Wrestling Journalist Claims Randy Orton Attempted Suicide In The Past Year
Submitted by Daniel Pena on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 3:17 PM EST





Irv Muchnick — a widely published writer, author of the 2007 book Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death, and Scandal and nephew of the late, legendary St. Louis wrestling promoter Sam Muchnick - claimed today in a blog post on his web site that well-placed sources within WWE have told him that Randy Orton attempted suicide sometime in the last year in the wake of the murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and the drug scandal involving the Orlando-based drug firm, Signature Pharmacy.

Below is the post from his website:

Did Randy Orton Attempt Suicide?

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.

It’s already clear that WWE’s 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. Orton’s Signature Pharmacy order marked, at the very least, his second “strike” under WWE’s 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 Guerrero’s 2005 death into just another “angle”). It’s a matter of life and 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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