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Archive for March 2nd, 2010

Jim Ross’ future with WWE should be determined in the next few weeks. Now recovered from his latest bout with Bells Palsy, WWE is laying the groundwork for a potential Ross return to WWE Monday Night Raw. However, Ross has been wondering out loud on his blog whether he can keep up the schedule he used to keep when announcing full-time.

One can expect WWE will want him around at least in the short term, with WrestleMania coming up and Ross being a favorite of several important veterans including, most importantly, Bret Hart.

Also, the risk of releasing Ross right now is higher than ever; with TNA Impact moving permanently to Monday nights, it would take only a couple used travel trailers to get wrestling fans to check out TNA Impact broadcasts with Ross on the play-by-play; he’s be an immediate and meteoric improvement over Mike Tenay.

So it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out; while WWE seems to be wanting to go younger than Ross, his importance to the success of WWE… or TNA… has never been higher.

The WWE has released a total of seven on-air talents so far this year, with five of them coming in the month of February. Maybe some of them can find a new career in insurance advertising.

Anyway, Tommy Dreamer was the first talent released in 2010, followed by Eric Escobar later in January.

That was mild until WWE decided to cut the ECW-brand one-hour show on SciFi, ending the ECW brand for now under the WWE banner. Cutting that show meant imminent layoffs, especially since the replacement show, WWE NXT, will feature developmental talents working with veterans to become the WWE stars of tomorrow. That means some veterans would be cut, and that’s exactly what happened in late February.

The cuts include wrestlers Gregory Helms, Paul Burchill and Charlie Haas, as well as referee Scott Armstrong. Also, WWE Diva Maria was released to allow her time to participate in Celebrity Apprentice, which kicks off on NBC later this month. She also has an album coming out on iTunes in April.

Helms had legal troubles in January that may have contributed to his release; Burchill just never caught on, and Haas had similarly struggled to attract a following.

Expect more releases between now and WrestleMania as the company trims the fat after dropping the ECW show, consolidating talent to Raw and SmackDown, as well as Superstars and NXT.

The Harris County medical examiner’s office in Houston, TX, has released the official cause of death for Umaga, whose real name was Eddie Fatu. The official COD is listed as “acute toxicity,” which means a toxic mix of over-the-counter drugs in a short amount of time.

Specifically, it was a lethal combination of painkillers (hydrocodone), muscle relaxers (carisoprodol), and anti-anxiety medication (diazepam), according to the coroner’s report.

It should be noted that Umaga had been released by WWE for months prior to his death. Most reports were that WWE released Umaga for violating the company’s wellness policy. Kind of hard to secure insurance quotes under those conditions.

While release is a legitimate punishment for such a violation, it’s a shame that in the end, it makes WWE simply look like they are distancing themselves from a wrestler on a destructive path before it blows up. WWE does offer even released wrestlers access to rehab services, but once a wrestler is out of a company’s employment, follow-up and accountability tend to suffer.

While there are no easy answers in the death of Umaga, it is tragic that his was another in a long list of preventable, premature deaths among professional wrestling performers.