As we all know too well, the sport has been plagued by the issue of wrestlers dying young. A new theory about the cause of some of these deaths may add another piece to this complex puzzle. While the focus always seems to be what has been in the wrestler's bloodstream, until now no one has ever looked at potential link between injuries to the arteries in the neck and base of the skull and how that impacts the flow of blood.

Suggested Reading

• The New Theory
  
• A Photo Gallery to Help You Understand the Medical Issues

_{Photo of MR Angiogram Showing Both an Open and Dissected VA is © 2008 Dr. Carney}

I am saddened to report that Penny Banner passed away on Monday night at her daughter's home in North Carolina after a long battle with cancer. Penny is one of the legendary female figures in the wrestling business. Penny wrestled from 1954-1977. During her career, she won many regional titles and even dated Elvis Presley from 1956-1958. In 2004, she released her autobiography Banner Days. A little less than three months ago, her ex-husband Johnny Weaver passed away. Prior to their divorce, the couple had been married for 35 years.

Who walked out of Sacrifice as the TNA World Heavyweight Champion? Which WWE Diva has been released? Did Floyd Mayweather Jr. really get $20 million and did he boost the PPV buy rate for WrestleMania XXIV? What did Vince McMahon have to say at the shareholder’s meeting? Which former SmackDown announcer is going to ESPN? What two wrestling related programs return to the TV this week? Which two former WWE Champions will be hosting new reality TV shows in the near-future? Read more...

On Friday, Nick Hogan pleaded no contest to the charge of felony reckless driving involving bodily injury stemming from his automobile accident last summer. That accident left his friend, John Graziano, with permanent brain damage. The judge sentenced Nick to eight months in county jail starting immediately, five years probation, 500 hours of community service, and suspended his driver's license for three years.

Nick Hogan is most famous for being the son of Hulk Hogan and for his appearances on the reality TV show Hogan Knows Best. During today's trial, Hulk admitted that the show is scripted. Linda and Brooke Hogan also spoke on behalf of their brother at the trial. A full recap of the trial and video from it can be found at TMZ.com

This story is still far from over. There will be an upcoming civil trial over the accident.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Jonny Fairplay. Jonny is most famous for being the contestant on Survivor that faked the death of his grandmother. Such shenanigans won't work for him this Saturday night as he will participate in Ring of Honor's event at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

While Jonny is most famous for his work in the world of reality TV, he has a passion for the industry that was obvious before he was on Survivor. In this interview, we discuss his pre-Survivor wrestling career, his accident that almost killed one of the most famous wrestlers in history, his thoughts on Ashley Massaro's appearance on Survivor, and much more.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the readers of the newsletter that sent me questions to ask Jonny. One of the perks of the newsletter is that when I get the opportunity to interview wrestling stars, if time permits, I ask the readers of the newsletter for their input on what they want me to ask. Another perk of the newsletter is that I mention things in it that I don't cover on the main site. As an example, last weeks newsletter contained information about the DUI arrest of a current WWE star (Santino Marella) and the release of two WWE superstars (Balls Mahoney & Dave Taylor). If you haven't subscribed to the newsletter, click here to receive the free weekly newsletter.

_{Photo: used courtesy of Ring of Honor}

A few days ago, Rolling Stone linked Ashley Massaro to an escort service called Bella Models. In my original coverage of the report, I got some dates mixed up. While the FBI had an agent join the club in 2006, the emails the FBI have seized in regards to Ashley date back to 2004. That is before she joined the WWE and after she began her association with Playboy under the name of Ryan MacKenzie.

As far as the speculation that there is another Ashley Massaro, the author of the story, Vanessa Grigoriadis, stands by her work. The author of the piece told Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com: "Obviously, I stand by my story. Massaro is named in an FBI search warrant that was executed on Michelle Braun's property in October, 2007. I have no knowledge of another woman by the same name."

Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net was able to find archived web pages for Bella Models. There are no photos on these pages so they are relatively safe to view for those wary of seeing such sites. The page for Ashley Massaro lists her travel fee as $25,000 while the main roster page for the escorts doesn't include Ashley.

Having reread the article I was left with two major questions. The Rolling Stone article claims that Bella Models was created in 2005 after a company called Exotica 2000 was shut down. If the company wasn't created until 2005 then how did the company make travel arrangements for Ashley in 2004? I was also wondering about whether the name Ashley Massaro or Ryan MacKenzie was used? Vanessa Grigoriadis, the author of the Rolling Stone article, was kind enough to answer these questions for me.

"Well, Nici was operating an escort business before Bella Models--and the investigation by the FBI, as far as I know, is not limited only to Bella Models. I am sure that much is known about Massaro's involvement by the FBI, but all that is public at this time is one alleged incident from 2004. She is mentioned under the name 'Ashley Massaro' in the search warrant."

The big questions I think that are on the mind of wrestling fans at this time is whether the allegations are true and whether the alleged activity continued during the WWE tenure of Ashley. At this point, this appears to be a story that will take several months to play out. As more details come out, I will continue to update the site.

For those wondering, the WWE still has not made an official announcement about this story and Ashley did appear on last night's edition of Monday Night RAW.

_{Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images}

Over the weekend, Iron Man made over $100,000,000. All this talk about the movie Iron Man made me think about the Iron Men that have competed in the grueling Iron Man Matches. These matches require a wrestler to have even more endurance than Tony Stark was able to build into his armor suit.

_{Photo: Gaye Gerard/Getty Images}

The current issue of Rolling Stone which features The Hills on the cover has splashed at the top of the magazine "Inside a $25,000-a-night-escort service". Mentioned in the accompanying article The Sex Queen of LA is the following sentence:

"According to a handful of emails tracked by the FBI, Bella Models made travel arrangements for more than a dozen Playmates and porn stars, including Ashley Massaro."

Read more...

The last two television shows have been strange to say the least. For those that didn't see the shows, on Monday night, the main event featured Triple H defending the WWE Championship against the man he won it from the night before at Backlash, Randy Orton. The televised action of this match ended due to the actions of RAW GM King William Regal. He physically accosted someone in the production truck causing the screen to go black while the audio of the commentators stayed on for a few more seconds before Law and Order went on. Last night's main event on ECW featured Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero and Bam Neely in a match that had no commentators.

Monday's Abrupt Ending
The emails I have received from readers about this show have all been angry ones. I didn't see it live because I was in Atlantic City (that fact will be relevant in a few minutes). Watching it this morning, I have to say that I was having some flash backs to the old Mid-South/UWF days. Long-time fans will remember that seemingly every week the show ended with JR commentating on a main event match that ran out of television time. Read more...

The new DVD set dedicated to the Hardys will be hitting store shelves on Tuesday. Before rushing out to the store to buy this DVD, I have to issue a buyer beware alert. This 2-disc DVD focuses on the singles career of each brother and does not feature the classic tag team matches that made these men famous.

Suggested Reading:

• Review of Twist of Fate
  
• Profile of the Hardys
  
• Matt Hardy Timeline
  
• Jeff Hardy Timeline

_{Photo: © 2008 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.}