that.

Althought it is America so we'll most likely only see the black and hispanic guys get done.

FINALLY! I'll get a break from Lashley. Good job America! :y:

PTI covered it on ESPN, so did Outside the Lines

nobody is surprised

At least one would have to be Test (Adam Martin). And obviously, everyone in here with half a brain can tell that Lashley is probably using (or has used them at some point in his career), and I'm not sure but did Masters ever get in trouble for steroid use?