James Neidhart once went by the name Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, as a professional wrestler and tag-team champion for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the corporate pre-cursor to the current wrestling conglomerate, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). 
Neidhart brought in crowds for the WWF during the 1980′s and 1990′s, performing as one-half of the Hart Foundation with Brett Hart, another wrestling star who had a very public feud with WWF/WWE founder Vince McMahon. Hart is currently under contract to WWE as part of its RAW brand. Neidhart’s 28 year-old daughter, Natalie, wrestles for the WWE under the name Natalya.
The Anvil, like so many other former professional wrestlers, spent the holiday weekend alone. While much of the country was traveling about this Labor Day, Neidhart, the once-mighty Anvil, was weighed-down in a jail cell, a drug-addicted, lonely, broken man.
But Jim Neidhart is fortunate compared to two of his colleagues — big-name wrestlers who have died in just the past several weeks. Lance McNaught, who wrestled under the name Lance Cade, and Gertrude Vachon, who wrestled under the name Luna Vachon, both fought drug addiction and underwent rehab treatment paid for by the WWE. McNaught and Vachon lived the tortured lives of professional wrestlers and fell into the logical role of post-wrestler drug addicts, a script that had played out many times before in the history of the WWE. But this recent string of wrestling tragedies, the deaths of McNaught and Vachon and the arrest of Neidhart, and the timing of these events, have led to a new round of criticism of professional wrestling — with much of the scrutiny focused on industry mammoth, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.
Lance McNaught was known as Lance Cade in the wrestling world. He, too, was a tag-team champion, who had been cut by the WWE in April of this year after a thirty-day stint in rehab for addiction to painkillers.
Relatives say McNaught was hospitalized two days before his death. After leaving the hospital and still not feeling well enough to remain alone, McNaught went to stay with his father in San Antonio. McNaught’s father, upon arriving home from work on August 13, found his 29-year old son’s body. The all-to-simple cause of death: heart failure.
Gertrude Vachon, one of female wrestling’s all-time greats, who performed for the WWF under the name Luna Vachon was found dead by her 80-year-old mother in her Florida home a week ago Friday. Lying in a pool of blood, police reportedly say painkillers and other drugs were found in her room. As in the case of McNaught, Vachon had undergone rehab treatment, paid for by the WWE.
Criticism of professional wrestling is nothing new, from the days of Killer Kowalski, and discussions in which people made the argument, indefensible under today’s standards, that the exhibitions were actually authentic, to the 2008 Academy Award Winning film THE WRESTLER, depicting the real-life story of drug-addiction and physical and mental torture of an aging professional wrestler. And while news items of untimely deaths, injuries and arrests of ex-wrestlers are not uncommon, there’s undoubtedly been an unfortunate uptick in wrestling tragedies in recent weeks.
Neidhart brought in crowds for the WWF during the 1980′s and 1990′s, performing as one-half of the Hart Foundation with Brett Hart, another wrestling star who had a very public feud with WWF/WWE founder Vince McMahon. Hart is currently under contract to WWE as part of its RAW brand. Neidhart’s 28 year-old daughter, Natalie, wrestles for the WWE under the name Natalya.The Anvil, like so many other former professional wrestlers, spent the holiday weekend alone. While much of the country was traveling about this Labor Day, Neidhart, the once-mighty Anvil, was weighed-down in a jail cell, a drug-addicted, lonely, broken man.
But Jim Neidhart is fortunate compared to two of his colleagues — big-name wrestlers who have died in just the past several weeks. Lance McNaught, who wrestled under the name Lance Cade, and Gertrude Vachon, who wrestled under the name Luna Vachon, both fought drug addiction and underwent rehab treatment paid for by the WWE. McNaught and Vachon lived the tortured lives of professional wrestlers and fell into the logical role of post-wrestler drug addicts, a script that had played out many times before in the history of the WWE. But this recent string of wrestling tragedies, the deaths of McNaught and Vachon and the arrest of Neidhart, and the timing of these events, have led to a new round of criticism of professional wrestling — with much of the scrutiny focused on industry mammoth, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.
Lance McNaught was known as Lance Cade in the wrestling world. He, too, was a tag-team champion, who had been cut by the WWE in April of this year after a thirty-day stint in rehab for addiction to painkillers.
Relatives say McNaught was hospitalized two days before his death. After leaving the hospital and still not feeling well enough to remain alone, McNaught went to stay with his father in San Antonio. McNaught’s father, upon arriving home from work on August 13, found his 29-year old son’s body. The all-to-simple cause of death: heart failure.Gertrude Vachon, one of female wrestling’s all-time greats, who performed for the WWF under the name Luna Vachon was found dead by her 80-year-old mother in her Florida home a week ago Friday. Lying in a pool of blood, police reportedly say painkillers and other drugs were found in her room. As in the case of McNaught, Vachon had undergone rehab treatment, paid for by the WWE.
Criticism of professional wrestling is nothing new, from the days of Killer Kowalski, and discussions in which people made the argument, indefensible under today’s standards, that the exhibitions were actually authentic, to the 2008 Academy Award Winning film THE WRESTLER, depicting the real-life story of drug-addiction and physical and mental torture of an aging professional wrestler. And while news items of untimely deaths, injuries and arrests of ex-wrestlers are not uncommon, there’s undoubtedly been an unfortunate uptick in wrestling tragedies in recent weeks.
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