Steroid Trials
By Scott Keith on 5 December 2012
Scott,
Is the whole Zahorian 'Steroid Trial' thing overstated? It's been said that Hogan and Warrior were out of favor because they were obvious 'roid guys carrying the company banner. Yet we had Hogan & Sid headlining Wrestlemania and a returning Ultimate Warrior facing the WWF Champion (Savage) at SummerSlam '92 (and, supposedly, slated to win the title & go heel if I remember your previous words correctly). Flair, Hart, and Yokozuna took it away from the 'muscle man' image a bit, but the undercard was still littered with them, they went out and signed Lex Luger, brought back Hogan for Wrestlemania IX, etc.
So my question is: was the impact of the Steroid Trials overstated or was it just a convenient excuse for pushing Hogan's act and Warrior's unpredictable nature out of the title picture? The whole "no obvious steroid guys as champion" thing just doesn't seem like a reality.
Oh no, it was definitely eating Vince alive from the moment it started. There was very real fear on his part that he was going to end up in prison and it's absolutely the reasoning behind the main event talent purges in late 92. You'll notice that Hogan was a skinny shadow of himself in 93 without the gas, as were quite a few other guys like Savage. Panicked Vince gets RESULTS.