Vince,

The thought occurred to me, as I looked at my ticket for tomorrow night’s Monday Night RAW at Philadelphia’s CoreStates Center....about something I remembered I might well have to watch again...something I was preparing to be pissed off at yet again....

The angle began in July... portraying Mike Hegstrand (a.k.a. "Hawk") as being "impaired" during a RAW in some unmentioned way... followed by an "apology" on the following week's show... then, if that wasn't bad enough, during the week of August 7th, Hawk "falls off of the ramp to the ring" and is "ruled unfit to perform by Titan officials"....

Vince, this angle is tasteless beyond words. It isn’t “hardcore”...It isn’t “cutting edge”...it isn’t “failing to insult our intelligence”...or any of those nice words you say about your product.....much improved product to be sure...

But this subject for storylines is totally inappropriate in my opinion. It's true that Paul Heyman and ECW have done it more than once, as did as the USWA (prior to its closing) with an angle portraying Wolfie D as a "drug pusher". It is also true that it was reported that WCW had contemplated doing a reunion angle with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, with Hall claiming his drug use as the "reason he turned on his friend".

If it isn’t “just” a “dramatic device”... a reasonable person could interpret this angle as being a not very-veiled slap at Tamara ("Sunny") Sytch and her reported substance abuse problems....the same Tamara Sytch who announced at the ECW Heat Wave PPV that she was leaving the WWF for ECW and her fiancé, Chris Candido.

Vince, I've explained in AS I SEE IT one personal reason for my viewing this subject as inappropriate. That situation would be MORE than enough reason for me to feel any angle relating to drug use is simply, unquestionably wrong. What’s even worse is that you and family members know the person that’s the reason for that feeling. But let me share another reason.

I worked within the Philadelphia Prison System from 1995-1997 as an pre-release and post-release employment counselor. While working within the Prison System, I saw men and women addicted to heroin, crack and powder cocaine, meth, ice, angel dust, marijuana, many different prescription drugs, or combinations of many or all of them .

I found out from them personally what they did to get their drugs...burglary, prostitution, assault, and murder. I found out first hand from them what those drugs made them do... in more detail then anyone would ever want to know. I also watched wives, husbands, and lovers...and children as young as 1 year old sitting in a waiting room of a maximum security prison to see their parents... Children, Vince...of an age that used to buy your Wrestling Buddies and countless other Titan toys....

So that's the real world of drug use, Vince.... not a dramatic device, not a storyline....just very real suffering and very real pain. You, as well as Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff, need to spend more time worrying about those working for your company with substance abuse problems like Tamara Sytch and Scott Hall have had; instead of writing storylines using these problems, or taking veiled potshots at those who do.

Vince, it seems you have a very, very short memory. It was October 5, 1997, not even a year ago, that Brian Pillman was memorialized on your In Your House PPV, and the following night's Monday Night RAW. I can remember Tamara Sytch, Mike Hegstrand, and the remainder of the Titan roster standing in unison for the ten-bell count that night on that Monday Night RAW.

I remember writing in the AS I SEE IT column about Brian Pillman: "After the tributes are over, and the memorials through, we will see if Brian Pillman's death will be a wake-up call for them". But it wasn't. Louie Spicolli of WCW died from the effects of soma use just months later, the same Louie Spicolli who worked for Paul Heyman ....as well as you, Vince.

At the very least, it's again time to take a look at the example of the NWA's president, Howard Brody. (You DO remember the NWA, right, Vince?) While Brody's online Wrestling Coalition Against Substance Abuse is only a symbolic step toward recognizing the problem of steroid and painkiller use and abuse, it's a damn sight more than you, Eric Bischoff, or Paul Heyman have done to publicly recognize the problem.

An even better answer to the twin problems of steroid and painkiller use would be random drug testing and an employee assistance program by your company, and by the other two companies that can afford it. Pro Wrestling Between The Sheets broke the story of how easy and affordable it is to test for somas several months ago, contrary to the PRODIGY Chat comments of WCW President Eric Bischoff who claimed it was impossible to do.

So I hope that as I sit in my seat at RAW Monday night...I don’t have to watch this pathetic exhibition again...of Mike Hegstrand being “addicted” to some unnamed substance...

Vince, it's LONG past the time that you quit using drug abuse in a wrestling storyline either to take personal potshots or as a dramatic device. It's time to DO something about it... unless you want the blood on your hands for another Brian Pillman, a needless death in a lonely hotel room...

A closing thought: for Tamara Sytch, Scott Hall, and anyone else with these types of problems...if Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, or whoever you're responsible to in your own life won't help you get clean, please do it for yourselves. The wrestling business and the world have lost too many talented people who died too damned young to lose any more. Please do it today.

Until next time...

If you have comments or questions, I can be reached by e-mail at magee@uscom.com.