After a lot of talk for weeks about releasing the evidence of Roman Reigns purchasing steroids from dealer Richard Rodriguez of Wellness Fitness Nutrition, the video released Friday night by Jon Bravo mentioned his name several times, but offered no proof at all.
Bravo said late in the video that he could not verify orders for either Mark Wahlberg or Roman Reigns, but did not back off of the claims for either. Rodriguez claimed that Wahlberg got things through a doctor and Bravo claimed that Reigns’ orders were placed under an alias, and while he had orders Rodriguez said were from Reigns, without access to text messages from Rodriguez to prove the direct connection, which Bravo claimed was on a device the DEA had seized and had not released, he couldn’t cross reference those orders.
He said at some point that evidence will be revealed.
There was a statement toward the end of the video on the screen which read, “Even though contact information of Leati Joseph Anoa’i aka Roman Reigns and orders that Richard says are his were found on the laptop, without the direct communication between them, they cannot be verified until their (sic) received.”
The problem is that for weeks they had been promoting that there was direct evidence, claimed it would be revealed shortly, and earlier this week, that would be revealed Friday. In the end, they had none.
There was the tease that it would still be released when the DEA released the devices they are using as evidence, but, given the teases not followed through on, it is best to be skeptical of anything at this point.
The 21-minute video mentioned names of a lot of major wrestlers, including stars like John Cena, Ultimate Warrior, and Steve Austin, curiously misspelled “Steve Austyn” on more than one occasion. Brock Lesnar and The Rock were also mentioned, although The Rock was never said to be a client and his name only came in a 2016 text message from Chris Bell asking Rodriguez if he was able to speak to Rock or Cena.
Rodriguez claimed a connection with Rick Bassman, who started Cena in Ultimate Pro Wrestling in the late 90s, and the Ultimate Warrior and Sting in the 80s.
Other names mentioned as connections were Mark and Chris Bell. The name Chris Bell is most notable because he was well known for producing a documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,” which was purported as an unbiased look at the world of steroids in sports, and made some valid points and in some cases was well done, and was generally well received. But in the end, it came across pro-steroids and there were key things left out that didn’t support the message, including a German study that he and I spoke about that he didn’t include.
Two of the Bell Brothers were involved in the pro wrestling scene and were the people responsible for breaking Cena into pro wrestling. Mark and Mike Bell wrestled at the independent level. Mike Bell later passed away from recreational drugs. Chris was around and had ties with those in WWE as well. Mark and Chris were also powerlifters, with Chris being a teenage champion who claimed he couldn’t compete at the top level because he would not take steroids, while Mark, who did, was a top powerlifter at one point.
Rodriguez claimed that former WWE wrestler Luther Reigns (and there were orders that were shown with an address in Arizona which were purported to be for him), Lesnar, and Austin were advocates and clients through Chris Bell, but there was no evidence there either for anyone but Luther Reigns, who wrestled for WWE through 2005.
Jesse Burdick, who along with Mark Bell, has coached Cena’s training routines, purportedly purchased $40,000 worth of steroids and other drugs from Rodriguez, but did so under an assumed name of Jesse Ventura. Bravo noted in the video the frequent orders by Ventura, and noted that it was not the famous Jesse Ventura but a guy using his name. There was the claim that Cena at one point was his client, and Ultimate Warrior’s name was also mentioned. The video even ended with a tribute to Warrior.
Another conduit, Tony Morris, supposedly supplied stuff to the stars of “Magic Mike,” which led to name drops of Channing Tatum and “Steve Nash.” Kevin Nash was in that movie. It was never actually stated that either the fictitious Steve Nash or Kevin Nash was a client.
There were text messages with Luther Reigns shown.
The mysterious pro wrestler who ordered $140,000 worth of steroids from Rodriguez was never named nor brought up.
Rodriguez claimed that two other former pro wrestlers, Daniel Puder and Ric Drasin, worked for him. Deal memos were shown.
Puder, when contacted by us, at first didn’t recognize the name, but asked if this was the guy who runs a gym in Miami (Rodriguez did run a gym in Miami), and said that he knew the guy and the guy purported to be a doctor, he checked him out, found he wasn’t a doctor, and then ended up never doing business with him. He denied ever getting clients for him. Rodriguez claimed Puder got him clients in the acting world and the UFC world and called him a WWE Tough Enough winner, which he was, and worked for the company for one year. He also called him a UFC fighter. Puder never fought in UFC but did fight in Strikeforce.
Drasin wrestled mostly in the 1970s and has been well known for decades as part of the Southern California bodybuilding scene, and also was part of “The Incredible Hulk” television show during its heyday,. He had a long association with independent pro wrestling.
Another name mentioned was Chris Cavallini, who has a connection with current WWE wrestlers Sheamus and Jinder Mahal, but all that Rodriguez could say is those two “possibly used our products but it was yet to be confirmed.”
Mahal has in the past praised Cavallini for being responsible for his physique transformation.
Rodriguez talked about how the wrestlers had to be able to beat drug tests, yet offered no explanation or strategy as to how they were able to or what types of programs he had any of them on, nor mentioned anything about what anyone was ordering or taking.
Another name mentioned was Bill Grant, who was a star in the bodybuilding world in the late 70s and early 80s.
After criticism, Bravo responded and said, “I am a one man team. I do this alone, with no help, not even a person reviews it but myself. Yes there are spelling errors…When you are rushed by 1000s to make a video of this magnitude in this amount of time and work there will be errors. I am human*****Also since no matter how many times or ways I say it but their (sic) is EVIDENCE on Reigns but without some key texts to match the orders I WILL NOT DISCLOSE IT**Just wanted to tell everyone that I am going to be taking some time away from youtube to focus more on the WFN Film and other feature film opportunities I have been given.”
Bravo’s video is available to watch below: