Having successfully cleaned up baseball and restored our faith in sports, the House Oversight Committee turns its attention to pro wrestling, reports Shaun Assael.

Two congressmen responsible for conducting steroid hearings into Major League Baseball have requested that Vince McMahon, the head of World Wrestling Entertainment, provide records pertaining to the WWE’s testing policies….


“The tragic deaths of World Wrestling Entertainment star Chris Benoit (above) and his family have raised questions about reports of widespread use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by professional wrestlers,” the congressmen wrote….

The letter from Waxman and Davis described WWE wrestlers as “multimedia stars that have an influence on the behavior and attitudes of the nation’s youth.”

The records request is wide ranging, and parallels what was asked of Major League Baseball. It seeks a list of drugs covered by its policies; the entity that conducts its drug testing; the number of tests it conducts annually; the protocols followed after a positive test; and the procedures for awarding exemptions.

I’m sure a hearing on this issue would offer better value for your entertainment buck than SummerSlam (if not the same level of sincerity and authenticity). But if they’re gonna move these show trials on from pro sports to sports entertainment, why stop there?

I mean, where were they in the early ’90s? If there’d only been government pressure on the music industry to self-police their artists’ use of performance-enhancing drugs, Shannon Hoon might still be with us.