All Benoit Discussion In Here

Vince135792003

Jerry McDevitt, head attorney for Vince McMahon and general legal enforcer for the WWE for a long, long time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32EP-TPoagw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afLXFbMMsi8

Fozzy

Well, that speculating report earlier saying MJ and OG might be Jindrak and Mysterio seems to have been confirmed here: http://www.tmz.com/2007/07/05/wrestlers-named-in-doc-charges-named/

TMZ.com is basically a gossip site, but they've been reporting the same stuff as everywhere else and sometimes a little sooner with this case

Just a few more notes, the Wrestling Observer reported that Chris and Nancy had separated recently and Chris was living in an apartment nearby. Nancy had had neck surgery recently too, done by the same doctor who's done all the WWE guys who've had neck surgery

miju

that linky is gone now. maybe WWE threatened legal action????

Fozzy

Maybe...or maybe they had just got their info from the sites that were speculating a few days ago and decided they didn't actually have any evidence. The story said that when they contacted WWE they wouldn't comment on the news

Figure 4 have reported that TMZ sent out an e-mail saying that the story had been "recalled"

Fozzy

The investigators are saying that there is no truth to the story that Nancy left a note in a safe deposit box saying something like "if anything happens to me Chris did it". I think Meltzer reported that her friends had said that she said that

Vince135792003

A great article by a journalist named Jason Whitlock:

Exploited Pro wrestlers deserve our sympathy, too
By JASON WHITLOCK


Believe it or not, pro wrestlers are human beings, too. I swear.

I thought this simple fact was worth mentioning in light of two things: 1. the murder(s)-suicide tragedy involving WWE star Chris Benoit, his wife and 7-year-old child; 2. the sympathy-reparations campaign being staged by old NFL players.

We can argue all day about whether pro wrestling should be taken seriously in the sports world. What is inarguable is that Americans are entertained watching oversized men behave violently in groups, and the NFL and all the other professional sports leagues — just like the WWE — are nothing more than television shows.

I say all of this because I have far more empathy for Chris Benoit and professional wrestlers than I do for other athletes who risk their physical and mental well-being for our amusement.

No one weeps for the wrestler who dies way too young or lives as a cripple, addicted to painkillers by age 45. No one cares about their exploitation. It’s like the men who entertained many of us during our childhood are somehow magically categorized as nonhuman because they participate in a “sports event” with a predetermined outcome.

I’ve often argued that pro wrestling would be legitimized if Vince McMahon hired skating judges to rate the performances at the end of the match. Maybe, with that teeny bit of legitimacy, we would then see wrestlers as human beings and Congress would hold steroids hearings on pro wrestling.

Obviously what Chris Benoit did was a horrible deed. I don’t want to in any way excuse the depravity of his actions. But since he already punished himself, shouldn’t we try to make something positive out of this tragedy?

Shouldn’t we use this as an excuse to force reform on pro wrestling? Shouldn’t the performance-enhancing drug crisis/discussion include wrassling?

These guys don’t start out as cartoon characters. Many of them start out as amateur wrestlers in high school and college. Long before he entered Vince McMahon’s world, Kurt Angle was an all-American golden boy, an Olympic hero.

Don’t these men deserve some protection?

I’ve watched in amazement as retired NFL players have orchestrated a beautiful public-relations campaign vilifying union president Gene Upshaw because he has little interest in forcing the current players to sacrifice more of their revenue to benefit retired players.

We all feel sorry for old, beat-up NFL stars and believe they should be allowed to rework their pension benefits for a fourth time and make it easier for them to qualify for disability benefits.

Rather than demonizing Upshaw, they should be thankful they have a strong union, especially a guy like Mike Ditka who did little to support the union when he was a player.

Pro wrestlers have virtually no rights. They certainly don’t have a union. They work year round, crisscrossing the globe and abusing their bodies for our enjoyment. Performance-enhancing drugs, painkillers and recreational drugs are all abused. They suffer depression. Their unpadded “sport” is far more physical and damaging than football.

No one cares.

This is foolish. Many young children are just as influenced by pro wrestlers as football and baseball stars. The drugged-up, overmuscled wrestler helps define manliness to a child, possibly more so than Barry Bonds’ and Mark McGwire’s home runs.

I just want some consistency. Do we really care about steroids? Do we really care about athletes getting exploited?

OK, it’s incumbent on the athletes to care first. But the handful of people controlling professional wrestling have so much power and the high-paid wrestlers are so easily replaced that we’re unlikely to hear much organized dissent from within the industry.

Those of us in the media should care enough to complain loudly. We’re the watchdogs. We’re the voice of the voiceless. We don’t have to respect the “sport” to appreciate the humanity of the performers.

Vince135792003

Videos of Marc Mero and Steve Blackman on Nancy Grace. They have been like a tag team, they have been on so many shows together. Well I think the team got split up here in this video and then re-united at the end!

Seriously though, I commend Mero for being so passionate about the subject and I agree with alot of his points. This is must see and its a really good discussion between 2 intelligent guys.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQleKcJZNys part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDqfVrQu6DI part 2


Kevin Nash on FOX. Another very interesting interview in the sense that Nash really attacks how the media are portraying it as just a steroid issue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Nfr3KrMlM&NR=1

Ph3n0m

wow - screw his passion - his honesty was completely refreshing


admitting how long and when he took steroids, about his health and also getting Blackman to admit he took them too - class

Fozzy

Vince135792003 wrote:

Videos of Marc Mero and Steve Blackman on Nancy Grace.

I read a report on this on PWTorch this morning, sounds like an eventful interview

Fozzy

There's an article here saying that the National Enquirer magazine has reconstructed the story of what went on in the Benoit house over that weekend. They're reporting it as the "real" story. It seems to me as if they've just got what has been reported (the bibles, the texts, the drink) and made up a story to fill in the gaps

RebelRockChick

Just some stuff from rajah;

This week Chris Benoit and his family are featured on the cover of People Magazine. New details have been revealed regarding the troubled wrestler's final days in the July 16th issue, now available at newsstands.

- Several wrestlers were interviewed in the featured article, including Brad Armstrong, Marc Mero, Rick Steiner, Dean Malenko and more.

- Up until his death, Chris Benoit would travel over 40 miles to visit Dr. Phil Astin, his personal physician. Astin has since been indicted by the federal government for prescribing excessive quantities of steroids and other drugs to multiple patients.

- When Chris Benoit took a 4 month vacation from WWE last year, it was to be with his wife Nancy while she recovered from surgery. The article said Nancy requested Chris take the time off.

- The Benoit family had “a big house, and an entire room was devoted to crafts and making things” .

- The death of his close friend Eddie Guererro affected Benoit deeply. He was described as being a "broken man" after we lost Eddie.

- Close friend and former wrestler Dean Malenko said what many others have following the tragedy - “He wasn’t a monster”.

Fozzy

Dave Meltzer himself was questioned by police because of the Wikipedia guy saying he had reported the news

RebelRockChick

-- The Long Island Press recently interviewed Mick Foley. Regarding the Benoit family tragedy, Foley said, "Everybody's looking for easy answers, and there are no easy answers." He also added, "If somebody's burnt out [in WWE], they ask for time off. That's what Chris had done in the past, and what I've done in the past. There's no question that working on the road full-time with WWE is a difficult lifestyle. But to try to even insinuate that a rough job can result in a double murder-suicide is really a stretch for me. The only person responsible at all is Chris. I think to try to hold his employer or his job as responsible at all for his actions is wrong." You can read the article at this link

fatal

This is a very good article written by Dan Wahlers posted on wrestlingobserver.com about steroids in pro wrestling.Its worth a read

Dan Wahlers looks at the steroid issue in pro wrestling

The Steroid Issue

njguy316@yahoo.com

I’ve had more than a week to digest everything that
happened last week with Chris Benoit, and the double
murder/suicide of himself, his wife Nancy, and son
Daniel. There has been so much written and spoken
about the topic, it’s really been very overwhelming.
Due partly to an illness, but also because I wanted to
get away from the 24/7 Benoit coverage, I took a five
day break from the internet towards the end of last
week, into early this week. I came back with a better
perspective on what happened.

Today, I am going to focus on the steroids issue that
has once again come to the forefront of all discussion
about the wrestling business. I’m not going to get
into the Benoit case specifically. That will be saved
for another day, or maybe never. Today, I have some
things I want to say, especially to some people
associated with the wrestling business that have
recently written columns on this site. I might ruffle
a few feathers with this, and quite frankly, I hope I
do. These two people in particular need to be held
accountable for their shameful comments.

But first, some background on what’s been said and
done recently. Steroids are most definitely not the
main reason Benoit did what he did. They are,
however, almost certainly a contributing factor. One
of many contributing factors. The media has jumped on
the steroid issue, as they always do. Some of the
coverage has been inaccurate, and downright
embarrassing. The names Nancy Grace and Geraldo
Rivera come immediately to mind. It unquestionably
wasn’t surprising coming from Geraldo, a man not known
for his journalistic integrity.

The coverage of this story in the media has been
questionable at best. What you have was overzealous
reporters looking to make steroids the sole reason for
why Benoit did what he did, you had these former
wrestlers coming out of the woodwork, basically anyone
they could get a phone number on. Some like Bret
Hart, Joe Laurinaitis, and Chris Jericho were eloquent
speakers, that got their points across well, and made
good accountings of themselves. Then you had people
like Joanie "Chyna" Laurer, and Brian Christopher.
I’m going to listen to lectures about steroid use, and
drug use from those two, given their past drug issues?
Give me a break.

Then you had the typical knee jerk, circle the wagons
response from WWE, and people associated with the
company. It made the media look bad, but it made WWE
look even worse. It made it look like they were once
again burying their head in the sand about a very
serious topic. They couldn’t get those press releases
out fast enough saying that steroids had nothing to do
with what happened.

And one of the points that they keep bringing up time
after time is this Drug and Wellness policy that they
enacted in 2006 after the death of Eddie Guerrero. I
was one of the people at the time that said we should
be patient, and give WWE a chance, that maybe they
were serious this time. I got lambasted at the time
for believing that, and as it turns out, those people
that criticized me were right.

So let’s get one thing cleared up right now, the WWE
Drug and Wellness Policy is a sham. It’s a joke.
It’s a policy that they have on paper, so they can
trot it out when something like this happens, but it
doesn’t have a lot of substance to it. It hasn’t done
anything to change the way the company runs its
business. Just look at the wrestlers they are pushing
right now.

The policy is a sham because it’s very easy to get
around. If a wrestler has a prescription from a
doctor for some sort of injury, or medical related
issue, then taking steroids is ok. That’s to assume
that all doctors are on the up and up, which we know
they are not. These wrestlers know which doctors to
go to, they know which ones will give them a
prescription for anything under the sun, no questions
asked. There are these mail-in companies that
wrestlers can obtain HGH, horse steroids, and
everything else from. It’s a huge scandal going on
right now that is about to blow up in everyone’s face.

WWE can say that they don’t encourage steroid use all
they want. Maybe there is nobody standing there
saying "You better take this stuff, or you’re fired."
But they don’t have to say it. It’s all over their
booking, and who they choose to push, and who they
choose not to push. Look at some of the top wrestlers
currently being pushed in the company:

John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Randy Orton, King Booker,
Mr. Kennedy, Batista, Edge, Johnny Nitro. How many of
them do you think are currently taking some sort of
performance enhancing drugs? Not all, but there is only so much
you can do with the human body, given the schedule
these wrestlers keep, and the ages of some of them.

The point is WWE encourages these guys to get bigger,
because the wrestlers know that the bigger you are,
the better chance you have of getting a push. Bigger
push, more money. It’s all a vicious circle, and WWE
does nothing to stop it with the way they conduct
their business. Look at what happened to Chris
Masters last year. He went to rehab for painkiller
issues, and came out noticeably smaller and less blown
up than he was before he left. He still looked good,
he just didn’t have the bloated up, ‘roid look
anymore. You know what happened? He was ridiculed on
the air several times for his loss of physique, and
was subsequently buried in television matches.

Reports started circulating in the Observer and other
publications that Vince was done with Masters, and
close to getting rid of him. All of a sudden, Masters
ballooned back up, and his reward? A somewhat renewed
push on television, though nowhere near the level he
was being pushed at before he left for rehab. What
the hell kind of message did that send? "Don’t take
steroids *wink wink*, but we only push guys that are
jacked up." So WWE can talk about being serious about
curtailing steroid use all they want, their actions
tell a completely different story.

If they were truly serious about eliminating steroid
use, they would close the loopholes in the policy,
where you can still take steroids with a valid
doctor’s prescription. They would get their standards
in line with the World Doping Agency, as far as
testosterone ratio. They would get their standards in
life with the National Football League and Major
League Baseball. You violate the policy in one of
those leagues, you are suspended period. None of this
bull**** where you are suspended from house shows, but
still work TV’s and PPV’s, or whatever other
nonsensical rules WWE has created this week. Vince
McMahon creates and changes rules to suit his
particular needs at the time.

You have people like former WWE television writer Pete
Doyle saying in his article posted on this site on
Tuesday that the media is too focused on steroids in
relation to the Benoit case, too focused on him being
a wrestler, that the whole thing is a witch hunt. Mr.
Doyle even mentions that steroids are prevalent in
every other sport, which somehow justifies everything
WWE does. I haven’t figured out if Pete just has his
head buried in the sands of ignorance, or whether he’s
trying to kiss Vince McMahon and WWE’s ass. Seems
like a little of both to me. In any event, some of
the comments in his article from the other day were
downright absurd.

Steroid use is prevalent in a lot of other sports,
that’s a fact. Football and baseball addressed the
problem with a comprehensive, in-depth policy that is
pretty clear cut. It took baseball a long time to
wake up, but they finally succumbed to the intense
media and fan pressure. In relation to the attention
that WWE and wrestling has gotten over steroids, it’s
nothing compared to the media scrutiny Major League
Baseball is under over the same issue. But it’s the
"big, bad" media picking on wrestling like they always
do.

I don’t know, maybe that has something to do with the
fact that an inordinate number of professional
wrestlers have dropped dead over the past 10 years as
a result of steroid and drug use linked to the
wrestling industry. The names are well known to
everyone. Eddie Guerrero, Curt Hennig, Davey Boy
Smith, Rick Rude, Big Bossman, Hercules Hernandez, Bam
Bam Bigelow, Mike Awesome, Road Warrior Hawk, Terry
Gordy, Crash Holly, Louie Spiccoli, Miss Elizabeth,
and Brian Pillman just to name a select few. Sadly,
that’s just the beginning of the list. It goes on and
on, and every year some more names are added to the
list.

In no other sport do you see such a staggering death
rate. Not even close. So bringing up what goes on in
other sports, sports that have addressed the situation
in a real and honest way, is the proverbial red
herring. It’s the topic thrown out there to distract
from the real issue at hand.

It’s obvious that Mr. Doyle was trained well during
his time in WWE. The points he brought up are the
same ones regurgitated by Vince McMahon, and anyone
associated with the company every time the steroids
issue is raised. It would be comical if it weren’t so
damn sad. How many more wrestlers have to die before
these people wake the **** up? I can’t state it
anymore clearly than that.

The media is correct in bringing up the steroids
issue, because nobody in their right mind would look
at the number of wrestling deaths over the period of
the last ten years, and not think there was something
wrong with that. When a wrestler kills his family,
and then hangs himself, and they find a huge stash of
steroids in the house, there is something wrong with
that. That’s not to say that steroids explain why
Benoit snapped like he did, and as I said, I will get
into my thoughts on that another day. But the
steroids issue is one that needs to be brought up. It
needs to be discussed. How can you say the media is
wrong for bringing the issue up when so many people
are dying? I don’t get that at all.

The people that try to explain it away are the people
that have had their minds brainwashed by the McMahon
machine. Accept no responsibility for anything at
all, the media is out to get you, and protect the
company at all costs no matter what. That’s the way
these people think. It apparently stretches to people
that don’t even have anything to do with WWE.

You have a wrestling veteran like Shannon Rose
embarrassing himself by shamelessly sticking up for
Vince McMahon, and putting the blame on the media.
It’s really pathetic. Rose said in his debut column
on this site the other day that WWE has cleaned up
it’s act with drug testing because they have to. Talk
about someone with their head buried in the sand,
and/or buried up Vince’s ass. If Vince McMahon says
it, then I guess it must be true, right? Nevermind
the huge loopholes they have in their drug policy,
which apparently allowed someone like Chris Benoit to
"pass" the test a few months ago.

Nevermind that WWE continued to push Bobby Lashley, who was the
centerpiece of this past Monday’s episode of Raw. The
week after the Benoit tragedy, and with all the media
scrutiny swirling around the company right now, they
make perhaps the most muscular wrestler on the roster
the star of the show. Does anyone else see how
unbelievably backwards and messed up that is? I know
Shannon Rose and Pete Doyle don’t see it. All they
see is "people attacking the business I work in…bad
media…must defend…must defend!!" Just like a couple
of robots with no brains of their own.

Rose ends his column with this: "Vince McMahon has
taken hits before from the Steroid Trial, to Owen
Hart, and he has come back better than ever. This
maybe a much stronger bump to him but wrestling will
continue on. This will bring the wrestlers closer
together. We are like a family."

You guys are like a family alright, a family whose
members are dying at a rate higher than any other form
of sports or entertainment. The number one wrestling
promotion has a drug policy with more holes in it than
a piece of Swiss cheese. But that’s all ok I guess,
as long as Vince McMahon comes back better than ever,
and the wrestling business continues on. That’s what
it’s all about in the end, isn’t it? Protecting the
wrestling business.

Well guess what folks, the marks are people that are
associated with the wrestling business, and will
defend it from now until the end of time, no matter
what happens. No matter how many people die, now
matter how many people recognize that there is a
steroid problem in WWE that hasn’t even begun to be
addressed properly. But because Vince McMahon himself
says that everything is under control, that makes it
the gospel truth, as if passed down from the Lord
Almighty himself. It’s a pathetic commentary on the
wrestling business, let me tell you.

Before I go, I want to thank everyone that wrote in
after my column on the Benoit family tragedy last
week. I tried to reply to as many as you as possible,
but I apologize to the people that I didn’t have a
chance to get back to. With an illness that I
suffered towards the end of the week, I didn’t have
the time or energy to devote to writing literally
hundreds of e-mails. But I want everyone to know that
I appreciated all of your comments, even the people
that didn’t like what I had to say.

Unfortunately, some people were not ready to come to
terms, and accept what had happened, and I understand
that completely. My column was the first opinion
piece to appear on this site about the Benoit tragedy,
and I realize that some people weren’t ready for the
finality and harshness of my words. It was the
hardest thing I’ve had to write in my life. It was
describing the indescribable. I put all of my genuine
feelings and emotion into every word. Regardless of
whether you liked it, or didn’t like it, I humbly
thank you for your words in response. I look forward
to the day when we can get back to talking about
wrestling again.

Until next time, take care and be well.

You can send feedback to: njguy316@yahoo.com

Dan Wahlers

Fozzy

Nancy's family have set up The Nancy and Daniel Benoit Foundation for Battered Women and Abused Children

An interesting article here speaking about why Benoit shouldn't be taken out of the WON Hall of Fame

Mossy Monk

Linky no worky.

Fozzy

Oopsy daisy. http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/headlines/default.asp?aID=20094

Mr.Nice Guy

I strongly disagree with that article. Chris Benoit's work in the ring was unparalleled but he tainted his legacy beyond repair with what he did outside the ring. To try and claim that it shouldn't impinge on his in-ring career is pretty desperate.

It's like saying Gary Glitter fans should judge him for his music alone and they should ignore the fact that he's abused young children. I don't think many people would hold such a view.

Benoit's body of work is forever tainted. That's the grim reality. I suspect future fans will search it out due to some morbid fascination but they won't be able to emotionally connect with his work. Why? Because the guy turned out to be a monster.

Murderers shouldn't be honoured or glorified. He doesn't belong in any Hall of Fame and I'm certain he'll never make WWE's one anyway.

Double C

Just saw this clip of Kevin Nash on Fox, with that ridiculous woman Hannity. Fair play to Nash here, he puts her in her place at the end. Click here

fatal

Double C wrote:

Just saw this clip of Kevin Nash on Fox, with that ridiculous woman Hannity. Fair play to Nash here, he puts her in her place at the end. Click here

haha good point by nash there at the end

Fozzy

She didn't seem to expect that Nash would say that wrestling isn't a sport. He came off a lot better by staying calm than a guy like Warrior would have in that situation

Watching that video though, it just kind of dawned on me exactly how silly the steroid debate is when it comes to linking Benoit's death to all these other wrestler's deaths. Steroids could well be a major factor in the many wrestlers who have died from heart attacks, but that's not what Chris actually died from. Steroids could have been some sort of a factor in Chris's death, but linking him to all these other wrestlers just doesn't make sense to me

Mossy Monk

Brainless tart.

Vince135792003

Fozzy wrote:

linking him to all these other wrestlers just doesn't make sense to me

The sense is that it took a 7 year old boy and his mam to be murdered for the general American media to care (at least for 2 weeks) about the horrible death rate in wrestling.


Is there a direct link? We'll never know as the people who have the answers are dead. But if the media put the pressure on the wrestling industry to clean or improve some way, its a good thing. I'm not holding breath on that 1.

Some more news from the observer site:
Florida representative Clifford Stearns, a Republican from Ocala, FL, spoke today about a potential investigation into the drug issues in pro wrestling stemming from the double murder/suicide of Chris Benoit, wife Nancy and son Daniel.

This will be a major topic on all of the prime time news channel talk shows tonight.

D-FENS

Just thought i'd point out that although WWE have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from Chris Benoit by deactivating his name in their search option, he is still quite visible in the Alumni section under Chris Jericho'r profile - in the section listing some Y2J video's, Benoit can be seen in the photo's that accompany the links to them - shaking hands with Jericho after a match, laughing with him on the night Y2J was GM of Raw and on the Highlight reel that featured all competitors of the 2005 Money in the Bank match.Although it's worth pointing out that you can only see him in the latter of these actual videos, as when you go into the one of Y2J being GM it just shows the Diva limbo contest and Benoit in not in it and for the one of the match between the two the link brings you back to the WWE home page, but he is ever present in the Highlight reel one.

Vince135792003

Nancy Grace with Bryan Alvarez, Marc Mero, Konnan and more......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG6l3dWODss

kronsington

hope these have not been posted already.. jericho and cena on larry king

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaMrt1e0wDQ part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKOvBq8uZEc part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3sGJ3ppbVY part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bYvC_BPyjU 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5nb3_Bv1tE 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTFQXjZVmcs 6

lostexpectation

I knew him for 15 years he'd be the last person to do this

so they didn't know about his spousal abuse???

c'mon?

Fozzy

D-FENS wrote:

Just thought i'd point out that although WWE have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from Chris Benoit by deactivating his name in their search option

I read that on one of the Great American Bash ads in America they still have Benoit's voiceover on it. I guess it's hard to remove absolutely every appearance of him, especially when the company seems to be busy enough as it is

D-FENS

Fozzy wrote:

I guess it's hard to remove absolutely every appearance of him, especially when the company seems to be busy enough as it is

Very true, i'd say damn near impossible given the amount of wwe matches he's been in and the amount of different guys he's crossed paths with in that time. And if they have any future plans for DVD releases of the likes of Jericho or Angle (Might seem unlikely at the moment), they'll be watering down the content somewhat by removing matches they had with him, no to mention any complilations of past PPV's that he featured so much in

Ph3n0m

And unfortunately that is a bad thing - the guy got passable matches out of Billy Gunn and A-Train.

Benoit, as a wrestler got the absolute best out of people - especially the likes of Angle, HHH, Jericho, Malenko, etc. He made whoever he was facing look good - to me that is without question.

I wonder if someone like Phil Spector is found guilty at his trial - will everything he was ever involved in be pulled from the shelves? Somehow I doubt it - but then again the WWE is a money making machine, that relies on "good publicity"

ShawnRaven

Ph3n0m wrote:

I wonder if someone like Phil Spector is found guilty at his trial - will everything he was ever involved in be pulled from the shelves? Somehow I doubt it - but then again the WWE is a money making machine, that relies on "good publicity"

Yeah i was saying that to a friend of mine who was devistated at the Benoit news, Spector produced a ton of songs still played on radio today. Unchained Melody, Proud Mary, Imagine, My Sweet Lord, Jealous Guy, River-deep Mountain-High.

I don't see radios refusing to play these, TV stations like VH1 classic or BBC refusing to play their videos, or record stores refusing to sell any albums with those songs on it just because the producer murdered a club hostess. The situation is different but the principle is still the same.

VR!

fatal

lostexpectation wrote:

I knew him for 15 years he'd be the last person to do this

so they didn't know about his spousal abuse???

c'mon?

thats what alot of them have said.Benoit was a very quiet guy and didn't discuss personal problems with many(if any) of those around him.

fatal

Vince135792003 wrote:

Nancy Grace with Bryan Alvarez, Marc Mero, Konnan and more......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG6l3dWODss

listening to her is annoying as ****

Vince135792003

fatal wrote:

listening to her is annoying as ****

If you think she's bad, go to the doctor with glasses who she has on. Its hilarious.

lostexpectation

fatal wrote:

thats what alot of them have said.Benoit was a very quiet guy and didn't discuss personal problems with many(if any) of those around him.

I don't believe the didn't know about that aspect of him he went to court over it, none of them mentioned this at all during the interview... they knew

The Sparrow

wrestlingobserver.com is reporting that Linda McMahon is scheduled for Bill O'Reilly tonight on FOX News... As Meltzer points out, its an explosion waiting to happen.

If you want to check out the carnage yourself, The O'Reilly Factor airs on FNC (Sky Channel 510) at 1am and 4am Irish time.

Fozzy

Oh yeah, the guy who claimed Irish children don't celebrate Christmas or Easter... I have a feeling that he might go to the other extreme of the spectrum from Larry King, but it's interesting that they've agreed to it

The Sparrow

Fozzy wrote:

Oh yeah, the guy who claimed Irish children don't celebrate Christmas or Easter... I have a feeling that he might go to the other extreme of the spectrum from Larry King, but it's interesting that they've agreed to it

Yep thats him! I think she could get destroyed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctlmholr45c&mode=related&search=

I really hate O'Reilly, but it would be great if it was Vince!

Fozzy

From the Observer:

WAGA-TV in Atlanta has just reported that federal investigators have seized all medical records of Dr. Phil Astin and patients Larry Pfolhl (Lex Luger), Marcus Bagwell, Mark Jindrak, Bob Howard (Bob Holly), Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, Mike Durham (Johnny Grunge) and Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio).

The station also reported that M.J. and O.G., the two wrestlers involved in the indictment of overprescribing pain killers were, as speculated, Mark Jindrak and Gutierrez.

It doesn't say that those guys were prescribed steroids or painkillers or what, but considering that some of them don't live in the Atlanta area, you'd have to suspect something slightly dodgy

EDIT: Figure 4 says Rey and Jindrak were overprescribed painkillers

fatal

Fozzy wrote:

From the Observer:



It doesn't say that those guys were prescribed steroids or painkillers or what, but considering that some of them don't live in the Atlanta area, you'd have to suspect something slightly dodgy

I just read the same article and I wondered the same thing about many of those guys that don't even live anywhere near the area.
While they are investigating this guy so thoroughly,im sure that somewhere not too far from Atlanta some other doctor is doing the same thing but is getting away with it.They need to concentrate on other doctors aswell not just this guy

Fozzy

I read it reported on some site last night that referee Chris Kay has been released due to drug issues. I remember him being suspended earlier this year, I think he was on SD last. I loved him when he debuted on Raw a few years ago, he went completely over the top in his pin counts, to the point where his hand would be the only part of his body touching the mat when he counted. He wasn't seen for a while after that, someone obviously didn't like it

I just wonder if WWE are going to be more public about this to make the point that their wellness policy is used

Vince135792003

Fozzy wrote:

I just wonder if WWE are going to be more public about this to make the point that their wellness policy is used

They don't even have the full policy up anymore on either of their websites as far as I can tell.

Fozzy

Vince135792003 wrote:

They don't even have the full policy up anymore on either of their websites as far as I can tell.

They haven't had the full thing up in a long time, I remember looking for it back when Lashley, Khali and someone else were taken off tv because of liver problems

Fozzy

Kennedy has a bit of a rant on his site giving out about older wrestlers who claim they know what the current state of WWE is like: http://www.ken-kennedy.com. He stands by the drug policy. I'm sure there are clean-living guys in WWE, and looking at the media coverage from their point of view, it can't be all that great to be scutinised so much when they themselves have done nothing wrong. Matt Hardy wrote something similar on his Myspace I think

I mean, like when Konnan said 100% of WWE wrestlers are on something, was he just ignoring guys like Punk?

Vince135792003

Fozzy wrote:

I'm sure there are clean-living guys in WWE, and looking at the media coverage from their point of view, it can't be all that great to be scutinised so much when they themselves have done nothing wrong.

It comes with the job. They shouldn't be surprised. I mean just listening to a guy like Lance Storm, I'd be 99.99% certain that he welcomes it if it can do some good.

Its the same old game as it always was. Helms talking about what a good job they all did on Larry King. Its all PR and maybe its PR that they truly believe being in the wrestling bubble.

Helms talking about how Mero is "cashing in on the situation". Maybe he is. Its certainly possible that he has an agenda. He is not the only one though and arguably Helms and every other wrestler that touts the WWE PR line has one too.

The Sparrow

Fozzy wrote:

I mean, like when Konnan said 100% of WWE wrestlers are on something, was he just ignoring guys like Punk?

Well from your quote, Konnan never said that 100% of WWE wrestlers were on steroids or the like. So I assume he meant that 100% of them were on drugs of some sort, whether that be recreational, performance enhancing or painkillers. Obviously we have no way of finding out how true it is, except to say that I think it would be very difficult to live the life of a WWE wrestler on the road and not be on anything.

And as for Punk, he (at least!) looks like a bit of a spliff head to me!:D

RebelRockChick

Here is Eric Bischoff's lastest blog:

For the first time in my 20 years in this business, I am embarrassed.
Not because of the horrific act of an obviously troubled individual, who until a few weeks ago was a respected part of the sports-entertainment business. I don’t believe that the Benoit tragedy is representative of the business, or more importantly the people who are a part of it. Chris Benoit had psychological problems. The root cause of those problems will debated for months to come. As well they should be.

By experts.

Not by the parade of clowns who are fighting for their last 60 seconds of fame on cable news programs that are clearly sensationalizing and exploiting this situation for one reason and one reason only: ratings. If there was any doubt about that, one need only look back at the list of idiots that have covered this story. Nancy Grace…give me a break. Or how about Bill O’ Reilly? “Hard Hitting Interview”? Since when is a half decade old out of context interview newsworthy? Can anyone seriously argue that news networks are not exploiting and spinning the sad death of a wife, son, and father for one reason and one reason only?
But I’m not embarrassed by the obvious ethical/professional lapse of the cable news industry. I’ve never been in that business. Besides, we see it all the time.

The most embarrassing thing for me over the past ten days has been watching the likes of Debra Marshall-Williams-McMicheals-Whoeversheisgoingtotaketothecleanersnext, Marc Mero, Lanny Poffo, et all fighting like a bunch of addicts at a crack festival, trying to become the spokesperson for an industry in which they have been irrelevant for years. If it were not for the painful circumstances surrounding this issue, these three would have a regular gig on Saturday Night Live.

Hopefully accurate information will come out soon that will allow for a meaningful discourse surrounding this issue. In the meantime, somebody get the hook and get these clowns off the stage.

shinzon

Hmm Eric and I at least agree on something

I sent an e-mail to Bill o reilly through his website

Content below

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I live in Ireland and watch your show from time to time, as i am interested in wrestling both the entertainemnt side of it and the business side of it I looked forward to your segment with Linda mcmahon, when I actually viewed the segment I couldnt believe what I was seeing, not only was she not live in the studio, the segment that aired was 6 years old, aired in 2001 to be exact.

I have watched the unfolding of the Chris benoit tragedy and the US medias treatment of it and the wrestlers who have appeared on various fox news programmes to give there opinions on this whole case.

As far as I can see being an outside observer and living in a different country, the various so called media people have jumped on the Steroid band wagon and if you do not agree with these people then you are shouted down, disagreed with and basically are not allowed to put your point across, youll disagree i know but believe me if you were watching the programmes youd know what i meant, worst offenders are Nancy Grace, Hannity and Colmes and Greta van Susteran, the treatment that they have given the wrestlers appearing on there programmes is deplorable and disgraceful.

And as for your Linda mcmahon segment, if your going to do a piece on WWE or Chris Benoit, then at least have the common decency to not advertise someone as being on your programme and then have a pre-recorded segment from years ago and tack on the line "Now you can add Chris Benoit to that resume" at the end

Im not sure where the american medias journalistic integrity has gone, but believe me, it is sorely lacking

---

itll never be read out or even looked at, but I felt i had to write something in light of the disgraceful way the US media is conducting themsleves in light of the benoit Tragedy

Shin

littlejp

woooo232 wrote:

And as for Punk, he (at least!) looks like a bit of a spliff head to me!:D

Punk is actually pretty vocal about being Straight-Edged, which means no drugs of any kind. Although looking at his tattoo I'd guess he likes his caffeine!:D

shinzon wrote:

I sent an e-mail to Bill o reilly through his website

You should have put p.s. I'm Irish and I celebrate Christmas at least once every year. I didn't catch the show yet but this guy sounds like an a-hole.

RebelRockChick

Gregory Helms Myspace blog:

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Time to move on!


I, like many other of my fellow WWE'ers have been contacted by various media outlets to speak on or about the Chris Benoit family tragedy. However, I chose to voice my thoughts here rather than trying to have some 5 min debate with one of these obviously uninformed media personalities that do nothing other than fuel the fire of this already senseless tragedy. I could go into great detail about all the nonsense that has been said about pro wrestlers and pro wrestling in general but I think most of that has been covered already. Instead I will provide you with a couple links to some great articles that reflect my opinion.

The first is an interview with Mick Foley which you can read here. http://www.longislandpress.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=3&ArticleID=12578&TM=55828.24 This is one article in which I identify completely!! Mick does a GREAT job here, it's a must read!

The next is JR's BLOG at http://www.jrsbarbq.com/ Look for the blog dated 07/08/07. A very good read.

And finally, Matt Hardy, did a pretty good job in his latest MySpace Blog. You can find a link to his page on my profile.

Please read those three. They are very good and they do a good job of defending pro wrestling when so many others are jumping on the easy ship to bash it! Jericho, Cena, Ted Dibiase, and Bret Hart all did a good job on Larry King as well. Wrestling has always been a business that's easy to criticize, especially by people who have no involvement in it and right now it needs people to stand up for it. I agreed with Jericho and Dibiase the most. There is no perfect answer to what happened. In fact, I feel that you could tell me every single detail of what happened that night and I still wouldn't understand it! Why? Because irrational actions don't make sense to rational men. Plain and simple. And while I will not, nor ever will, condone what Benoit did, neither do I feel any blame or guilt just because I worked with him. He was my friend but his personal life was just that . . . personal. And blaming or criticizing pro wrestling is just an easy way out to try and explain a very complicated tragedy. And I also feel that failed, former stars (and I use that term loosely) like Marc Mero are only making things worse by trying to cash in and turn a tragedy into a last few minutes of fame on TV. That is just pathetic. There are a lot of great people in this business, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, and the many should not have to suffer for the mistakes of a few.

I know it's been hard to stay positive during this. Life just seems to make no sense sometimes, but life does indeed go on, whether it makes sense or not. So as far as the Benoit tragedy goes, just like the title of this blog says, it's time to move on. I'm only speaking for myself of course, but I've had my sad period, then my mad period, then my just total confusion period (which is still kinda where I'm at) but as with all sad times in life you can't dwell on them, you have to move on. And that's what I'm going to try to do.

Tomorrow (July 12th) is my birthday and I plan to have a great day and I hope everyone reading this does as well.