When we think of the world's most hazardous occupations, pro wrestler doesn't spring to mind. After all, aren't wrestling matches "fake"?

Isn't there a history of icons like Freddie Blassie and Lou Thesz who still perform well into their 60's?

As Irv Muchnick shows in his new book, Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide & Pro Wrestling’s Cocktail of Death, successful careers in pro wrestling nowadays often necessitate taking a dangerous, and often fatal, level of steroids that would never be tolerated in a normal business.

Vince McMahon has built perhaps the nation’s only billion-dollar entertainment industry that is unregulated, which means that there is no public entity to prevent wrestlers from taking drugs that lead to their own deaths and even the lives of others. 21 wrestlers died before the age of fifty in 2007 alone, and Muchnick’s book is a powerful call for action.

On June 25, 2007, WWE star Chris Benoit killed his wife, his 7-year old son, and then himself in their home in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. The murders dominated the headlines for days, as questions emerged.

Irv Muchnick set out to explore how WWE handled one of their star performer’s murdering his family. What he learned was that the WWE likely knew the Benoit case was a murder/suicide before holding an event honoring him, with the implication that he and his family had been victims of a killing by other persons.

Muchnick also shows how the WWE then did everything possible to spin Benoit's actions as completely unrelated to his incredible doses of steroids that he used in order to do his  job.

It is a very scandalous story, which Muchnick reveals in great detail, likely due to the WWE’s threats of litigation against him. Muchnick cites emails, cell phone calls and other transcripts to prove his case against the WWE beyond a reasonable doubt.

Check it out for yourself below.

Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide & Pro Wrestling’s Cocktail of Death

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