November 1993 Observer Flashback: Vince McMahon, Titan Sports indicted on steroid charges
30 years ago this week, Dave Meltzer covered one of the most important stories in wrestling history.
The top story in the November 29, 1993 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter featured coverage of Vince McMahon and Titan Sports being arraigned on charges related to the distribution and possession of anabolic steroids. The issue has been unrevised since publication in our archives, along with digitized editions dating back to 1988.
Meltzer wrote:
McMahon and Titan Sports were arraigned Tuesday morning, 11/23 in Brooklyn. McMahon plead “not guilty” on all charges and was released on $250,000 bond before U.S. District Court Judge Jacob Mishler. A May 2, 1994 trial date was set. At the arraignment McMahon refused to answer any media questions on the advice of his attorney but called the entire proceedings “unfair.”
In a statement issued through his lawyers, McMahon claimed the government’s prosecutors “are now trying to make me responsible for what the doctor (Zahorian) did. I did no such thing.”
In a statement released to the press, McMahon said, “To turn my personal use into a crime, they claim I shared some of those steroids with a friend and that somehow made me a dealer.”
At the time, McMahon was being accused of having distributed steroids to a “WWF performer known to the Grand Jury.” However, this performer’s name was being kept from the public.
There is widespread belief within the wrestling industry of who the performer is, and his name was in at least one major media report originally before lawyers for that media service took the name out. If the performer in question is one believed to be within the industry, it would contradict many public statements that performer has made in the past in regard to his involvement with the drugs.
Hulk Hogan being revealed as the WWF performer known to the Grand Jury was the top story featured in the December 6, 1993 edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
McMahon and Titan Sports were indicted just one day before the 1993 Survivor Series, an event that dealt with its own problems due to another legal scandal happening at the time. Jerry Lawler had been removed from WWE programming following some serious accusations. The charges he was facing were covered more thoroughly in the November 22, 1993 Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
It was a fairly eventful time in wrestling, as the backstage Sid Vicious/Arn Anderson scissor-related incident had just occurred the month before as well. Meltzer covered this in the November 8, 1993, Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
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