FanHouse WWE

Earlier this afternoon, WWE had reported that entertainer Jeff Hardy had been found unconscious in a hotel stairwell and rushed to a Boston-area hospital. The story, first announced on WWE.com, suggested we stay tuned to the website for more details. Unfortunately, the last few years of wrestling news have been so sad and hilariously abysmal that many wrestling fans assumed the worst in conjunction with Hardy's history of injuries and drug abuse.

Thankfully, this is one of those times when your "wrestling is fake!" comments are apropos. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online can confirm that the stairwell unconsciousness and hospital-rushage are all part of tonight's Survivor Series pay-per-view. There are also spoilers below, in case you're planning on watching:

Several sources have confirmed this as storyline and that Hardy is expected to be selling the injuries on tonight's Survivor Series show.

There is a lot of speculation this will lead to an Edge vs. Jeff Hardy feud, as Edge will be the culprit. While this feud is not confirmed, there was talk of Edge vs. Hardy at Royal Rumble, and Edge flew from Tampa to Boston last night for the show.

WWE.com has changed their story to the much less scary "Will Hardy Perform?" in reaction to the press, and to make sure the legions of Hardy Boyz fans still order the show. Hopefully they've already filmed a vignette where evil Russian Vladimir Kozlov headbutts Hardy down a flight of steps. For once, the wrestling news isn't so bad. Weird, huh?

Sad news today for anybody who enjoys watching the five most enjoyable minutes of RAW every week; TMZ.com is reporting that WWE wrestler Santino Marella, real name Anthony Carelli, was pulled over by Tampa cops this morning and arrested on suspicion of DUI.

Reports say the police pulled over l'automobile di Santino after witnessing the car drifting back and forth on the road. He had "bloodshot, watery and glassy eyes" and failed two field sobriety tests including one where he couldn't hold his balance. Santino claimed to have only had a few beers (that always works). The whereabouts of tag team partner of Carlito Caribbean Cool are unknown at this time.

An important thing to remember (as Wrestling News World, who first broke the story, astutely points out) is that according to the arrest report, Marella's blood alcohol content wasn't over the legal limit of .08. Santino clocked in at somewhere between .061 and .062. TMZ adds that he took the test almost two hours after being brought in on charges and can still be prosecuted.

Marella was released on $500 bail and the WWE has yet to comment on the situation, which at worst could mean wishing Santino well in his future endeavors and at best could mean a handicap match in this very ring, right here tonight.

In a perfect world, tonight's game between the Eastern Conference leading Ottawa Senators and the Western Conference leading (and the closest thing the NHL has to a juggernaut this season) Detroit Red Wings would have been hockey's answer to Patriots/Cowboys. Yet the NHL hasn't exactly solid it as such, with the barrage of promotion and interview opportunities it gave to, say, one of those early Crosby/Ovechkin games. Maybe post-Winter Classic event fatigue, All-Star Game announcements and Ovechkin's contract signing have sucked the air out of the room. Maybe if the game was on a more widely available American television platform than HDNET, it would have cranked up the hype machine more. Maybe if Ottawa was relocated to Las Vegas before the game.

Whatever the case ... never fear, FanHouse is here. We've plucked the brains of several prominent Red Wings and Senators bloggers for previews, predictions and snappy answers to stupid questions about the Ottawa/Detroit inter-conference smack down.

WWE hottie Candice Michelle took a nasty spill off the top rope and landed face-first on the canvas in a match against Beth Phoenix on Raw Monday night, and the incident is raising renewed questions about whether WWE cares enough about its employees' safety. This is the official WWE.com video:



The Chris Benoit murder-suicide led to an increased round of criticism of the pro wrestling business and the impact that steroids have on the entertainers' lives outside the ring. But safety inside the ring is also a problem with pro wrestling.

Michelle will only be out six to eight weeks with a broken collarbone, but Pulse Wrestling argues that she could have been injured much more seriously, and that WWE puts wrestlers in the ring who just don't have the athletic talent necessary to do what's asked of them.

That certainly seems to be the case here: Michelle, who appeared in Playboy in 2006, has appeal to many fans regardless of whatever athleticism she may display.
Sorry, No Photos
UPDATE: See video of the aftermath, as Michelle is carried off on a stretcher, only to choke when she tries to get a drink of water.

As Sports Illustrated broke the story, and as Larry Brown reported here on FanHouse, 14 professional wrestlers have been linked to an illegal steroids distribution network. One of those grapplers is Adam "Edge" Copeland, whom SI reports received "somatropin, genotropin (both HGH), and stanozolol between September 2004 and February 2007" from the steroids pipeline.

Along with being the only wrestler to win all six championships on RAW and Smackdown -- quite the achievement, I imagine -- Edge was also a featured blogger for NHL.com during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, part of a gaggle of celebrities featured on the league's NHL Connect pages. (The scale of "celebrity" ranged from Christie Brinkley to Stephen Colletti from MTV's "Laguna Beach.") Edge, who began his career in the WWE wrestling with a vampire, grew up in Toronto but is an unabashed fan on the New Jersey Devils and Marty Brodeur:

I still love the Leafs and fondly remember watching them beat the Islanders in the '78 semi-finals with all my uncles and grandpa in the basement. However, as I've stated I am a fan of the goaltender. From Glenn Hall to Marty Brodeur. And therein lies the reason I love the Devils. Glenn "Chico" Resch, Sean Burke and of course, Brodeur. Meanwhile the Leafs had Ken Wregget and Alan Bester.

As you can see, Edge is a knowledgeable hockey guy, even if he only blogged a few times during the postseason. Could an image-conscious league like the NHL bring him back, after this apparent steroid entanglement and with hawks like Dick Pound ready to strike? Consider that Edge was added to NHL.com in March -- the same month in which Sports Illustrated reporters Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim first named him as being part of the steroid ring.

If it wasn't a problem then, why should it be a problem next spring? Besides, if NHL.com hired its bloggers with consumption of illegal substances in mind, then the Atlanta Thrashers may be in the market for a new one.

From the Who'd a Thunk It? file comes this odd bit of news: Wade Boggs is set to officially induct late WWE wrestler Curt Hennig - aka Mr. Perfect - into the WWE Hall of Fame.

The two were fishing buddies, apparently, after joint commercial appearances sparked a friendship:

Prior to Mr. Perfect's debut in WWE in the late 1980s, various vignettes aired previewing Hennig. He was shown in several different sporting endeavors and performing well, perfectly (pun definitely intended). For example, he was shown throwing a football down the field and catching it, too. He was able to shoot a basketball successfully into the hoop while facing the opposite direction. And he hit several home runs alongside Wade Boggs.

According to Boggs, via WWE.com, the two struck up a friendship that lasted over the years. "I met Curt in 1983 in Rochester, N.Y., and we became good friends, hunting and fishing buddies. In fact, he once saved my life while were were hunting in 2001; I got entangled into a barbed wire fence and was cut pretty badly. It took all the strength Curt had to free me and carry me about a mile back to the truck. He saved my life and has a special place in my heart; we spent as much time as we could together, and it's a shame he was taken from us so early."

Strange, but it's a relief to know that wrestlers and baseball players have some sort of connection outside of what pharmacy they receive their illegal supplements from. Encouraging stuff, this.

(Via Baseball Primer Newsblog.)