Debate of the day - Chris Benoit's legacy in wrestling

There have been a lot of articles on here lately about the greatest match, fued, wrestler etc and whilst I enjoy them I wanted to get a debate going about a topic that people can argue over and hopefully have lots of different opinions on.

Let's talk about Chris Benoit - is the WWE right to drop all reference to his career and accomplishments?

For me, the answer is YES. What he did was unforgivable. Regardless of whether it was caused by so called 'roid rage', numerous concussions over the years, drug problems or whatever the cause - his actions that fateful night overshadow what was a great career.

I was suprirsed to find that searching his name on wwe.com brings up over 10 pages of results, mostly reviews of old PPVs. I thought every trace of his career had been removed WWE, but obviously not.

He was immensely talented, a great pure wrestler. It's such a pity this happened, he probably could still be wrestling on a light schedule as he ws in phenomenal shape.

ps. Does anybdy know if the WWE knew he killed his family before the aired the Chris benoit tribute show on Raw the next night?
Has his name been mentioned on WWE tv since?

I agree that it is right that he has been removed from broadcasts. Such acts cannot be condoned under any circumstances.

I believe that they didn't know about the circumstances when they aired the tribute show, hence they did and then had a very obvious U-turn later by removing all memory of him.

I don't think it is an active Stalinist campaign to remove him from the records, just that he won't be actively talked about in terms of former matches or great stars in the way that others who are no longer competing would be.

As for whether his name has been mentioned since I am not sure though I would have thought not.

N.B. It will also be interested to see if someone adopts the crossface as a finisher one day... It became iconic with Benoit even though it was originally a Malenko move. I would be surprised if anyone did mind.

Surely it's pretty obvious WWE didn't know what happened when they aired the tribute show?
Whilst I haven't watched every second of WWE TV since the tragedy, (I turned off for a while because of it) I highly doubt he's been mentioned since. I'm guessing whoever did would be fired immediately.

Firstly for me Chris Beniot was talented in the ring no doubt about it, but he didn't have the total package lacked charisma, bland, and simply didn't stand out on the mic and even looked a bit arkward on it and I doubt during his time any of us were eager to see the up coming promo from beniot. one title run he had was about right.

On to the fateful night and the aftermath, For all his good work in his career it cannot excuse his actions that night, after all a murderer is a murderer no matter what or who they were/are.

Brady12 wrote:Surely it's pretty obvious WWE didn't know what happened when they aired the tribute show?

They must have suspected something, it happened 24 hours previously and I know several WWE superstars received very strange messages from Benoit hinting at something tragic. I would think policy would have notified the WWE of the suspicious circumstances before Raw aired.

theanimal316 wrote:

Brady12 wrote:Surely it's pretty obvious WWE didn't know what happened when they aired the tribute show?

They must have suspected something, it happened 24 hours previously and I know several WWE superstars received very strange messages from Benoit hinting at something tragic. I would
think policy would have notified the WWE of the suspicious circumstances before Raw aired.

They can't of know the facts. Are you saying they changed their stance on the situation? How can a Public company with Shareholders been seen to be endorsing a man who's murdered his 8 year old son & wife?

To answer your question his legacy? WWE is doing it's best to remove him from wrestling history I suspect in 50 years no one will remember him

Brady12 wrote:

theanimal316 wrote:

Brady12 wrote:Surely it's pretty obvious WWE didn't know what happened when they aired the tribute show?

They must have suspected something, it happened 24 hours previously and I know several WWE superstars received very strange messages from Benoit hinting at something tragic. I would
think policy would have notified the WWE of the suspicious circumstances before Raw aired.

They can't of know the facts. Are you saying they changed their stance on the situation? How can a Public company with Shareholders been seen to be endorsing a man who's murdered his 8 year old son & wife?

To answer your question his legacy? WWE is doing it's best to remove him from wrestling history I suspect in 50 years no one will remember him

It's a shame but that's the way it should be.

the animal316
in my ignorance i haven't read any of the other posts. so apologies if what i'm about to write repeats what anyone has said.

wwe didn't know at the time of airing of the tribute show what benoit had done. however, if you watch the tributes from that night, regal would only say that he was a dedicated performer, nothing more. none of the tears or praise that the others gave. apparently, after he'd done his segment, bradshaw asked him (paraphrase) "what was that about? do you think he done it?" regal didn't directly say "yes", but was more "give a couple of days, see what comes out"

my point is, that despite the locker room stories of how he was admired, respected and looked up to, there was at least one superstar who'd figured the worst.

should the wwe wipe his name from history?
that's a tough question to answer. when this was asked over on the bbc a couple of months back i used an example of churchill vs chamberlain as an analogy. i'll keep this brief! a lot of famous people are judged upon their later/last actions. churchill is remembered as a success because of WW2. his WW1 policies, and gold standard nightmare long forgotton. chamberlain is remembered as a failure because of WW2, his earlier successes forgotton. benoit as such is remembered for his curtain call; his rise as the pegasus kid through to world champion swept under the carpet, or scratched from the history books.

what benoit did was abhorent, and has completely tarnished his legacy and hall of fame credentials. but.... he was one of the best. personally, i don't agree with the wwe or wrestling in general acting like he never existed.

I've often wondered if WWE would of taken a different stance to wiping him from the history books if he'd used a stage name in the ring or even worn a mask whilst wrestling.

Feel that because he used his actual name whilst wrestling, that a connection between Chris Benoit the wrestler and Chris Benoit the person will always be there however had he of wrestled his entire career as the Pegasus Kid (think he wore a mask for this) that over time a gap would of appeared between Chris Benoit the person and The Pegasus Kid so that his matches would be allowed to be viewed once more.

Chris Benoit the wrestler was an amazing athlete, but because of his actions his wrestling legacy will always be tarnished.

JoshSansom wrote:I will also be interested to see if someone adopts the crossface as a finisher one day... It became iconic with Benoit even though it was originally a Malenko move. I would be surprised if anyone did mind.

I know it's not the EXACT same thing, but is Cena's STFU not a form of the Crossface? I say this because in both moves, one part of the body is locked into place (STFU = Leg, Crossface = Arm), then both apply grip holds to the face (STFU is just under the chin, but near enough to where the crossface is locked in [the mouth]).

JoshSansom wrote:N.B. It will also be interested to see if someone adopts the crossface as a finisher one day... It became iconic with Benoit even though it was originally a Malenko move. I would be surprised if anyone did mind.

Haven't both Shawn Michaels and HHH used the crossface in matches since the Benoit tragedy? Don't think either adopted it as a finishing move but have definitely used it. Think Michaels used it on a PPV in Canada as it got quite a pop.

Also has the diving headbutt been banned as a move "Superstars" can use? Along with the piledriver and tornado DDT. The shooting star press was banned for a while (after Kidman injured Chavo I beleive) until Evan bourne started using it.

Shawn pulled out the Crossface loads of times, Hunter also did it a lot, Christian is the last one I saw using a diving head butt the night he returned to WWE