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DrVenkman PhD

WWE General Discussion - September 2007

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So has Marcus Cor Von been put pretty much the entire summer? I've never seen the WWE let a guy get this much time off without writing him out of a storyline or a suspension.

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So has Marcus Cor Von been put pretty much the entire summer? I've never seen the WWE let a guy get this much time off without writing him out of a storyline or a suspension.

 

Well, he left pretty sudden and they never had a reason to explain his absence. When/If he returns, they'll probably just say he went back to the serengeti to elevate his intensity or something along those lines.

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Guest huss
Last time I went, I had a sign confiscated off of me after it was on TV. I went to an ECW/Smackdown taping and from the TitanTron view, it was on during ECW and I even saw it on the airing of Smackdown before it got taken away a few matches in. If anyone goes to ytmnd.com, I made a Brian Peppers sign. It had a picture of him and said "Brian Peppers, Google It".

 

Also, I made a sign that said "I Miss Kaite Vick" and it was totally on camera during the taping, but edited out of TV. I was sitting pretty close, so as Kane was climbing the turnbuckle, right above him, it said "I MISS KATIE VICK" and people in my section laughed. When I watched the show on TV, they edited it to a tight shot of his head.

 

I was at the same tapings you were at and can definitely remember seeing your signs. During the main event I had a sign with "Yawn" written on it, which could be seen during most of the match when Batista is present. I figured it would have been taken away at some point.

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A fan who was sitting on floor level at Unforgiven reported to Slam! that his two signs gotten taken away by WWE agents. The signs were "Beth Phoenix's Jaw Does HGH" and "WWE: Signature Pharmacy All-Stars!"

Well I hope WWE will stop bringing up the fans "freedom of speech".

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Good news, everyone!

 

The Great Khali's translator, Ranjin Singh, has informed WWE.com that the big man will exercise his rematch clause at No Mercy. It will be World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Khali in a Punjabi Prison Match.

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Its been confirmed on WWE.com that it will be Batista Vs Great Khali For the World Title in a Punjabi Prison Match at No Mercy.

 

I might be in the minority but the original Punjabi Prison Match was actually pretty entertaining to watch with interesting stipulations. this one could be pretty fun to see to. I'am kinda looking forward to it.

 

EDIT: Damn, someone esle beat me to it.

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Its been confirmed on WWE.com that it will be Batista Vs Great Khali For the World Title in a Punjabi Prison Match at No Mercy.

 

I might be in the minority but the original Punjabi Prison Match was actually pretty entertaining to watch with interesting stipulations. this one could be pretty fun to see to. I'am kinda looking forward to it.

 

EDIT: Damn, someone esle beat me to it.

 

Will the bait and switch us again? Where's BIG SHOW when you need him?

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Good news, everyone!

 

The Great Khali's translator, Ranjin Singh, has informed WWE.com that the big man will exercise his rematch clause at No Mercy. It will be World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Khali in a Punjabi Prison Match.

They'll be in the prison, but it'll be the people watching the match who'll be serving the sentence.

 

As this leaves Undertaker without an opponent, maybe they'll do something tonight in order to set up a rematch with Mark Henry.

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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. In the wake of the June murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and the scandal involving scads of WWE performers who ordered steroids and human growth hormone from the Internet gray-market dealer Signature Pharmacy, this is serious stuff.

 

It’s already clear that WWE’s response to the Signature revelations — generated by the district attorney in Albany, New York, and reported by Sports Illustrated and others — is a joke. Some vague number of the miscreant wrestlers, not named, were “suspended,” but the suspension appears to have consisted of simply being downgraded for a few weeks in TV storylines.

 

From the same evidence, Randy Orton was not touched at all. That is more than a little strange. Orton’s Signature Pharmacy order marked, at the very least, his second “strike” under WWE’s so-called wellness policy, which would have called for a 60-day (rather than a 30-day) suspension.

 

The suicide whispers mark the problem as more than a game of “gotcha” or even taste (Orton acquired the gimmick “Legend Killer” after WWE blithely turned Eddie Guerrero’s 2005 death into just another “angle”). It’s a matter of life and death. (Subsequent to the first publication of this item, readers have pointed out that the Orton actually began using the Legend Killer gimmick well before Eddie Guerrero died. It is both accurate and fair to note that the gimmick was applied with a special new level of tastelessness subsequent to Guerrero’s death.)

Orton, 27, is a third-generation wrestler. He is engaged to marry Samantha Speno, a part-time gymnastics teacher, this fall. Last year Randy and Samantha moved into a country-club estate in High Ridge, Missouri (suburban St. Louis), complete with a gym, a hot tub, and four decks.

 

Over to you, WWE.

 

Irvin Muchnick

 

http://muchnick.net/babylon/2007/09/18/did...ttempt-suicide/

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That article made absolutely no sense to me. It says Orton attempted suicide, but gives no details other than it was in the last 12 months. Then it spends the rest of the article calling the WWE bullshit. I have no idea what it was trying to accomplish, because it was obviously, trying to accomplish something dodgy as that was not pure journalism at all.

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Maybe this happened during the overseas trip when we went crazy in the hotel room? Just speculating....

 

This guy isnt the same Muschnick we all know from prior anti-WWE tirades. He makes a good point about Orton's suspensions. Because he may have tried to kill himself, he's getting treated a bit differently than most in the wake of all of the shit hitting the fan.

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Credit: http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=26626&p=1

 

On Wednesday night, September 12, Rob Van Dam joined hosts Brian Fritz and Vito DeNucci live on Between The Ropes on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team for an in depth discussion on the reasons for his departure from WWE, his feelings on the revived ECW, possibly working for TNA, and much more.

 

 

 

Rob started out the interview by saying his life is great and he wants "everyone to know I feel fine. Though it does suck getting written out with a concussion because I've always been out to prove I'm tougher than anybody else. That's why I do my style, because I'm tough enough to take it. So it sucks going out with an injury, but I wanted out so bad when they suggested it I said 'There's my exit, I'm out of here."

 

 

 

Next Rob confirmed that he left on good terms with the WWE. "There are a lot of things I'm interested in, but right now wrestling isn't one of them. If I was interested of course I would consider WWE."

 

 

 

Rob then discussed how the WWE's full time schedule "doesn't have any appeal to me right now. I hated the traveling for years and it got worse toward the end. The more burned out I got, and the less heart I had for it, the more challenging it got. I had pains in my chest when I had to leave my house." Rob also said that as soon as he got home he would start panicking as he started to count down the hours until the next time he had to board an airplane for a WWE event.

 

 

 

Rob admitted that he got to the point where he would have to talk himself onto getting on the plane. "If you're young, or really stoked to be there you can do it and put a smile on your face. But, if you start to lose a little bit of your passion for it, if it's not as much fun, or if it just becomes business for you…it makes it so much more challenging."

 

 

 

Rob then went into detail about the chaotic travel schedule he faces by living on the west coast. Rob noted that there are two nights a week that he doesn't sleep at all and that "when I told them that I was burned out and I needed time off it seemed like I was getting booked more…It got to be offensive to me when nobody was listening to me. I still don't think anybody knew I was leaving until the last day. I was telling them, I just don't think they were hearing it."

 

 

 

When asked how long he had been burned out Rob replied that during his career he has gone through a lot of cycles where he was burned out. "The first time I got burned out was before I left ECW. Up to that point my whole career was on a constant rise…there was a point when I was leaving ECW where I knew they were sinking, I knew the longer I stayed the more in debt they would be to me…I couldn't continue to keep going to work and not have the amount that was owed to me come back to me." Despite this Rob said he didn't want to come to WWE at the time and that he often questioned whether he should stay there.

 

 

 

Rob then noted a positive turning point when he "talked to Vince about that first ECW One Night Stand. Vince was listening to me and I got to be seen, at least for that one night, the way I want to be seen. I though 'Now I'm motivated.' Then after that it was back down hill. The next year it comes back around and this time we're talking about brining ECW back. I was super stoked and energized…Everyone was saying to me 'Rob, we could tell you were so happy out there' and I loved it. Then, with the return of ECW I started seeing the way it was going and that really started to frustrate me. When I talked to the office about that and saw that their vision for ECW was noting like my vision for it that was pretty much the last passion I had. It got stomped out and after that it was all pretty much downhill for me.

 

 

 

Asked if he regrets suggesting to Vince to bring back ECW, Rob said he doesn't and then gave two reasons why. First, Rob said that at the first ECW One Night Stand he actually got to speak what was on his mind for only the second time in WWE. Secondly, Rob described winning the title from John Cena at the second ECW One Night Stand as the highlight of his career and an irreplaceable moment.

 

 

 

Rob then went further into WWE's vision of what the new ECW should be. He said "it was never the office's plan to cater to the original ECW crowd, but rather to show this new ECW to a new crowd. That's what was said to me straight from the top. That was always the view and they never had any desire or any plans to make it anything goes. Even thought when it first came back they were like 'It's ECW, anything goes' when they started the regular TV show they were like, 'no, that was never the plan.'

 

 

 

"I've always felt that the reason (the original) ECW was so different was because it stood for 'anti-McMahon' as far as his ways, his ideas, and his business. I think that has a lot to do with why it was brought back and destroyed."

 

 

 

Asked if the WWE front office thought that they could convert old ECW fans into liking the new product by tapping into the old ECW wrestlers and venues Rob said "No, they didn't. I was told, from the man, 'Rob, for all I know those 2,500 fans at the Manhattan Ball Room are the last of the old ECW fans.' That's the kind of ego we're dealing with. I asked him why the crowd chants 'ECW' when they see something extreme?' and he replied 'because I spent the last five years training them to do that."

 

 

 

Talk then turned to Paul Heyman. Rob said "I don't think the higher ups respected him for the most part. I think they acknowledged that he accomplished something that bewildered them." Rob went on to say that the front office didn't really think that Heyman had achieved any measurable standard of success with the original ECW. Rob then credited Paul for the respect he gained from the wrestlers themselves even as he was bouncing checks to them at times.

 

 

 

On the topic of his title run, Rob said he did not really think it was possible until it actually happened. He described his run with the title as a fun time and said that it was one time where Vince was actually listening to him, at least early on. However, after a while nobody was listening to him anymore so he eventually stopped talking because it wasn't doing any good.

 

 

 

Asked about how he felt about dropping the titles after his run in with the police on marijuana charges Rob said he was sorry that the situation happened at that time, but he never got to a point where he felt he should issue a public apology. He said that his only major regret was that he had disappointed Vince and interfered with his plans for the business, but "everything happens for a reason."

 

 

 

As to his treatment after retuning from his marijuana suspension, Rob said that he was never disrespected, but the climb back up to the top of the card was long and frustrating. He then said "when I did get back up there they had the elimination chamber match, which to me was the first official death of the original ECW. When I got beat and Bobby Lashley was the new front guy for the promotion that's when my heart checked out.

 

 

 

On the possibility of going to TNA Rob said "it would definitely be worth considering, definitely as far as the schedule goes…If I was coming back I would look at everything. I would look at WWE and TNA and compare them, weighing the lighter schedule against prestige, exposure, and possibly money.

 

 

 

The interview concluded with Rob being asked what he has been doing since he finished with WWE. Rob said he has been working on a lot of projects which he can't speak about just yet. He then said he will come back on the show sometime in the next few weeks to announce and talk about these new projects.

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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

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WWE Fan Dies at Smackdown

 

ATLANTA -- A person attending a WWE wrestling event at Philips Arena on Tuesday fell from a walking ramp and died, police said.

 

The accident happened just before midnight.

 

Police said the victim had a ticket to the WWE “Smackdown” television taping that took place earlier in the evening.

 

Police did not release the person’s name.

 

Invstigators have ruled the fall an accident, and no charges will be filed.

http://www.cbs46.com/news/14147795/detail.html

 

The walking ramp was later found to have steroids in its system and severe concussion problems. Be sure to catch Nancy Grace tonight where she'll interview Marc Mero and hack wrestling journalist #23 about the tragedy.

 

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WWE Fan Dies at Smackdown

 

ATLANTA -- A person attending a WWE wrestling event at Philips Arena on Tuesday fell from a walking ramp and died, police said.

 

The accident happened just before midnight.

 

Police said the victim had a ticket to the WWE “Smackdown” television taping that took place earlier in the evening.

 

Police did not release the person’s name.

 

Invstigators have ruled the fall an accident, and no charges will be filed.

http://www.cbs46.com/news/14147795/detail.html

 

The walking ramp was later found to have steroids in its system and severe concussion problems. Be sure to catch Nancy Grace tonight where she'll interview Marc Mero and hack wrestling journalist #23 about the tragedy.

and this is the post of the day.

 

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