Friday’s episode of Piers Morgan’s YouTube show, Uncensored, featured former WWE employees Vince Russo, Charly Arnolt, Maven Huffman and Jonathan Coachman, discussing the current issues facing World Wrestling Entertainment and former owner Vince McMahon in the wake of Netflix’s Mr. McMahon six-part documentary.
McMahon is being investigated for criminal charges by a federal grand jury. McMahon, WWE, and former employee John Lauritnaitis are being sued in federal civil court for sex assault, sex trafficking and other complaints by former employee Janel Grant.
A clip of New York Post sports columnist Phil Muschnick was aired from the documentary, where he criticized McMahon and discussed his coverage of the WWF steroid trial in the 90s.
Mushnick’s image immediately drew the ire of several of Morgan’s guests. They were in for a bigger surprise later.
Mushnick then appeared as a surprise guest, catching fire from Huffman, Coachman and especially Russo.
Russo accusing Phil Muschnick of ignoring WWF’s steroid symposium and testing
Russo criticized Muschnick before he appeared on air for not covering the WWF steroid symposium that took place after McMahon was found not guilty in the steroid trial. He repeatedly took shots at Mushnick for his lack of coverage.
Muschnick eventually fired back, stating the man behind the symposium, Dr. Mauro DiPascale, was notorious for teaching how to cheat steroid tests.
DiPascale ran the WWF’s drug testing program for several years. He was also involved in programs with the World Bodybuilding Federation and worked with NASCAR. He’s written several books on what he calls the Anabolic diet.
One source told SEScoops that rumors of DiPascale’s showing how to cheat steroid tests were well known throughout the time he was with WWE and beforehand when he was one of the first to write about steroids. Muschnick also wrote about the allegations in 1999 shortly after the death of Owen Hart in his New York Post column.
Another source said DiPascale was known as the guy to go to in the bodybuilding committee if you wanted to beat steroid tests.
“A naive media filed stories portraying McMahon as a leader in the war on drugs,” Mushcnick wrote in his May 25, 1999 column about his drug testing program coming out of his early 90s steroid trial. “McMahon that day named his new drug czar: Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale, legendary among body-builders for his writings on how to beat drug tests.”
The column mentioned the deaths of Brian Pillman and Rick Rude.
In a 2019 interview with Bodybuilding.com, DiPascale criticized the medical establishment for how it handled steroids and doctors who felt they weren’t healthy or didn’t bring results.
“As well, being traditional and conservative by nature, they tend to follow the general moral consensus. If society in general condemns drug use by athletes, then so do they. Unfortunately they also tend to bend the information is such a way as to discourage behavior that they feel is morally or socially unacceptable.”
Later in the interview, DiPascale said one of his books, Drugs In Sports, was banned by the Canadian Olympic Committee. The interviewer also said the book was straightforward in showing how to beat drug tests.
DiPascale said he wrote his book purposely straightforward as an information guide on steroids.
Coachman, Russo, Maven said they never heard McMahon tell wrestlers to use steroids
Coachman said he spent more time with McMahon during his time period as his assistant than anyone in the company and never heard him talk about steroids.
Russo echoed the same point, stating he spent hundreds of hours with McMahon in the writer’s room and he never heard McMahon say a certain wrestler needed to begin taking steroids if they wanted to keep their job.
Maven Huffman said he told fans on Instagram that he had taken steroids. He said he was never told to by the company and he said he did it out of his own personal vanity.
But this doesn’t mesh at all with what other wrestlers have talked about WWE’s hard emphasis on the bodybuilder look for years.
Shortly before he died, Lance Cade (Lane McNaught), said in an interview he was told repeatedly while in OVW by members of talent relations that his work wasn’t sharp enough to get him called to the roster. Feeling he was being told indirectly that he wasn’t living up to what the company expected, McNaught said he began taking steroids. He was promoted to the main roster within a few months, and told his work had improved, despite little to no change his ability or his work to himself.
Shoot interviews are full of wrestlers, especially during the 2000s, telling stories of how they were demoted because “management” didn’t think they had the proper look. Sometimes this was a demotion to developmental “to get in shape”, other times wrestlers were put on the bottom of the card or taken off TV. This was common knowledge throughout the company and was talked about incessantly by talent in the company.
Mushnick calls McMahon a real life Hannibal Lecter
Mushnick hasn’t written about the Janel Grant case in the New York Post. He also didn’t mention it during his segment on Morgan’s show. He did mention the ring boy scandal of the early 1990s, and referred to it as a “pedophile ring.”
Morgan asked Mushnick how he viewed McMahon, and he said he saw him as a real life version of the fictional Hannibal Lecter, which earned guffaws from several of the WWE supporters during the segment.
Arnolt was asked if she had witnessed or been treated in a way that matched some of the allegations made against McMahon in his civil case. She said she hadn’t, hadn’t seen anything of that nature, but said there was some behavior that she could have taken to human resources, but also knew this was the nature of the wrestling business.
The lack of discussion about Grant was disappointing considering her lawsuit and the current criminal investigation in New York. More disappointing, was how quickly former WWE employees line up and are willing to fight battles for a company that either dismissed them, treated them badly or harassed them.
This was disappointing for several reasons. Russo mentioned he immediately left the WWF for WCW when he asked McMahon if he could spend more time at home with his family. McMahon said with the money he was making, he could afford to hire a nanny to raise his kids. He said this was his impetus for getting out of the company.
Coachman was once the victim of a vile prank by McMahon when he was put in charge of a football pool backstage, then real officers dragged him off and arrested him as a bookie as part of a vicious joke by McMahon. Coachman was also further bullied, but that didn’t change his attitude when he defended John Layfield behavior bullying announcer Mauro Rannallo when Coachman was working for ESPN.
Trump, McMahon similarities ‘are a positive’
Arnolt was asked by Morgan about McMahon and his friendship with presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump. She described them for their speak-first nature, but said they “shared positive traits.” Both McMahon and Trump have been accused of sex assault, rape and sexual assault by multiple women.
