Atticus Chaos

I will never, never, EVER, fathom this mentality. WHY should WWE be more like an action show? There's HUNDREDS of action shows on TV. 90% of them probably have better actors. Probably better effects too. Why would they want to compete with something like that? Why don't they wake the fuck up and realize that there's hundreds of action shows on TV, but exactly TWO wrestling companies with any kind of TV time? If people want to watch action shows, they'll watch ACTION SHOWS. If they wanna watch wrestling, they won't watch anything, because WWE is trying to NOT be a wrestling show. Asinine. Next week on Raw: John Cena infiltrates an Al-Qaeda cell with the aid of CTU.

Britney supposedly cleaned up her dog's shit with one of the designer chanel dresses the magazine gave her and then claimed "the ceiling was caving in on her". Kevin Federline wants custody of the kids now because she's been acting crazier than ever. Which might not be a bad idea. I feel worse for her than I do for Paris, Lindsay, Nicole...etc. She's obviously got some serious mental issues, stemming from her post partum depression (she has a lot of the symptoms: paranoia, depression, isolation) but it's not safe for her to be around her kids right now.

While she's a partier, I don't think Paris is a drug addict or alcholic or anything like that. I think she brings that element in others though (looking at what happens to the people that hang out with her) but you don't hear about her going to rehab every other week.

PWInsider.com confirmed last night that Court Bauer, who had most recently been working on the Smackdown creative team, gave notice and left World Wrestling Entertainment last week. The story going around the company is that once Dusty Rhodes moved onto working on the ECW brand, Bauer and Michael Hayes were often at odds creatively. After being frustrated for some time, Bauer finally decided to give notice and finished up last week. A similar situation with Hayes took place involving former Smackdown creative team member Andrew Goldstein. Goldstein was given a lot of credit internally for helping to turn the Smackdown brand around last year, only to be dropped with little warning by the company after butting heads with Hayes on creative issues. Goldstein now works as a TV producer for several MTV series.

That's a bit of a shock.

Maybe Benoit knew his close friends were as dependent on drugs as he and Eddie were, and didn't want a similar tragic ending for his close buddies. Yeah, the guy who'd just murdered his wife and son had a sudden attack of conscience.

The Toffoloni family (Nancy's parents) want David and Megan to be taken of. David and Megan are Benoit's children from his first marriage. Martina (Benoit's first wife) may go after part of the estate. Under Georgia law, the victim's family is entitled to the entire estate, which would be the Toffoloni family in this case. Believe it or not, at one time, WWE was considering doing a storyline regarding Eddy Guerrero's estate. In the talked about storyline, Benoit would have discovered shady dealings by Vickie and Chavo Guerrero. wrestling observer newsletter There may not be any need for a legal case, if the Toffoloni's can be relied upon to do the right thing by Megan and David. I don't think they have any ill will against the children for their father's mistakes. That said, I've heard some rumours in the past that Martina isn't exactly the most reasonable woman,so who knows? It could get ugly.

I just want to clarify my three-second comment on Nancy Grace yesterday about how Benoit destroyed a lot of things but not the steroids, and how I thought there might be a reason for that. It wasn't meant to be a tease, I just ended up with a very limited amount of time to get the point out and they didn't go back to me for clarification afterwards. Basically, anyone who says Benoit wasn't thinking the last two days is flat-out wrong. He had to have gone nuts to do what he did, but he was still very clearly in a calculating state of mind. He was very specific about destroying certain things (for example, some photos but not all photos, and the photos he did not destroy were also intriguing), how he killed both people (including loading his son up with Xanax first to sedate him), the thought and planning and, quite frankly, hard work that went into killing himself in the most horrible way possible, etc. But despite all of that, he didn't destroy, hide or get rid of ANY drugs. There was plenty of stuff he didn't want people to find and also a few things he DID seemingly want people to find, and the drugs were among those things. The first thing wrestlers always get rid of are the drugs, in dozens of cases dating back decades. Not Benoit. Also, it is now believed by some that he tried to get off the steroids in April (hence the clean test) and found his system was so screwed up that he got back on (his natural testosterone levels were incredibly low due to the years of steroid abuse, and trying to come clean would have resulted in major physical and psychological issues). I suspect he knew the steroids had destroyed his body and that they'd played a role in the deaths of many of his close friends, including his best friend in this business. The theory, which is also written about in some form in this week's new Observer, is basically that he decided he was going to take out himself, his entire family, and the wrestling business which he had grown to hate. f4wonline Couldn't he have just left a note saying it was all Vince's fault?

Both Finlay and Kennedy were congratulated by their peers backstage at this past week's events for their appearances on television last week. In the case of Finlay, everyone was telling him how awesome he did on Nancy Grace last Friday by "putting everyone in their place." There was those that felt differently but also knew they had to keep things quiet. While there were those who genuinely felt that Finlay had handled himself well, most recognized that his appearance on the show was a bit of a disaster. Finlay was lucky because Marc Mero and Bryan Alvarez have a lot of personal respect for him and they chose not to make him look bad when they probably could have. Finlay left himself open to a lot of stuff, but Alavarez wasn't on during those moments because the producers only wanted Mero and Finlay to debate. For instance, Finlay told Mero that there was no proof steroids steroids played a role in Eddue Guerrero's death. However, Guerrero's death certificate speciafically points out that steriod use was a major contributing factor in his death. There were some complaints about how Finlay represented himself because he is not the "independent contractor" the wrestlers are purported as being. In addition to having a contract talent, Finlay is also a road agent, thus making him a WWE employee. Due to that, he gets 401K, medical, dental and employee stock purchase plans. The wrestlers don't get these perks. Finlay didn't represent that that all those things are taken care of by WWE for him, while speaking for "the boys" that things are fine with them not getting it. As noted before, Kennedy appeared on Greta Van Susteren's show on the Fox news channel last Friday. When asked if he used steriods he denied it outright. There were actually some people in WWE hot at him for saying this, but the way the question was phrased was about the present tense, not if he had ever used steroids through the course of his life. wrestling observer newsletter

Just because Rey has a bad heart doesn't mean he's going to drop dead anytime soon. He may be another guy to die in his forties or fifties, but I doubt he's at death's door just yet.

From the Torch: The office of Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) has sent PWTorch.com the following statement this afternoon: '"Earlier this month, I called for a Congressional hearing on steroid use in professional wrestling. I have talked with both the Chairman of the Energy & Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), and the Chairman of the Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection Subcommittee, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), on this issue. Although no hearing yet has been scheduled, I was encouraged by those discussions that a hearing likely will be held this fall." PWTorch has also learned that Rep. Stearns was planning to draft a letter to be sent to Vince McMahon to find out how they would about learning more about how their company operates in preparation for the hearings this fall.

Well, this is kind of my point, if someone's heart was red flagged, wouldn't that take them off the road? Were there even any specifics of the cardio testing in the original public policy? If Rey's having heart problems, there's a good chance WWE knows he has heart problems, but they're keen to get him back as soon as possible. WWE will likely only get involved when there's an immediete danger (Kurt Angle), at present they're probably not thinking about Rey dropping dead at 45. Yeah, but remember, even before the Wellness Program, when Russ Haas was given medical clearance to wrestle with his heart condition the WWE delayed okaying it because they wanted a second opinion. Russ died watching television before they got that second opinion. I seriously think if they were like that for an OVW guy they'd be just as strict with someone on the main roster. They were also careful with William Regal's heart problem. Yeah, but Regal and Haas weren't main eventers. They wouldn't have stuck by Angle for so long if he hadn't been a major guy in the company. WWE could do without Haas or Regal, smackdown on the other hand, desperately needs rey, a proven ratings draw, right now.

Well, this is kind of my point, if someone's heart was red flagged, wouldn't that take them off the road? Were there even any specifics of the cardio testing in the original public policy? If Rey's having heart problems, there's a good chance WWE knows he has heart problems, but they're keen to get him back as soon as possible. WWE will likely only get involved when there's an immediete danger (Kurt Angle), at present they're probably not thinking about Rey dropping dead at 45.

Even if they do know their hearts are in trouble, what difference will it make? They'll still wrestle. Look at the rumours about rey's heart. But he's not showing any signs of slowing down. I remember Vicki mentioning that Eddie was aware his heart was in bad shape. And he kept wrestling and taking steroids because he needed the money that came with being a headliner. It's probable he wasn't aware of the extent of the damage, but they knew he had problems.

I'd love if it more actors pulled the retirement angle to get their grosses up... voice over guy "This summer see Al Pacino in his final ever movie role" three months later "Um...I meant I was retiring from mob movies. I'll still do other stuff."

The Raw rating was a bigger cause of stress for Vince on Tuesday than Benoit's toxicology report. He's very much on edge, particularly since sources say Bonnie Hammer is putting a tremendous amount of pressure on him to get the ratings up. There is strong talk, as appalling as this sounds, that USA wants Raw to move to three hours permanently in the fall. WWE is very much against it, citing the burnout factor, but it's unlikely they'd be able (or willing) to turn it down. Vince, despite being the main guy in charge of every storyline, is blaming everyone but himself, and the feeling is that if things don't turn around soon there will be a major shake-up and the only ones safe will be Stephanie, Kevin Dunn and perhaps John Lauranitis, since he's a schmoozer and a good talker and is the only one they have faith in to do the Director of Talent Relations job, even though he's often largely incompetent. Michael Hayes has taken more than his fair share of abuse over the past month or so with Vince constantly mocking him at all the producer's meetings, making fun of him in front of his own creative team, and making comments about him to other people when he knows Hayes is within earshot. Brian Gewirtz was also on the crap list Tuesday after the rating came in, ending up on the receiving end of the McMahon blow-up. The feeling is that he's actually OK, and the reason Vince went nuts on him is because he's super close to Vince and Vince always bullies the people closest to him (Shane was often an easy target and would always pout, whereas Stephanie would "take it like Vince would"). Stephanie had to calm Vince down and apparently everything is fine now. f4w newsletter

Dave, Did you see Chavo's interview on Greta last night? When she asked him directly about the plethora of pro-wrestling deaths -- including Eddy's -- he replied that deaths in wrestling were an anomaly! He alleged that most of the deaths you here about are pro-wrestlers from the 70s and 80s, and claimed that today's wrestlers don't drink and party like those guys once did! He said nobody even drinks in the WWE locker-room because they're all so health conscious. I wanted to throw up! How can a guy that has legitimately lost two of his loved ones in recent years espouse this sort of party line -- a line which will assure that the deaths of those closest to him were absolutely in vain (e.g., led to no lasting changes within the industry)? -Paul Armentano wrestlingobserver.com Interestingly, Dave gave it it's own headline, rather than just putting it in with the rest of the mailbag.

Vince's approach to all this, just intimidate everyone into shutting up. Per Bryan Alvarez... Apparently Vince thought that David Finlay would be tough enough to bullly the other side.So they hired a PR guy to coach David Finlay and Vince kept pushing the idea that Finlay is Vince-like in his Irish determination. Yeah, just threaten congress with Khali, that'll work.

from the torch/observer via unnamed sources I'm sure. Actually, a guy on the writing teem, who was there at the time, told the story of it in a lecture a year or so later after he left wwe.

I think the sopranos has way too many writing nominations. Surely genisis, five years gone (heroes) or the brig (lost) were more deserving than the second coming or made in America? The only good thing is that they might cancel each other out and lost or BSG will win.

I think Laurie will win best actor this time.

Thank God BSG finally got some credit. James Callis got screwed out of a best supporting actor nomination. Glad to see Emerson nominated though.

I do agree with that. I've seen tons of bad asian movies, but critics always give them fair reviews because they seem to think anything with subtitles has to be good. Maybe Chan's problem is that he's never been picky in his film choices (he has over 100 movies to his name, after all ) he's done every Hollywood project thrown his way. Then you have to factor in that he doesn't like swearing or anything that he thinks will set a bad example to kids in his movies, all you're going to be left with is these crappy family comedies that appeal to ten year olds and no one ese.

I thought Nancy's parents were still on good terms with the Benoits. Well, as good as you can be when their son has murdered your daughter and grandchild.

LATEST SPOILER NEWS ON WWE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TONIGHT by Mike Johnson @ 6:00:11 PM on 7/17/2007 The plan right now is that