Day of Blogs

Hey guys - just to let you know - last year on my then-mainstream blog (http://sarcasm.blogdrive.com) I participated in an event called Blogathon. That event officially this year is taking a year off due to real-life occupying the attention of the organizers (go figure - never a problem for ME lol).

But Blogathon-er Jen is running a mini-event on July 26, the day the Blogathon would have been, called Day of Blogs. You can find its website at http://www.dayofblogs.org. I will be participating here at In This Very Ring, and I will be raising money for The Nancy and Daniel Benoit Foundation, a foundation for the study and education about the effects of steroids on the brain and nervous system.

I know it might seem a bit hypocritical to be devoting a wrestling blog to a cause which would on its surface be very anti-wrestling. But that's just the thing, and just the problem: I am so PRO-WRESTLING, and so PRO-WRESTLER, I want to see these men and women be able to do what they do without the pressure of having to be larger than life. So many people look to these athletes as role models, and this is probably the single most destructive aspect of the sport is the rampant drug abuse. Steroids are only one part of it - there are pain killers, recreational drugs, and a whole culture to the sport which is rotten.

However, if we can change this one aspect, remove the pressure to compete from the perspective of physical size with one's peers, perhaps then the pressure to perform while injured, thus leading to painkiller abuse, and then needing uppers because the painkillers keep you drugged all day, and so on and so on, can follow. And maybe with a healthier lifestyle adopted overall, the recreational drugs, the drinking, etc., can then be put in perspective. And perhaps, then, if wrestlers are physically healthy, and dealing with the less-healthy aspects of the business (the injuries, etc.) in a more mainstream manner, it will force promoters to recognize the need to insure their performers, give them time off to heal injuries and deal with health issues both physical and mental.

OK OK, all this is a pipe dream, and solving the steroid problem is not going to fix all the ills in professional wrestling - especially the reliance on pain pills, which might even become worse, as wrestlers will then turn more to spectacular stuntwork in light of their diminished size to wow the crowds. But this is still a terrible ill in wrestling, and in all of sports to an extent, and it's a small part I can play to make the sport I love healthier. The reality is, pro wrestling has a higher under-50 mortality rate than any other sports or entertainment industry per capita. We are literally killing the business by letting this go unaddressed, and I would like to devote my love of the sport - my perspectives on the sport - to making it healthier.

Please join me when the time comes, by donating to my blog for this worthwhile cause. I will let you know when, and any support and help would be appreciated. Peace to all of you.