The Disturbing Truth Behind The Worst Month Of Vince McMahon’s Life

On November 19th 1993, Vince McMahon (or, Titan Sports, then the parent company of WWE to allow for him to fart out mad concepts such as the World Bodybuilding Federation years earlier) was indicted by the federal government on charges of conspiracy to distribute steroids and illegal possession of steroids with intent to distribute them.

Despite McMahon and the organisation's protestations, the allegations weren't wildly flung by governmental forces looking to bring him down for their own amusement. Former ringside medic Dr George Zahorian's 1991 steroid distribution conviction had opened several new avenues of investigation, and several of them led to the front door of Titan Tower. Zahorian's actions were, according to the case against WWE, not just his own, but ones shared by McMahon, Hulk Hogan and others in and around the industry during the doctor's stint with the group in the 1980s.

This was no temporary Twitter cancellation or misguided WrestleMania Battle Royal labelling snafu. Sponsors had already deserted the company during the Zahorian case years earlier as drug and sex scandals engulfed the organisation, but the penalties that came with any guilty verdicts stood to potentially sink WWE outright. At worst, Titan could have had their headquarters seized and been crippled financially by legal fees and fines. All while McMahon himself would have been forced to run what remained of the organisation from inside a prison cell for up to eight years.

Agreeing to go to trial in 1994, he plead Not Guilty to all the charges on November 23rd, one day before a Survivor Series pay-per-view already in total crisis. And not, astonishingly, just because of the intense legal scrutiny. Not around steroids, anyway.

CONT'D...