[posted 7/2/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
On his Connecticut tour, Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele has been caught making two dumb remarks.
The second and admittedly more important one — which has Republicans and Democrats alike calling for his resignation — was “Keep in mind … [Afghanistan] was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
The first was what he said about Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon:
“It just amazes me how, you know, if you put that kind of scrutiny to the people who are part of this administration, who are part of informing and advising the president of the United States, some of whom themselves are running for office this year, then I’m willing to have that conversation [about McMahon's controversial background as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment]. But don’t take me down that rabbit hole about this candidate who, as far as I know and everything I’ve seen, had nothing to do, the way you posited this question, with those decisions at that time and say that as national chairman I am somehow now going to be responsible for decisions made by the WWE?”
Choose your own Raw or Smackdown punch line.
Irv Muchnick
Friday, July 16, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat in Intensive Care
[posted 7/2/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
All of us who have been thrilled over the years by the brilliant performances of pro wrestler Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat are pulling for his speedy recovery from a brain aneurysm diagnosed Wednesday in Tampa.
Mike Aldren of Wrestling Globe Newsletter reports that hospital sources say Steamboat, 57, is in intensive care, where he is “stable, coherent and comfortable,” but “still has a long way to go.”
Here’s a topical Steamboat memory. In the late 1980s World Wrestling Entertainment (then called WWF) had an NBC show, Saturday Night’s Main Event, which served as an irregular replacement for Saturday Night Live (and by the way, for at least a while did better ratings than SNL).
On one SNME, Steamboat took a “DDT” from Jake “The Snake” Roberts on the concrete floor outside the ring. The move was botched and Steamboat was legitimately knocked unconscious. Later, Steamboat was shown on camera, woozy and incoherent, and it was supposed to be kind of funny. This was decades before Chris Benoit, Dr. Bennet Omalu’s brain-injury studies, and Dr. Joseph Maroon’s hire as WWE medical director.
Irv Muchnick
All of us who have been thrilled over the years by the brilliant performances of pro wrestler Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat are pulling for his speedy recovery from a brain aneurysm diagnosed Wednesday in Tampa.
Mike Aldren of Wrestling Globe Newsletter reports that hospital sources say Steamboat, 57, is in intensive care, where he is “stable, coherent and comfortable,” but “still has a long way to go.”
Here’s a topical Steamboat memory. In the late 1980s World Wrestling Entertainment (then called WWF) had an NBC show, Saturday Night’s Main Event, which served as an irregular replacement for Saturday Night Live (and by the way, for at least a while did better ratings than SNL).
On one SNME, Steamboat took a “DDT” from Jake “The Snake” Roberts on the concrete floor outside the ring. The move was botched and Steamboat was legitimately knocked unconscious. Later, Steamboat was shown on camera, woozy and incoherent, and it was supposed to be kind of funny. This was decades before Chris Benoit, Dr. Bennet Omalu’s brain-injury studies, and Dr. Joseph Maroon’s hire as WWE medical director.
Irv Muchnick
Yo, NFL Spokesman Greg Aiello — What’s Up With WWE Medical Director Joseph Maroon?
[posted 7/2/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
This is the text of a fax sent on June 15 to Greg Aiello, vice president for public relations of the National Football League, and resent yesterday.
On March 19, I posted an item that, according to you, Dr. Joseph Maroon was still on the NFL concussion committee. The June 1 article in The New York Times suggests that is no longer the case, as the committee’s new co-chairs have announced that the league is severing all past ties in this research. Could you please update me on Dr. Maroon’s status both with the NFL and with the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Many thanks.
Irv Muchnick
This is the text of a fax sent on June 15 to Greg Aiello, vice president for public relations of the National Football League, and resent yesterday.
On March 19, I posted an item that, according to you, Dr. Joseph Maroon was still on the NFL concussion committee. The June 1 article in The New York Times suggests that is no longer the case, as the committee’s new co-chairs have announced that the league is severing all past ties in this research. Could you please update me on Dr. Maroon’s status both with the NFL and with the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Many thanks.
Irv Muchnick
Linda McMahon’s Body Count – Dead People – Remains a Taboo Subject
[posted 7/2/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Now The Wall Street Journal has joined the conversation of whether World Wrestling Entertainment’s “image” is a factor in its co-founder and former CEO Linda McMahon’s Senate race in Connecticut.
See “Pro Wrestling’s Image Looms Over Senate Race,” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704525704575341093327012212.html.
Where the elite meet to eat, the dialogue has progressed from wrestling’s raunchiness to wrestling’s steroids. But it has yet to go where it belongs: to wrestling’s deaths. The Journal mentioned only one, Chris Benoit’s 2007 double murder/suicide. And that was mostly to create an opening to discuss the investigation of Congressman Henry Waxman, who breaks his 18 months of silence to provide a quote.
The Journal quoted WWE flack Robert Zimmerman’s rejoinder that Waxman is a “political blowhard.” But the newspaper didn’t get into why Waxman never pulled the trigger on public hearings or, for that matter, how Linda and Vince McMahon finessed a mid-nineties federal criminal investigation.
Still, the McMahon campaign and “image” have taken a black eye. I hear The New York Times is about to tackle the McMahon mystique, too. (No, I haven’’t spoken to anyone there.)
Irv Muchnick
Now The Wall Street Journal has joined the conversation of whether World Wrestling Entertainment’s “image” is a factor in its co-founder and former CEO Linda McMahon’s Senate race in Connecticut.
See “Pro Wrestling’s Image Looms Over Senate Race,” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704525704575341093327012212.html.
Where the elite meet to eat, the dialogue has progressed from wrestling’s raunchiness to wrestling’s steroids. But it has yet to go where it belongs: to wrestling’s deaths. The Journal mentioned only one, Chris Benoit’s 2007 double murder/suicide. And that was mostly to create an opening to discuss the investigation of Congressman Henry Waxman, who breaks his 18 months of silence to provide a quote.
The Journal quoted WWE flack Robert Zimmerman’s rejoinder that Waxman is a “political blowhard.” But the newspaper didn’t get into why Waxman never pulled the trigger on public hearings or, for that matter, how Linda and Vince McMahon finessed a mid-nineties federal criminal investigation.
Still, the McMahon campaign and “image” have taken a black eye. I hear The New York Times is about to tackle the McMahon mystique, too. (No, I haven’’t spoken to anyone there.)
Irv Muchnick
Talkin’ Linda McMahon and ‘Character and Integrity’ with Chris Benoit’s Father
[posted 7/1/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Mike Benoit – Chris Benoit’s father – is among the blog readers who have encouraged me to join the fray over The New York Times’ politically tinged follow-up to its earlier report exposing how Richard Blumenthal, at a minimum, twisted and hyped accounts of his stateside service in the Marine Reserves during the Vietnam War.
Raymond Hernandez of The Times makes his latest contribution to the commonweal in a story today headlined “G.O.P. Hopeful Criticizes Blumenthal on Integrity.” See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/nyregion/01mcmahon.html?_r=1&th&emc=th.
The G.O.P. hopeful, of course, is Linda McMahon, Democrat Blumenthal’s Republican opponent in the Connecticut U.S. Senate race. So far as I know, ace reporter Hernandez (whose main work on the Blumenthal story apparently has consisted of being fed damaging videotape by McMahon operatives) has not done a single story on the policy substance of this campaign; nor has he clued Times readers in on Linda’s own hefty portfolio of evasions of and variations on the truth. (One such example involves the trifling matter of arguable obstruction of a federal criminal investigation of her husband and their company, the predecessor of World Wrestling Entertainment.)
Even so, as I told Mike Benoit, I didn’t want to weigh in heavily on The Times and Blumenthal. For one thing, despite whatever lapses there might have been in Times standards here, I don’t think the way Blumenthal has touted his military record is objectively defensible. For another, it has nothing to do with the issue on which I am trying to elevate public consciousness: the disgusting and avoidable pandemic of death in the pro wrestling industry on Linda McMahon’s watch. And finally, I have no desire to be a tool of Blumenthal or any other candidate.
Mike Benoit – who is no more in cahoots with me than I am with Blumenthal – persisted. He emailed:
Let me just make my small contribution to the list of things that Linda McMahon was responsible for as the CEO of WWE that would point to her lack of character and integrity.
(1) Appeared on Good Morning America talking about my grandson’s retardation being the cause of June 2007 Tragedy. There is absolutely no documentation of Daniel having any mental disorder.
(2) Having Dr Cyril Wecht call the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in an attempt to influence their investigation of the Benoit case.
(3) Having a private investigator by the name of Clifford Cormany pose as my rep at the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in an attempt to get information on the Benoit case back in July 2007.
(4) Having their lawyer attempt to get our lawyer to believe that Nancy killed Daniel and then Chris killed Nancy, suggesting it would be in both our best interests.
(5) When #4 did not work, starting a rumor that Nancy and Chris were selling drugs out of their house.
(6) Failure to pay the balance of Chris’s wages and royalties due from merchandise sales up to June 25/07 to his surviving children.
Can she really call out someone questioning their character and integrity when her own lack of same is in question?
For readers interested in how some of these subjects have been covered on my blog, see the following from the archives:
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 1),” February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-%E2%80%98fragile-x-syndrome%E2%80%99-part-1/
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 2),” February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-fragile-x-syndrome-part-2/
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 3),” February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-fragile-x-syndrome-part-3/
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 4), February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-fragile-x-syndrome-part-4/
* “Linda McMahon’s Despicable June 2007 ‘Good Morning America’ Interview,” February 4, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/linda-mcmahons-despicable-june-2007-good-morning-america-interview/
* “For Linda McMahon’s WWE, Depraved Is As Depraved Does,” February 5, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/for-linda-mcmahons-wwe-depraved-is-as-depraved-does/
* “Chris Benoit’s Dad to Author Muchnick, Part 2: WWE/McMahon Lawyer McDevitt and the Pennsylvania Coroner,” December 11, 2009, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/chris-benoit%E2%80%99s-dad-to-author-muchnick-part-2-wwemcmahon-lawyer-mcdevitt-and-the-pennsylvania-coroner/
* “Ex-FBI Agent, Working for WWE, Poses as Benoit Family Investigator,” May 15, 2008, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/archive-51508-ex-fbi-agent-working-for-wwe-poses-as-benoit-family-investigator/
Irv Muchnick
Mike Benoit – Chris Benoit’s father – is among the blog readers who have encouraged me to join the fray over The New York Times’ politically tinged follow-up to its earlier report exposing how Richard Blumenthal, at a minimum, twisted and hyped accounts of his stateside service in the Marine Reserves during the Vietnam War.
Raymond Hernandez of The Times makes his latest contribution to the commonweal in a story today headlined “G.O.P. Hopeful Criticizes Blumenthal on Integrity.” See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/nyregion/01mcmahon.html?_r=1&th&emc=th.
The G.O.P. hopeful, of course, is Linda McMahon, Democrat Blumenthal’s Republican opponent in the Connecticut U.S. Senate race. So far as I know, ace reporter Hernandez (whose main work on the Blumenthal story apparently has consisted of being fed damaging videotape by McMahon operatives) has not done a single story on the policy substance of this campaign; nor has he clued Times readers in on Linda’s own hefty portfolio of evasions of and variations on the truth. (One such example involves the trifling matter of arguable obstruction of a federal criminal investigation of her husband and their company, the predecessor of World Wrestling Entertainment.)
Even so, as I told Mike Benoit, I didn’t want to weigh in heavily on The Times and Blumenthal. For one thing, despite whatever lapses there might have been in Times standards here, I don’t think the way Blumenthal has touted his military record is objectively defensible. For another, it has nothing to do with the issue on which I am trying to elevate public consciousness: the disgusting and avoidable pandemic of death in the pro wrestling industry on Linda McMahon’s watch. And finally, I have no desire to be a tool of Blumenthal or any other candidate.
Mike Benoit – who is no more in cahoots with me than I am with Blumenthal – persisted. He emailed:
Let me just make my small contribution to the list of things that Linda McMahon was responsible for as the CEO of WWE that would point to her lack of character and integrity.
(1) Appeared on Good Morning America talking about my grandson’s retardation being the cause of June 2007 Tragedy. There is absolutely no documentation of Daniel having any mental disorder.
(2) Having Dr Cyril Wecht call the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in an attempt to influence their investigation of the Benoit case.
(3) Having a private investigator by the name of Clifford Cormany pose as my rep at the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in an attempt to get information on the Benoit case back in July 2007.
(4) Having their lawyer attempt to get our lawyer to believe that Nancy killed Daniel and then Chris killed Nancy, suggesting it would be in both our best interests.
(5) When #4 did not work, starting a rumor that Nancy and Chris were selling drugs out of their house.
(6) Failure to pay the balance of Chris’s wages and royalties due from merchandise sales up to June 25/07 to his surviving children.
Can she really call out someone questioning their character and integrity when her own lack of same is in question?
For readers interested in how some of these subjects have been covered on my blog, see the following from the archives:
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 1),” February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-%E2%80%98fragile-x-syndrome%E2%80%99-part-1/
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 2),” February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-fragile-x-syndrome-part-2/
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 3),” February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-fragile-x-syndrome-part-3/
* “Linda McMahon and ‘Fragile X Syndrome’ (Part 4), February 3, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/linda-mcmahon-and-fragile-x-syndrome-part-4/
* “Linda McMahon’s Despicable June 2007 ‘Good Morning America’ Interview,” February 4, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/linda-mcmahons-despicable-june-2007-good-morning-america-interview/
* “For Linda McMahon’s WWE, Depraved Is As Depraved Does,” February 5, 2010, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/for-linda-mcmahons-wwe-depraved-is-as-depraved-does/
* “Chris Benoit’s Dad to Author Muchnick, Part 2: WWE/McMahon Lawyer McDevitt and the Pennsylvania Coroner,” December 11, 2009, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/chris-benoit%E2%80%99s-dad-to-author-muchnick-part-2-wwemcmahon-lawyer-mcdevitt-and-the-pennsylvania-coroner/
* “Ex-FBI Agent, Working for WWE, Poses as Benoit Family Investigator,” May 15, 2008, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/archive-51508-ex-fbi-agent-working-for-wwe-poses-as-benoit-family-investigator/
Irv Muchnick
Transcript of GOP National and State Chairs Denying Linda McMahon’s Problems
[posted 7/1/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Ken Dixon of the Hearst papers in Connecticut has a wonderful new blog post with the transcript of Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele’s and state chair Chris Healy’s exchanges with reporters about World Wrestling Entertainment, steroids, and Linda McMahon.
See “GOP National Chairman, in Rabbit Hole with Healy, Acts As If the Steroid/WWE Nexus is Irrelevant to Senate Campaign,” http://blog.ctnews.com/dixon/2010/07/01/gop-national-chairman-in-rabbit-hole-with-healy-acts-as-if-the-steroidwwe-nexus-is-irrelevant-to-senate-campaign/.
Dixon doesn’t say whether the session was cut off by Suzan Bibisi, Healy’s wife, one of Linda McMahon’s many high-paid handlers.
Irv Muchnick
Ken Dixon of the Hearst papers in Connecticut has a wonderful new blog post with the transcript of Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele’s and state chair Chris Healy’s exchanges with reporters about World Wrestling Entertainment, steroids, and Linda McMahon.
See “GOP National Chairman, in Rabbit Hole with Healy, Acts As If the Steroid/WWE Nexus is Irrelevant to Senate Campaign,” http://blog.ctnews.com/dixon/2010/07/01/gop-national-chairman-in-rabbit-hole-with-healy-acts-as-if-the-steroidwwe-nexus-is-irrelevant-to-senate-campaign/.
Dixon doesn’t say whether the session was cut off by Suzan Bibisi, Healy’s wife, one of Linda McMahon’s many high-paid handlers.
Irv Muchnick
WWE Board Member Lowell Weicker Spins for Linda McMahon
[posted 6/30/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Former Connecticut senator and governor — and World Wrestling Entertainment charter board member — Lowell Weicker is a guest next Sunday on Dennis House’s Face the State on Channel 3. House previews the interview in a blog post at http://dennishouse.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/weicker-blasts-blumenthal-raises-trust-issue/.
At one point House begins a question about Linda McMahon: “When her critics say you should not vote for her because of [World Wrestling Entertainment] programming, do you think –”
Weicker replies: “I think it is nonsense. There may be reasons not to vote for her. You may not like her stance on health care, that is fair enough. But not her association with WWE.”
On his blog, House does not say whether he follows up by noting that the most compelling argument against McMahon has nothing to do with whether WWE programming once was R-rated or now is truly G-rated. It has to do, rather, with the company’s occupational health and safety standards, the bellwether of a pandemic of hundreds of young deaths in an industry the mega-profitable WWE dominates.
Nor do we know if House asked Weicker (who says he supports health-care reform and has called critics of Chris Dodd “ankle-biting midgets”) how much money he has made from WWE stock options and dividends.
I guess we’ll have to watch Face the State on Sunday to find out.
Irv Muchnick
Former Connecticut senator and governor — and World Wrestling Entertainment charter board member — Lowell Weicker is a guest next Sunday on Dennis House’s Face the State on Channel 3. House previews the interview in a blog post at http://dennishouse.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/weicker-blasts-blumenthal-raises-trust-issue/.
At one point House begins a question about Linda McMahon: “When her critics say you should not vote for her because of [World Wrestling Entertainment] programming, do you think –”
Weicker replies: “I think it is nonsense. There may be reasons not to vote for her. You may not like her stance on health care, that is fair enough. But not her association with WWE.”
On his blog, House does not say whether he follows up by noting that the most compelling argument against McMahon has nothing to do with whether WWE programming once was R-rated or now is truly G-rated. It has to do, rather, with the company’s occupational health and safety standards, the bellwether of a pandemic of hundreds of young deaths in an industry the mega-profitable WWE dominates.
Nor do we know if House asked Weicker (who says he supports health-care reform and has called critics of Chris Dodd “ankle-biting midgets”) how much money he has made from WWE stock options and dividends.
I guess we’ll have to watch Face the State on Sunday to find out.
Irv Muchnick
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