Bret Hart is in talks to star in Vengeance Wears A Skirt, a new thriller starring Bianca Barnett as Toy London, a female criminal "left for dead who extracts revenge against her former partners in crime...one corpse at a time." Hart's character would be Owen Christopher.
Dr. Phil Astin III, the personal physician of Chris Benoit and family is scheduled to be sentenced this morning after pleading guilty to 175 counts of illegally dispensing prescription drugs and conspiracy to distribute prescription drugs. Astin faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Update just came in as writing this:
Dr. Phil Astin, the former personal physician for the Benoit family and the late Mike "Johnny Grunge" Durham was sentenced to ten years in prison. Upon his release, Astin will be subject to three years of supervised release and have to perform 250 hours of community service.
Astin pleaded guilty to a 175-count federal indictment charging him with illegally distributing prescription drugs and conspiring to distribute prescription drugs.
Astin had originally plead not guilty to the charges, which included 150 counts involving 17 patients including two patients believed to be professional wrestlers who were working for World Wrestling Entertainment at the time, but later changed his plea this past January.
Astin could have received a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on each count.
At the time of the indictment, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the patients allegedly received illegal prescriptions for Percocet, Oxycontin, Demerol, Lorcet, Ritalin, Vicodin, Xanax, Adderall and Soma.
Astin also treated former ECW and WCW World Tag Team champion Mike "Johnny Grunge" Durham. Astin was linked to 32 of 36 prescriptions written for Durham in the year prior to his passing and had written a prescription for somas just a day before Durham was found dead in February 2006 - the prescription bottle was empty. Durham's widow Penny has come out strongly against Astin for enabling her husband when he should have been treating him.
Starting this Friday at 10:00 p.m. on Bravo, TNA Wrestling launches a brand new television show called Epics, which will be a collection of the greatest matches and moments in the seven-year history of the promotion. The show will go head-to-head with WWE most weeks as Friday Night SmackDown usually airs at 10:00 p.m. on Sky Sports. A video preview of the show, featuring clips of the likes of Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Sabu, Christian and CM Punk in TNA is available at TNAWrestling.com.TNA's new television series titled, "TNA Epics", debuts in Great Britain this Friday on the Bravo network. The show will feature classic matches from TNA's 7 year history and will exclusive to the UK, for now. Head over to YouTube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_rs0jYJvnU) to see a preview video for the new show.
Dawn Marie is scheduled to give birth to her first child this week.
WWE drew 7,038 fans at their house show at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, which is the second largest crowd for the venue. The top draw was a boxing event headlined by Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik in February, which drew 7,334. The city owns the venue, and now wants to get a WWE TV event next. To read more about this, you can go to vindy.com.
The Denver Post has an article up on Dr. Death Steve Williams, and the efforts by Wrestlers Rescue to get him a hands free voice box. You can check out the article at http://www.denverpost.com/
New Jack is involved in a new reality series that is being shopped around to networks. The series shows New Jack's return to bounty hunting.
Ring of Honor will tape six-weeks of TV on May 29th and 30th at the Arena. Ric Flair and KENTA will be at the tapings. Roderick Strong vs. Jay Briscoe has been announced as one of the main events.
The Toronto double shot, featuring the return of Lance Storm as well as Bret Hart on night one and Ric Flair on night two, has been named "Death Before Dishonor" weekend.
John Cena, who is rumored to be taking time off from WWE this summer to shoot a movie for WWE films, has been selected to star in yet another WWE Films project. WWE recently purchased a script titled "Brother's Blood," and Cena is scheduled to play the lead. The "Brother's Blood" script was written by Karl Gajdusek, who co-wrore the Stone Cold Steve Austin action flick "The Condemned".
James Laurinaitis, son of Road Warrior Animal and player for the St. Louis Rams along with Marcus Freeman of the Chicago Bears were in attendance for last night's RAW.
-- The dark match before last night's RAW saw Sheamus O'Shaunessy defeat Jamie Noble. The two have been working matches on the road with the RAW brand this past weekend.
-- After last night's RAW went off the air, John Cena and Batista defeated Big Show and Randy Orton in the dark main event. The finish came when Cena and Batista hit a double suplex on Big Show then Cena hit the Attitude Adjuster on Show for the win.
On the WrestleMania 25 DVD that releases next week, the Kid Rock performance is completely edited out of the show. The divas battle royal just starts with all the divas in the ring. Kid Rock's song is edited to some other music when Santina wins the battle royal.
Bret Hart recently spoke to the Miami Herald about his most recent book, as well as the 10th anniversary DVD release of Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows which a second documentary titled The Life & Death Of Owen Hart is included with. Here are some highlights:
On other wrestlers’ books: A lot of wrestlers have written their books, and most of them don't know what they wrote or could barely read it themselves. I think the only one who has done a real top notch job was Mick Foley. I did enjoy Jericho's book to a certain degree, but there is a lot of sanitizing to sort of make the company look good and protect themselves. I think the company sort of handcuffs whether they can say this or say that. I didn't have that kind of restraint.
His final thoughts on the Montreal screwjob: There is that old saying that it takes 20 years to build a reputation, but 30 seconds to tear it down. I think it was very applicable to that whole circumstance. The fact that I stood up for myself and did what I did, I don't know that any other wrestler would have done that or could have done that.
On Owen Hart in the WWE Hall of Fame: ''Vince McMahon said to me once after Owen died that it was the worst thing to happen to the nicest guy in this business. That statement in itself, I don't know how you can have a Hall of Fame and not credit or at least honor Owen and even my father. From the last conversation I had with Vince McMahon, he had every intention of putting my father and Owen into the Hall of Fame. I'm sure that will come with time.
On remembering Owen: I don't like to stop and remember the day he died. So much as I'd like to remember other things like his birthday [May 7]. I'm maybe different than a lot of members of the family. In Calgary, when you see the green grass coming up, with some patches of snow, you find yourself thinking of funerals. I was just thinking about his funeral yesterday and all the people that were there. Even now, I think about all the wrestlers that were at Owen's funeral who are dead today. There are a lot of things that connect to Owen's death and beyond.
Matt Hardy has posted a blog on his MySpace account (www.myspace.com/theonlymatthardy) largely taking aim at various Internet wrestling websites over rumors regarding him, not to mention commentary.
Hardy wrote: "I am so entertained how people who "think" they're in the know but have no clue about what's really happening.. How they're not even warm. But they still report it nonstop-in an attempt to boost the sales of their premium site to make a few bucks. Can't blame anyone for trying to make a living for themselves, though. Although I'll go on record and say the majority of them make claims and print their opinions (usually in a lame attempt to sound cool and important to their readers) that are so far from what's actually occurring, it's laughable. I've grown to enjoy it though.. It's what happens when you become a TV and pop culture star.
"Matthew Moore Hardy is a Martyr. Alot of wrestlers fall into this category. I personally always do my damnedest to "suck it up and go" because I hate letting my personal fans, and the faithful wrestling fans down. I legitimately broke my hand in 3 places during the Backlash PPV. I actually injured my hand worse by wrestling against Kofi Kingston on Raw Monday. I wonder if the preposterous .com site was critical of my performance, LOL. They were probably too busy making witty zingers and presenting ludicrous solutions to turn the wrestling industry around to entertain themselves. There's not many men who could put their body through what I've put mine thru in the last month. Certainly none of the "keyboarders" who criticize me and our industry regularly. Besides the known injuries I've suffered recently, one day I'll fill everyone in on a secret something that will absolutely blow everyone's mind. You'll either think I'm the toughest, most courageous dude ever, or an extremely driven, passionate idiot."
However, he is not critical of all websites concerning the business as he feels a certain columnist understands wrestling particularly well and enjoys reading him.
Hardy wrote: "Please don't take my being critical of a portion of the Sports Entertainment World Wide Web contributers as a blanket statement-that's not the case. I have love for so many of my fans and friends that are intelligent and respectful of the pro wrestling business. The column I will occasionally read when I check out reviews (because the gentleman who writes it "gets it", and speaks about the talent and business with respect and dignity) is the "Looking at a "so and so" edition of whatever TV show he's reviewing." That column is the most accurate and most consistent of any of the "major" sites. It blows most of the other "attempted" reviews away. I have no knowledge of the gentleman's background who writes this column-but I appreciate the fact he has a good grasp on what the WWE does, what pro wrestling is REALLY about, and is respectful of what we do as humans and athletes."
As he concludes his blog, Hardy says his critics could never match his life experiences, notoriety, success, manhood, financial status and quality of life within two lifetimes.
Hardy wrote: "I've had more fun as a man in the last 4 years than 99% of most guys would have in two lifetimes-and I'm being modest, HA! So to all you anti-Matt Hardy "keyboarders", punch that in your keyboard and make some witty zingers and cracks about me. And then look in the mirrors and realize that regardless of my flaws, that within even two lifetimes, you could never match my life experiences, my notoriety, my success, my manhood, my financial status, or my quality of life. There's that heel coming out in me.."
According to the UK's Daily Mail, rapper Eminem was spotted in London over the weekend sporting a Rey Mysterio mask while out in public shopping
WWE has signed Rachel Carr, a British model/dancer who has done body-double work for Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, to a developmental contract. In an interview with the UK Sun, Rachel says she was approached by WWE recruiter Lou Maggio, who asked her to audition. She's now training at Florida Championship Wrestling, WWE's developmental territory, five days each month and plans to dedicate herself to learning the craft of a WWE Diva.
"You train for between six months and two years before you're ready to move up," she said. "I was so excited to go over there and meet everybody, but I was also scared. On my first time over, watching the girls throw themselves around, I thought I couldn't do it. I've only just begun the training so I'm not doing too much of the physical stuff at the moment."
Rachel certainly has the look and body type of a typical WWE diva and hopes that will help her make it to WWE television one day. "They want me to be a cutie. Because I'm quite small and little, they want the whole angel thing coming over. Hopefully it will go well, I'll perfect my wrestling and my character and I'll end up with a full time WWE contract."
The discussion then turned to why Lashley left professional wrestling. Lashley seemed hesitant at first, noting that it was the million dollar question and that it might cost him a million to answer it.
"You can say I was dealing with stuff in the WWE," Lashley said. "I had that desire to fight. I wrestled for eighteen years and accomplished a tremendous amount in amateur wrestling. There was a time in the WWE when I had an injury, I took some time off and I had some time to look back at my career and see what I wanted to do. You know, you only live once. I was once in a bank robbery and it was almost taken away from me, I almost got shot in the back of the head and I told myself at that time that I'm going to do what I wanna do when I wanna do it."
When asked about pro wrestling outfit TNA, with whom he debuted several weeks ago, Lashley said "I took a lot of flack for making that one appearance. All they're trying to do is give me an opportunity to make money while I'm still fighting and kinda put their brand behind me. We haven't signed a deal yet because we want to see how it's going to work with my schedule, if it's going to take up too much time. Even though it's only four days a month, it's still travelling and being away from my training camp so we're going to see how it works."
When asked about criticism from MMA fans about Lashley doing both pro wrestling while competing in MMA, Lashley said that he doesn't feel that it's a conflict of interest.
"I personally wouldn't have a wrestling match before a fight," he stated. "I wouldn't even do it a couple of weeks before a fight because there's still a risk of injury."
He did say that he enjoyed professional wrestling, saying "If I could go back, I would have done it over again . . . I still would have went back into wrestling. It's probably the funnest thing you can do."
The interview ends with Kruck asking Lashley what his goals are for 2009.
"To continue to learn," he said. "I would like to be able to win a match in every fashion and since I've already got the decision in there, which I wanted to be the last one, my next one is submission or KO. I want a TKO, I want a KO, I want a submission and a decision and I want to get a good six matches under my belt. So coming into 2010, I'd like to be 6-0."
Right before the show went live around 8:55 Lillian and a guy with a t-shirt gun shot shirts to people throughout the arena. However, right before the show went live a guy who looked like he worked at the arena came to someone sitting near me and told him that he had to stop flipping off the wrestlers with one of those John Cena plastic inflatable hands that you can put down different fingers on. The guy fought back a little, but was told that it was supposed to be a family environment and anyone who goes against that will be kicked out. It seemed a little odd since we were about as far up in the arena as you can get, but so is the way of the time.
Mr. Fuji's son will be getting a tryout with WWE:
My son growing up (would say), 'Daddy. You're a wrestler. I'd like to be a wrestler like you.' (I said) You be serious about that because I don't want you to waste my time, you know what I mean?' So he has a good job. So he says, 'I'm serious about this.' OK. So I took him to the ring, worked out with him and I watch him and he picked up fast. He flies like a bird. He's a big boy too. 6'1. 290."
Jim Ross has posted a new blog entry on his official website at this link. He makes many interesting comments regarding his current role with WWE as a broadcaster. Some highlights from the blog:
- I have never understood how some, vocal fans feel that they have "lost all respect for J.R." for doing such things as kissing Mr. McMahon's ass or being a pawn in the Backlash/Santina skit. Many have declared that I should have quit my job and "walked off." I can only imagine that many of these fans are young and have never held regular jobs or have a family to care for.
- These uncomfortable moments on TV are just that and are intended to elicit a reaction. These matters are entertainment based and are fictional. It's like playing a Native American, of which I am one, on a TV western and being scripted to be killed by the Calvary. Can you imagine any actor portraying a Native American refusing to follow the script? Me neither. Certainly they could refuse out of misguided principles but they might find themselves having a hard time finding work.
- Others have suggested that I will "be kicked to the curb" as soon as WWE can find someone to replace me. Interesting thought process. I have an entirely different perspective of my work and feel I can still carry my share of the water. When I can't do so any longer then I need to be "kicked to the curb." The good news is no one will have to have a benefit for me and my departure won't be like many in the wrestling business where I won't have a pot to p*** in or a window of which to throw it out.
- After dedicating 35 years of my life to the wrestling business, one would think that some fans would have a different perspective but that is simply the world we live in. I know my style of work isn't for everyone. I know that some people who hide behind phony names enjoy making fun of my issues with Bells palsy or the fact that I have far from a body builders physique. Poor me, as Tony Soprano used to say.
- For the record I am still having a blast at work because I love "calling" wrestling matches and being around the business I have followed, at times too passionately, since I was a young kid and, yes, believe it or not I was a young kid at one time.
- Is today's business my personal cup of tea, not always. But when a guy like me gets to broadcast a HBK-Undertaker match at an event like Wrestlemania that's pretty much Heaven on Earth for an old school guy like me.
We end the news with two videos. First, since we had an update with Mr. Fuji
here is some old footage of Fuji from his pre managerial days
And here is a good one to end on
