Dan Abrams on MSNBC interviewed the D.A. Scott Ballard who said the information about the Chris and Nancy fighting in the days leading up to the tragic deaths came from WWE and he had no knowledge of it. Abrams asked if the steroids found in the house were in Chris’s name or from valid suppliers. Ballard said there was already an ongoing investigation and he didn’t want to see too much because it could compromise the investigation. He said the son had no bruises, but did have internal injuries in the throat area.
Later in the show, Abrams brought on Joe Laurinaitis, a/k/a Road Warrior Animal. Animal confirmed that his brother, John “Johnny Ace” Laurinaitis, V.P. of Operations for WWE was the other person to get the text messages from Benoit. Animal talked about how Chris was great father. Laurinaitis said “I’ve seen Chris with his son Daniel. Chris loved that little boy. There was something else psychological happening to have him flip out and blow his cork like that and do what he did.” Animal also said pro wrestling needs some kind of oversight as well as mandatory time off for the wrestlers. Abrams showed a graphic that said 65 wrestlers died between 1997 and 2004, 25 by heart attacks, five likely from steroid use, and 12 deaths from other drugs. No source was cited.
The most interested part of this interview is that all the information related to Chris and Nancy fighting in the days leading up to the murder-suicide came from the WWE and no other sources. It begs to question did the WWE float that information out there to take the focus off steroids and the WWE and on to making Chris Benoit out to be a monster who killed his family because his son had Fragile X Syndrome?
ECW legend Tommy Dreamer says that WWE funded Paul Heyman’s creation since day 1, even though it appeared, at times, that ECW was competing with Vince McMahon’s WWE during 1990s, and the infamous Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW.
“I did not find out that Paul was in bed with them until we did any episode of Byte This together and he said it on the air and if you watch my face you can see it” Dreamer said, during an interview with WSVN-TV Entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet .
“The story changes all the time, Jim Ross who was the head of talent relations at the time says they were in bed together all the time and that Paul Heyman would get checks, but Paul said he didn’t get checks.
“It’s many, many conspiracy theories. Shane McMahon told me Paul was in bed with WWE the entire time. Bruce Prichard said he was in bed with them since day one.”
Dreamer also talked about All-In, where he was seen walking with Cody to the ring for his NWA World Title match against Nick Aldis.
“Honestly, when I saw NWA’s YouTube show ’10 Pounds of Gold’ and Cody talked about Dusty’s five guys I seriously got all teary eyed. Then when talking with Glacier and DDP they were like we didn’t know that either.
“So now we’re forever connected. A lot of people say in life you can count your friends on one hand or you’re lucky if you can count them on two and for the fact that Dusty Rhodes counted three wrestlers that were part of his five guys, it was an amazing, amazing thing that we all witnessed together.
“Cody is someone I hired into WWE and The Young Bucks I use them all the time on my shows and they were like my main eventers before people thought they were main eventers. They’re my guys.”
The Dudley Boyz are going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, joining Bill Goldberg as a part of the 2018 class, according to CBS Sports.
“The legacy of the Dudley Boyz is really the last of the Mohicans,” Bubba Ray told CBS Sports. “We are the last, legitimate, great tag team that you most likely will ever see; the most old school tag team that there is. I don’t think you will ever see a tag team go on to accomplish what we have accomplished, whether that’s in the WWE or any place else. We really are the last of many, many generations of great tag teams.”
“The great thing about us is we didn’t take no for an answer,” D-Von said. “We just went out there and did it when nobody thought we could. That was the biggest thing that Bubba and I had to face in our career because, back in ECW, we weren’t really supposed to be an act to be reckoned with.”
The globally recognized tag team has won titles in ECW, WWE, TNA/Impact Wrestling, All Japan and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Former WWE, WCW, ECW and Lucha Underground superstar Rey Mysterio has been a free agent for quite some time, but is eyeing one final run in WWE.
Mysterio spoke with ESPN and talked about being a free agent as well as finishing his career in the place he experienced his most success.
“I’m not locked up to any company. I’m an independent contractor, as we say. I could go work wherever I want. That’s the beautiful thing about being on this side of the fence. You don’t have a commitment with only one company. You can go around and pretty much wrestle wherever you want. You can choose when you want your off-days to be. That was one of my main priorities when I left WWE.”
“I told myself, once I started feeling aching and I was having hard times getting up from my bed in the morning when I woke up, it was gonna start getting close to that time [to quit]. I was feeling that right towards my end of the last year or so of WWE. It came to the point where I was feeling like that constantly. I didn’t want to fall into another phase of taking either medication to ease my pain. I wanted to use the rest way to heal my body up. Believe it or not, the last two years, I don’t think I’ve felt better.”
And about a WWE return?
“This is the way I was thinking at the time, and I still think that to this day. When I left WWE, from my understanding and from the time that we sat down … that I decided not to re-sign another contract with WWE was for me to get some off time. I never meant or insinuated in any way or form that I was gonna leave for good. I think that should say a lot. I wasn’t announcing that was the end of Rey Mysterio’s career. I would definitely love to go back and finish up. Whether it’s one year or whatever the case might be. Whether it’s a farewell. I owe a lot to that company. That company gave me such an amazing opportunity, and I took advantage of every single moment I was with WWE to the fullest. I wouldn’t want to just be remembered as ‘Oh, man, he never re-signed and he never came back.’ I would definitely love to come back and do a last run and say goodbye to my WWE fans. Tell them goodbye in a proper way.”