WRESTLING BABYLON News

As usual, the media reports out of Atlanta about the U.S. Attorney’s “superseding” indictment of Dr. Phil Astin — wow, 175 new counts! — misses the point.

The May 29 indictment, which can be viewed at http://muchnick.net/Astin.pdf, replaces the original one of last summer, but what it subtracts is a lot more important than what it adds.

The references to Astin’s prescriptions for Chris Benoit’s friend, the late wrestler Mike Durham (”Johnny Grunge”)? Gone.

The massive evidence of Astin’s promiscuous steroid prescriptions, including Benoit’s vaunted ten-month supply every three to four weeks? Poof!

Instead, the superseding indictment is all about painkillers and anti-anxiety agents: Percocet, Oxycontin, Lorcet, Xanax, Soma.

Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer publisher, told me: “Astin was best known in the Atlanta sports community for prescribing steroids to athletes, not painkillers (though obviously any doctor doing the steroids is going to wind up doing the painkillers to wrestlers and anti-anxiety meds because those come with the same territory). In the case of Benoit, where the amount is already public record and clearly over-prescribed, there is obviously a decision that was made not to go into that territory.”

That decision fits the same pattern as the slow, tortuously incomplete sheriff’s report on the double murder/suicide. Whether by accident or by design, World Wrestling Entertainment’s agenda, to emphasize the personal and anomalous aspects of the Benoit story and to whitewash the industrial and environmental factors, is being served left and right, by county and federal authorities alike, in northern Georgia.

For those of you keeping score, patient “C.M.B.” in the indictment is Chris Benoit. “N.E.B.” is Nancy Benoit. “O.G.” is probably Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio). “M.R.J.” seems to be Mark Jindrak; “R.W.H.,” Bob “Hardcore” Holly; “M.A.B.,” Buff Bagwell.
Irv Muchnick

In the last days, NBC has reversed field on its plan to do a story for the Dateline investigative series pegged to the first anniversary of the Benoit double murder-suicide. I don’t know why the plug was pulled, but I do know that the producers were deep into production details when the decision was made.

Irv Muchnick

Yesterday this blog reported on calls from Chris Benoit’s good friend, Dean Malenko, which were not included in the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office interpretive phone log, an appendix to its case-closing report.

The 52-page case summary also has not a single reference to Malenko. The report does, however, go on at length about the Aqua Pro pool-cleaning service and about Pastor George Dillard’s interpretation of why Chris looked up a Wikipedia reference to the First Book of Kings, Chapter 17.

On March 31 I asked Detective Ethon Harper if his investigative team ever interviewed Dean Malenko. Harper said no.

Irv Muchnick

A little more on our previous posts (here, here, and here) about calls to Chris Benoit’s cell phone that the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office log mysteriously dropped:

I’ve identified two more calls from Chavo Guerrero. One was late afternoon Sunday, June 24, just before fellow text-message recipient Scott James (Armstrong) also called. The other call from Guerrero was late Monday morning, June 25 — in between a call to Benoit’s cell by WWE executive John Laurinaitis and one to the Benoit home phone by WWE security consultant Andrews International.

There were also two calls from WWE booker Dean Malenko, one of Benoit’s closest wrestling colleagues. (Benoit, Malenko, and the late Eddie Guerrero were known as “The Three Amigos.”)  Malenko’s phone number is identified in the midst of two flurries of Sunday messages to Benoit — one in late afternoon, the other late at night (either near the end, or after the conclusion, of the pay-per-view show in Houston).
Irv Muchnick

Yesterday Fox 5 Atlanta reported that the Benoit family house in unincorporated Fayetteville, Georgia, is finally for sale. (So is their previous house in nearby Peachtree City, which is also among the estate’s assets.) Last year it was prematurely reported that Nancy Benoit’s family, the Toffolonis, and Chris Benoit’s family had settled estate issues. But as of last week the estate matter was truly settled, possibly setting the stage for litigation against World Wrestling Entertainment.

An English translation of Sunday’s report on deaths in pro wrestling, on L’Effet Papillon on France’s Canal +, can be viewed at http://muchnick.net/FrenchScript.pdf. Thanks to Sybilla Suda for the translation.
Sabrina Van Tassel’s nine-minute piece, entitled “Catch Me If You Can,” streams at http://www.canalplus.fr/index.php?pid=2226 (select the video “du 25/05: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN” under “EXTRAITS DE L’EMISSION”). There is also a link at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5kfbv_catch-me-if-you-can-leffet-papillon_news.

The French television report on deaths in pro wrestling, which was broadcast today on L’Effet Papillon on the Canal + network, can be viewed online.

“Catch Me If You Can,” reported by Sabrina Van Tassel, streams at http://www.canalplus.fr/index.php?pid=2226 (select the video “du 25/05: CATCH ME IF” under “EXTRAITS DE L’EMISSION”).

A YouTube link and an English translation of the script will be posted shortly.

The following chronology of Monday, June 25, 2007 — uncovered by drilling deeper into the final phone calls to Chris Benoit than the sheriff’s report chose to do — may prove crucial:

11:00 a.m.   WWE executive calls the cell phone of Benoit, who has already been dead for 24 hours.

11:18   Andrews International, WWE private security contractor, calls the Benoit home.

12:30 p.m.   According to the WWE timeline, company executives first become aware of Benoit’s early Sunday morning text messages to Scott James (Armstrong) and Chavo Guerrero.

12:45   WWE contacts local law enforcement.

1:16   Andrews International’s Dennis Fagan, obviously not well briefed on the facts, calls the Fayette County 911 Communications Center.

Irv Muchnick

Dave Meltzer responded to our item two days ago about the story in the May 26 Wrestling Observer Newsletter on this blog’s log of phone calls to Chris Benoit that were omitted in the log accompanying the Fayette County Sheriff’s Report.

Dave said his reporting that Scott James (Armstrong) had not called Benoit came after noting that calls from WWE people stopped late morning Monday, June 25, 2007. So the intent was to say that Scott did not call Chris that day. My log (http://muchnick.net/MoreCalls.pdf) shows that Scott did place a call late Sunday afternoon.

Irv Muchnick