Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Many people have died or been injured filming motion pictures but the difference is that due to their celebrity status when a wrestler dies it makes big news but when it's joe blow stunt man or some set person that nobody knows losing their life it's easy to overlook.
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I would argue that because of its own mainstream status, when an actor blows his brains out or overdoses or drives wrecklessly into a pole at 200 mph, the very nature is to an extent over mourn, rehabilitate the celebrity in death, and ignore the causes, that's the hollywood hype machine.
With Wrestlers its a press condemnation of the industry because its a freak show and a circus.
Last year there were 20 wrestler deaths. Out of that one I could see was an in ring caused death, Roddy Piper's death was pretty much 60 years old when he passed, but he also wrestled in a type of environment that doesn't exist anymore. Dusty Rhodes as well, but he was never a picture of healthy living. Bockwinkle and Gagne were old men. You had a wrestler die after brain surgery for removal of a tumor.
This year, you've had three major deaths.
Axl Rotten who was no surprise, he was pretty much a junkie. You had Balls Mahoney who was pretty much a junkie as well, and he also wrestled a style that was conductive to serious injury.
And you had Chyna, but her death was caused by a drug addiction that went far beyond wrestling, she was reached out to and refused to take the help and she's dead. Its sad but it should be a cautionary tail of addiction more then an indictment of the industry that she was in or the company that she was in 16 years ago.