July 2007 News Archive (Page 5)

The following is taken from The Times and Democract...

The talk has been all about Chris Benoit and steroids.

In the weeks since the former WWE superstar turned murderer killed his wife and son before killing himself, wrestling has been under a microscope. And, while so much of the focus has been on steroid use, at least one of the industry’s top stars, TNA heavyweight champion Kurt Angle, thinks it’s time the companies started listening to their workers.

“Well, I think the one thing WWE and TNA needs to do is step back and take a look and listen to the wrestlers,” Angle said after appearing at an autograph signing before a CWA show in Columbia Thursday afternoon.

“This is not WWE’s fault and this is not Vince McMahon’s fault. Chris Benoit was responsible for his own actions.”

“Chris chose his own career,” Angle continued. “He chose to stick with the WWE when I am sure he could have went anywhere else, whether it be in Japan or TNA. But, Chris stuck to go with the grind.”

Since the Benoit fiasco, former wrestlers have turned up on news programs in droves to discuss the issue. There has been speculation that the industry is riddled with steroid abusers and that reform is imminent.

Angle, who won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics, has had his share of problems. He parted ways with WWE in August of 2006 after a dispute with the company. He claims he left on his own accord, but WWE claimed Angle was violating its “Wellness Policy.” He has stated he was addicted to Vicodin and could have easily been one of the ever-growing number of wrestlers to die at a young age.

“TNA, it's good,” he said. “I chose to quit WWE. Vince McMahon wanted me to go full time, and we were butting heads. I felt I put in enough time and all the effort I could to wrestle 250 or 300 days per year, and I felt like I couldn’t do that any longer. Vince, on the other hand, with the amount of money (I was the highest paid individual last year) said I should go full-time.”

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MVP comes to the ring and joins JBL and Cole. Matt Hardy is out next to face Chris Masters. Hardy won the match with a twist of fate. After the match. MVP distracted Matt and Masters applied the Master Lock. As Hardy tried to break it, MVP jumped in the ring and beat him down. Masters and MVP leave after MVP hits his finishing move Hardy.

Finlay vs. Jimmy Wang Yang is next: Finlay wins the match and afterwards Little Bastard runs in. Finlay throws Bastard over Jimmy Yang and the two leave.

A Kane video package for the Great American Bash is shown.

Chavo Guerrero and Jamie Knoble vs. The Major Brothers is next. Chavo got good pop while The Major Brothers didn't receive much of anything. Major Brothers win with a missile dropkick on Chavo.

Vickie Guereero is backstage with The Great Khali's translator. Khali's translator backs him up and she is cornered into a locker-room.

Back from commercial as they are setting up for a contract signing, Khali beats up a random guy (indy wrestler) over a disagreement on the chairs that will be setup for the signing. He says he needs a bigger chair, etc.

A Rey Mysterio return video package is shown. Big pop.

Edge cuts a backstage promo and turns around to face the TV and Kane's face appears. When he turns around a second time, Kane's face is gone from the screen.

Teddy Long comes out for the contract signing and brings out Batista to a huge pop. Khali comes out next. Batista signs quickly, which is followed by Khali's translator going on a rant about how when Khali issues and open challenge he doesn't expect an 'Animal' to accept. Khali speaks some jibberish before being slapped by Batista. Khali tries to attack but the translator holds him back. Khali on the outside of the ring throws the ring steps inside. Batista throws them back outside before taking a table and tossing that, too.

A Local Jobber vs. Chuck Palumbo is up next. The jobber gets in one kick and is totally dominated. Palumbo did his motorcycle gimmick and surprisingly got a big pop.

Cherry, Deuce, & Domino are backstage. Eugene comes up and says he wants to ride in their car. They tell him that he can have one as long as he defeats Domino's opponent tonight without naming him. It's Eugene vs. Mark Henry. Eugene still has the green paint on his boots. Henry wins with a big hug. They all taunted Eugene and left.

Backstage segment with Torrie Wilson and Victoria. Victoria she's says the most dominate WWE Diva on SmackDown!. It's Torrie vs. Victoria in a few.

Torrie Wilson defeated Victoria by count out. Outside the ring as the two fight, Torrie snakes in before a 10 count.

Edge throws a Mardi Graas parage. He brings out lots of cartoon characters like you'd see in a New Orleans parade. They throw out beads, etc. Edge spots a King & Queen and brings them into the ring. Edge spears the Queen. The King winds up being Kane and he tears the place apart. Kane's pyro hits and the show ends.

Celebrity gossip site TMZ says it has uncovered the next possible drug scandal that could lay the smackdown on the wrestling world, known as "Soma Coma" - the abuse of the powerful muscle relaxer.

In an exclusive interview, former WWE Diva Terri Runnels tells TMZ, "The boys eat Somas like candy."

While the Chris Benoit tragedy has everyone buzzing about steroids, Runnels says wrestlers have been getting high on Soma for years. "I've personally seen a WWE Superstar nearly die right in front of me after taking 13 Somas ... while still behind the wheel of his car!"

Runnels was previously married to WWE wrestler Golddust, and says that "if the wrestlers' addictions and mental health issues continue to be ignored, I'm afraid that I'll have more friends turning up dead - all because no one cares."

In an exclusive statement to TMZ, the WWE vigorously defended their drug testing policies, claiming the organization does everything in its power to ensure that their wrestlers are clean:

WWE finds the abuse of drugs and steroids to be unacceptable, and such behavior is actively discouraged. For 20 years the WWE has been doing something to address the issue of steroid and drug use. We instituted our first drug testing program in 1987. In February 2006, we instituted our latest and most comprehensive drug testing program ever as part of our new Talent Wellness Program as a deterrent to steroid and drug abuse.

We cannot account for the poor personal decisions a small minority may make outside the workplace to undermine these efforts.

As of this last night, here is the updated and scheduled card for TNA Victory Road this Sunday, July 15, live and only on Pay Per View from Orlando, Florida:

"The Match of Champions"
- TNA World Champion Kurt Angle & TNA X Division Champion Samoa Joe vs. TNA World Tag Team Champions Team 3D.

10 Man Ultimate X Match
- Confirmed names: Jay "Black Machismo" Lethal, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, Sonjay Dutt, Kaz, Shark Boy, Elix Skipper, Puma and two more names to be determined on Saturday.

- Christian Cage vs. Chris Harris.

- Sting & Abyss vs. AJ Styles & Tomko.

- Rhino vs. James Storm.

- Eric Young & Gail Kim vs. Robert Roode & Ms. Brooks.

- Jerry Lynn & Bob Backlund vs. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley.

• Ric Flair missed this week’s SmackDown taping because of an ear problem. According to reports, it’s a chronic problem that he’s been dealing with for years and was serious enough to keep him off of TV this week.

• The new ECW theme song is “This is the New Sh**” off of Marilyn Manson’s 2003 album, Golden Age of Grotesque.

Ken Kennedy posted the following message on his official site:

Please GOD, I'm just BEGGING for someone who has actually wrestled in a WWE ring in the past decade besides Jericho, Bret Hart, John Cena, and Ted Dibiase to come forward on one of these shows and tell the world what's really going on. For these goofs, like Lanny Poffo? Ultimate Warrior? and Marc Mero???!! to repeatedly act as "experts" and "wrestler advocates" on the current situation is like having a frustrated ex-jock who rode the pine bench throughout his high school sports career give advice to Brett Favre on how to improve his game!

It's ridiculous, insane, and it really makes me sick that these so called reporters like Bill O'Reilly, Nancy Grace, and Geraldo Rivera, call upon these silly bastards who are bitter and frustrated that their careers have ended to represent the WWE which of course makes all of us look like a bunch of babbling idiots who are all addicted to steroids, drugs, alcohol, etc.

THINGS ARE MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THEY WERE FIVE OR TEN OR TWENTY YEARS AGO! Most of the "expert", frustrated ex-wrestlers that they've had on the show came from an era where everyone wrestled every day and then went out and partied like rock stars until dawn, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, smoking cigarettes and marijuana, snorting cocaine, taking fistfuls of pills, and injecting massive amounts of steroids. They would take pills to go to sleep, snort coke or take speed to get up and do this day after day after day!

This would not be even remotely tolerated in today's environment. We have a strict drug policy in place. The WWE's wellness program was designed and instituted by the same doctor who implemented the NFL and the NBA's substance abuse programs. Contrary to what somebody recently said on one of these "tabloid" shows the WWE's allowed levels are exactly the same as the NFL. (Someone, I can't recall exactly who said it, said that the WWE allowed a 10:1 Testosterone to Epitestosterone level, which is false. We have a 4:1 level exactly like the NFL and the NBA.) In fact, I knew of someone who took an over the counter supplement from GNC which he didn't know was on the banned list, which caused him to have an elevated testosterone level.

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The 7/10 edition of ECW on Sci Fi drew a final 1.4 cable rating. This is up from last week's 1.2 rating, which is the lowest rating ECW had ever drawn on Sci Fi since its debut on the network last summer.

A FOX 5 Atlanta report identified a number of wrestlers as patients of Dr. Astin, who served as the physician of the late Chris Benoit.

Buff Bagwell, Lex Luger and Bob Holly were apparently among the patients of Dr. Astin. Mark Jindrak, Johnny Grunge, Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio, Jr. had already been identified as such.

The wrestlers were identified as patients in the medical records seized by federal investigators.

The following is taken from Matt Hardy's most recent MySpace blog...

The first thing I want to mention is how disappointed I am with a majority of the media's coverage of the recent events. There was a terrible tragedy that happened and now the media wants to points the finger of responsibility at our industry. So many people are looking for someone else to take the blame--in a constant attempt to garner ratings on the "hot" story. If it turns out what is currently speculated is what actually happened to Chris Benoit and his family, only one person was ultimately responsible--that being Chris himself. I would suggest it was because Chris Benoit had a mental dysfunction, some sort of mental illness or disease.

Any form of life, in any occupation, can eventually reach a point where they became mentally ill because they let their personal and professional issues overtake their sanity. Whatever walk of life you come from, you have to be able to know within yourself when you need help. If you continue to go without help or change when you desperately need it, you'll eventually snap. It's happened to postal workers, factory workers, school kids, people from all walks of life--this time it just happened to be a professional wrestler.

Some of the media have made ridiculous statements and created so many absurd scenarios. Such things as Chris Benoit was demoted by going from "The Four Horsemen to Raw"--and that Nancy Benoit and Sherri Martel passed away on the same day, and were their deaths somehow tied together? Within the WWE we exaggerate stories and have over the top characters--but we admit we're entertainment. It's so irresponsible for some of the media to state such sensationalized stories and give incorrect information--they claim to be reporting factual events to the public.

It's also very odd that so many older wrestlers that haven't been in our locker room in years, some decades--seem to think they're informed of the current habits of today's talent. If they're legitimately trying to make a difference, I can respect and applaud that. But if their motive is to get that fifteen minutes of fame and get their name circulating again, that's not very cool. Regardless of their motivation, they don't know the activities of our generation, the newer generation. The talent has changed. Our generation is so much more responsible and cognizant of their lifestyles and health compared to the generations before.

Does that mean everyone's perfect? Absolutely not. But the talent is so much more disciplined and responsible than the talent from years past. The demographic that the media always speaks about "dying young" is yesterday's generation, not today's. Those numbers will dwindle down in the years to come--I guarantee it.

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Now that Viscera has been drafted by ECW, the giant has undergone a makeover.

He's now known as "Big Daddy V" and is sporting the following look:

Check out more pics of Big Daddy V at WWE.com.