Well known wrestling journalist and author of the book â€�"Wrestling Babylon”, Irv Muchnick claimed today in a blog post on his web site that well-placed sources within WWE have told him that Randy Orton recently attempted suicide.

Below is an excerpt from his web site:

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 â€Å"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 â€Å"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 â€Å"gotcha” or even taste (Orton acquired the gimmick â€Å"Legend Killer” after WWE blithely turned Eddie Guerrero’s 2005 death into just another â€Å"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