Hugh Jackman, who you may know as Wolverine from the X-Men movies or Leopold from Kate and Leopold (probably X-Men), was the celebrity guest host of WWE Raw this Monday night. Like many guest hosts, he ended up getting physically involved, and landed an amazing looking punch on wrestler Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler stumbled away, got hit with Zack Ryder’s Jumping Dick To The Face finishing move and lost the match. Later, Ziggler posted on Twitter that he suffered a “hairline mandibular fracture” of his jaw from the punch, said he will be wearing a mouth guard while it heals and would not miss any matches.
Now, keeping in mind that everyone over the age of 11 with more than two functioning teeth knows that pro wrestling is an entertainment program that sort of lives or dies by your ability to suspend disbelief while watching, it should not surprise you that TMZ followed up Ziggler’s tweet with this headline:
Hugh Jackman WWE Punch Injury
Totally Fake!
/facepalm
But sources close to the wrestler and others in the know tell TMZ … the whole thing was made up by Ziggler. There is no MRI and no fracture, although we are told Hugh really did pack a punch and Ziggler was in pain.
We’re told the WWE wasn’t in on the scam.
A scam in wrestling? Get out.
I’m actually pretty shocked that they didn’t follow it up with “and ‘Dolph Ziggler’ isn’t really even the liar’s real name!” Following in the heels (cough) of Jim Rome thinking CM Punk’s speech to end Raw was “real” and not part of the show, you’ve got to wonder why the people who don’t watch wrestling because it’s fake are the ones who can’t ever seem to accept that it’s not the UFC. Television, print and social media are all ways to tell a story, and it’s frustrating to know that somewhere a TMZ editor is weighing in on whether or not he should publish that DISNEYLAND SHOCKER! MICKEY MOUSE ACTUALLY GIRL IN SUIT story he’s just been pitched.
In a related story, TMZ is going to spend the next three days reporting about this:
[via the nerds at TMZ]