A rumor is swirling that World Wrestling Entertainment star Randy Orton attempted suicide within the last year. Very well-placed wrestling sources tell me that the rumor is true. In the wake of the June murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and the scandal involving scads of WWE performers who ordered steroids and human growth hormone from the Internet gray-market dealer Signature Pharmacy, this is serious stuff.
Its already clear that WWEs response to the Signature revelations generated by the district attorney in Albany, New York, and reported by Sports Illustrated and others is a joke. Some vague number of the miscreant wrestlers, not named, were suspended, but the suspension appears to have consisted of simply being downgraded for a few weeks in TV storylines.
From the same evidence, Randy Orton was not touched at all. That is more than a little strange. Ortons Signature Pharmacy order marked, at the very least, his second strike under WWEs so-called wellness policy, which would have called for a 60-day (rather than a 30-day) suspension.
The suicide whispers mark the problem as more than a game of gotcha or even taste (Orton acquired the gimmick Legend Killer after WWE blithely turned Eddie Guerreros 2005 death into just another angle). Its a matter of life and death. (Subsequent to the first publication of this item, readers have pointed out that the Orton actually began using the Legend Killer gimmick well before Eddie Guerrero died. It is both accurate and fair to note that the gimmick was applied with a special new level of tastelessness subsequent to Guerreros death.)
Orton, 27, is a third-generation wrestler. He is engaged to marry Samantha Speno, a part-time gymnastics teacher, this fall. Last year Randy and Samantha moved into a country-club estate in High Ridge, Missouri (suburban St. Louis), complete with a gym, a hot tub, and four decks.
Over to you, WWE.
Irvin Muchnick
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