Atticus Chaos

Orton got married on Friday. That may have something to do with it.

I'm not hugely pro steriods or anything like that, but why are they wasting their energy on this, when they could be arresting heroin and cocaine dealers?

Source - Wrestling Observer Newsletter The current word backstage in WWE is that Booker will be returning to the company after his sixty day suspension is up. As of right now, he isn't taking any offers for outside bookings as he would be in demand and could get good money from them. This all but confirms both sides are negotiating a new deal.

I thought the ending of the wedding was the best part. Just the way Teddy sold it was brilliant. I seriously had to watch that bit 5 or 6 times.

Several TNA wrestlers have talked about leaving the promotion. Those wrestlers include Homicide, Hernandez, Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin, and Alex Shelley. Management has asked all of them to stay until the 2 hour show stars, at which point they'll get more television time. A few of the wrestlers are interested in leaving TNA for Japan. wrestling observer newsletter

Didn't Vickie give him the Viagra?

I think they're going to edit Ashley to look like a total bitch.

wwe notes from f4w- The AP ran an article about Chris Benoit's diary. Cary Icther, the attorney for father Michael Benoit, said the entries showed Benoit "wracked with grief and preoccupied with death", noting that Chris wrote the entries as if he was talking to Eddy. Ichter said he was not going to provide copies of the diary for review, but noted certain phrases, including, "I will be with you soon". He also "wrote warmly" about both Daniel and Nancy. The article again noted that the diary had been found in the trash by one of Benoit's neighbors after the police and family had left. I can only imagine that the trash in question belonged to the neighbor, because I cannot fathom the police and family doing an investigation and not finding the diary in the trash at Benoit's house. I should note, though, that from very early on there were people talking about how it was a rinky-dink investigation (one person even used the term, ironically, "Barney Fife") and they were stunned with certain things the police did. In another article, Ichter said: "It's plain that he was depressed. It's plain that he was beginning to exhibit some of the signs of the dementia that's associated with the brain injuries he sustained because he talks in there about not being able to remember things. Chris, at the end had become intensely paranoid, to the point that he would not take the same route to the airport on a consistent basis, to the point that he would not allow the family outside of the house". The story also noted that it would be months before the estate battle was handled. Kresten F. Ericksen, 47, an Ogdensburg City Councilor, was arrested this past week on charges of 2nd degree forgery in regards to an incident involving WWE and the Ogdensburg Golden Dome. Basically, the WWE ran two shows in 2006 which were to help raise money for a new scrolling marquee. Kresten, the Student Council Advisor, was in charge of paying WWE $8,000 for the show. WWE later told police that they hadn't been paid the full amount. The Student Council asked Ericksen for a receipt and he produced one claiming the $8,000 had been paid. As it turns out, the belief is that he kept approximately $4,000 and forged the receipt. The investigation is continuing and it is believed no one else will be charged. The pretrial conference in the Phil Astin case was scheduled for Tuesday, the day we went to press. Mike Fish of ESPN.com wrote two huge articles for the website last week. The first was entitled "Other wrestlers used Benoit's doctor for prescriptions". It mostly covered the death of Johnny Grunge Durham and his relationship to Astin. There was some new info in there that was pretty distressing. Eric Zinck, who was Durham's best friend and was providing him with a place to live when he died, went to the pharmacy to get Durham's last prescription filled. Durham was smurfed up that morning, so Zinck went without him, told the folks at the pharmacy that he needed to refill a prescription for him, and they gave it to him no questions asked -- and that includes asking for any sort of ID. The morning Mike died, Zinck's girlfriend had stumbled over him in the hallway. They checked his pulse, and although it was "weak" they had seen him in this state many times and figured he'd recover like usual. He didn't. Durham had been using Dr. Astin for years, and before that he'd been using Dr. Robert Howard of Peachtree City, who was also busted and ended up dying in prison recently. Howard had also treated Chris Benoit and, according to Zinck, "half the wrestlers in WCW". Dave Meltzer in the Observer also noted last week that a former WWE star had called him up and told him that although x number of names had come out in the Signature case, he believed "everyone" was a Signature client up and down the roster. I can say that there are other name wrestlers who were both Signature clients and patients of Dr. Astin that for whatever reason have not come out yet. Penny Durham talked about the issues Mike's pain pill and soma abuse caused. It broke up their marriage and he wasn't able to keep a job, even with his father-in-law. He'd pass out constantly at home, often in the middle of playing with his children, and he'd be so screwed up during the day that he couldn't drive his father-in-law's truck to carpet installation jobs. Once, he started swerving, and when his father-in-law pulled the car over Durham opened the door, fell out, and passed out on the road. He was so big at the time, near 400 pounds of dead weight with a 56-inch waist, that he could not be moved. No one else was willing to drive with him either. The article noted that he had 11 different doctors prescribing him pills, but no one prescribed more than Astin. In 13 months, Astin wrote prescriptions for over 4,000 pills. "The doctor should have never given him anything," Penny said. "He had asthma. He had an enlarged heart. He had sleep apnea. And he was overweight. He wasn't even wrestling. Why would he be giving this guy a muscle relaxer? I mean, he was giving it to him like candy." Durham would sometimes fill Vicodin prescriptions every four days, even at the same pharmacy. The article noted that Penny was considering filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Astin, and that Michael Benoit was considering a lawsuit as well but was likely going to wait until the trial was over. Lex Luger said Astin was just a good old guy who never talked to guys about steroids or anything. He said Astin was "a little star struck" and enjoyed interacting with the guys. He didn't use the term "mark doctor" but he may as well have. Zinck said, "He just prescribed what he thought we needed. Or if we asked to go up in the medication, he didn't question it. He just went up in it". The Luger story was fascinating. Luger, 49, needs a hip replacement and now walks with a cane. He says he can't believe he's alive and nearly overdosed many times. He is also a man of God now, and very forthright about his drug use, steroid use, arrests, and the death of Miss Elizabeth. "I take a lot of responsibility for that -- my influence in her life. Her little heart and body couldn't take what I was doing." She died of acute drug toxicity in 2003. Luger said the 1,000 illegal pills that were found in his house were in a bag that he'd forgotten was there. He said Liz had sent it over from his previous residence. "I didn't know I had it, and I would never have kept that stuff in my house. I would have had a friend keep it for me. Athletes won't keep it in their house. They'll go over to their friends' house and get their shots and stuff." He now lives with a pastor at his church and does motivational stay-off-drugs speeches. He said he first got on steroids after he played football at Penn State and the University of Miami and was offered a CFL tryout. He met a guy in the gym who gave him Dianabol, and the rest is history. He said he was never a hardcore steroid user like some guys in wrestling who never cycle off. He did Deca and testosterone 12 weeks on and 12 weeks off and was blessed with a super fast metabolism that kept him lean. Well, you can never argue that Lex Luger didn't have fantastic genetics. In fact, the article here included a photo of him, and at 49 with a bad hip he's still very lean and muscular, and the interview took place over the course of several hours in a buffet. This also, he said, was why he was still alive. "I metabolized drugs quickly. That is not good, but it saved my life a bunch of times. I went in deep a bunch of times with pills and alcohol." He had nice things to say about Sting, ("one of the few that stuck by me when my life was a wreck"), and, yes, Dr. Astin. He said Astin never provided him with steroids and merely helped him manage pain. "I was under pain-management therapy or hydrocodone, just legal amounts. I need to have hip surgery that I've been putting off. I do a little hydrocodone and some Advil and Aleve, buddy. That is all I take. That's why I was seeing him -- a little bit of pain management." He said the wrestlers had little problem beating drug tests in the 90s. Good to know things never change. He claimed there was a place in Atlanta that he could go to now and get a three month supply of testosterone and human growth hormone, and that there was a guy in California that was currently supplying drugs to "hundreds of wrestlers and other pro athletes". He finished up saying, "I was a pill-popper. And I abused alcohol toward the end, real bad. And I got caught with steroids in my house. I am a convicted felon. I deserved it. And I take accountability for that. I am trying to help others avoid what happened in my life, and my family and friends that I devastated. I dishonored my profession. I dishonored my community, all because I couldn't control myself and got this sick other lifestyle and drug abuse. I want to help our young kids stay away from that". There are no plans at this point for a Shawn Michaels return. Obviously when he went down everyone was talking about him being back by November. Problem is, it's 2007 and he's a family man and he's enjoying his time at home with his family. He's also said to be very content with his career, particularly the entire first half of this year when he was the main guy responsible for the best six months of weekly high-level in-ring action that there has perhaps ever been in any promotion in the world. He has given indications that he isn't in a rush to come back, and the feeling is that Hunter took him to Ohio Valley last week in part to try to get the business back into his blood again. If he comes back this fall, the plan is to plug him into a feud with Orton, which of course would make sense since Orton put him out with the concussion gimmick months back (in reality Shawn needed knee surgery). But there are no guarantees. Since it's all over the Internet now, no, I don't know if Randy Orton tried to commit suicide earlier this year. Irv Muchnick wrote on his blog: "A rumor is swirling that World Wrestling Entertainment star Randy Orton attempted suicide within the last year. Very well-placed wrestling sources tell me that the rumor is true." All I know is that after this story came out I talked to someone in WWE who would likely have been in a position to know this information who said they had not heard such a thing. They said Orton did have a "personal issue" at one point, but at the time they'd chalked it up to perhaps a drug issue, and could not confirm or deny any stories of a suicide attempt. Irv speculated that this may have been the reason he was not suspended when the list of Signature patients came out. Actually, I believe the reason he wasn't suspended was because he wasn't on the Signature list. Although advanced advertising listed Batista vs. Undertaker for No Mercy, the WWE.com website announced Tuesday that it would be Big Dave vs. Great Khali in PUNJABI PRISON~! We'll also get Orton vs. Cena Last Man Standing and probably Hunter vs. Umaga, which was the plan for the September PPV until Umaga got suspended. Sonny Siaki was released this week. Florida Championship Wrestling actually held an event this past weekend in New Port Richey, FL. Chris Jericho hasn't signed, but people in the company believe he'll be back in October. Nothing is set in stone. He has been talking with TNA. A lot is said to depend upon how his book sales do. They are starting to discuss people for the Hall of Fame. They really want Ric Flair, which has been the plan for a long time now, but both sides are currently on the outs. One of the ideas for the Flair retirement storyline that we talked about several weeks back was that he'd flip out on TV after a loss and say if he ever lost another match he was going to retire. So then they'd do six months or so of Flair victories leading up to WrestleMania, where he'd probably lose and call it an active career. The night before, he'd go into the Hall of Fame. Of course, there are difficulties with Flair winning every single match over six months (and all three brands) without having to beat some huge names or put several belts on him. The idea to get around that was to say DQ or COR losses didn't count. Anyway, that's clearly not happening right now. Other suggested names include the Von Erichs, Bob Uecker (seriously), Ted DiBiase, Mae Young, Gordon Solie and Rick Rude. There is also, I am told, sort of an ongoing joke where every year Howard Finkle is suggested and every year Vince and Kevin Dunn, who both actually want Fink in, tell him "maybe next year" just to smurf with him. Fink should undoubtedly be in. Krystal may be moved to Raw soon since she's dating Lashley legit. This suggests her and Teddy Long may not live happily every after. No, seriously

Meltzer didn't seem to take it that seriously in his news update.

Orton has barely been off tv this past year. I assume WWE would have to give him some time to recover if he did (a month at the very least)

The sopranos winning both directing and writing was annoying when this wasn't there best year by far.

Didn't expect BSG to win the writing or directing. Honestly, a sci fi show just getting nominated in itself is a big deal. I'm hoping next year they can score a best drama series nom. And at least now they're on the radar.

I know Sherri would have liked WWE to pay for her surgery, and hoped they might offer. But did she ever straight up ask them for the cash and got turned down? It's possible Vince wasn't aware of her situation.

Source: Wrestling observer newsletter Due to the looming congressional hearings, WWE has offered to pay for any ex wrestler’s rehab if they wanted to seek help. Even though this may seem as a good move from WWE, as it could potentially help a good amount of struggling ex-employee’s lives, it does come across as a personal relations stunt following all the scandal reports that have made the news across the nation. Also, it doesn’t appear as if WWE is promoting this offer so many former employees may not even know how to seek treatment or know anything about this offer.

Meh, one side of the story. For some reason I doubt that guy was as polite as he's claiming. And I don't know if the police answer calls about stolen sim cards either.

Kennedy was set to be part of the biggest angle of the year. One that was likely to lead into wrestlemania.

Orton confessed though. Which probably helped him. We don't know the details about Booker's first suspension. It might not have been from signature pharmacy, so they couldn't use the double jeoprady thing with him like they did Orton. I think if they wanted to give anyone a pass it would have been Kennedy. They needed him a lot more than they needed Orton. Difference was, Orton wasn't all over tv swearing he was clean.

Some interesting notes from latest f4w

Umaga is set to face HHH at No Mercy according to the latest WON.

from pw torch audio Test is gone from TNA. TNA realized they couldn't have him around with the Congress thing. Keller's source was told by Test that TNA won't consider putting him on their TV unless he loses a lot of weight. Alex Shelley's TNA deal was set to expire very recently and he signed a new TNA deal for two years. Keller said he had this from two sources, and that Shelley worked the PWG shows or whatever with TNA's knowledge and consent. Shelley's contract being up definitely explains the recent string of jobs. Samoa Joe has more than two years left on his TNA contract, he just wanted a raise when TNA wanted him to tack a couple more years onto the deal. Which is what was reported months ago, but somehow, the newz and rumorz wildly spun it into Joe's deal being up at the end of this month.

Yeah, it worked out so well in WCW.

HHH is right though. Flair is too old, and he simply doesn't have the physique anymore to realistically beat the younger guys.

Flair quit after having his big retirement angle shot down numerous times. Austin was pissed that Flair wasn't going to be at Mania this past year, and he came up with an idea to build to Flair's retirement at Mania 24. Basically, Flair would lose a match, snap, and claim that the next time he lost he would retire. He would then go onto a winning streak that would cross over all three brands, with guys trying to be the guy to beat Flair, and Flair finally losing in a high profile match, possibly for a belt, at Mania, with him getting into the HOF the night before. Vince was said to have loved the idea, and when pitching it he mentioned it was Austins, and the decisions were made to go ahead with the angle. That, obviously, never happened, and that initially pissed flair off. Once he was moved to Smackdown, the idea was to push him as the Babe Ruth of Wrestling, but that never happened either. The retirement angle was, again, brought up, but never moved on. Flair was also pissed about being left off the Columbia SC taping, because he could have been the second most over guy there, and also about losing clean to Finlay. Also, Flair was upset with Triple H saying that Flair can't beat top guys at his age because it is a credibility issue. Flair is said to be content with staying away and getting his finance business off the ground. Vince is pissed because Flair owes him money from when Vince helped him with the IRS and his court charges. wrestling observer newsletter

I'm sure he could remember his other kids. I've heard nothing to indicate he couldn't. And, remember, he knew about her in 2004 when she went to see him at an autograph signing. It wasn't like she was a stranger, he knew who she was.

Everybody arguing that Benoit was basically a good guy with a heart of gold, and the murders only happened because he suffered some sort of mental breakdown at the end of his life, need to explain how he left his daughter destitute for all those years while he was a millionaire.