WWE to Issue Response to Wrestler Deaths

According to the WWE's PR rep Kevin Hennessy, the WWE is working on a response to the list of wrestler deaths that has been circulating in the press recently. This list contains many inaccuracies.

The Boys Turn on Evolution

New Investigation Against Dr. Phil Astin

FOX 5 In Atlanta, GA is reporting tonight that authorities are opening up an investigation into the death of Mike (Johnny Grunge) Durham, who passed away in February 2006.

Grunge was a close friend of Chris Benoit and was also a patient of Dr. Phil Astin. Investigators are looking into prescriptions that Astin gave Grunge, including one for 120 Soma tablets the day before Grunge died. The bottle was found empty...More?

'Green' Means Money, Not Environmentalism to Madonna

Madonna had better clean up her business before she starts cleaning up the world.

The Material Mom is the headliner at tomorrow night's Live Earth show from London's Wembley Stadium. But guess what? For her, the word green means money, not the environment.

Madonna, who seems to be on top of all her many business endeavors, has actually invested about $2.7 million dollars in companies that are creating the destruction that Live Earth is trying to raise awareness about. She has invested in several companies named as the biggest corporate polluters in the world...More?

source: foxnews.com

People Magazine Sneak Peak: Chris Benoit's Family Secrets

...Friends searching for clues to what went wrong have focused on Benoit's relationship with Nancy Benoit, 43, who often complained she felt like a single mother because of her husband's constant touring.

Former neighbor Melissa Coppage recalls asking Nancy recently if she had any vacation plans. "She said, 'No, it's all wrestling, all the time.' "

But several of Benoit's friends describe the 40-year-old as a devoted father and husband – who, apparently at Nancy's request last year, took a four-month leave from work to be with her while she recovered from surgery.

"He wasn't a monster," Benoit's friend and former wrestler Dean Malenko tells PEOPLE. "We're talking about a guy who, a month ago, was in Jacksonville and rather than drive down to Orlando, where he needed to be the next day, he took a flight to be home with [his son] Daniel." ...More?

source: people.com

Ted Dibiase Doesn't Buy Vince McMahon, WWE Cover Up

Ted Dibiase had this to say concerning the Benoit matter:
"I've been a part of this industry for my entire life, I grew up in it, and I watched the old WWF, which is what it was when I was there. It was this enormous entity and like any other company, and any other business, it has had its growing pains. I was around when the federal government tried to nail Vince McMahon to the wall, and tried to get the world to believe that he was supplying steroids or that he was making wrestlers take steroids. I was one of those athletes. And I was never encouraged to take anything"..."As I've watched the coverage, some say it's what you call... "fair and balanced" well it's not, it's almost like it's lets' see if we can bury the WWE ... Where do we draw the line in the sand and make people responsible for their actions?"..."I quit physically wrestling in 1993. They had a drug policy in place then, and when Eddie Guerrero died, I just so happened to be working for the company again, and they instituted what is called the wellness program. The WWE has gone out and hired an independent company, independent of their organization, to do all the testing. In other words, they don't have any say-so in it.

So this company randomly picks wrestlers and they randomly test whoever they want to who is employed by the WWE…tests them for steroids and all drugs.

Any drug that you can test for, you're tested for. I know their policy, and their policy is this: If you test positive the first time, you automatically are suspended 30 days without pay. If you need rehab, the company will pay to put you threw the rehab.

If you flunk yet a second test, then it's a 60 day suspension without pay, and then if it happens a third time, then you're out, you're fired; you're no longer employed by the WWE."...More?

source: postchronicle.com

Girl, 4, called 911 nearly 300 times

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. - Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald's to her suburban Chicago apartment.

read more | digg story

Counselors at Raw

At this past Monday’s WWE Supershow, World Wrestling Entertainment conducted a meeting with talent before the show. WWE provided counselors if anyone wanted to speak to one.

source: wrestlezone.com

Genarlow Wilson Still in Prison

... Wilson, now 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. Under the state law in effect at the time, Wilson received a mandatory 10-year sentence, of which he has already served more than two years. Video Watch Thursday's rally for Wilson »

Partly as a result of Wilson's conviction, state legislators changed the law to make such consensual conduct between teenagers a misdemeanor, rather than a felony. But that change wasn't made retroactive, so it did not help Wilson.

A state judge ruled in June that Wilson's punishment was cruel and unusual and voided it on constitutional grounds, reducing the term to one year and ordering Wilson to be kept off Georgia's sex offender registry, as the old law required. But Baker announced he would appeal the decision, arguing that the judge did not have the authority "to reduce or modify the judgment of the trial court."

The move has kept Wilson behind bars while his lawyers seek the approval of the state Supreme Court to allow his release on bond...More?

source: cnn.com

Nancy Benoit's Premonition?

Reports suggest that Nancy Benoit put a note in a safe deposit box which area police believe it says if anything happened to her, it was Chris Benoit who did it.

Chris Benoit and Nancy had recently separated. Chris moved to an apartment in Peachtree, GA.

source: wrestlingnewsworld.com

Why Triple H is the Smartest Man in Wrestling

The HHH/Orton match at Summerslam might not be happening at all. HHH is of the opinion that Orton is the strongest heel on Raw right now, and if he (HHH) comes back and pins him then it's not the right thing for business. HHH is pushing for Orton to take the title from Cena, believing Cena doesn't the need the belt and also thinking that Cena would be more over without it because he wouldn't get the backlash from being champion. HHH also thinks there is more money with Cena chasing Orton rather than defending against Orton. The feeling now is that HHH/Orton will take place at Survivor Series or Mania.

source: 411mania.com

There's no point now wrestling with blame

Tom Knott has an article in the Washington Times that I think sums up my feeling on the Benoit matter. Below are some excerpts:

...Let's be adults here. We all know the deal with professional wrestling. It is make-believe mayhem that demands its practitioners to look like puffed-up characters out of a cartoon strip.

If you elect to find employment in this culture — because of the money, babes and lifestyle — you know the pact you are making.

You know you will be sacrificing your body in exchange for a quality of life that otherwise would be beyond your grasp.

What you do with the opportunity is up to you. It is not up to McMahon...

...It is impossible to know what demons were lurking in the dark crevices of Benoit's warped mind as he went about his grisly deed...

...When busty Chyna attacks McMahon, you feel compelled to ask: Why did you elect to curl up with a snake when you knew it could bite?

There is something called personal accountability, quaint as that notion is today.

Something bad happens nowadays, and the inclination is to cast a net of blame.

Unless authorities can place McMahon in Benoit's home at the time of the murder-suicide or show that he coerced Benoit into becoming a professional wrestler years ago, then it is all on Benoit.

He chose to be in the culture of professional wrestling and everything that goes with it.

And he chose to kill his wife and son, which is not as rare as it should be.

There is always another missing woman on the airwaves, and usually, the person of interest is the man who is or was in the woman's life, and he is not a professional wrestler...

source: washingtontimes.com