Death Grip

Others within wrestling think the lifestyle is probably a contributing factor. Even in the major league WWE, life outside the ring can be tougher than life within it.

A publicly traded corporation with more than $400 million in revenues in its most recent fiscal year, ending in April, WWE pays its main-event performers handsomely; retired stars such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Steve Williams, better known as Stone Cold Steve Austin, became millionaires.

But lesser lights don't fare quite so well. The WWE's rank and file -- there are about 200 wrestlers under contract, according to the company -- make about $100,000 annually at the low end (Benoit and Guerrero were making about $500,000 before their deaths, according to WWE sources).

That's far more than wrestlers can hope to earn in regional, independent promotions across the country or by wrestling abroad. But WWE's wrestlers are considered independent contractors with limited rights. WWE, for example, doesn't offer paid vacations, pension benefits or 401(k) plans.

There's also no off-season. Wrestlers perform in arenas across America, Asia and Europe as many as 150 times a year.

"The number one change that has to happen, and I've been saying it for years, is mandatory time off on a regular basis," said Wade Keller, the founder and editor of PWTorch.com, a wrestling newsletter. "Working 50 weeks a year is unsustainable. If they had a few months off a year, their bodies would have time to recover and they could have real relationships with their [families]. It's one thing to wreck your body and abuse pills when you're 22. It's a lot harder when you're 40."

There's another job obligation as well: the pressure to maintain a chiseled superhero physique.

Wrestling hasn't always been the province of such muscled men. "Gorgeous George" Wagner, the 1950s TV wrestling star, was 5-foot-9 and a rather lumpy 210 pounds in his heyday. Top performers of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Freddie Blassie and Bruno Sammartino, look flabby compared with today's performers.

The body image of pro wrestlers began to change in the mid-'80s when Hulk Hogan became wrestling's best-known figure. Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) was so large -- about 6-5 and 300 pounds -- and "ripped" that promoters demanded similarly proportioned men to maintain the illusion of a fairly matched contest.

Among those promoting this change, says Keller, was Vince McMahon, chairman of the WWE (and its forerunner, the World Wrestling Federation). McMahon, a former bodybuilder, wanted "not just guys who performed well, but guys who looked like they just walked in from a video game," says Keller.

WWE executives, however, deny any suggestion that drug use is tolerated among their wrestlers. "We've made a lot of changes over the years," spokesman Gary Davis says. "We don't need steroids. We don't need drugs."

But Marc Mero, a former wrestler, believes steroids are commonplace in wrestling. "If you're not jacked and ready to go, you're not on," said Mero, who added that he took the muscle-building drugs for seven years.