Source: Rocky Mountain News
Pro wrestling is well-known as being scripted, but World Wrestling Entertainment is giving fans reason to wonder whether the injury announcements on its Web site are real or fake.
WWE.com recently handled the ailments of three performers in three different fashions. The news that Gregory Helms needed surgery to repair two broken vertebrae in his neck was legitimate. The longest-reigning cruiserweight champion in WWE history, Helms will probably be out for a year after surgery.
But WWE wasn’t truthful when announcing that Shawn Michaels suffered a “career-threatening” concussion at the hands of rival Randy Orton on last month’s Judgment Day pay-per-view show. In reality, Michaels (real name Michael Hickenbottom) required knee surgery that should sideline him until at least the Survivor Series pay-per-view show in November.
And in the case of The Undertaker (Mark Calaway), WWE’s Web site failed to acknowledge that he’s missing because of a torn biceps. Instead, his absence was explained by video footage showing The ‘Taker’s “druids” carrying him away after attacks by Mark Henry and Adam “Edge” Copeland on Smackdown!
A WWE spokesman declined comment on why injuries are being released in such an inconsistent fashion. But it appears that WWE.com’s handling of the Michaels and Undertaker injuries stems from wanting to enhance story lines.
Because concussions have become a hot topic in the NFL, WWE is trying to capitalize by having Orton cause head injuries to Michaels and the departing Rob Van Dam (Rob Szatkowski). As for The ‘Taker, his real-life health issues aren’t usually acknowledged by WWE, to protect the “supernatural” nature of his character.
Still, the decision to mix factual and bogus stories undermines the credibility of a Web site that WWE uses to issue news releases about such serious topics as wrestler arrests and its drug policy.
• Jill Jarrett, wife of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling star and front-office executive Jeff Jarrett, died May 23 at the age of 37 from breast cancer. Although he’d recently returned to the ring, Jeff Jarrett took a leave of absence from wrestling last October to help care for his wife and their three children.
Understandably, Jarrett was written out of appearing in the main event of TNA’s Slammiversary pay- per-view show June 17 emanating from Nashville, Tenn.
• Former WWE star Brock Lesnar’s mixed martial-arts fighting debut will now be against judo specialist Min Soo Kim on Saturday’s Dynamite USA Showtime/pay- per-view special emanating from Los Angeles. Hong Man Choi, the 7-foot-2 kickboxer originally scheduled to face Lesnar, didn’t receive medical clearance by the California athletic commission when an MRI exam revealed a tumor in his head.
