The Associated Press has picked up the latest on the Verne Gagne story, which has been ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. The investigation is currently ongoing, but it looks as if Gagne will not be charged: Coroner: Death of man pushed by Gagne a homicide MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Hennepin County medical examiner's office is calling the death of a 97-year-old man who was reportedly pushed by Minnesota wrestling legend Vern Gagne a homicide. The coroner's report says Helmut Gutmann died of complications from a broken hip he suffered after being pushed Jan. 26 at a rest home in Bloomington. While today's news release does not mention Gagne by name, Gutmann's wife has said Gagne apparently threw Gutmann to the floor at Friendship Village in Bloomington. At the time, both men were living the facility's memory loss unit and suffered from Alzheimer's-related dementia. Gutmann also had pulmonary disease. The Bloomington Police Department is investigating. Gagne wrestled at the University of Minnesota and spent a brief stint with the Green Bay Packers before turning to professional wrestling in 1950. He wrestled into the early 1980s.

Jim Ross has a new blog entry up at JrsBarBQ.com, here are the highlights: On Jack Swagger: Watching the Jack Swagger title defense of the ECW Championship Tuesday night against Christian reminded me of food. Please, no jokes as I am becoming increasing more sensitive in my AARP years. Watching some wrestling matches on TV that last 3 minutes or so is like having fast food. It's o.k. when you need a quick bite but there is noting like sitting down and having the time to enjoy a nice meal like one would find at J.R.'s Family BBQ, for example. The Swagger-Christian bout was long enough to sit down and emotionally invest in the process much akin to enjoying a Slobber-Knocker, 3 meat combo at J.R.'s. For the record, slow smoked ribs are meant to be savored not inhaled. Nonetheless this aforementioned ECW main event was a solid piece of business. On Jamie Noble: Good to hear that Jamie Noble is going to be o.k. after a near miss against big Mike Knox on Monday night in Nashville. Noble got timely medical care and having a doctor at all WWE events not to mention licensed trainers is a much needed asset for the wrestlers. Noble should be back in the ring in a few weeks and is one of the more underrated men on the WWE roster and is often an after thought to some because he's not 6'2" tall. On Ric Flair's Birthday: Happy Birthday to my long time friend Ric Flair who turns 60 years young today. Ric will eternally be young at heart and seeing him and sitting down for a visit with him will be one of my personal highlights at WM25. Ric will induct Ricky Steamboat into the WWE Hall of Fame and if you go back and take a look at the year 1989 no one in the business had better matches together than these two. Every time they wrestled they seem to put on a clinic. I wonder how many young wrestlers who truly desire to be a wrestling star some day have thoroughly studied these bouts? Between tanning and being on their computers, unfortunately not enough would be my assumption. Sorry to come off as a grumpy, old schooler but these matches were grappling art. On the Randy Savage DVD: From what I have heard, Matt Striker and Maria did the on cameras for the June release of the Macho Man Randy Savage DVD release which features 3 disc's of Savage's best bouts. Simply by looking at the match compilation, this seems as if it will be an excellent DVD for Macho Man fans who have been clamoring for a Savage DVD from WWE for years. Striker particularly knows the impressive history of Randy Savage and I am sure we will get some unique "nuggets of wisdom" from Mr. "I Hate Pronouns" who rivals the King as one the WWE's most skilled "ladies men."