Wrestling Reality Check: Steroid Smackdown

Aug. 31, 2007 — -- "Fair warning."

That's how a spokeswoman for the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. described Thursday night's announcement that 10 wrestlers were suspended for drug violations and the WWE's subsequent decision to alter the league testing policy so that as of November, any "talent" who fails a drug test will be publicly identified.

"We've alerted our talent, basically, you've got fair warning," Jennifer McIntosh, a spokeswoman for the WWE, told ABC News. "We believe that publicly announcing the names of performers moving forward is going to act as a deterrent."

McIntosh confirmed that the suspensions, which could last between 30 and 60 days, grew out of cooperative work with the Albany County, Fla., district attorney's office, which has been investigating Florida-based Signature Pharmacy in connection with the fraudulent online prescriptions of steroids and other drugs. The NFL and NBA have also been working with the same prosecutors, McIntosh said. Additional WWE suspensions may follow.

McIntosh would not explicitly tie the punishments and policy change to the high-profile murder-suicide involving Chris Benoit in June, but scrutiny of the rules and regulations of pro wrestling has intensified in the months since the bodies of Benoit, his wife and son were discovered in his Georgia home.

The backlash against pro wrestling has been so great that at the end of September, a congressional subcommittee will hold hearings on the topic. An aide to the House Energy and Commerce Committee told ABC News that Congress has requested documents from the WWE and two other major professional wrestling organizations Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance.

As of today, the WWE had supplied Congress with some of the requested documents, while the TNA and NWA had not yet produced the information for the commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee that will hold the hearing. The hearing was called, according to the congressional aide, to take a deeper look at the leagues' drug policies, as well as the enforcement of those policies.