http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2...351002,00.html
WWE wrestling news – The LilsBoys' Over The Top Rope
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Hogan: I thank God I'm alive
By SIMON ROTHSTEIN of THE LILSBOYS
August 04, 2007
WRESTLING legend Hulk Hogan has lashed out at the industry which made him a megastar.
And he has demanded an end to the decades-long cover-up of steroid abuse in the sport.
Hogan, 54, took the muscle-enhancing drugs almost daily for 16 years during his career and says he can spot a user a mile off.
With more than 100 grapplers dying before the age of 50 in the last decade, he is begging others to face up to the crisis.
The Sun has been leading an anti-steroid abuse campaign since wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife and seven-year-old son before committing suicide in June.
A handful of former stars have already spoken out and prompted US politicians to start investigating the industry.
But many in the WWE, the world's biggest fight franchise, deny there is a problem and have blasted their ex-colleagues as bitter failures who haven't wrestled in years.
They cannot same the same about Hogan, wrestling's equivalent of Pele or Muhammad Ali who was fighting for them just 12 months ago.
In an exclusive Sun interview, he said: "Are steroids a problem in wrestling? Oh God yeah. They have always been a part of the business. It's prevalent.
"But there's not some big mystery to it. Just open your eyes and it's there. You can look at a wrestler and pretty much tell.
"They will be above their weight range, with these big veins. My body weight is around 285lb, depending on how much junk I eat. Even if I was 25 and clean, I could probably only carry 300lb.
"Yet when I was wrestling I weighed anywhere between 320 and 340lb, because my body was full of water weight.
"My face was puffy, my arms were so bulky I couldn't touch my shoulders. You could take one look at me and know I was on something.
"Steroids have been around for ever in other sports too, but if we have to pick on somebody now then let's pick on wrestling.
"I'm glad the business is in the spotlight because they're probably the only ones smart enough, after being able to dodge it for so long, to know how to fix it."
The Hulkster added: "I remember up until the early 1990s any wrestler could walk into a doctor and they'd write you a prescription for steroids.
"Then there was a huge trial where WWE boss Vince McMahon was unfairly accused and rightly acquitted of distributing the drugs to his workers.
"This ushered in the era of wrestlers playing 'hide and seek'.
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