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The managing editor of the Orlando Sentinel effectively acknowledges that the newspaper has a business relationship with World Wrestling Entertainment during the build-up to WrestleMania 24 in Orlando, though he maintains that the deal does not influence the newspaper’s coverage.

Jake Roberts’ camp is denying that there’s a set plan — first reported by Jason Powell at PROWRESTLING.net — for him to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.

As blog readers know, I’ve made a hobby horse out of the Orlando Sentinel’s absurd “Countdown to WrestleMania” coverage, and the near-certainty that World Wrestling Entertainment flacks are in bed with the newspaper’s editors.

No less Byzantine than the politics of wrestling are those of the United States Congress. Vince McMahon, a brilliant businessman, appears to have miscalculated the latter by declining to appear Wednesday at an omnibus hearing on steroids and sports that was called by Congressman Bobby Rush, chair of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Jeff Hardy has been suspended for 60 days by WWE for a second strike under the wellness policy.

Wade Keller of Pro Wrestling Torch has another must-read:

The countdown to next Sunday’s WrestleMania began with the news that ex-wrestler Chase Tatum died last Sunday, at age 34, from what his father told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was an accidental overdose.

MARCH 28, 2008 – In the call to 911 just before the corpses of Chris Benoit and his wife and son were discovered last year, World Wrestling Entertainment’s chief of security twice stated the wrong day for the wrestler’s final cryptic text messages, an investigation by author Irvin Muchnick has revealed.

On Thursday night this blog reported that the chief of security for World Wrestling Entertainment erroneously told Fayette County 911 that Chris Benoit had left a mysterious message for a fellow wrestler “this morning” – Monday, June 25, 2007 (http://muchnick.net/babylon/2008/03/28/benoit-911-call-wwe-security-chief-gave-wrong-day-of-wrestlers-last-message). On Friday I left voicemail messages on what I believe to be the cell phone numbers for WWE’s Scott James and Chavo Guerrero. James and Guerrero were colleagues and friends of Benoit’s, and had the last known contacts with him. The authorities have determined that these contacts came after Benoit murdered his wife and their son.