March 26, 2007 Observer Newsletter: WWE stars named in Sports Illustrated steroid article
The Sports Illustrated web site this past week ran a story, that is likely to appear in the magazine this week, regarding anabolic steroid use among professional athletes. The story was picked up by all the major wire services and was covered in numerous newspapers around North America and a major subject of discussion on sports talk shows the next day.
The story listed six major WWE names as allegedly either being prescribed or receiving anabolic steroids or Growth Hormone in 2004 and 2005.
Besides Kurt Angle, who had already been named in the first story, the story was the result of an investigation of the files of Dr. David Wilbirt of Phoenix, a somewhat known doctor in the wrestling profession. Wilbirt had written 3,879 prescriptions between November 2004 and April 2005 for “patients” who had requested drugs over the Internet. The story, by reporters Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim, said Wilbirt’s name has surfaced several times in the official documents the magazine received from the “Operation Netroids” investigation.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.