Enigma

From ESPN: ============== Two congressmen responsible for conducting steroid hearings into Major League Baseball have requested that Vince McMahon, the head of World Wrestling Entertainment, provide records pertaining to the WWE's testing policies. In a three-page letter dated Friday, Rep. Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Tom Davis, its ranking minority member, asked McMahon to provide a series of documents intended to give the committee and its investigation a detailed look at WWE's drug-testing policy, including information about the results of performance-enhancing drug tests on pro wrestlers. "The tragic deaths of World Wrestling Entertainment star Chris Benoit and his family have raised questions about reports of widespread use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by professional wrestlers," the congressmen wrote. "These allegations -- which include first-hand reports of steroid use by prominent former wrestlers -- have swirled around the WWE for over a decade. Investigations by journalists have described a culture of performance-enhancing drug use in professional wrestling, high fatality rates among young professional wrestlers, and an inability or unwillingness of WWE to address these problems." The letter from Waxman and Davis described WWE wrestlers as "multimedia stars that have an influence on the behavior and attitudes of the nation's youth." "WWE has a responsibility to do everything possible to eliminate the use of performance-enhancing drugs -- or the perception of such use -- by its wrestlers." The records request is wide ranging, and parallels what was asked of Major League Baseball. It seeks a list of drugs covered by its policies; the entity that conducts its drug testing; the number of tests it conducts annually; the protocols followed after a positive test; and the procedures for awarding exemptions. It also wants hard figures about the number of tests that the WWE conducts each year; the numbers of wrestlers tested; positive results for each specific drug; and the number of positive tests for which wrestlers were penalized. In an attempt to investigate the WWE's reaction to past scandals, the committee is also seeking "the results of any investigations prepared [by the company] regarding the deaths, injuries, or illnesses of current or former professional wrestlers that may have been related to the use of steroids." It adds to the list "all communications between [the company] and outside entities including communications with health care professionals or law enforcement authorities, regarding allegations of drug use by wrestlers."

I wouldn't mind Orton being WWE Champion so much if he wasn't such a PR disaster waiting to happen. "WWE Champion causes $20,000+ damage to European hotel room." "WWE Champion caught smoking marijuana backstage at show." It also sets a very horrible example to the other workers. The message is "If WWE has handpicked you for the future, do whatever you want and you won't get fired and eventually the title will be yours."

It said "strong character". And she was. Sable was the female Austin in 1998 in terms of merchandise and marketing. Stone Cold, DX, and Sable were individually making the WWF more money than they had ever had before.

Interesting to note that Bam Margera is not in the picture and Dave England is. England was not originally offered a part in the deal.

I'm sick of John Cena as the champion, but having Randy Orton as the champion wouldn't be any better. I liken it to eating shit for two years and then having the chance to drink piss instead.

NUDE PICTURE OF FORMER WWE DIVA BEING OFFERED ON EBAY, LATER REMOVED A user on eBay who uses the handle "hulk5150" listed an auction for the prototype action figure of Jackie Gayda that was featured on MTV's Tough Enough 2. The user claims to be Jackie's ex-fiance and the man who was told by a teary Jackie that she had sex with one of the other contestants (the infamous hot tub incident). Before being edited, hulk5150 was also offering a nude picture he personally took of Jackie and listed it with censor bars. He later took the picture out of the auction. Here is the text from the altered listing: In the auction, he posted this picture of Jackie being repremanded in the ring by Chris Benoit at an OVW show: Here are some noteable quotes from the Q&A part of the listing: The auction sold for $1,603.

Former FOX News correspondent Claire Godfrey pled guilty to steroid distribution in Albany (N.Y.) court on Tuesday. To avoid a prison sentence, she agreed to co-operate in an ongoing investigation into steroid distribution. Investigators have said that Godfrey sold steroids to two WWE wrestlers, but Chris Benoit was not included. The report, in the New York Daily News, says Godfrey wrote $1.3 million worth of prescriptions for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to two WWE wrestlers and one bodybuilder without every seeing them for a patient visit. She reportedly earned $50 for each prescription, and earned a total of $200,000 for writing scripts over a seven-to-eight month period. Godfrey is expected to testify against the Orlando-based pharmaceutical company, Signature Pharmacy, which is as the center of a prescription drug distribution ring over the Internet that was subject to a federal raid earlier this year. Assistant District Attorney told the N.Y. Daily News: "This is an important plea. If this case ever goes to trial, Claire Godfrey will be a star witness." WWE spokesman Gary Davis said: "We applaud the efforts of government officials to shut down the illegal use of steroids and those doctors who illegally prescribe them." ============== Let the guessing game begin.

If USA is serious about turning things around, why not tell Vince that his daughter sucks at booking and use someone else? USA is the one's with the leverage here, not Vince. Wouldn't that be hilarious if USA forced Vince to boot out Steph and replace her with either Vince Russo or Paul Heyman?

Kane doing a hurricanrana on Albert was something I thought I'd never see.

I wasn't very surprised by it due to earlier in the night. Edge opened the PPV against Ric Flair and quickly got himself DQed by smashing up Flair with the briefcase. Afterwards, he told Lita to handle the WWE.Com interview because he had "more imporant things going on" and then shifted a quick glance to the briefcase as he walked off. When Vince's music hit right when Cena got the 3-count, I 99% knew that was it.

Randy Orton can't be depended on to hold any considerable role in the company. He's a potential PR disaster with his immature behavior.

You mean when they had Triple H feud with the Rock for something like six months with no direction at all? Or when Triple H/Rock/Undertaker buried Angle/Jericho/Benoit in one night when they were in need of new stars? Yeah, Angle got beat around by UT, but he was WWF Champion less than 3 months later. HHH vs. Jericho was a blood bath. Go watch the finish where HHH is covered with blood and has to struggle to get up at 9 and then collapse after 10 and call that a "burial". And The Rock only defeated Chris Benoit because of the favoritist antics of WWF Commissioner Mick Foley. People like you really piss me the fuck off when you mindlessly throw around the word "bury" like you know anything. Losing does not equal buried.

EDGE'S INJURY MUCH WORSE THAN ORIGINALLY THOUGHT The WWE website has an article up about Edge's pectoral tear surgery under famed surgeon Dr. James Andrews, which took place over the weekend. Andrews noted that the tear was much worse than originally believed, with the surgical team discovering that the tendon had completely torn from the bone once they opened him up. Andrews commented that the injury could have been a career-threatening situation if it wasn't correctly repaired. Given the wording of the article, it appears that Edge's return would most likely be towards the end of 2007, although that would all depend on a number of factors including healing, physical therapy and training time needed to return to the ring. Andrews would only comment that the return time was "to be determined", noting that it could take 3-4 months once they are a month out of surgery. Five months (including the four weeks of surgerical recovery) would be late December. The article also featured some in-character heel comments from Edge, blaming Kane and taking shots at the fans.

REASONING BEHIND JOHNNY NITRO'S TRANSFORMATION INTO JOHN MORRISON Johnny Nitro's name was changed because many within WWE didn't feel like it was a serious enough name for a World champion. Vince McMahon felt people wouldn't take him seriously with such a gimmicky name like Johnny Nitro. Many people, including ECW writers Dave Lagana and Dusty Rhodes as well as WWE.com staffer Jen Hunt, came up with suggestions for a new name. In the end, Vince chose the John Morrison name obviously because of the similarities between John and deceased rock legend Jim Morrison.

WWE TAKES AWAY BEER FROM SANDMAN'S ENTRANCE As you probably noticed on Raw last night, The Sandman was without his trademarked beer during his entrance. WWE told Sandman that he could no longer chug or smash beer around in the crowd during his entrance. The main reason was due to complaints made to USA Network that children were being closely exposed to beer.

As you saw on RAW last night, it appeared RAW setup Umaga vs. Jeff Hardy for SummerSlam, and that match will indeed go down. The planned Jackass vs. Umaga match has been cancelled. Sometime during the last week the deal fell apart. WWE had planned on some of the Jackass guys being at the Great American Bash PPV and do some of their stunts on Umaga all night and end up costing Umaga the title in the Hardy match which would have setup Umaga vs. Jackass at Summerslam. Johnny Knoxville had planned to do a few TV appearances for WWE leading up to the SummerSlam PPV but after the Benoit family tragedy happened, Jackass and Knoxville started distancing themselves from WWE. Bam Margera had officially backed out due to an injury and Ryan Dunn simply backed out because Bam did. It was to start out with a few promised TV and PPV appearances, then it came down to Jackass only working the SummerSlam PPV then it ended with the whole idea being scrapped. Once Knoxville pulled out, WWE decided to scrap the idea altogether. Originally WWE had planned on the Jackass crew defeating Umaga in the match. credit: PWI ===================== This isn't going to make USA Network happy, since they were basically forcing WWE to work with Jackass in order to promote Steve-O's new USA show.

MR. KENNEDY VISITS TOM GREEN Mr. Kennedy will be the guest on Tuesday night's live broadcast of the Tom Green Show on www.tomgreen.com at 11pm ET.

Looks like Sandman no longer has beer for his entrance. He's officially WWE'ized.

JIMMY KIMMEL CUTS A BENOIT JOKE AT COMEDY CENTRAL TAPING According to TMZ.com, the Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav was taped last night and will air at some point in August. Roastmaster Jimmy Kimmel was roasting Flav for his having many children with different women. At that point, Kimmel said, "Chris Benoit is a better father than you." Comedy Central immediately sent word that the Benoit joke would be edited out of the broadcast and DVD release.

JIMMY KIMMEL CUTS A BENOIT JOKE AT COMEDY CENTRAL TAPING According to TMZ.com, the Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav was taped last night and will air at some point in August. Roastmaster Jimmy Kimmel was roasting Flav for his having many children with different women. At that point, Kimmel said, "Chris Benoit is a better father than you." Comedy Central immediately sent word that the Benoit joke would be edited out of the broadcast and DVD release.

Matches like these are where you can tell WWE doesn't give a damn about the belts anymore. Go back to 1991. If you booked WWF Champion Hulk Hogan & I-C Champion Bret Hart vs. Tag Champions Road Warriors, that would be a BIG fucking match. But Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch are jobbers compared to Cena & Umaga. And Umaga isn't really that big of a deal anymore either after Cena and Lashley killed him.

Dan Spivey was Vince McMahon's original choice to play the Kane character. He did think about it, but decided that his knees were in too bad of shape to come out of retirement.

And I have no clue how I missed the thread that was already made, since I specifically scanned for one. Whoops.

FORMER WWE AND WCW STAR DAN SPIVEY ARRESTED Former early-to-mid-90s WWE and WCW star Dan Spivey was arrested on July 14. Spivey, 55, was charged with DUI. He was released on $500 bond. Spivey was a star for WCW in the early 90s, most noteably in his role in tag teams with both Mark Callous (The Undertaker) and Sid Vicious. He retired from professional wrestling following his very short run in WWE as Waylon Mercy in 1995. His retirement was almost short-lived, as Spivey was Vince McMahon's original choice to play the Kane character that debuted in 1997. While Spivey seriously considered the role, he ultimately decided he did not want to end his retirement. The part of Kane was then given to Vince's second choice, Glen Jacobs, the man who still plays the character in WWE today. http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/pub/default.as...isp/bn=07045320

Shelly Martinez is pretty hot without the vampire makeup.