- As noted before, a video recently surfaced online of WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper smoking marijuana from a bong in front of a crowd. TMZ now has an article on the situation. The incident took place this past August at the Gathering of the Juggalos — an Insane Clown Posse fan festival.

Regarding the incident, Piper issued the following statement to TMZ: “I am not an advocate of using drugs, however due to the lack of appropriate medicine, this alternative treatment was recommended to alleviate the symptoms associated with cancer.”

Piper was diagnosed with cancer in November 2006. Last night’s episode of TMZ featured a segment on the story, which included footage of Piper wrestling Hollywood Hogan at WCW Starrcade 1996. In the segment, the TMZ narrator questioned Piper’s decision to smoke weed passed on from someone who’s obviously not a doctor after running his statement on it being medical. They lampooned Piper’s “medical excuse” more by running down the excuses Arnold Schwarzenegger, Snoop Dogg and Woody Harrelson likely would have used in order to smoke pot.

If you’ve yet to see the Piper video, we have it here on the WrestleNewz.com video pages.

We noted one wrestler in particular as failing for pot 11 or 12 times not to mention that his push of not that long ago was stopped.

According to sources backstage, the wrestler in question who failed a dozen tests for pot is The Brian Kendrick, whose push has leveled off in recent weeks. Kendrick is said to be a frequent marijuana smoker who happily pays the fines to continue his habit.

Amidst the story of WWE’s marijuana crackdown, the Pro Wrestling Torch noted that one wrestler was let go this year as a result of his marijuana habit, at least on top of a few other things. The wrestler in question is Trevor Murdoch, who was released this past July. Murdoch is said to be a frequent marijuana smoker.

- WWE developmental wrestler Gabe Tuft is doing a surfer gimmick in Florida Championship Wrestling. He’s going under the name “Tyler Reiks” in the promotion, which is second name change in recent weeks. He went under the name “Taj Milano” for a few weeks following the company’s directive to change a number of FCW wrestlers’ ring names. Reiks has an elbow drop called “High tide” and his finishing move is a moonsault is called “The Big Kahuna.” Reiks has the kind of size, look and body company officials like, so that helps his cause in being called to the main roster. Tuft was signed to a developmental contract last year out of the UPW wrestling promotion, which has produced the likes of John Cena, Chris Masters, Victoria and Heidenreich.

- WWE developmental wrestler Lupe Viscara is now going under the name Lupe Santiago. He initially debuted under his real name, then Lupe Martinez. FCW is billing him from Mexico City and he comes out with a Mexican flag. Viscara is 21 years old and was the last wrestler to be signed to a WWE developmental contract (alongside Andrew Vein, who has been inactive for quite some time) out of the Ohio Valley Wrestling school.

- For the 12/30 RAW taping in Portland, Maine, a match featuring John Cena & Batista vs. Randy Orton & JBL is advertised as the (dark match) main event.

- Last week, two names surfaced regarding the wrestlers most likely to be cut from World Wrestling Entertainment. The names that came up were Armando Estrada and Deuce. Estrada’s release was finalized by the company this past Tuesday. Thus far, Deuce has evaded the chopping block, but his future in WWE definitely appears grim as his name came up on being let go by the company alongside Estrada’s. It’s pretty much only a matter of time before WWE parts ways with Deuce as well.

More releases are expected to be announced as WWE continues to cut costs, so stay tuned.

A few days after last year’s WrestleMania, Fox (real name Victoria Crawford), along with current ECW stars Jack Swagger (real name Jake Hager) and Ricky Ortiz (known as Atlas DaBone in developmental) showed up in no condition to perform at an Ohio Valley Wrestling show. All three current ECW stars showed up to the Friday, April 6, 2007 Ohio Valley Wrestling house show allegedly “stoned out of their minds” and reeking of marijuana.

The wrestlers were immediately reprimanded by Idol Stevens, who occupied a head position in the organization at the time before being being let go by WWE later in the year.

The three wrestlers were very new to the business at the time. Crawford signed with WWE when Kelly Kelly signed her deal in the spring of 2006. Johnny Ace recruited the two after seeing their pictures in a modeling catalog. Jim Ross & Ace recruited Swagger because he was a highly regarded amateur wrestler out of the University of Oklahoma. Ricky Ortiz was signed to a deal within mere months of his debut in early 2007, largely due to his look.

- There is talk between New Japan and TNA about sending talent to this year’s Tokyo Dome show in January.

- If you’re wondering, Jim Cornette is still with TNA acting as an agent.

- There has been a lot of talk within TNA of releasing some undercard talents who aren’t used regularly. There’s always talk of dropping the talents who aren’t featured on TV or in regular roles but there’s been more discussion about it in the past few days.

- Paul Heyman has updated his UK Sun blog with his thoughts on Brock Lesnar’s UFC Heavyweight title win last weekend. Heyman writes, “Brock Lesnar’s greatest strength is not physical. It’s a great athlete’s mentality and acceptance of instruction.” He added, “For all the talk about ‘Size does matter’ and ‘Youth and power prevailed over age and experience,’ the secret to Brock’s success is his intense drive to be the alpha male, to be number one at what he does, to be dominant against all competition … and his willingness to simultaneously be humble enough to accept the advice of others that he trusts, listen to their guidance, and implement their game plan.” Heyman also talks about the first time he met Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon’s initial reaction to Lesnar’s “Next big thing” moniker.

Christian’s name has came up in WWE meetings and he has been offered a deal, but the talk is more of what to do with him if they sign him and not any real concrete plans based on his return being guaranteed. Brian Gewirtz wants Cage on RAW because he enjoys writing for him. Michael Hayes and Edge are pushing for him to be on SmackDown and to put the two back together. The feeling is that he will get a big push coming in but if the initial reaction isn’t too good, he will be put on the midcard.

- Sting will not be going on the upcoming UK tour in January but most everyone else will with the exception of Booker T. Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley and Kevin Nash are all booked for the tour.

- The match between Sgt. Slaughter and Pat Patterson that we posted on previously that Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe used for inspiration at Turning Point was the 1981 Alley Fight in Madison Square Garden. Jim Cornette put together the Beer Money vs. MCMG match.

- It looks like the Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett match will take place at the January pay-per-view. It was originally scheduled for December but they figure the longer it’s delayed, the better the story behind the match gets.

- TNA had to edit iMPACT before the Turning Point pay-per-view where Mick Foley did a promo and called the TNA World Title the NWA Title. The crowd in the iMPACT Zone corrected Foley in unison.