Chris Benoit and the WWE Controversy vs. Michael Vick and the NFL

The WWE, its fearless leader Vince McMahon and the entire Chris Benoit controversy just caught a break. For weeks the "roid rage" controversy and the idea that perhaps the US government should step in and begin to oversee the inner workings of the testing and the steroid usage of wrestlers is gaining steam. World Wrestling Entertainment is fighting it off but still it had been front and center and on the minds of those trying to shape views on talk shows and of course it was wall to wall on cable news.

Enter the NFL and Michael Vick. The NFL superstar and multi-millionaire quarterback was indicted by a secret federal grand jury. Why? Allegations of hanging, shooting, body slamming, even electrocuting dogs to death as part of a multi-state underground dog- fighting operation. Does that trump the Benoit controversy? it will for a few days....The Falcons owner, Arthur Blank, releasing a statement today. He says the Falcons organization is working diligently on exploring its options, saying, quote, "Given the differing perspectives and strong feelings around this issue, we probably won't make everyone happy, but we are committed to doing the right thing."

While they sort through that - Vince McMahon just caught a huge break...More?

It's Ladies' Fight

You don't kick a girl when she's down, right? Not if you can pound her face instead. At the Fatal Femmes Fighting Championship, an all-female mixed-martial arts (MMA) event, almost anything goes in the cage. Sofie Bagherdai, otherwise a sweet, petite teenager from Southern California, has her opponent, Stephanie Palmer, pinned to the floor. Now she's ready to work--whack, a shot to the noggin. Bam! Pow! Boom! Half a dozen more. Palmer cowers in the fetal position, and the ref stops the fight. The medics cart Palmer out on a stretcher. (She escapes with a fractured foot, suffered earlier in the bout--which seems minor, considering the beating she took.) "I like to be friendly to my opponents, but from the start, she's been mad-dogging me, looking me up and down," said Bagherdai after the bout. "I wanted to make her pay."...More?

WWE won't be pinned down forever

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: WWE) shares have plunged more than 5% over the past month as investors fled Vince McMahon's muscle-bound empire in the wake of the Chris Benoit tragedy. The stock is headed for an even bigger fall in the coming months as the company grapples with congressional scrutiny, potential lawsuits and long-overdue increased government regulation.

Nonetheless, WWE is something that truly adventurous investors should consider. The shares are trading at a multiple of 25, which is dirt cheap compared with its peers such as Playboy Enterprises Inc. (NYSE:PLA)'s 130 and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF)'s 53. Though profit and sales are expected to fall this year, analysts expect WWE to rebound next year...More?

Usher F*cks with the Wrong Fan

Usher Raymond is determined to sanitize all the Usher news around, even if he's got to strong-arm his biggest fan site with legal action in order to keep it that way. But the webmaster of the site tells TMZ she's willing to slug it out in court with her fave R&B star, just to make her point.

Erika Jackson, webmaster of usherforever.com, tells TMZ that she's been hit with a full-scale legal blitz from a tag-team of both Usher's personal lawyer and his label's lawyers, and claims that the trouble started earlier this year when she refused to turn her site -- the self-proclaimed "biggest Usher site" on the Internet -- into a sanitized official site. (The legal threats were first reported by the New York Daily News.)

Not long after, says Jackson, the lawyers tried to bring the hammer down on her, demanding that she "assign the url usherforever.com" to LaFace Records, Usher's label, because it might confuse fans into thinking that it had an affiliation to Usher. Jackson points out that other sites -- like Usher.net and UsherRaymond.org -- that are closer in name to the singer -- haven't been accused of being "confusing."...More?

Usher sucks anyway...

Billboard's Top Ten for Recreational Sports DVDs

The following is the Billboard's top ten listing for Recreational Sports DVDs for the issue of July 28th. WWE has six titles on the list, which is good news for them. TNA has one and UFC have two.

1. WWE: The Ladder Match
2. WWE: One Night Stand 2007
3. WWE: Wrestlemania 23
4. UFC 66: Liddell Vs. Ortiz
5. TNA: Lockdown 2007
6. 2001 FedEx Orange Bowl National Championship
7. WWE: Judgment Day 2007
8. UFC 67: All Or Nothing
9. WWE: The Most Powerful Families In Wrestlng
10. WWE: Backlash 2007

source: pwinsider.com

Troops mourn teenaged comrade

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq (AP) -- Army Spc. Christopher D. Kube was memorialized Thursday in a packed theater at this outpost in east Baghdad. Another fallen soldier. Another reminder, far from the public spotlight, of the grief that hits not only families of this war's casualties but also their comrades in arms.

He was 18.

He was a newlywed.

He was killed on July 14, eight months after he arrived in Iraq on a deployment that made him nervous from the start, as one fellow soldier remembered. Back at his home station, Fort Carson, Colorado, he drew attention for being so young, so short, so slight and so cheerful...More?

WWE Receives Ticketmaster Platinum Ticket Award

WWE CEO Linda McMahon accepted on behalf of WWE the Ticketmaster Platinum Ticket Award, presented by Ken Lesnik, Sr. Regional Director Sales & Marketing, Ticketmaster. The award is given to Ticketmaster’s national clients whose sales in North America exceeded 500,000 tickets through Ticketmaster channels in 2006. With sales exceeding more than 640,000 tickets in 2006, WWE joins 35 other touring events, performers, venues, promoters and sports teams including Aerosmith, Dave Matthews Band, Disney on Ice, Madison Square Garden, House of Blues and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in receiving this award...More?

Nancy Benoit Family Will Sue Over Chris Benoit Killings

I knew this was coming:

Nancy Benoit's family attorney, Richard Decker has indicated that her family is planning to file a lawsuit, or perhaps several lawsuits relating to the Chris Benoit killings...One report from Fox News and on the Big Story with John Gibson reported that the lawsuit will name both Chris Benoit's estate as well as World Wrestling Entertainment as defendants. Others will likely be served and sued as well...More?

The Real Culprits in the Chris Benoit Case

by: Ron Johnson

After a month of speculation and investigation, the world was ready to move on from the Chris Benoit tragedy.

Then Satan sent one of his hellhounds to unleash his wrath on Earth.

Her name was Nancy Grace...

You've got steroids in football, boxing, baseball, cage fighting, and professional wrestling. Here’s some FYI for you, Skip: Dwayne Johnson, Steve Austin, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jim Duggan, and John Cena are all former football stars. To dismiss wrestling as an "illegitimate" sport is to insult anyone who has ever trained hard—and clean—to become a professional wrestler.

On Grace's show, meanwhile, disgraced WWE superstar Marc Mero took his own shots at Vince McMahon and the WWE. How ironic that Mero decided to lash out against the very company that made his ex-wife Sable a star.

Marc, you should have stayed in hiding. You have no right to bash McMahon just because your wife was better at putting butts in the seats than you were. Get over it...or at least go away...

Grace, for her part, conveniently forgot that Benoit got his start with the WCW—under the ownership of Ted Turner—in her diatribe against McMahon. Benoit began bulking up long before he ever got to the WWE—which doesn't mean McMahon shouldn’t be held accountable for his actions, but certainly suggests that Nancy should scrutinize her own boss at CNN before she goes pointing fingers anywhere else.

Remember, everyone has to start somewhere. If Ted Turner really wants to get to the bottom of the Chris Benoit case, he ought to think about looking in the mirror.

source: bleacherreport.com

Hulk Hogan's Miami Estate for Sale

Hulk Hogan's Miami estate is currently up for sale. This is the home Hogan's family moved into last year to get Brooke Hogan closer to the music moguls in Florida. However, Brooke and Linda have since moved to Los Angeles to further her music career, so that basically left the house all to Hogan and his son Nick. The Miami-based record label SOBE Entertainment chose not renew her contract after it had expired -- presumably due to the disappointing sales of her studio album, which sold only 60,000 copies and was out of the Billboard 200 album chart within five weeks of its release. Anyway, you can see the realtor listing of Hogan's Miami residence at this link. It's only going to cost you $18,900,000.

Two Major UFC Fighters Fail Drug Tests

It has been confirmed that Lightweight champion Sean Sherk has failed his post-UFC 73 drug tests. His opponent Hermes Franca released a statement claiming he would be coming up positive when the next set of test results were made public by the California State Athletic Commission.

Sherk tested positive for Nandrolone Metabolite and has been fined $2,500. He will be suspended until June 26, 2008 (nearly a year). Normal levels of Nandrolone range from 2 ng/mL to 6 ng/mL - where as Sherk was found with 12 ng/mL.

Loretta Hunt reported on Fight Network radio that Greg Nelson has indicated Sherk will challenge the test result.

Because the fight was in California, and not Nevada, the commission doesn't have the power to overturn the result of the match.

UFC has not yet made a statement regarding the test result. Sherk has 30 days to request a hearing. If he fails to successfully appeal the test result, one would think UFC would have little choice but to strip him of his championship.

source: mmanews.com & wrestlingobserver.com

Dogfighting a booming business, experts say

An estimated 40,000 people in the United States are involved in professional dogfighting, an illegal blood sport with fight purses as high as $100,000.

The latest accusations against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and three other people highlight the problem. They are accused in an indictment that describes dogs being routinely executed if they didn't fight fiercely. The indictment was handed down Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Richmond, Virginia.

The nightmare of dogfighting is growing, according to the Humane Society of the United States...More?