Last September this blog ran a controversial report on what I speculated was a suicide attempt by World Wrestling Entertainment’s Randy Orton. By any name, the incident in 2006 illuminated lifestyle and WWE drug-testing issues that were pertinent in the wake of the Chris Benoit rampage of June 2007.
Now Orton, married and a new father, is said to have had a motorcycle accident, reinjuring a broken collarbone that has been keeping him out of action.
Here’s Dave Meltzer in the August 18 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: “I don’t want to insinuate anything on this that I don’t know and it very well could be real, and this is pro wrestling, so it also could be made up although this would be a different direction for WWE to make something like that up. I can’t believe the idea Orton would make it up and tell WWE, because he’s got to know that they would investigate for verification and if he did, it would very likely get him a suspension if not fired, so I don’t buy that as likely. But this happened on 8/10. As of 8/12, there was nothing in any St. Louis media on this, and one would think that kind of an accident to a local celebrity where he’s very lucky to be alive would make media.”
Meltzer goes on to note that his attempt to find a record of the accident from the police of several municipalities and agencies around Orton’s suburban St. Louis home was fruitless.
Irv Muchnick