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 in revenue.

But then, news broke that the mastermind behind the WWF's

unrivaled prosperity was accused of pushing steroids on his wrestlers.

Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation have been indicted on charges

of providing steroids to WWF entertainers. Everybody was on steroids.

what they were marketing. We did whatever it took to get what the people

to see. We're going to be in a better position and make more money.

And Vince McMahon was aware of it. Everybody was.

The boys need their candy.

Did he ever say, well, I've got to 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

to make an example out of things.

It could have taken the whole company down.

If convicted, McMahon faces eight years in prison and half a million dollars in

fines.

With two trials looming, those involved found themselves tangled in a world of

surveillance and paranoia.

You don't know when you get out of your car. There's someone going to come, and

then who knows what.

WWF head Vince McMahon faced down a parade of superstar witnesses who held

fate in their hands.

If it was an overt agreement, I can get you steroids, that's Vince McMahon being

a drug dealer to his top star.

I wanted to expose it for all it was worth. The federal government came to

down the pro wrestling business.

Little did they know they had to deal with Jerry McDivitt and Vince McMahon,

promptly kicked their ass.

You have no idea what I'm going to do to you. I mean, I am going to crush you.

Like a bug.

This is my officer.

This was the headline the day he was indicted up in New York. You can see

there. That's me doing the cross -examination of the jury.

I'm Jerry McDivitt. I'm a lawyer and I've represented the WWE for

30 years.

Jerry McDivitt, you are the attorney for the WWE, a very, very famous face

lately, I must say. Ranging from Chris Benoit's situation.

We're not going to speculate on it here on television and soundbite atmosphere

of television. To the unfortunate case of Owen's death.

Who died last night in a tragic accident.

Those 30 years of what you go through in all of those episodes together.

to try to get to the other side and keep going. That's what forms those kind of

bonds. And that's a picture of 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

lawyer that money can buy, I would reach out to Jerry McDivitt 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, and a valuable figure to Vince McMahon over the years.

My name's Wade Keller, I'm the editor of the Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter, and

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

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

years. It's my distinct privilege to present to you...

As far as, like, Vince McMahon's success and everything like that, you take Hulk

Hogan out of the picture, Vince McMahon would not be anywhere near as

successful. My name is Dave Meltzer, and I'm the editor of the Wrestling

Observer newsletter, and I've been writing about wrestling for a lot of

49 years, 50 years, 50 years.

Hogan, you know, he was one of the biggest stars in the history of

and wrestling exploded on his back in the late 80s. He was the all -American

hero. You got to say your prayers and you got to eat your vitamins. At that

time, what the fans were responding to were cool -looking guys with these great

physiques.

They were just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and it was becoming more of

a vehicle to sell merchandise than anything else.

My name is John Arezzi. I'm a wrestling historian going back 30 years to my

original radio show called Pro Wrestling Spotlight. Pro Wrestling became more

cartoonish with these big monsters that were being given names like the Ultimate

Warrior, the Warlord. He's the biggest two -man. Look at the size of these

We could have had a football team and nothing would even touch us.

My name is Terry Schepensky. I wrestled in the WWF as the Warlord.

I was also one half of the tag team powers of pain.

There are estimates that 90 % of the 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 the treatment of an injury or disease.

And WWF wrestlers had unlimited access thanks to a willing accomplice.

Do you know who Dr. George Zaharian is? Oh, yeah.

Dr. George Zaharian 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 right

there at his side. George Zaharian was a fan of the wrestlers, and they put him

on the show.

He had some darn good wrestlers coming out here, really getting abused.

As the state's representative, Dr. Zahorian is responsible for examining

wrestler to ensure they are healthy enough to perform.

As he was doing the blood pressure and everything else, after he was done, he

always had this big doctor bag.

And he would open it up afterwards, and it would 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...

They're candy.

Valium, Tylenol -3, Percocet, Percodan, Somas, pain pills, steroids.

My name is Brian Blair. I'm known as B. Brian Blair, half of the killer Bs. And

we said, Hulkster, you know, we need a little pump on. He said, yeah, man, you

could use a little bit more muscle in those wings there. People do not

understand the pressure that you're under.

Look the best you can to keep your spot in the business. 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

gold medal for testing positive to using anabolic steroids, steroid abuse was

becoming a political lightning rod.

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

It always sort of portrayed it that the athletes who were using them were

somehow misusing a drug.

that was made for some other purpose.

Steroids is, as far as I can tell, the only drug that was 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.

that you don't need to lie to them about. Just tell them the truth.

But the government never did that. The federal congress was reacting to some of

this hysteria by the Anabolic Control Act in 1990, which made it for the first

time a controlled substance.

This means that 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.

Don had been, I gather, caught with a large amount of steroids, flipped,

a government witness, agreed to wear a wire.

I think they made some controlled purchases with him where they sent him

had him mic'd up and recorded it.

I want to get a large order, but I need some... Can you tell me what you need?

Because, you know, it's like I told you, cash carry.

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

He didn't sound like a doctor.

He was talking about that Dunn was going to give steroids to kids. You're

selling steroids to somebody with knowledge that they're going to deliver

to kids. You're not functioning as a doctor anymore.

As authorities build their case against Dr. Zahorian, a federal official

mentions the investigation to a colleague who has ties to the WWF. The

reaches the desk of Vince McMahon's wife, Linda, who commands the company

distance itself from Dr. Zahorian.

Yeah, the internal memos were, we don't want this guy at our shows anymore, and

we need to be really cautious because the landscape has changed right now.

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 to me and says he's an FBI agent and started explaining

me that I had gotten three 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, they would film, so they had all the evidence. It was put back in as if

were not touched.

You would open it and never in your wildest dreams think that the FBI was

looking at it at the FedEx mail center and 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 just sat down on my table and I said, wow, I can't believe this is actually

happening. The wrestler said that when they couldn't see Dr. Zahorian

personally, he sent them steroids by Federal Express.

Records show several Federal Express shipments from Dr.

Zahorian to Terry Bolle, 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

is enlisted to get Hogan excused from testifying.

Hulk was riding high. He had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was as

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

They wanted to have a big, high -profile trial at that time to sort of get it

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

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

pretty obvious that they were going to get a conviction on the 10 counts that

involved Bill Dunn.

And at the same token, none of the wrestlers had done anything wrong.

The fact that Piper was there and not Hogan at the Zaharian trial is one of

these mysteries. It's like, why were some guys forced to go? Why were some

given a pass?

He was a little bit unique from the other people because Terry had what I

regarded to be a doctor -patient relationship with Dr. Zaharian. He had

consulted with Dr. Zaharian about various medical issues involving him and

wife and having children.

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

had no compelling reason to do this because it would compromise his medical

privacy rights to have to go on a witness stand and explain why he did

did. And it would just serve to victimize somebody who had not committed

crime. He was dismissed from testifying because it might be injurious to his

career. Well, it should be injurious to his career if he was on drugs, if his

whole persona was say your prayers and take your vitamins, kids.

My name is Phil Mushnick. I'm a sports columnist with the New York Post.

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

Wrestling Federation.

How do you get dismissed from testifying because it might hurt you to tell the

truth? A person in the media called me up and said, Ronald Reagan had to

in Oliver North's case despite his not wanting to testify.

How did Hulk Hogan get out of testifying? And I remember my answer

maybe Reagan had the wrong lawyer.

After just three hours of deliberation, the jury finds Dr. Zahorian guilty of

selling steroids to wrestlers who were not his legitimate 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,

Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan bought their steroids from Zahorian. That's

they both had to go to the media and say something.

I promise that the World Wrestling Federation will be the standard bearer

drug -free sports and entertainment.

Today, Vince McMahon, head of the World Wrestling Federation, held a press

conference announcing that the Federation will be enacting a drug

that will include testing for steroids.

At the press conference at the Plaza Hotel in 1991 when Vince announced his

steroid 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? Yes, but I can't

you what the discussion was because that's privileged.

Your name came up.

Recently, when a doctor got himself into trouble. This is going to be a tough

thing because if he goes out on TV and tells the truth, it's like his image is

going to be shot.

So basically what I'd like to do is, with all due respect, inform you and

everybody else that's misinformed by the newspapers.

So he weaseled his way down to something that sounded less offensive, but still

to his mind felt like an admission of something.

On three different occasions, I had the same type of muscle injuries.

That is the extent of whole token steroid use. And it's like, I took

three times back in 1983. I tore my bicep. I used it for rehab.

And then it was just like, oh, my God.

It was just 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 certainly

vince told me that you know he said i told hogan just tell the truth and he

didn't tell the complete truth if you train say your prayers eat your vitamins

and believe in yourself just like i have done brother you can have everything

you want out of life and i'm not ashamed of anything i've done what he said did

not pass the public sniff test and everybody thought okay that guy's a liar

covering something up okay we'll hit 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. I think Ms.

McMahon didn't like me.

something that happened on the Phil Donahue show where I caught him in a

basically. I mean, we're on the panel, and I said, Vince, didn't you say in

published reports that you were devastated when you found out that Hulk

lied on Arsenio Hall?

I wasn't devastated.

And he goes, I never said I was devastated. And Dave Meltzer said, oh,

did. You told me. That was the word he used to mean. Well, all right.

I'm just sitting here going like this.

You told me this. I'm not going to sit here and say nothing when that's the

exact word you used.

And then he gave me a look like if looks could kill, I wouldn't be around

anymore.

The day the Donoghue 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 standing there, and they asked if John Arezzi lived there.

And my mom said, yeah, my son lives here.

Please tell your son he lives in a dangerous neighborhood.

And I was like, what was that all about, you know?

That's sort of part of the problem with these guys. They have vivid

imaginations. They say these things, and nobody would care enough about a John

Arezzi to send black -suited guys to that house.

That's the kind of fables that they tell that sort of give themselves an

importance that they don't have.

And what happened was Phil Mushnick started writing these hit pieces.

And it just seems as though they're all ganging up on us all at one time. And

said he was worse than Hannibal Lecter. You're going to call him something like

that? Because...

People did something that was legal to do when they did it. McDivitt's tactics

going after journalists are, you know, right out of central casting from old

courtroom dramas.

He perceived it was wrong that Hulk Hogan had been excused from testifying

called out for, in one of his writings, another federal investigation of the

WWE. And the Eastern District prosecutors read that and took up his

another 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 seven or eight 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 him in it.

And you just kind of knew.

In this business, certain things, you know, the minute you get the subpoena,

what the result's going to be.

This is not going to be an investigation where they're going to 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 going to find something to throw at the wall and see if they can get you

to plea bargain to something or whatever.

So hunker down.

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

know somebody is following you around, looking at everything you do, and that

they are eventually going to try to harm you. And there's no limit to how long

the government can go on to do that to you.

And so...

When I started teaching myself everything I could learn about steroids,

can do is prepare for what you know is going to 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, you know, they leak various things to the media so that the

writes a story that...

what I call further demonizes the target, builds public support for the

prosecution. In exchange, they have inside sources of the investigation and

things of that nature. They all, of course, deny it, that any of that stuff

on, but, you know, 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've got to 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

anything they can get on me.

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

investigating me. And 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 was 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 this trial?

Probably because he had brought a lawsuit against WWE for some, I can't

remember what reasons he conjured up.

And when I took his deposition, I caught him dead to rights perjuring himself.

I don't think you'd want to put on a witness stand somebody who had admitted

committing perjury and other proceedings.

In the midst of the federal investigation, the WWF initiates a

of the types of physiques it features on television.

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

It's like a slap in the huckster's face, baby.

Hogan was the star of the show.

It had been for years and years and years.

But it was coming time that Vince wanted to get younger.

Vince McMahon is probably thinking, do I want a diminished, thinner Hulk Hogan

as my centerpiece, advertising to my audience how important steroids were to

look. So Vince McMahon had to shift his focus to smaller 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

We were in New York. We walked in the restaurant. All the news was on. McMahon

indicted and whatnot.

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 things like, Go get them, Benny. You

know, they were cheering for him.

We were kind of celebrating that he got indicted because now we get a chance to

put an end to this thing.

You know, after 18 months of getting bled to death in the media and all the

accusations, please, just give me a chance to go in a courtroom and kick

butt because that's the only way this is going to end.

If convicted, McMahon faces eight years in prison and half a million dollars in

fines. That whole trial was like a circus.

There were wrestling fans there. There were newsletter writers there.

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

Stephanie and Shane, they were not confident. They were scared, and they

their dad, and they wanted to protect the family empire at that point also.

And then Vince shows up wearing this neck brace, and, you know, everyone is

of laughing at it. People are like, you've got to be kidding me. You're

playing on the jury for sympathy in a neck brace?

Vince McMahon was the baby face to this audience, which was funny to me because

it's like cheering for the guy on trial.

Here we go.

It's a wrestling angle.

I know there was a lot of speculation that that was for sympathy. It wasn't.

was very real. It actually had neck surgery.

He knew he was going to have to be at that trial and scheduled it so that he

would have that done then so he wouldn't have to be on TV with a neck brace on.

So that's why it was set for 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 McDivitt's prior representation of Hogan at the Zahorian trial is regarded

as a conflict of interest, forcing McMahon's team to bring in

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.

and will rely on Laura's cross -examination of Hogan. They couldn't

prior representation to knock me out of the case. And that also gave us the

advantage of having double openings, double closings, two people doing cross

-examinations and whatnot.

They sent me a subpoena and said, we'd like you to be at the trial on this day.

The best thing I did was just tell the truth.

Vince never came to me face -to -face and said, Terry, if you don't take

steroids, you don't have a job.

Apparently you said on the stand you never bought from Zahorian because his

prices were too high.

It's true. His prices were like four times what I could get it for. And it

like emblematic of their case. They had so many people that came in and said,

yes, I use steroids. I used steroids before I ever came to the WWE.

And I didn't buy them from Dr. Zahorian. And you're left there sitting there

scratching your head thinking, why are they even here?

The whole thing to me was just a big witch hunt. They just wanted to go after

Vince for something.

Other wrestlers described steroid regimens that they began long before

the WWF, but that changed under McMahon's direction when the law shifted

1990. Until one finally delivers what looks like a knockout punch.

When Kevin Wackel, the wrestler nailed, gave testimony, his story was that Vince

McMahon told him, we need you to get on steroids.

And then we showed the jury a picture of how he performed, which was in his

warranted outfit that covered his body.

So he wasn't a performer like an ultimate warrior or somebody whose body

actually saw.

So why McMahon would want him to be on steroids in the midst of a controversy

that can hurt his company, and when an outfit wouldn't reveal any muscles,

really seems questionable or lacking credibility.

At the end, she was like, do you have any animosity towards Vince McMahon?

And he goes, no.

And she just goes, he doesn't know what the word animosity means.

And he goes, do you hate Vince McMahon? He goes, yes.

I think the whole thing is weak.

Do you believe that he's essentially innocent? I think he took professional

wrestling to a level of success and he made a lot of enemies.

After a string of disappointments for prosecutors desperate to convince the

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 some

letter he had written, which we didn't have a copy of. And finally, the judge

ordered them to turn over any letters that they had received from Dr.

And it's all in the midst of the trial. And this document gets turned over while

Zahorian's on the witness field.

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, and he has no idea.

What's happening to me? What is this about? Nobody tells him anything.

He arrives in the Eastern District of New York, and he's taken into the grand

jury without any preparation at all.

And they ask him, well, 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 these other hell holes in New

York, solitary confinement.

And I remember reading that to the jury and thinking, like, this is the kind of

stuff that gets done in America to get somebody?

After that, they bring him back in the grand jury room. And before they do,

tell him.

We have this tape recording of you with Bill Dunn.

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

haven't been charged with yet. And so they asked the same question.

Did you have a conversation with Vince?

And so then all of a sudden, yeah, I did have a conversation with Vince.

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

disclosed that he was selling drugs to his wrestlers, but McMahon never told

to stop.

And 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, of course, 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 Feinberg, had intimate knowledge

his own steroid use and records of financial transactions between McMahon

Zahorian that could shatter his defense.

I remember watching Laura Bovetti cross -examine Emily Feinberg, and it's like,

she has ESP, she knows every answer, and she's got her comeback on every answer,

like immediately.

And I never thought anything about it until that story in The Village Voice

up. Marty Bergman was the secret husband of Laura Brevetti. Her husband was

talking to me like 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.

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'd write it, and I wouldn't tell you. I remember

calling my wife's cousin, who's an entertainment lawyer, and I said, I

from one of 60 Minutes' producers today.

And he said, what's his name? He says, well, he's not a producer. That's his

brother. He said, he's not a producer?

He said, no.

I read that he told Emily Feinberg that he was going to get, like, book deals

and things like this.

He was pumping her for info, and Laura's there with every rubuff right there.

It's like she knew everything.

It was unbelievable.

I knew Marty. He was a good guy. I liked Marty. He was Mr. New York as far as I

was concerned.

And if there had been anything that he had done that constituted witness

tampering, they would have brought it out when she was on the witness stand,

there was nothing like that.

Vince McMahon himself addressed the allegation shortly after they appeared

print. I wish to state that my heart goes out to my attorney, Laura Bavetti,

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 own

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 cases are brought in

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

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 folly.

They principally tried to use her to establish venue.

by suggesting that she had taken some steroids and delivered them to Hulk

through a driver.

And so they got her up on a witness stand and said, well, I think they were

delivered, you know, Madison Square Garden or Nassau Coliseum and whatnot.

had to dissect that testimony by showing, okay, here's the date you

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

Coliseum. There's no match between the two. How in the world would you have

delivered anything to Hulk Hogan at Nassau Coliseum when he wasn't even

those dates? That was like one of the counts that Vince was being indicted on,

and that charge was thrown out.

It's like, 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

got his steroids from Dr. Zahorian while working for McMahon.

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

Hogan and McMahon, and there were expectations that Hogan was going to go

there and kind of bury Vince.

When Hogan came in the courtroom, Hulk Hogan testifying could

seal the deal for the prosecution and send Vince to prison for years.

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

And what are you going to do when Hulkamania destroys you?

It was very dramatic.

I felt sorry that he was going to get drugged through it again.

Hulk Hogan is finally here. What is he going to say?

I knew what was on the line there and the problem was this.

Hogan framed it to the shock of the prosecutors and to people gasping in the

courtroom quietly.

We were gym buddies. We were friends.

Sometimes I had extra chariots, I gave them to Vince. Sometimes Vince had extra

chariots, he gave them to me.

That doesn't make him a drug dealer.

I mean, he was the big dog. And when he walks in and says, it doesn't have

anything to do with the conspiracy.

There goes their case.

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

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

Having watched it, I felt Hogan's testimony was

very beneficial to Vince.

Vince didn't see it that way. Vince was furious Hogan testified against him.

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

like, you go your way, I go my way, and nice knowing you, pal.

McMahon's spokesman says Hulk Hogan body slammed the prosecution.

Why didn't you have Vince testify?

I mean, what would he say?

There was no evidence against Vince other than that silly conversation I

you that Dr. Zorin trotted out after he went through his 44 days of...

traveling through solitary confinement in jails. But there was nothing even

about that conversation, even if it had occurred, that was incriminating.

Sean O'Shea and 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, you know who has no respect for wrestling?

Vince McMahon.

It was like an amazing pro wrestling promo.

Corporate drug dealers and all this just horribly inflammatory terms that most

judges wouldn't let a prosecutor get away with doing because they don't have

anything to do with the facts and they're just trying to prejudice the

And he starts talking about how it was the hundreds of millions of dollars that

Vincent Mann made off of these steroids, off of these guys. I mean, he did a

great speech.

O'Shea, I think at that point, framed it as, you need to take down Vince McMahon

because he's treating wrestlers as labs of meat to make money and gain power and

fame. And this was nefarious and intentional, and he knew what he was

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

And she was a young girl then.

And she was crying.

And I was really like Stephanie.

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

And I just remember saying to her, Steph, you haven't heard me yet.

Just wait.

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

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

I came across these documents for a drug called Anivar, which is a very powerful

steroid. And it was a memo where the FDA was meeting with the manufacturer,

telling them that Anivar 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 that ANIVAR

is unfit for human consumption and should be removed from the market, and

know they didn't do that, the jurors passed a note to the judge saying, we

to know whether what Mr. McDivitt is saying is true or not. Did they not

ANIVAR from the market?

And we go to the sidebar and O'Shea says, don't tell them, Judge.

I'm going, tell them the truth. Tell them the truth.

And so eventually the judge tells him, no, it wasn't removed from the market. I

thought at that point the jury really gets it.

They understand hypocrisy. This whole prosecution for them to be coming in

saying these men were part of some plan to defraud the government agency that's

supposed to be protecting them when the government agency that's supposed to be

protecting them failed them completely.

When it came down to closing arguments, he really honed in on the idea of the

unfairness of the system. But it was part of a theme in his closing argument

the government is coming after the family business over flimsy arguments

you've watched fall apart before your very eyes the last three weeks.

You know, maybe I'm an optimist, but I didn't spend one minute of my 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, it's your life, the survival of the company, it's everything.

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

they're either resolved by a guilty verdict.

or plea bargain.

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

and where there's an acquittal.

And you can probably count on one hand where the defendant is acquitted without

calling a single witness.

And there's no more, for lack of a better word, ballsy move than not to

witness.

And you know it's one of those strategies that if it's successful, And

Everybody says, oh, what a brilliant lawyer. They didn't even call a witness.

But if it doesn't work and they get a conviction, they say, can you believe

idiot? He didn't call a single witness to defend the guy. You know, I mean,

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, you know, representing WWE, thinking, well, what's

the verdict on them yet? I'm hoping, don't tell me you made some compromise

verdict where you're going to let Vince off because you'll find the company

guilty or something. That would be terrible.

And when it was not guilty, it was almost like, you know, Hulk Hogan had

won a match at Madison Square Garden. It was like people just popped.

This one is my favorite from up here.

The jury announces verdict.

That's Lyndon, me, and Vince hugging.

And what I always thought was interesting is the hands clapping,

what happened. The jury verdict was very popular.

And they really were relying on the jury to see conspiracy as in overreach by

the prosecution.

That's what it boiled down to with the jury, and that's what I think they

deliberated over.

I'm sure that he will make it out to be one of his great triumphs in his vision

of history.

But all the testimony.

was that all the guys were on steroids.

You just didn't get convicted for being part of a conspiracy.

But were you built on the steroids?

You know, were all those guys on steroids? 100 % they were.

If anything, all the testimony in that case proved what everyone assumed to

begin with anyway.

When Vince McMahon was exonerated from this, he became even a more larger -than

-life personality.

Stay tuned. This is, we say, in the World Wrestling Federation, and it could

very well be that the hunters are soon...

We'll be the hunted.

What does that mean, Vince?

Stay tuned, Rosanna.

He dodged a big bullet.

So we have this celebration back at the hotel we were at. We're sitting there

after, I don't know, probably too many cocktails. That night is the verdict.

And I said to him, Vince, you can take that neck brace off now. Kind of kidding

him, you know?

He does.

He takes it off and starts waving.

But then he put it back on right afterwards.

I don't want you to think there was nothing wrong with his neck because

was. It was just kind of a funny moment.

How would you 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 you have to each other, they're lifelong.

There's no bond that would ever break that.

Period.