Original subtitles

Through the '80s and into the '90s,

on the back of Hulk Hogan's larger-than-life physique,

the World Wrestling Federation was a merchandising machine,

generating hundreds of millions.

Hulkamania will live forever!

But news broke that the mastermind behind WWF's unrivaled prosperity

was accused of pushing steroids on his wrestlers.

Vince McMahon and the WWF have been indicted

on charges of providing steroids to WWF entertainers.

Everybody was on steroids.

Whatever it took to give what people wanted.

You'll be in a better position, make more money.

Vince McMahon was aware. Everybody was.

Boys need their candy.

Did he ever say, "Well, I gotta put an end to this?" No!

The law changed. Prior to that time,

using or possessing anabolic steroids was as legal as taking an aspirin.

Authorities sought a high-profile case to make clear

they would prosecute steroid users and pushers.

They were a flashing red light to prosecutors.

Could've taken the company down.

McMahon faces 8 years in prison and half a million dollars in fines.

With two trials looming, everyone involved found themselves tangled

in a world of surveillance and paranoia.

When you get out of your car, someone could come, who knows.

WWF head Vince McMahon faced a parade of superstar witnesses

who held his fate in their hands.

An overt agreement: "I can get you steroids,"

that's Vince McMahon being a drug dealer.

I wanted to expose it for all it was worth.

Government came to take down the pro wrestling business.

Little did they know, they had to deal with Jerry McDevitt

and Vince McMahon, who promptly kicked their ass.

You have no idea what I'm gonna do. I am gonna crush you, like a bug.

This is my office here.

The headline the day he was indicted up in New York.

You can see Vince there, me doing the cross-examination of the jury.

I'm Jerry McDevitt, a lawyer. I've represented the WWE

for approximately 30 years.

Jerry McDevitt, attorney for the WWE.

A very, very famous face lately, I must say.

Ranging from Chris Benoit, the whole situation.

We're not gonna speculate on it here, on television,

the soundbite atmosphere of television.

To the case of Owen's death.

Who died last night in a tragic accident...

Thirty years of what you go through and all of those episodes, together,

to get to the other side and keep going,

that forms those kinds of bonds.

That's Vince at my wedding.

Jerry is one of the most intelligent men I've ever met.

His intellect is scary.

If I found myself into a heinous situation, by hook or crook,

I needed the best lawyer that money can buy,

I would reach out to Jerry McDevitt to save my ass.

-He's an intimidating figure. -He's tall, he's...

brash and fearless, in the way that I saw him in trial.

A valuable figure to Vince McMahon over the years.

Wade Keller, the editor of the Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter

and I was on site for the entire Vince McMahon steroid trial.

Vincent K. McMahon is the most well-known promoter for 35 years.

It is my distinct privilege to present to you...

Hulk Hogan!

As far as Vince McMahon's success, take Hulk Hogan out,

Vince McMahon would not be near as successful.

My name's Dave Meltzer, the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

I've been writing about wrestling for a lot of years. 49, 50 years!

Hogan was one of the biggest stars in wrestling,

and wrestling exploded on his back in the 80s.

The all-American hero.

Say your prayers, eat vitamins.

At that time, the fans were responding to cool-looking guys

with these great physiques.

They were just getting bigger and bigger,

and it was becoming more a vehicle to sell merchandise than anything.

My name is John Arezzi, a wrestling historian.

Going back 30 years, to my radio show called Pro Wrestling Spotlight.

Pro wrestling became more cartoonish with the big monsters

that were being given names like The Ultimate Warrior, The Warlord.

Look at the size of these guys!

We could've had a football team, and nothing would even touch us.

My name's Terry Szopinski. I wrestled in the WWF as the Warlord.

I was also one half of the tag team Powers of Pain.

God, they're huge.

There are estimates that 90 percent

of thew wrestlers in that time period were all on steroids.

In the late 1980s, steroid use was legal

if the drugs were prescribed by a personal physician

for a treatment of an injury or disease.

And WWF wrestlers had unlimited access,

thanks to a willing accomplice.

-Know who Dr. George Zahorian is? -Oh, yeah.

Dr. George Zahorian was the ringside physician

for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission.

And he was assigned to ringside at all of the wrestling matches

in Allentown, Pennsylvania for their TV tapings.

The doctor is at his side.

George Zahorian was a fan of the wrestlers.

And they put him on the show...

You have some darn good wrestlers really getting abused.

As the state's representative,

Dr. Zahorian is responsible for examining each wrestler

to ensure they are healthy enough to perform.

After he was done, he always had this big doctor bag.

He would open it up afterwards, and it'd be filled with steroids.

And he would say, "Is there anything you would like?"

And "If it isn't there, I can get it for you, and I can send it to you."

He set up shop every taping and the guys lined up

to purchase their... their candy.

Valium, Tylenol 3... Percocet, Percodan, Somas...

pain pills, steroids.

My name is Brian Blair, known as B. Brian Blair,

half of the Killer Bees.

Said, "Hulkster, we need a pump."

He said, "You could use more muscle in those wings there."

People do not understand the pressure that you're under

to look the best you can, to keep your spot.

It was high pressure.

For over a decade, steroids were an open secret in wrestling.

In the late 80s, despite athletes being exposed as cheaters...

Stripped of his medal for testing positive, using anabolic steroids.

...steroid abuse was becoming a political lightning rod.

There was a lot of hysteria about steroids back in that era.

They always sort of portrayed it, the athletes who were using,

that were somehow misusing a drug made for some other purpose.

Steroids is, as far as I can tell,

the only drug ever made in this country's history

for which the drug manufacturers were not required

to give dosage, duration, and adverse effects

for the purpose it was made, which was athletic enhancement.

There's a lot of good, truthful reasons to tell people

what damages can be done by taking these drugs

you don't need to lie about.

Tell the truth. The government never did.

The federal congress was reacting to some of this hysteria

by the Anabolic Control Act of 1990,

which made it a controlled substance.

Trafficking in steroids will be treated in much the same manner

as trafficking in cocaine or methamphetamines.

With a new law in place to curtail steroid dealing,

particularly to teen athletes,

the FBI targets weightlifting coach Bill Dunn,

who quickly agrees to hand over his supplier, Dr. Zahorian.

Dunn had been, I gather, caught with a large amount of steroids.

Flipped, became a government witness.

Agreed to wear a wire.

I think they made some controlled purchases with him,

where they sent him in, miked up, and recorded it.

I wanna get a large order... But I need some--

Can you tell me what you need? Like I told you, cash and carry.

If I have it, you got it and you pay.

He didn't sound like a doctor.

He was talking about Dunn was gonna give steroids to kids.

If you're selling to somebody that they're gonna deliver them to kids,

you're not functioning as a doctor.

As authorities build their case against Dr. Zahorian,

a federal official mentions the investigation

to a colleague who has ties to the WWF.

The news reaches the desk of Vince McMahon's wife, Linda,

who commands the company distance itself from Dr. Zahorian.

The memos were, "We don't want this guy at shows."

And "Be really cautious 'cause the landscape has changed."

They used that tape of Zahorian to then get a search warrant.

On the wall of his office,

they saw that famous picture of him standing there

with Hulk on one side and Vince on the other side

and thought, "Oh, what do we have here?"

As authorities probe Dr. Zahorian's drug-dealing enterprise,

a trail of evidence leads them straight to the doorsteps

of WWF wrestlers.

I got a knock on my front door.

He introduced himself, says he's an FBI agent,

and started explaining to me that I had gotten 3 FedEx packages

from Dr. Zahorian.

And they knew everything that was in the package.

They would go right into the mail center.

They'd ask for any packages sent out of Dr. Zahorian's office.

Then they would open, would film, so they had all the evidence.

It was put back in as if it were not touched.

You would open it and never in your wildest dreams think

the FBI was looking at it at the FedEx,

had pictures of everything that came to your doorstep.

He said, "You can come testify and in exchange,

we won't prosecute you."

I said, "Fair enough." I sat down on my table, and I said, "Wow.

I can't believe this is actually happening."

The wrestlers said, when they couldn't see Dr. Zahorian,

he sent them steroids by Federal Express.

Records show several Federal Express shipments

from Dr. Zahorian to Terry Bollea,

better known to his fans as Hulk Hogan.

Five wrestlers are set to testify against Dr. Zahorian,

including Hulk Hogan,

whose appearance could spell disaster for him,

Vince McMahon, and the entire wrestling world.

Seeking to avoid the publicity linking him to steroid use,

lawyer Jerry McDevitt is enlisted to Hogan excused from testifying.

Hulk was riding high.

He had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

He was as big in that time as Michael Jordan was in basketball.

They wanted to have a big, high-profile trial at that time

to get it out there that the law is different with respect to steroids.

And I think that had a lot to do with why they brought WWE people in.

Was obvious they were gonna get a conviction

on the ten counts that involved Bill Dunn.

And none of the wrestlers had done anything wrong.

The fact Piper was there and not Hogan at the Zahorian trial

is one of these mysteries.

It's like, why were some guys forced to go?

Why were some guys given a pass?

He was unique from the other people

because Terry had what I regarded to be a doctor-patient relationship

with Dr. Zahorian.

He had consulted with Dr. Zahorian about various medical issues

involving him and his wife. And having children.

So I decided that I would present an argument to the judge

that the government had no reason to do this

because it would compromise medical privacy rights

to get on a witness stand, explain why he did what he did.

It would victimize somebody who had not committed any crime.

He was dismissed from testifying

because it might be injurious to his career.

Well, it should be injurious if he was on drugs,

if his whole persona was, "Say your prayers and take vitamins, kids."

My name is Phil Mushnick, sports columnist with The New York Post.

And in the 1980s, I began to write about the drug scandals

within the World Wrestling Federation.

Dismissed from testifying 'cause it might hurt you to tell the truth?

A person in media called me, "Ronald Reagan had to testify

in Oliver North's case despite not wanting to.

How did Hulk Hogan get out of testifying?"

And I remember my answer was:

"Well, maybe Reagan had the wrong lawyer."

After just 3 hours of deliberation,

the jury finds Dr. Zahorian guilty of selling steroids to wrestlers

who were not his patients.

But despite the disgraced doctor taking the fall,

Vince McMahon and the WWF do not emerge unscathed.

On the last day, the lawyer for Zahorian goes,

"McMahon and Hogan bought steroids from Zahorian."

Now, that's when they both had to say something.

I promise that the World Wrestling Federation

will be the standard bearer

for drug-free sports and entertainment.

Today, Vince McMahon held a press conference

announcing that the federation will be enacting drug testing

that will include testing for steroids.

At the press conference at the Plaza Hotel

when Vince announced his policy, by chance or by design,

the same night, Hulk Hogan is appearing on Arsenio Hall.

Did you ever discuss with Terry his appearance on Arsenio?

I can't tell you what the discussion was

because that's privileged.

Your name came up recently when a doctor got himself into trouble.

If he goes out on TV and tells the truth,

his image is gonna be shot.

What I'd like to do is, with all due respect,

inform you and everybody else that's misinformed...

by the newspapers.

He weaseled his way to something that sounded less offensive,

but to his mind felt like an admission of something.

On three occasions, I had the same muscle injuries.

That is the extent of Hulk Hogan's steroid use.

And it's like, "I took steroids 3 times back in 1983.

I tore my bicep, used it for rehab." And it was just like, oh, my God.

A complete, utter lie.

I'm not a steroid abuser, and I do not use steroids.

Vince did not want Hogan to say what he said.

Vince told me that.

Said, "I told Hogan to tell the truth. He didn't."

If you say prayers, eat vitamins, believe in yourself,

like I have done, you can have everything you want.

I'm not ashamed of anything.

What he said did not pass the sniff test.

Everybody thought, that guy's a liar, covering up.

We'll take a commercial, come right back.

After Hogan's appearance on Arsenio Hall, McMahon was called

to answer for a range of scandalous allegations

on the Phil Donahue Show.

This bright audience knows damn well that steroids were used.

Vince McMahon didn't like me.

Something that happened on the Phil Donahue Show

where I caught him in a lie.

I mean, we were on the panel, and I said,

"Vince, didn't you say that you were devastated

when you found out Hogan lied on Arsenio Hall?"

I wasn't devastated.

He goes, "I never said devastated." Dave Meltzer said, "You told me."

-That was the word you used to me. -Well, all right.

I'm just sitting here going, you told me this.

I'm not gonna say nothing when that's the exact word you used.

And then he gave me a look.

If looks could kill, I wouldn't be around.

DONAHUE

The day of the Donahue Show,

something really, really scary happened.

I had an apartment on Long Island.

There was a knock on the door. I wasn't there.

My mom, who used to live with me, she opened the door up,

and there were two gentlemen, asked if John Arezzi lived there.

And my mom said, "Yeah, my son lives here."

"Tell your son he lives in a dangerous neighborhood."

And I was like, what was that all about?

That's part of the problem. They have vivid imaginations.

They say these things. Nobody would care enough about John Arezzi

to send black-suited guys to his house.

That's the fables they tell to give themselves

an importance that they don't have.

What happened was Phil Mushnick started writing these hit pieces.

And it just seems as though

they're ganging up on us, all at one time.

Said he was worse than Hannibal Lector.

Gonna call him something like that

because people did something legal to do when they did it?

McDevitt's tactics going after journalists are

right out of central casting from old courtroom dramas.

He perceived it was wrong that Hulk Hogan

had been excused from testifying

and called out for it in one of his writings,

another federal investigation of the WWE.

And the Eastern District prosecutors read that

and took up his call for investigation.

He's flattering me!

I had no idea I had this kind of muscle.

And I was actually up at the WWE's headquarters.

We got the first of what became 7 or 8 grand jury subpoenas

issued from the eastern district of New York

that commenced the investigation. I think it was on April 2nd of 1992.

I remember talking about it with Vince.

And he asked me to represent them in it.

And you just kind of know, in this business, certain things,

the minute you get the subpoena, what the result's gonna be.

This is not gonna be an investigation they're gonna look into something

and then say, "Okay, nothing there." This is a witch hunt.

The grand jury investigation

would allow prosecutors to assemble evidence

and gather witnesses for an eventual indictment.

Under a cloud of suspicion,

McMahon and his legal team brace for the inevitable.

They're gonna find something

and see if they can get you to plea bargain.

So hunker down.

For the next 18 months, it was sort of the feeling of being stalked.

You know somebody is following you, looking at everything you do,

and are gonna try to harm you.

No limit to how long the government can go on to do that to you.

And so I started teaching myself

everything I could learn about steroids.

All you can do is prepare for what you know is gonna come.

With a grand jury investigation in full swing,

the WWF's woes become tabloid fodder.

I was told by McMahon that I was an FBI informant.

Well, I think they leak various things to the media,

so the media writes a story that...

further demonizes the target and builds public support

for the prosecution, in exchange that they have inside sources

on the investigation and things of that nature.

They all deny that any of that stuff goes on, but it does.

I was an FBI informant.

What I wrote, they'd read, and then they acted on it.

So I guess I informed them,

as well as every other reader of that column.

You gotta understand, leading up to that trial,

McMahon's not just taking me sitting down.

He's got me trailed.

He's got a group called Fairfax Partners, former FBI agents

who are looking for anything they can get on me.

I ran into one of these guys. I found out who he was.

He was investigating me. We're laughing and we're drinking.

And we're getting along great.

He says to me, "Listen, I know you're a good guy, but this is my job."

I said, "That's a lousy job."

And I told him, I said, "I smoked a lot of pot in college.

Go with it, go with it. Take me down."

And he was laughing, he's laughing.

As prosecutors subpoena witnesses, media reports indicate

that McMahon's limo driver, James Stewart,

is prepared to testify that McMahon ordered him

to deliver a shipment of steroids to Hulk Hogan.

Why do you think they didn't call him as a witness in Vince's trial?

Probably because he had brought a lawsuit against the WWE for some,

I can't even remember what reason he conjured up.

And when I took his deposition,

I caught him dead to rights perjuring himself.

Don't think you'd put on a stand somebody who'd admitted to perjury.

In the midst of the federal investigation,

the WWF initiates a dramatic overhaul

of the types of physiques it features on television.

Because of the scandal, Vince McMahon couldn't keep Hogan.

It's like a slap in the Hulkster's face, baby!

Hogan was the star of the show and had been for years and years.

But it was time that Vince wanted to get younger.

Vince McMahon is thinking, "Do I want a diminished,

thinner Hulk Hogan as my centerpiece,

advertising to my audience how important steroids were?"

Vince McMahon had to shift to wrestlers who were more athletic.

Despite the WWF veering away from excessively muscular body types,

and Hulk Hogan departing the company,

in November of 1993,

the hammer finally drops.

We were in New York. I walked in the restaurant. The news was on.

-"McMahon Indicted." -The indictment says that McMahon

and a doctor conspired to distribute steroids to the wrestlers

to enhance their size and muscle development.

Everybody in the restaurant was saying, like, "Go get 'em, Vinny!"

They were cheering for him.

We were celebrating that he got indicted

because now we get a chance to end this.

After 18 months of getting bled in the media

and all the accusations...

give me a chance to go in a courtroom and kick their butt,

the only way this is gonna end.

If convicted, McMahon faces 8 years in prison

and half a million dollars in fines.

That whole trial was like a circus.

There were wrestling fans there, newsletter writers there.

Vince's family that would show up every day in the courtroom.

Stephanie and Shane were not confident.

They were scared and loved their dad

and wanted to protect the family empire at that point also.

Then Vince shows up wearing this neck brace

and everyone was kind of laughing at it.

People were like, "You've got to be kidding me!

Playing on the jury for sympathy in a neck brace?"

McMahon was the babyface to this audience,

which was funny to me because it's cheering for the guy on trial.

Here we go, it's a wrestling angle.

A lot of speculation that that was for sympathy when it wasn't.

It was very real. He'd had neck surgery.

He knew he was gonna have to be at trial and scheduled it

so he would have that done then

so he wouldn't be on TV with a neck brace on.

That's why it was that time.

The prosecution team, led by Sean O'Shea,

have a lineup of WWF superstar witnesses set to testify,

including The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan.

Jerry McDevitt's prior representation of Hogan

at the Zahorian trial is regarded as a conflict of interest,

forcing McMahon's team to bring in reinforcements.

Laura had been a former prosecutor, very well regarded.

So I said, "This is what we'll do. I will represent WWE,

Laura will represent Vince personally.

We'll rely on Laura's cross-examination of Hogan."

They couldn't then use my prior representation

to knock me out the case.

That also gave us the advantage

of having double openings, double closings,

two people doing cross-examinations and whatnot.

They sent me a subpoena, said, "Be at the trial on this day."

Best thing I did was tell the truth.

Vince never came to me face-to-face,

said, "If you don't take steroids, you don't have a job."

You said on the stand you never bought from Zahorian.

-His prices were too high. -It's true.

His prices were four times what I could get.

Emblematic of their case.

So many people came and said, "Yes, I use steroids.

I used steroids before I came to the WWE.

I didn't buy them from Dr. Zahorian."

You're left thinking, why are they even here?

The whole thing was a big witch hunt.

They just wanted to go after Vince for something.

Other wrestlers describe steroid regimens

that they began long before coming to the WWF,

but that changed under McMahon's direction

when the law shifted in 1990.

Until one finally delivers what looks like a knockout.

I came out here...

...for one reason!

When Kevin Wacholz, Nails, gave testimony,

his story was Vince McMahon told him, "We need you on steroids."

We showed a jury a picture of how he performed,

in this outfit that covered his body.

So he wasn't a performer like an Ultimate Warrior

or somebody whose body you actually saw.

Why McMahon would want him on steroids in a controversy?

And an outfit won't reveal muscles

really seems questionable or lacking credibility.

She was like, "Any animosity towards Vince McMahon?"

And he goes, "No!"

She goes, "He doesn't know what 'animosity' means."

"You hate Vince McMahon?" He goes, "Yes."

The whole thing is weak.

You believe that he's innocent?

He took professional wrestling to a level of success,

and he made enemies.

After a string of disappointments for prosecutors

desperate to convince the jury McMahon conspired

with Dr. Zahorian,

they bring in Zahorian directly from his prison cell

to testify against McMahon.

And during his direct examination, Dr. Zahorian kept vaguely

referring to a letter he'd written, which we didn't have.

And finally, the judge ordered him to turn over any letters

they received from Dr. Zahorian.

In the midst of the trial, this document gets turned over,

while Zahorian's on the stand. And so I'm reading it.

And I was stunned. Dated May 19, 1993.

"Dear Mr. O'Shea, as you know,

I recently testified before the federal grand jury.

My testimony was required by you, pursuant to subpoena,

but I nonetheless consented and agreed to cooperate.

As a result, I was transported by the federal marshals in handcuffs,

waist chains, and leg chains, and detained at various prisons

for a period of 44 days under conditions more appropriate

for violent, maximum-security inmates."

They take him for 44 days on this tour

of these various solitary confinement whatnot.

He has no idea. "What's happening to me? What is this about?"

Nobody tells him anything.

He arrives in the Eastern District,

and he's taken into the grand jury without any preparation at all.

They ask him, "We've been told about some conversation

you supposedly had with Vince McMahon about steroids.

Can you tell us about that?"

And his answer was, "I don't know what you're talking about."

And they take him out of the room.

After he's taken out of the room, he's put in other hellholes,

New York, solitary confinement.

I remember reading that to the jury and thinking, like,

this is the stuff that gets done in America to get somebody?

After that, they bring him back in a grand jury room.

And before they do, they tell him,

"We have recording of you with Bill Dunn.

You were indicating that you were willing to sell steroids to kids,

which you haven't been charged with."

They ask the same question: "Have a conversation with Vince?"

And so then, "Yeah, I did have a conversation with Vince."

While on the stand, Dr. Zahorian recounts a meeting with McMahon

where he disclosed he was selling drugs to his wrestlers,

but McMahon never told him to stop.

That sole conversation then becomes the only basis for charging Vince

with having some conspiracy of any kind with Dr. Zahorian.

Nothing in that conversation

has anything to do with defrauding the FDA or anything like it.

When questioned by prosecutors, Dr. Zahorian denied his treatment

was malicious or influenced his testimony.

Pre-trial interactions with witnesses

were apparently not only limited to prosecutors.

Vince McMahon's personal assistant, Emily Feinburg,

had intimate knowledge of his own steroid use

and records of financial transactions

between McMahon and Zahorian

that could shatter his defense.

Watching Laura Brevetti cross-examining Emily Feinburg,

and it's like, she has ESP.

She knows every answer and got her comeback.

Immediately! I never thought about it

until that story in the Village Voice.

Marty Bergman was the secret husband of Laura Brevetti.

Her husband was talking to me

as another reporter discussing the trial, before the trial.

And he calls me, and he's representing himself

as representing 60 Minutes.

And I go, "Yeah?" Like, "Tell me about McMahon.

What do you know that you haven't written that we can get into?"

I said, "I don't know. What I know, I've written.

And if I knew something else, I wouldn't tell you."

I remember calling my wife's cousin who's an entertainment lawyer.

And I said, "I heard from one of 60 Minutes' producers today."

Said, "What's the name?" He says, "He's not a producer.

That's his brother." I said, "He's not a producer?"

He said, "No."

I read he told Emily Feinburg that he was gonna get,

like, book deals and things like this.

He was pumping her for info.

Laura's there with every rebuff, right there.

She knew everything. It was unbelievable.

I knew Marty. He was a good guy.

I liked Marty. He was Mr. New York.

And if anything that he had done that constituted witness tampering,

they would've brought it out,

and there was nothing.

Vince McMahon, himself, addressed the allegations

shortly after they appeared in print.

I state that my heart goes out to my attorney, Laura Brevetti,

and her husband Marty Bergman.

These same yellow journalists who had to eat crow

for telling lies are once again incestuously joining forces,

trying to drum up support for their personal agenda.

Trying to manufacture some reason to save face.

Attempting to perpetuate some theory of witness tampering.

Gentlemen, is that the best you can do?

The establishing of venue, a legal requirement that cares

are brought in the area where the alleged crimes occurred,

becomes a key point in the trial.

Although Dr. Zahorian sold steroids in Pennsylvania,

the charges against Vince and the WWF

were brought by the Eastern District of New York.

Prosecutors need to demonstrate

that some steroid distribution happened in the Eastern District.

The thing I can't understand is why the government indicted McMahon

on Long Island,

when all the paper trails

were right there in his backyard in Stamford, Connecticut.

I thought that was a folly.

They principally tried to use her to establish venue by suggesting

that she had taken some steroids

and delivered them to Hulk Hogan through a driver.

They got her on the witness stand to say,

"I think they were delivered, either Madison Square Garden

or Nassau Coliseum," and whatnot.

So we had to dissect that testimony by showing,

okay, here's the date you received the steroids.

Here's agent's reports for when WWE performed at Nassau Coliseum.

There's no match between the two.

How would you have delivered anything to Hulk Hogan

at Nassau Coliseum when he wasn't there on those dates, so...

One of the counts Vince was indicted on,

and that charge was thrown out.

Why was that charge there in the first place?

The witness who could do the most damage would be Hulk Hogan,

who had recently signed with McMahon's rival, WCW.

Hogan is granted immunity for anything he would reveal

on the stand about how he got his steroids from Dr. Zahorian

while working for McMahon.

There was no doubt that all of the steroid scandal caused a rift

between Hogan and McMahon.

And there were expectations

that Hogan was gonna go in there and kinda bury Vince.

When Hogan came in the courtroom...

Hulk Hogan testifying could seal the deal for the prosecution

and send Vince to prison.

He is the person the prosecution said bought drugs from Vince McMahon.

And what are you gonna do when Hulkamania destroys you?

It was very dramatic.

Sorry that he was gonna get drug through it again.

Hogan's here. What's he gonna say?

I knew what was on the line.

The problem was, if they put McMahon in jail,

they should put the wrestling community in jail

He didn't sell them, didn't inject, like, he didn't do it.

Hogan framed it, to the shock of the prosecutors,

and to people gasping in the courtroom, quietly:

"We were friends. I had extra steroids. I gave 'em to Vince.

Sometimes he had extra, gave to me.

-Doesn't make him a drug dealer." -He was the big dog

and when he walks in and says,

"This doesn't have anything to do with a conspiracy,"

there goes their case.

He kind of just like exonerated Vince for any implication of involvement,

which, to this day, is kind of something you wonder about.

And that's why Vince, Vince McMahon survived it.

Vince didn't go to jail for 17 years because of me.

Having watched it, I felt Hogan's testimony was beneficial to Vince.

Vince didn't see it that way, furious Hogan testified.

I think they didn't want any part of each other towards the end.

It was kind of like, you go your way, I go my way.

And nice knowing ya, pal.

McMahon's spokesman says,

"Hulk Hogan body-slammed the prosecution."

Watch the Pay Per View Sunday, brother.

-Why didn't you have Vince testify? -I mean, what would he say?

There was no evidence against Vince other than that silly conversation

that Dr. Zahorian trotted out after he went through 44 days

of traveling through solitary confinement in jail.

But nothing about that conversation, even if it occurred,

that was incriminating.

Sean O'Shea, in his closing argument, went from reserved

to explosive and bombastic.

And it was a flurry of language that painted Vince McMahon

in a villainous way.

He goes, "Know who has no respect for wrestling? Vince McMahon!"

Like an amazing pro wrestling promo.

Corporate drug dealers and all this just...

inflammatory terms most judges wouldn't let prosecutor get away with

'cause they don't have anything, just trying to prejudice the jury.

SEAN O'SHEA DECLINED TO BE INTERVIEWED.

He starts talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars

that Vince McMahon made off of these steroids.

I mean, he did a great speech.

O'Shea, I think at that point, framed it as,

"Take down Vince McMahon 'cause he's treating wrestlers

as slabs of meat to make money and gain power and fame.

This was nefarious and intentional, and he knew what he was doing."

I went out in the hall. Stephanie was out in the hallway.

She was a young girl then. And she was crying.

And...

And I always... really liked Stephanie.

And she was very upset at the things that he was saying about her father.

I remember saying to her, "Steph, you haven't heard me yet. Just wait."

This case is all sizzle, no steak, all icing, no cake.

When we were doing our research and I was plumbing the FDA files,

I came across documents for a drug called Anavar,

which is a very powerful steroid.

It was a memo where the FDA was meeting with the manufacturer,

telling them that Anavar was not safe for human consumption

and that it had to be removed from the market.

This drug has been given to many of these men

who are coming in here to testify in this case.

It demonstrates how inept they were in regulation

when your internal memos say that you have determined Anavar is unfit

for consumption and should be removed from the market,

and you know they didn't do that.

The jurors passed a note to the judge, saying,

"We want to know whether what Mr. McDevitt is saying is true.

Did they not remove Anavar from the market?"

And we go to a sidebar. O'Shea is, "Don't tell 'em, judge!

And I'm going, "Tell 'em the truth! Tell 'em!!"

So the judge tells them, "It wasn't removed from the market."

I thought, at that point, the jury really gets it.

They understand the hypocrisy of this prosecution,

for them to be coming in here

saying these men were some part of some plan

to defraud the government agency protecting them,

when the government agency failed them completely.

When it came to closing arguments, he homed in on the idea

of the unfairness of the system.

But part of a theme in his closing argument of,

the government is coming after this family business over flimsy arguments

that you've watched fall apart before your eyes the last 3 weeks.

Maybe I'm an optimist, but I didn't spend

one minute of time thinking about losing.

When the jury's coming in, you don't only feel your heart.

You hear it beating.

I could hear Linda's heart beating.

She was sitting right next to me. So it's a very intense moment.

In the criminal context, there's so much more at stake than money.

It's your liberty, your life,

the survival of the company, everything.

In federal court,

it's in the high 90s, percentage of cases that are indicted

that are either resolved by a guilty verdict or plea bargain.

It's an extremely low percentage, 2 to 5 percent that ever go to trial

and where there's an acquittal.

You can probably count on one hand where the defendant is acquitted

without calling a single witness.

There's no more... for lack of a better word,

ballsy move than not to call a witness.

You know it's one of those strategies that if it's successful and it works,

everybody goes, "What a brilliant lawyer! Didn't call a witness."

But if they get a conviction,

they go, "You believe that idiot? He didn't call a witness."

That's one of those, you make your judgment and you'll be judged on it.

They took the verdict first against Vince.

They said, "Not guilty."

Meanwhile, I'm sitting there, representing WWE, thinking,

what's the verdict on them?

Don't tell me you compromised, where you're gonna let Vince off,

but find the company guilty. That would be terrible.

And when it was "not guilty," it was almost like Hulk Hogan

had just won a match at Madison Square Garden.

People just popped.

This one is my favorite one up here. The jury announced his verdict.

That's Linda, me, and Vince hugging.

What I thought was interesting is the clapping

'cause that is what happened. The jury verdict was very popular.

And they really were reliant on the jury to see conspiracy

as an overreach by the prosecution.

That's what it boiled down to and what they deliberated over.

I'm sure that he will make it out to be

one of his triumphs in his history.

But all the testimony was that all the guys were on steroids.

You just didn't get convicted for conspiracy.

But were you built on the steroids?

Were all those guys on steroids? 100 percent they were!

If anything, the testimony in that case

proved what everyone assumed anyway.

When Vince McMahon was exonerated from this,

he became even a more larger-than-life personality.

As we say in the World Wrestling Federation,

and it could be that the hunters are soon, will be the hunted.

-What does that mean, Vince? -Stay tuned, Roseanna.

He dodged a big bullet.

So we have this celebration back at the hotel we were at.

We're sitting there after probably too many cocktails

that night of the verdict.

And I said to him, "Vince, you can take that neck brace off,"

kind of kidding him. And he does!

He takes it off and starts waving it.

He put it back on right afterwards.

I don't want you to think there was nothing wrong

'cause there was, but it was just kind of a... a funny moment.

Describe you and Vince's bond?

Unbreakable.

When you represent somebody in an ordeal like this

and you stay in the trenches with them and you don't blink...

and you fight like hell for them,

the loyalties to each other are lifelong.

There's no bond that would ever break that. Period.

Translated by: David Benke Iyuno-SDI Group