There has been a rather big load of news to report on tonight, so since time is permitting me to do this – it’s time for a News & Analysis Report!
While the Benoit family toxicology report came out today, it seems that the biggest news item comes from WWE. The curse of the World Heavyweight Championship continues. After Batista, and then The Undertaker suffered injuries while holding onto the belt, we have another champion added to the black list. Edge took a bump wrong at the SmackDown! tapings last week (during the Mardi Gras celebration segment), and that resulted in a torn pectoral muscle that will take him out of action for a while. How long he’ll be gone depends mostly on his decision of going with surgery, or rehabbing, but it’s definitely not looking good. Edge was said to be pretty bummed out about the injury, since the company planned a long title reign for him while making him the top star of the brand. Then again, one could argue he is easily WWE’s MVP and top guy at the moment, for more than one reason. We wish Edge a speedy recovery.
With the injury suffered to the World Champion, the company had to quickly change things around, since Edge will be unable to perform at The Great American Bash. I don’t know why, but WWE.com has already revealed that they did a 20-Men Battle Royal at the SmackDown! tapings earlier tonight to crown a new World Heavyweight Champion. Somehow The Great Khali ended up winning the belt, which is scary. We are now looking at a three-way match for the World Championship at the Bash PPV, with the new champ Khali taking on Batista and Kane. This is going to be one you don’t want to miss, folks. Let’s hope they all come out of it alive and well, and the match is kept short.
The Benoit family toxicology report came out today, in a story that was big for the media. Dr. Kris Sperry, who might have awfully assembled an 80’s WWF character/gimmick, was the doctor in charge to release the information at a press conference in Atlanta, GA. There was a lot of media at the press conference – some trying to get whatever answers they can, some trying to simply report the findings, and others trying to make their dream roid rage story reality. It seems that all are disappointed, as we’ll probably never know what truly happened in those three fatal days at the Benoit residence.
The only drugs authorities found in Chris Benoit’s body at the time of his death were testosterone cypionate, Xanax and Hydrocodone. Hydrocodone is a drug used for short-term treatment of pain, of the Ibuprofen type. It was found to be not at an elevated level in Benoit’s body, meaning it was nothing out of the regular amount a doctor would prescribe for pain. The levels of testosterone cypionate were scary, some reporting them to be at a 59-1 ratio. Considering normal level of testosterone for a male is 1-1, and sports drug failures mostly take place at a 4-1 ratio, this is a very scary number. It must be noted here that Benoit had a prescription from Dr. Astin for the steroids, probably from his years use of steroids. Growth Hormone (GH) usage is pretty unlikely to be detected by the tests performed on Chris. No other steroids or drugs in general were found in his system. While authorities have mentioned finding an empty bottle of wine and beer cans in the house, no elevated alcohol levels were detected.
Nancy Benoit had a few drugs in her system – Xanax, Hydrocodone and Hydromporphone – all prescribed to treat her for the pain she was going through after recovering from a major surgery. The only drug found in Daniel Benoit’s system was Xanax, which police have a hunch was administered by his father to put him to sleep before murdering him. (I still can’t believe I just typed that sentence.) No evidence was found of what drugs were injected into Daniel from the needle marks found on his arm. Dr. Sperry also confirmed that there was no way the tests were to reveal whether Daniel had Fragile X syndrome, which will most likely remain a mystery for most of us.
Isn’t it amazing that when “steroids in wrestling” has once again made the news as the topic of conversation, McMahon baldly and brutally beats it into our systems that he simply won’t change his ways? The week after the controversy, major pushes were given to Bobby Lashley, and Batista, with the two main brands’ shows ending with each one being pushed through the skies. What does that say about the company, and what does that say about the people running it? Then the Edge situation takes place, and your new champion, ladies and gentlemen is… The Great Khali. I can see Vince now. He was probably sitting in his tiny chair backstage yesterday, yelling out at Ross and Lawler to remind us every 10 minutes that WWE Superstars put “smiles” on our faces. Not to mention the shot of a man holding a child on his shoulders, and Jim Ross almost working a promo out of it. How about the Cody Rhodes/Randy Orton match? Was I the only one who noticed the commentators simply stopped talking for what seemed to be eternity, and how Ross for the first time in years probably was barely able to put a sentence together. What was McMahon yelling then? Perhaps not to mention what Rhodes know from his father, or how he magically learned every single moved he performed? Or was he telling his main play-by-play not to hurry up and put over the youngster – a guy who actually looked human on the show last night. It doesn’t end there, my friends. When we had those Cena-Lashley vignettes air all night, Steve Austin flat out said he’s surprised Bobby Lashley hasn’t used his “amateur” background in WWE yet, but has rather turned into a giant destroying machine, a brawler who puts everything in his path down. I loved that spot for a lot of reasons. I don’t know whether Austin knew what he was saying very well and said it that way on purpose or not, but what I do know is that they flashed a video of Lashley as an amateur wrestler, and it was sad. The guy wrestled at the 177 pounds category, and on video, they were careful to not air clips longer than a few seconds, and he was always in a position where you couldn’t see most of his body. 177 pounds, folks. The WWE.com profile of Lashley has him listed at 273 pounds, currently. Of course, I wouldn’t believe that number, and couldn’t tell you his exact weight, but I can use common sense and logic. Does a guy gain 100 pounds like that, and in the process get the body he did? I don’t know, somehow I can’t see it but hey, I guess he made that “personal decision.” What I can see is McMahon almost masturbating in the back to this push of a guy who doesn’t have even decent mic OR mat skills. But it’s okay, they put a smile on our face.
