Dark Side of the Ring 3x14

1. Through the 80s and into the 90s,

2. on the back of Hulk Hogan's larger than life physique,

3. the World Wrestling Federation was a merchandising machine,

4. generating hundreds of millions in revenue.

5. Hulkamania will live forever!

6. But then, news broke that the mastermind behind the WWF's

7. unrivalled prosperity was accused of pushing steroids

8. on his wrestlers.

9. Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation

10. have been indicted on charges of providing steroids

11. to WWF entertainers.

12. Everybody was on steroids. That's what they were marketing.

13. We did whatever it took to give what the people wanted to see.

14. You're going to be in a better position and make more money.

15. And Vince McMahon was aware of it. Everybody was.

16. The boys need their candy.

17. Did he ever say, Well, I gotta put an end to this? No!

18. The law changed. Prior to that time,

19. using or possessing anabolic steroids

20. was as legal as taking an aspirin.

21. Authorities sought a high-profile case to make clear

22. they would prosecute steroid users and pushers.

23. They were a flashing red light to prosecutors wanting

24. to make an example out of things.

25. It could have taken the whole company down.

26. If convicted, McMahon faces 8 years in prison and

27. half a million dollars in fines.

28. With two trials looming, everyone involved found

29. themselves tangled in a world of paranoia and espionage.

30. You don't know when you get out of your car,

31. if someone could come and then who knows what.

32. WWF head, Vince McMahon, faced down a parade of

33. superstar witnesses who held his fate in their hands.

34. If it was an overt agreement: I can get you steroids,

35. that's Vince McMahon being a drug dealer to his top star.

36. I wanted to expose it for all it was worth.

37. The federal government came to take down the

38. pro wrestling business. Little did they know,

39. they had to deal with Jerry McDevitt and

40. Vince McMahon, who promptly kicked their ass.

41. You have no idea what I'm gonna do to you.

42. I mean, I am gonna crush you, like a bug.

43. This is my office here.

44. This was the headline the day he was indicted up in New York.

45. You can see Vince there, that's me doing

46. the cross examination of the jury.

47. I'm Jerry McDevitt. I'm a lawyer,

48. and I've represented the WWE for...

49. approximately 30 years.

50. Jerry McDevitt, you are the attorney for the WWE.

51. A very, very famous face lately, I must say.

52. Ranging from Chris Benoit...

53. the whole situation.

54. We're not gonna speculate on it here, on television,

55. the soundbite atmosphere of television.

56. To the unfortunate case of Owen's death.

57. Who died last night in a tragic accident...

58. Those 30 years of what you go through and all of those

59. episodes, together, to try to get to the other side and

60. keep going, that's what forms those kinds of bonds.

61. That's a picture of Vince at my wedding.

62. Jerry is one of the most intelligent men I've ever met.

63. His intellect is scary.

64. If I found myself into a heinous situation,

65. by hook or crook, I needed the best lawyer

66. that money can buy...

67. I would reach out to Jerry McDevitt to save my ass.

68. He's an intimidating figure. He's tall, he's...

69. brash and fearless, in the way that I saw him in trial.

70. And, a valuable figure to Vince McMahon over the years.

71. My name's Wade Keller.

72. I'm the editor of the Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter and,

73. I was on site for the entire Vince McMahon steroid trial.

74. Vincent K. McMahon is, obviously,

75. the most well-known promoter for the past 35 years.

76. It is my distinct privilege to present to you...

77. Hulk Hogan!

78. As far as like Vince McMahon's success and everything

79. like that, you take Hulk Hogan out of the picture,

80. Vince McMahon would not be anywhere near as successful.

81. My name's Dave Meltzer and I'm the editor of the

82. Wrestling Observer Newsletter and I've been

83. writing about wrestling for a lot of years.

84. 49 years 50 years! 50 years.

85. Hogan, you know, he was one of the biggest stars in the

86. history of wrestling and wrestling exploded on his back

87. in the late 80s. He was the all-American hero.

88. You gotta say your prayers and you gotta eat your vitamins.

89. At that time, what the fans were responding to were

90. cool-looking guys with these great physiques.

91. They were just getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger,

92. and it was becoming more of a vehicle to sell merchandise

93. than anything else.

94. My name is John Arezzi. I'm a wrestling historian.

95. Going back 30 years, to my original radio show

96. called Pro Wrestling Spotlight.

97. Pro wrestling became more cartoonish with these

98. big monsters that were being given names like

99. The Ultimate Warrior, The Warlord.

100. Look at the size of these guys!

101. We could've had a football team,

102. and nothing would even touch us.

103. My name's Terry Szopinski.

104. I wrestled in the WWF as the Warlord.

105. I was also one half of the tag team Powers of Pain.

106. God, they're huge.

107. There are estimates that 90% of the wrestlers

108. in that time period were all on steroids.

109. In the late 1980s, steroid use was legal if the drugs were

110. prescribed by a personal physician for the treatment

111. of an injury or disease.

112. And WWF wrestlers had unlimited access,

113. thanks to a willing accomplice.

114. Oh, yeah.

115. Dr. George Zahorian was the ringside physician for the

116. Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission.

117. And he was assigned to ringside at all of the wrestling matches

118. in Allentown, Pennsylvania for their TV tapings.

119. The doctor is right there at his side.

120. George Zahorian was a fan of the wrestlers.

121. And, they put him on the show...

122. You have some darn good wrestlers coming out here

123. really getting abused.

124. As the state's representative, Dr. Zahorian is responsible

125. for examining each wrestler to ensure they are

126. healthy enough to perform.

127. As he was doing the blood pressure, everything else,

128. after he was done, he always had this big doctor bag.

129. And, he would open it up afterwards and

130. it would be filled with steroids.

131. And he would say, Is there anything you would like?

132. And, If it isn't there, I can get it for you,

133. and I can send it to you.

134. He set up shop every taping and the guys

135. lined up to purchase their...

136. their candy.

137. Valium, Tylenol 3...

138. Percocet, Percodan, Somas...

139. pain pills, steroids.

140. My name is Brian Blair. I'm known as B. Brian Blair.

141. Half of the Killer Bees.

142. And we said, Hulkster, you know, we need a little pump on.

143. He said, Yeah, man, you could use a little bit of,

144. a little bit more muscle in those wings there.

145. People do not understand the pressure that you're under to

146. look the best you can, to keep your spot in the business.

147. It was high pressure.

148. For over a decade,

149. steroids were an open secret in wrestling.

150. In the late 80s, despite athletes being

151. exposed as cheaters...

152. Stripped of his gold medal for testing positive

153. to using anabolic steroids.

154. steroid abuse was becoming a political lightning rod.

155. There was a lot of hysteria about steroids back in that era.

156. They always sort of portrayed it that the athletes

157. who were using, that were somehow misusing a drug

158. that was made for some other purpose.

159. Steroids is, as far as I can tell,

160. the only drug that was ever made in this country's history

161. for which the drug manufacturers were not required

162. to give dosage, duration, and adverse effects for the purpose

163. it was made, which was athletic enhancement.

164. There's a lot of good, truthful reasons to tell people what

165. damages can be done by taking these drugs that

166. you don't need to lie to them about.

167. Just tell them the truth.

168. But the government never did that.

169. The federal congress was reacting to some of this

170. hysteria by the Anabolic Control Act of 1990,

171. which made it for the first time a controlled substance.

172. This means that trafficking in steroids will be treated in

173. much the same manner as trafficking in cocaine

174. or methamphetamines.

175. With a new law in place to curtail steroid dealing,

176. particularly to teen athletes, the FBI targets weightlifting

177. coach Bill Dunn, who quickly agrees to hand over

178. his supplier, Dr. Zahorian.

179. Dunn had been, I gather, caught with a large amount of steroids.

180. Flipped, became a government witness.

181. Agreed to wear a wire.

182. I think they made some controlled purchases with him,

183. where they sent him in and had him miked up and recorded it.

184. He didn't sound like a doctor.

185. He was talking about it,

186. that Dunn was gonna give steroids to kids.

187. If you're selling steroids to somebody with knowledge that

188. they're gonna deliver them to kids, you're not,

189. you're not functioning as a doctor anymore.

190. As authorities build their case against Dr. Zahorian,

191. a federal official mentions the investigation to a colleague

192. who has ties to the WWF.

193. The news reaches the desk of Vince McMahon's wife, Linda,

194. who commands the company distance itself

195. from Dr. Zahorian.

196. Yeah, the internal memos were, We don't want this guy at our

197. shows anymore. And, We need to be really cautious because

198. the landscape has changed right now.

199. They used that tape of Zahorian to then get a search warrant.

200. On the wall of his office, they saw that famous picture of him

201. standing there with Hulk on one side and Vince on the

202. other side and thought, Oh, what do we have here?

203. As authorities probe Dr. Zahorian's

204. drug dealing enterprise, a trail of evidence leads them

205. straight to the doorsteps of WWF wrestlers.

206. I got a knock on my front door.

207. He introduced himself to me and says he's an FBI agent.

208. And, started explaining to me that I had gotten 3 FedEx

209. packages from Dr. Zahorian.

210. And, they knew everything that was in the package.

211. They would go right into the mail centre, they'd ask for

212. any packages sent out of Dr. Zahorian's office.

213. Then they would open, they would film

214. so they had all the evidence.

215. It was put back in as if it were not touched.

216. You would open it and never in your wildest dreams think that

217. the FBI was looking at it at the FedEx mail centre and had

218. pictures of everything that came to your doorstep.

219. He said, You can come testify and in exchange,

220. we won't prosecute you. I said, Fair enough.

221. I just sat down on my table, and I said,

222. Wow. I can't believe this is actually happening.

223. The wrestler said that when they couldn't see Dr. Zahorian

224. personally, he sent them steroids by Federal Express.

225. Records show several Federal Express shipments from

226. Dr. Zahorian to Terry Bollea, better known to his fans

227. as Hulk Hogan.

228. Five wrestlers are set to testify against Dr. Zahorian,

229. including Hulk Hogan, whose appearance could spell disaster

230. for him, Vince McMahon, and the entire wrestling world.

231. Seeking to avoid the publicity linking him to steroid use,

232. lawyer Jerry McDevitt is enlisted to get Hogan

233. excused from testifying.

234. Hulk was riding high.

235. He had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

236. He was as big, in that time period,

237. as Michael Jordan was in basketball.

238. They wanted to have a big, high-profile trial at that time

239. to sort of get it out there that the law is different now

240. with respect to steroids.

241. And I think that had a lot to do with why they brought WWE

242. people in. It was pretty obvious that they were gonna

243. get a conviction on the ten counts that involved Bill Dunn.

244. And at the same token,

245. none of the wrestlers had done anything wrong.

246. The fact that Piper was there and not Hogan at the

247. Zahorian trial is, is one of these mysteries.

248. It's like, why were some guys forced to go?

249. Why were some guys given a pass?

250. He was a little bit unique from the other people because Terry

251. had what I regarded to be a doctor-patient relationship

252. with Dr. Zahorian.

253. He had consulted with Dr. Zahorian about

254. various medical issues involving him and his wife.

255. And having children.

256. So, I decided that I would present an argument to the

257. judge that the government had no compelling reason to do this

258. because it would compromise his medical privacy rights to have

259. to get on a witness stand and explain why he did what he did.

260. And, it would just serve to victimize somebody

261. who had not committed any crimes.

262. He was dismissed from testifying because

263. it might be injurious to his career.

264. Well, it should be injurious to his career if he was on drugs,

265. if his whole persona was,

266. Say your prayers and take your vitamins, kids.

267. My name is Phil Mushnick.

268. I'm a sports columnist with The New York Post.

269. And, in the 1980s, I began to write about the drug scandals

270. within the World Wrestling Federation.

271. How do you get dismissed from testifying because

272. it might hurt you to tell the truth?

273. A person in the media called me up and said,

274. Ronald Reagan had to testify in Oliver North's case

275. despite his not wanting to testify.

276. How did Hulk Hogan get out of testifying? And I remember my

277. answer was: Well, maybe Reagan had the wrong lawyer.

278. After just 3 hours of deliberation,

279. the jury finds Dr. Zahorian guilty of selling steroids to

280. wrestlers who were not his legitimate patients.

281. But despite the disgraced doctor taking the fall,

282. Vince McMahon and the WWF do not emerge unscathed.

283. On the last day, the lawyer for Zahorian goes,

284. Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan

285. bought their steroids from Zahorian. Now, that's when

286. they both had to go to the media and say something.

287. I promise that the World Wrestling Federation will be

288. the standard bearer for drug-free

289. sports and entertainment.

290. Today, Vince McMahon, head of the World Wrestling Federation,

291. held a press conference announcing that the federation

292. will be enacting a drug testing policy that will

293. include testing for steroids.

294. At the press conference at the Plaza Hotel in 1991 when Vince

295. announced his steroid policy, by chance or by design,

296. the same night, Hulk Hogan is appearing on Arsenio Hall.

297. Yes, but I can't tell you what the discussion was

298. because that's privileged.

299. Your name came up recently

300. when a doctor got himself into trouble.

301. This is gonna be a tough thing because if he goes on TV and

302. tells the truth, it's like his image is gonna be shot.

303. So, basically, what I'd like to do is, with all due respect,

304. inform you and everybody else that's misinformed...

305. by the newspapers.

306. So, he weaseled his way down to something that sounded

307. less offensive, but still to his mind felt like

308. an admission of something.

309. You know, on 3 different occasions,

310. I had the same type of muscle injuries.

311. That is the extent of Hulk Hogan's steroid use.

312. And it's like, I took steroids 3 times back in 1983.

313. I tore my bicep, I used it for rehab.

314. And it was just like, oh, my God.

315. It was just a complete, utter lie.

316. I'm not a steroid abuser, and I do not use steroids.

317. Vince did not want Hogan to say what he said.

318. Certainly, Vince told me that.

319. You know, he said, I told Hogan to tell the truth and

320. he didn't tell the complete truth.

321. If you train, say your prayers, eat your vitamins,

322. and believe in yourself, just like I have done, brother,

323. you can have everything you want out of life,

324. and I'm not ashamed of anything I've done.

325. What he said did not pass the public sniff test. And,

326. everybody thought, okay, that guy's a liar.

327. He's covering something up.

328. Okay, we'll take a commercial, come right back.

329. Thank you.

330. After Hogan's appearance on Arsenio Hall,

331. McMahon was called to answer for a range of scandalous

332. allegations on the Phil Donahue Show.

333. This bright audience knows damn well that steroids were used.

334. I think Vince McMahon didn't like me.

335. Something that happened on the Phil Donahue Show

336. where I caught him in a lie, basically.

337. I mean, we were on the panel, and I said, Vince,

338. didn't you say in published reports that you were

339. devastated when you found out that Hulk Hogan

340. lied on Arsenio Hall?

341. I wasn't devastated.

342. And he looked at me, he goes,

343. I never said I was devastated.

344. And Dave Meltzer said, Oh, yes, you did. You told me.

345. That was the word you used to me, it was.

346. Well, alright.

347. I'm just sitting here going, like, you told me this.

348. I'm not gonna sit here and say nothing when

349. that's the exact word you used.

350. And then he gave me a look like,

351. if looks could kill I wouldn't be around anymore.

352. The day of the Donahue Show,

353. something really, really scary happened.

354. I had an apartment on Long Island.

355. There was a knock on the door. I wasn't there.

356. My mom, who used to live with me,

357. she opened the door up and there were two gentlemen

358. standing there and they asked if John Arezzi lived there.

359. And my mom said, "Yeah, my son lives here."Please tell your

360. son he lives in a dangerous neighbourhood".

361. And, I was like...

362. what was that all about, you know?

363. That's sort of part of the problem with these guys.

364. They have vivid imaginations. They say these things and you

365. nobody would care enough about a John Arezzi to,

366. to send black suited guys to his house.

367. That's the kind of fables that they tell to sort of give

368. themselves an importance that they don't have.

369. Then what happened was Phil Mushnick

370. started writing these hit pieces.

371. And, it just seems as though they're all ganging up on us,

372. all at one time.

373. And said he was worse than Hannibal Lector.

374. You gonna call him something like that because people did

375. something that was legal to do when they did it?

376. McDevitt's tactics going after journalists are, you know,

377. right out of central casting from old court room dramas.

378. He perceived it was wrong that Hulk Hogan had been excused

379. from testifying and called out for it in one of his writings,

380. another federal investigation of the WWE.

381. And, the eastern district prosecutors read that and

382. took up his call for another investigation.

383. He's flattering me!

384. I had no idea I had this kind of muscle.

385. And, I was actually up at the WWE's headquarters.

386. We got the first of what became 7 or 8 grand jury subpoenas

387. issued from the eastern district of New York that

388. commenced the investigation.

389. I think it was on April 2nd of 1992.

390. I remember talking about it with Vince.

391. And he asked me to represent them in it.

392. And, you just kind of know in this business certain things

393. you know the minute you get the subpoena,

394. what the result's gonna be.

395. This is not gonna be an investigation where

396. they're gonna look into something and then say,

397. Okay, nothing there. This is a witch hunt.

398. The grand jury investigation would allow prosecutors to

399. assemble evidence and gather witnesses

400. for an eventual indictment.

401. Under a cloud of suspicion, McMahon and

402. his legal team brace for the inevitable.

403. They're gonna find something to throw at the wall and see if

404. they can get you to plea bargain to something or whatever.

405. So, hunker down.

406. For the next 18 months,

407. it was sort of the feeling of being stalked.

408. Cause you know somebody is following you around,

409. looking at everything you do, and that they are eventually

410. gonna try to harm you.

411. And, there's no limit to how long the government

412. can go on to do that to you. And so, I started

413. teaching myself everything I could learn about steroids.

414. All you can do is prepare for what you know is gonna come.

415. With a grand jury investigation in full swing,

416. the WWF's woes become tabloid fodder.

417. I was told by McMahon that I was an FBI informant.

418. Well, I think, you know, they leak various things to

419. the media, so the media writes a story that...

420. what I call further demonizes the target and builds public

421. support for the prosecution, in exchange that they have inside

422. sources on the investigation and things of that nature.

423. They all, of course, deny it that any of that stuff goes on,

424. but you know it does.

425. I was an FBI informant!

426. What I wrote, they'd read, and then they acted on it.

427. So, I guess I informed them...

428. as well as every other reader of that column.

429. You gotta understand, leading up to that trial,

430. McMahon's not just taking me sitting down.

431. He's got me trailed.

432. He's got a group called Fairfax Partners,

433. former FBI agents who are looking for

434. anything they can get on me.

435. I actually ran into one of these guys.

436. I found out who he was. He was investigating me.

437. And we're laughing and we're drinking.

438. And we're getting along great.

439. He says to me, "Listen, I know you're a good guy,

440. but this is my job." I said, "That's a lousy job."

441. And I told him, I said, "I smoked a lot of pot in college.

442. Go with it, go with it. Take me down."

443. And he was laughing, he's laughing.

444. As prosecutors subpoena witnesses,

445. media reports indicate that McMahon's limo driver,

446. James Stuart, is prepared to testify that McMahon ordered

447. him to deliver a shipment of steroids to Hulk Hogan.

448. Probably because he had brought a lawsuit

449. against the WWE for some

450. I can't even remember what reason he conjured up.

451. And, when I took his deposition,

452. I caught him dead to rights perjuring himself. And

453. I don't think you'd want to put on a witness stand somebody

454. who admitted to committing perjury in other proceedings.

455. In the midst of the federal investigation,

456. the WWF initiates a dramatic overhaul of the types of

457. physiques it features on television.

458. Because of the steroid scandal,

459. Vince McMahon couldn't keep Hogan around.

460. It's like a slap in the Hulkster's face, baby!

461. Hogan was the star of the show.

462. And had been for years, and years, and years.

463. But it was coming time that Vince wanted to get younger.

464. Vince McMahon is probably thinking,

465. Do I want a diminished, thinner Hulk Hogan

466. as my centrepiece, advertising to my audience

467. how important steroids were to his look?

468. So, Vince McMahon had to shift his focus

469. to smaller wrestlers who were more athletic.

470. Despite the WWF veering away from excessively muscular

471. body types, and Hulk Hogan departing the company,

472. in November of 1993, the hammer finally drops.

473. We were in New York. I walked in the restaurant,

474. all the, the news was on. McMahon Indicted, whatnot.

475. The indictment says that McMahon and a doctor conspired

476. to distribute steroids to the wrestlers to enhance

477. their size and muscle development.

478. Everybody in the restaurant was saying things like,

479. "Go get 'em, Vinny!" You know, they were cheering for him.

480. We were kind of celebrating that he got indicted because

481. now we get a chance to put an end to this thing.

482. You know, after 18 months of getting bled to death

483. in the media and all the accusations...

484. please, just give me a chance to go in a court room and

485. kick their butt 'cause that's the only way this is gonna end.

486. If convicted, McMahon faces 8 years in prison

487. and half a million dollars in fines.

488. That whole trial was like a circus.

489. There were wrestling fans there.

490. There were newsletters writers there.

491. Vince's family that would show up every day in the court room.

492. Stephanie and Shane, they were not confident.

493. They were scared.

494. And they loved their dad and they wanted to protect the

495. family empire at that point, also.

496. And then Vince shows up wearing this neck brace and, you know,

497. everyone was kind of laughing at it.

498. People were like, You've got to be kidding me!

499. You're actually playing on the jury for sympathy

500. in a neck brace?

501. Vince McMahon was the babyface to this audience,

502. which was funny to me because it's like cheering

503. for the guy on trial.

504. Here we go, it's a wrestling angle.

505. I know there was a lot of speculation that that was

506. for sympathy, when it wasn't.

507. It was very real. He had actually had neck surgery.

508. He knew he was gonna have to be at that trial and scheduled it

509. so that he would have that done then so he wouldn't

510. have to be on TV with a neck brace on.

511. So, that's why it was set for that time.

512. The prosecution team led by Sean O'Shea have a lineup of

513. WWF superstar witnesses set to testify,

514. including The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan.

515. Jerry McDevitt's prior representation of Hogan at

516. the Zahorian trial is regarded as a conflict of interest,

517. forcing McMahon's team to bring in reinforcements.

518. Laura had been a former prosecutor, very well regarded.

519. So, I said, This is what we'll do.

520. I will represent WWE,

521. Laura will represent Vince, personally.

522. And we'll rely on Laura's cross examination of Hogan.

523. They couldn't then use my prior representation

524. to knock me out of the case.

525. And that also gave us the advantage of having

526. double openings, double closings,

527. two people doing cross examinations and whatnot.

528. They sent me a subpoena, said,

529. We'd like you to be at the trial on this day.

530. The best thing I did was just tell the truth.

531. Vince never came to me face-to-face and said,

532. Terry, if you don't take steroids, you don't have a job.

533. It's true.

534. His prices were like four times what I could get it for.

535. And it was like emblematic of their case.

536. They had so many people that came in and said,

537. Yes, I use steroids.

538. I used steroids before I ever came to the WWE.

539. And, I didn't buy them from Dr. Zahorian.

540. And you're left there, sitting there scratching your head

541. thinking, why are they even here?

542. The whole thing to me was just a big witch hunt.

543. They just wanted to go after Vince for something.

544. Other wrestlers describe steroid regimens that

545. they began long before coming to the WWF,

546. but that changed under McMahon's direction

547. when the law shifted in 1990.

548. Until one finally delivers what looks like a knockout punch.

549. I came out here...

550. for one reason!

551. When Kevin Wacholz, the wrestler Nails, gave testimony,

552. his story was that Vince McMahon told him,

553. We need you to get on steroids.

554. And then we showed a jury a picture of how he performed,

555. which was in this orange outfit that covered his body.

556. So, he wasn't a performer like an Ultimate Warrior or

557. somebody whose body you actually saw.

558. So, why McMahon would want him to be on steroids

559. in the midst of a controversy that can hurt his company.

560. And, when an outfit won't reveal any muscles,

561. really seems questionable or lacking credibility.

562. At the end she was like, Do you have any animosity

563. towards Vince McMahon? And he goes, No!

564. "And she just goes, He doesn't know what the word animosity'

565. means. And then she goes, Do you hate Vince McMahon?

566. He goes, Yes.

567. I think the whole thing is weak.

568. Do you believe that he's, essentially, innocent?

569. I think he took professional wrestling to a

570. level of success, and he made a lot of enemies.

571. After a string of disappointments for prosecutors

572. desperate to convince the jury McMahon conspired with

573. Dr. Zahorian, they bring in Zahorian directly from

574. his prison cell to testify against McMahon.

575. And during his direct examination,

576. Dr. Zahorian kept vaguely referring to some letter

577. he had written, which we didn't have a copy of.

578. And finally, the judge ordered him to turn over any letters

579. that they received from Dr. Zahorian.

580. And this is all in the midst of the trial.

581. And this document gets turned over,

582. while Zahorian's on the witness stand.

583. And so, I'm reading it. And I was stunned.

584. Dated May 19, 1993.

585. "Dear Mr. O'Shea: As you know,

586. I recently testified before the federal grand jury.

587. My testimony was required by you pursuant to subpoena,

588. but I nonetheless consented and agreed to cooperate.

589. As a result, I was transported by the federal marshals

590. in handcuffs, waist chains and leg chains,

591. and detained at various prisons for a period of 44 days

592. under conditions more appropriate for violent,

593. maximum-security inmates."

594. They take him for 44 days on this tour of these

595. various solitary confinement whatnot he has no idea...

596. "What's happening to me? What is this about?"

597. Nobody tells him anything.

598. He arrives in the eastern district of New York,

599. and he's taken into the grand jury

600. without any preparation at all.

601. And they ask him, "We've been told about some conversation

602. you supposedly had with Vince McMahon about steroids.

603. Can you tell us about that?" And his answer was,

604. "I don't, I don't know what you're talking about."

605. And they take him out of the room.

606. After he's taken out of the room,

607. he's put in these other hell holes in New York,

608. solitary confinement.

609. I remember reading that to the jury and thinking, like,

610. this is the kind of stuff that gets done in America

611. to get somebody?

612. After that, they bring him back in a grand jury room.

613. And before they do, they tell him,

614. "We have this tape recording of you with Bill Dunn.

615. You were indicating that you were willing to sell steroids

616. to kids, which you haven't been charged with yet." And so,

617. they ask the same question: "Did you have a conversation

618. with Vince?" And so, then all of a sudden,

619. "Yeah, I did have a conversation with Vince."

620. While on the stand, Dr. Zahorian recounts

621. a meeting with McMahon where he disclosed that he was

622. selling drugs to his wrestlers,

623. but McMahon never told him to stop.

624. And that sole conversation then becomes the only basis for

625. charging Vince with having some conspiracy

626. of any kind with Dr. Zahorian.

627. Nothing in that conversation, of course,

628. has anything to do with defrauding the FDA

629. or anything like it.

630. When questioned by prosecutors, Dr. Zahorian denied his

631. treatment was malicious or influenced his testimony.

632. Pre-trial interactions with witnesses were apparently

633. not only limited to prosecutors.

634. Vince McMahon's personal assistant,

635. Emily Feinberg had intimate knowledge of his own steroid

636. use and records of financial transactions between McMahon

637. and Zahorian that could shatter his defence.

638. I remember watching Laura Brevetti

639. cross examining Emily Feinberg.

640. And it's like, she has ESP. She knows every answer

641. and she's got her come back on every answer.

642. Like, immediately!

643. And I never thought anything about it until that story in

644. the Village Voice came up.

645. Marty Bergman was the secret husband of Laura Brevetti.

646. Her husband was talking to me as like another reporter

647. discussing the trial, before the trial.

648. And he calls me, and he's representing himself

649. as representing 60 Minutes.

650. And I go, Yeah? Like, Tell me about McMahon. What,

651. what do you know that you haven't written that

652. we can get into? I said, I don't know.

653. What I know, I've written. And if I knew something else,

654. I'd write it and I wouldn't tell you.

655. I remember calling my wife's cousin

656. who's an entertainment lawyer. And I said,

657. I heard from one of 60 Minutes' producers today.

658. And he said, What's the name? He says,

659. Well, he's not a producer. That's his brother.

660. I said, He's not a producer? He said, No.

661. I read that he told Emily Feinberg that he was gonna get,

662. like, book deals and things like this.

663. He was pumping her for info.

664. And Laura's there with every rebuff, right there.

665. It's like she knew everything. It was unbelievable.

666. I knew Marty. He was a good guy.

667. I liked Marty, he was Mr. New York,

668. as far as I was concerned.

669. And, if there had been anything that he had done that

670. constituted witness tampering, they would have brought it out

671. when she was on the witness stand and

672. there was nothing like that.

673. Vince McMahon, himself, addressed the allegations

674. shortly after they appeared in print.

675. I wish to state that my heart goes out to my attorney,

676. Laura Brevetti, and her husband Marty Bergman.

677. These same yellow journalists who had to eat crow for

678. telling lies are once again incestuously joining forces,

679. trying to drum up support for their own personal agenda.

680. Trying to manufacture some reason to save face.

681. Attempting to perpetuate some theory of witness tampering.

682. Gentlemen, is that the best you can do?

683. The establishing of venue, a legal requirement that cares

684. are brought in the area where the alleged crimes occurred,

685. becomes a key point in the trial.

686. Although Dr. Zahorian sold steroids in Pennsylvania,

687. the charges against Vince and the WWF were brought by

688. the eastern district of New York.

689. Prosecutors need to demonstrate that some steroid distribution

690. happened in the eastern district.

691. The thing I can't understand is why the government

692. indicted McMahon on Long Island...

693. when all the paper trails were right there in his backyard

694. in Stamford, Connecticut.

695. I thought that was a folly.

696. They principally tried to use her to establish venue by

697. suggesting that she had taken some steroids and

698. delivered them to Hulk Hogan through a driver.

699. And so, they got her up on the witness stand to say,

700. "Well, I think they were delivered, you know,

701. it was either Madison Square Garden or Nassau Coliseum,"

702. and whatnot.

703. So, we had to dissect that testimony by showing, okay,

704. here's the date you received the steroids.

705. Here's the agent's reports for when the WWE performed at

706. Nassau Coliseum. There's no match between the two.

707. How in the world would you have delivered anything to Hulk Hogan

708. at Nassau Coliseum when he wasn't even there

709. on those dates, so...

710. That was like one of the counts that Vince was being

711. indicted on and that, that charge was thrown out.

712. It's like, why was that charge there in the first place?

713. The witness who could do the most damage would be

714. Hulk Hogan, who had recently signed with

715. McMahon's rival, WCW.

716. He's back!

717. Hogan is granted immunity for anything he would reveal on the

718. stand about how he got his steroids from Dr. Zahorian

719. while working for McMahon.

720. There was no doubt that all of the steroid scandal stuff

721. caused a rift between Hogan and McMahon.

722. And there were expectations that Hogan was gonna

723. go in there and kinda bury Vince.

724. When Hogan came in the court room...

725. Hulk Hogan testifying could seal the deal for the

726. prosecution and send Vince to prison for years.

727. He is the person the prosecution said

728. bought drugs from Vince McMahon.

729. And what are you gonna do when Hulkamania destroys you?

730. It was very dramatic.

731. I felt sorry that he was gonna get drug through it again.

732. Hulk Hogan is finally here. What is he gonna say?

733. Hogan framed it, to the shock of the prosecutors,

734. and to people gasping in the courtroom, quietly:

735. We were gym buddies. We were friends.

736. Sometimes I had extra steroids, I gave em to Vince.

737. Sometimes Vince had extra steroids, he gave em to me.

738. That doesn't make him a drug dealer.

739. I mean, he was the big dog and, when he walks in and says,

740. This doesn't have anything to do with a conspiracy,

741. there goes their case.

742. He kind of just like exonerated Vince for any implication of

743. his involvement at all, which, to this day,

744. is kind of something you wonder about.

745. Having watched it, I felt Hogan's testimony

746. was very beneficial to Vince.

747. Vince didn't see it that way.

748. Vince was furious Hogan testified against him.

749. Yeah, I think they didn't want any part of each other

750. towards the end. It was kind of like,

751. you go your way, I go my way.

752. And, nice knowing ya, pal.

753. McMahon's spokesman says Hulk Hogan

754. body slammed the prosecution.

755. Hey, man, watch the Pay Per View Sunday, brother.

756. I mean, what would he say?

757. There was no evidence against Vince other than that...

758. silly conversation I told you that Dr. Zahorian trotted out

759. after he went through his 44 days of traveling through

760. solitary confinement in jail.

761. But, there was nothing even about that,

762. that conversation even if it occurred

763. that was incriminating.

764. Sean O'shea, in his closing argument,

765. went from reserved, to explosive and bombastic.

766. And it was a flurry of language that painted Vince McMahon

767. in a villainous way.

768. He goes, You know who has no respect for wrestling?

769. Vince McMahon! It was like an amazing pro wrestling promo.

770. Corporate drug dealers and all this just...

771. horribly inflammatory terms that most judges wouldn't let a

772. prosecutor get away with doing 'cause they don't have anything

773. to do with the facts and they're just trying to

774. prejudice the jury.

775. And he starts talking about how it was the hundreds of millions

776. of dollars that Vince McMahon made off of these steroids,

777. off of these guys. I mean, he did a great speech.

778. O'Shea, I think at that point, framed it as,

779. You need to take down Vince McMahon because

780. he's treating wrestlers as slabs of meat to

781. make money and gain power and fame.

782. And this was nefarious, and intentional,

783. and he knew what he was doing.

784. I went out in the hall and Stephanie

785. was out in the hallway.

786. And she was a young girl then.

787. And she was crying.

788. Ah...

789. And...

790. And I always...

791. really liked Stephanie.

792. And, she was very upset at the things that

793. he was saying about her father.

794. And I just remember saying to her,

795. "Steph, you haven't heard me yet. Just wait."

796. This case is all sizzle no steak, all icing, no cake.

797. Whenever we were doing our research and I was plumbing the

798. FDA files, I came across these documents for a drug called

799. Anavar, which is a very powerful steroid.

800. And it was a memo where the FDA was meeting

801. with the manufacturer, telling them that Anavar

802. and that it had to be removed from the market.

803. This drug has been given to many of these men

804. who are coming in here to testify in this case.

805. It demonstrates how inept they were in regulation when your

806. internal memos say that you have determined that Anavar

807. is unfit for human consumption and should be removed from

808. the market, and you know they didn't do that.

809. The jurors passed a note to the judge saying,

810. "We want to know whether what Mr. McDevitt is saying

811. is true or not. Did they not remove Anavar from the market?"

812. And we go to a sidebar and O'Shea is,

813. "Don't tell 'em, judge! Don't, don't..."

814. And I'm going, "Tell 'em the truth! Tell 'em!

815. Tell 'em the truth!" And so, eventually the judge

816. tells them, "No, it wasn't removed from the market."

817. I thought at that point, the jury really gets it.

818. They understand the hypocrisy of this whole prosecution,

819. for them to be coming in here saying these men were some

820. part of some plan to defraud the government agency that's

821. supposed to be protecting them, when the government agency

822. that's supposed to be protecting them

823. failed them completely.

824. When it came down to closing arguments, he really

825. homed in on the idea of the unfairness of the system.

826. But it was part of a theme in his closing argument

827. of, the government is coming after this family business over

828. flimsy arguments that you've watched fall apart

829. before your very eyes the last 3 weeks.

830. You know, maybe I'm an optimist,

831. but I didn't spend one minute of my time

832. thinking about losing.

833. When the jury's coming in, you don't only feel your heart,

834. you hear it beating.

835. I could hear Linda's heart beating.

836. She was sitting right next to me.

837. So, it's a very intense moment.

838. In criminal context, there's so much more at stake than money.

839. It's your liberty, it's your life,

840. the survival of the company, it's everything.

841. In federal court, it's in the high 90s,

842. percentage of cases that are indicted that are either

843. resolved by a guilty verdict or plea bargain.

844. It's an extremely low percentage, like, you know,

845. 2 to 5% that ever go to trial and,

846. where there's an acquittal.

847. And you can probably count on one hand where the defendant is

848. acquitted without calling a single witness.

849. There's no more...

850. for lack of a better word, ballsy move than

851. not to call a witness.

852. And, you know it's one of those strategies that if it's

853. successful and it works, everybody goes,

854. "Oh, what a brilliant lawyer," you know,

855. "they didn't call a witness." But if it doesn't work and

856. they get a conviction, they go, "Can you believe that idiot?

857. He didn't call a single witness to defend the guy." You know,

858. that's one of those, you make your judgement and

859. you'll be judged on it.

860. They took the verdict first against Vince.

861. They said, "Not guilty". Meanwhile, I'm sitting there,

862. you know, representing WWE, thinking,

863. well, what's the verdict on them?

864. I'm hoping, don't tell me you made some compromised verdict

865. where you're gonna let Vince off,

866. but you'll find the company guilty of something.

867. That would be terrible.

868. And when it was not guilty, it was almost like, you know,

869. Hulk Hogan had just won a match at Madison Square Garden.

870. You know, it was like, people just popped.

871. This one is my favourite one up here.

872. The jury announced his verdict.

873. That's Linda, me, and Vince hugging.

874. And what I always thought was interesting is the

875. hands clapping cause that is what happened.

876. The jury verdict was very popular.

877. And they really were reliant on the jury to see conspiracy

878. as an overreach by the prosecution.

879. That's what it boiled down to with the jury,

880. and that's what I think they deliberated over.

881. I'm sure that he will make it out to be one of his

882. great triumphs in his vision of history.

883. But all the testimony was that all the guys were on steroids,

884. you just didn't get convicted for being part of a conspiracy.

885. But, were you built on the steroids?

886. You know, were all those guys on steroids?

887. 100% they were!

888. If anything, all the testimony in that case proved what

889. everyone assumed to begin with anyway.

890. When Vince McMahon was exonerated from this,

891. he became even a more larger than life personality.

892. Stay tuned. As we say in the World Wrestling Federation,

893. and it could very well be that the hunters are soon

894. will be the hunted.

895. - What does that mean, Vince? - Stay tuned, Roseanna.

896. He, he dodged a big bullet.

897. So, we have this celebration back at the hotel we were at.

898. We're sitting there after, I don't know,

899. probably too many cocktails that night of the verdict.

900. And I said to him, "Hey, Vince, you can take that neck brace

901. off now," kind of kidding him, you know.

902. And he does!

903. He takes it off and starts waving it.

904. But then he put it back on right afterwards, you know.

905. Not, not I don't want you to think there was nothing wrong

906. with his neck 'cause there was, but it was just kind of a...

907. a funny moment.

908. Unbreakable.

909. When you represent somebody in an ordeal like this and you

910. stay in the trenches with them, and you don't blink...

911. and you fight like hell for them,

912. the loyalties you have to each other, they're lifelong.

913. There's no bond that would ever break that.

914. Period.