Schmozzes & Screwjobs 07.03.2007
Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 07.03.2007
After what seems like a life time, a return to normality for the Screwjob.
Finally, Schmozzes & Screwjobs returns to it's usual format after what seems like months. Last week I dedicated the entire column to talking about the tragedy that took place in Atlanta with the Benoits, the week before that there was no column due to PC issues, the three weeks before that featured Screwjobs but in a different format as they took a look at recent and past Drafts that have taken place in the WWE, and the week before that was the in-depth analysis of the Edge vs. John Cena feud and thus there was no Screwjob. That means it's been 6 weeks since we've had a normal column. And I can honestly say it's a relieve to get back to business as normal. So let's just cut to the chase and get on with the show BAH GAWD!
Jerkin' The Curtain
What with the huge news stemming from the previous weekend, WWE Vengeance: Night of Champions more or less went under the radar and didn't get too much coverage from the writers at 411 so here are my brief thoughts on the show. It was the epitome of mediocre. Don't get me wrong, there was some decent wrestling on there but there was nothing memorable. The opening tag bout was another good encounter between The Hardys and Cade and Murdoch but not on par with their previous pay-per-view matches. Yang vs. Guerrero was another solid match but left a sour taste in my mouth because I felt like the wrong guy went over. Yang has now had 3 title shots on pay-per-view and lost them all, and let's face it he was the only credible challenger at this point. Where the Cruiserweight title goes from here is anybody's guess. I feel that Johnny Nitro vs. CM Punk received some unnecessary criticism due people being unhappy that Benoit was not going to be there, but I think under the circumstances they had a really good back and forth match. It wasn't as good as it could have been but it wasn't bad, plus you got the shock value of Nitro winning the title.
We move on to the Intercontinental Championship match. I hated the lame DQ finish although I completely understand why it was done. Unfortunately, the crowd seems to be turning Marella heel and hopefully it'll result in him being taken off of TV immediately because he clearly isn't ready for the big leagues, especially with such as shitty character. While we are on the subject of Umaga, a Foley vs. Umaga Hardcore Match needs to be booked for Summerslam right now! The United States Championship match was surprisingly good. I admit that I was worried that MVP would fail without Benoit to support him but he more than held his own against Ric Flair and they had a smooth little match and MVP continues his role of good pay-per-view matches. The SmackDown tag team title match was ugly. Nothing more, nothing less. The fact that WWE has nobody better to put in the ring against their tag team champions than Sgt Slaughter and Jimmy Snuka worries me. Nobody knows who they are, but an appearance from the Major Brothers would at least be a step in the right direction. Abyssal tag contest.
For the second straight pay-per-view Edge and Batista managed to impress me. I'd have thought going back to a one on one match from a cage match would have made things worse but they still put on a hell of a show. Batista has looked good in 2007 but he may suffer from 6 straight losses in World title matches, most of them clean as well. Still, it was a good match and now Edge can hopefully go on to feud with other people while Batista turns heel. The Women's Championship match was what you'd expect – crap, but I loved Candice's celebration. Genuine tears = ratings, my friends! You could tell that winning the belt really meant something to the girl and that gives credibility to the champion and the title. Who knows, perhaps Miss Michelle will turn out to be the next Trish Stratus.
The Open Challenge for the WWE Championship gets a paragraph of its own. The first thing I want to say is that I'm disappointed this was the main event; Edge/Batista had a hell of a lot more build going in and probably got more crowd heat and was a better match. This match had literally no build up and came off as very rushed, which brings me to my next point. 10 MINUTES?! 10 FREAKIN' MINUTES?! That's so ridiculous it's not even funny. There are 5 guys, 5 former world champions, and they can only go 10 minutes? It's not like the pay-per-view was running long or anything. This really pissed me off. Having said all that, it was a really fun 10 minutes of non-stop action. Sure, a few more false finishes (!) would have been nice but the match had sufficient drama to make it enjoyable and buy the looks of things also set up a potential Cena/Lashley program which, despite my dislike of Lashley, I'd be interested in seeing. Cena came out looking like a world-beater again and all is right with the world.
Did I say brief thoughts? Nevermind. And here are the snowflakes!
World Tag Team Championship Match - **?
Cruiserweight Championship Match - **?
Intercontinental Championship Match - ?*
United States Championship Match - **?
WWE Tag Team Championship Match - DUD
World Heavyweight Championship Match - ***?
Women's Championship Match - ?*
WWE Championship Match - ***
While we're talking pay-per-views, credit where credit's due, TNA's Slammiversary a couple of weeks ago was good stuff from top to bottom. It was easily their best show this year and on top of that they managed to follow it up with a couple of great episodes of Impact including last week's epic between Kurt Angle, Christian Cage and Rhino. While I disagree with the idea of putting all your champions in one match with all the titles on the line, the ratings (consecutive 1.2s) are proving that when you focus on the in-ring product, your company will benefit. With any luck TNA will keep this trend going for the foreseeable future.
It's that time of year where WWE and its fans are preparing for the Biggest Party of the Summer – WWE Summerslam is fast approaching and that means that the return of a certain feature is making it's way back to Schmozzes & Screwjobs in the coming weeks. The 21st Century WrestleMania Awards received an overwhelming number of votes from you, the readers, so I've decided to follow up with the 21st Century Summerslam Awards. As I did with Mania, I shall choose the nominees for each award, and then give you the chance to vote for your winners. Looking back at the Mania Awards, I'll be making a few subtle changes to the format of the whole thing, but hopefully it'll be as much of a success as it was a few months ago. And to clear up a point, seeing as I mistakenly included the year 2000 in the Mania Awards, I will be including the year 2000 in the Summerslam Awards despite it technically being a part of the 21st century. Nominees to be announced 2 weeks from now!
The Screwjob
The InVasion Screwjob
July 22nd 2001
Gund Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Background Information: On March 26th 2001, Shane McMahon made history when he appeared on the final edition of WCW Nitro. This event marked the end of an era, as the Monday Night Wars, which had been raging since 1995 were finally coming to an end and it was the WWE that was coming out on top. McMahon was there to finalize the purchase of WCW by WWE. In kayfabe, as opposed to being the end, this would just be the beginning of a storyline that wrestling fans around the world had dreamed of for years, the InVasion. What would happen is some day, Superstars from WCW, and Superstars from WWE collided in one mega event in a fight for ultimate supremacy. Shane McMahon was scheduled to battle his dad Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 17, and Shane buying WCW from under the nose of his dad not only added fuel to that enormous fire, but also would kick off a battle between two gangs that would take months before it was all over.
On April 1st 2001, Shane and Vince did battle in an hellacious street fight that saw interference from many outside parties. In the end, Shane McMahon debuted the awesome coast-to-coast trashcan dropkick and pinned his dad one…two…three in the middle of the ring on the grandest stage of ‘em all. That night Shane rubbed it in, inviting wrestlers under contract with WCW to watch Shane kick his dad's ass. In the weeks that followed WrestleMania, little mention of WCW was made but Vince continued to go after his son, only he used The Big Show to do it. Shane and Show met in a memorable Last Man Standing match at Backlash, which McMahon won after taking a 70ft drop from the tron onto the prone body of The Big Show. Vince was obviously livid.
In the following months, many WCW would "invade" WWE programming in the middle of matches. On May 28th, Lance Storm became the first WCW wrestlers to appear on WWE television when he interfered and cost Perry Saturn a victory. Rhyno would be the next WWE Superstar to suffer at the hands of WCW, as Shane McMahon led the leggy Stacy Keibler down to ringside. She used her "assets" to distract Rhyno and cost him the match. These were minor incidents, but the 2001 King of the Ring was different. Its featured main event was a triple threat match pitting WWE Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. During the pay-per-view, it was teased that if either Benoit or Jericho won the title, they would defect to WCW (both were WCW alumni). While Benoit and Jericho both denied the rumors, towards the end of the match, WCW Champion Booker T attempted to cost Austin the gold when he delivered a side slam through the announce table. Booker escaped through the crowd, but Austin would still manage to retain the championship.
Things would heat up over the next couple of weeks as on June 26th edition of Raw, WCW's Mike Awesome made history. This particular episode of Raw took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City and one of the featured matches was Test defending the Hardcore Championship against Rhyno. The match spilled out all over the arena and eventually led to the backstage area where Rhyno managed to pin Test on the concrete floor to capture the gold, though his title reign would prove to be short-lived. As Rhyno celebrated, Mike Awesome attacked him from behind, becoming the first WCW wrestler to ever step foot in the Garden. Not only that, but because of the 24/7 rule, when Awesome pinned Rhyno on the floor he became the Hardcore champion.
Two weeks later, the InVasion got turned on its head and taken to the Extreme. That night saw the return of ECW, where ECW alumni from both the WWF and WCW, along with the debuting Rob Van Dam &Tommy Dreamer and Raw color-commentator Paul Heyman, announced "the invasion has been taken to the extreme!" Vince and Shane agreed to join forces to take out ECW once and for all in a twenty-man brawl. However, when WCW and ECW faced off in the ring, they instead congratulated each other. It was revealed that ECW, with new owner Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley had merged with WCW to form a "supergroup" to more effectively challenge the WWE. The group was christened The Alliance and beat down on the WWE guys, including Vince himself, at every opportunity they could get. The July pay-per-view, now called InVasion, would be headlined by an Inaugural Brawl pitting 5 wrestlers from WWE against 5 from WCW/ECW. The battle lines had been drawn.
One of the main issues heading into InVasion was that of Stone Cold Steve Austin's allegiance. At WrestleMania X7, Austin had done the unthinkable and joined forces with arch nemesis Vince McMahon. While the two got along for several months, Austin thought that Vince was trying to replace him with Kurt Angle as Vince's new number one boy. Days before InVasion, Austin walked out on SmackDown and on the WWE because Vince said he needed the "old Stone Cold" – he was the only man that could save WWE. On the final Raw before the big show, Austin was shown drinking and playing pool at a bar not far from the arena, but refused to go to the show despite the efforts of McMahon and even his wife Debra. That night, The Undertaker delivered a rousing speech to the WWE Superstars, and Freddie Blassie did the same, even rising from his wheel chair to light a fire under the asses of the troops. Austin watched this unfold on TV from the bar. Later that evening, a brawl between the WWE and WCW/ECW superstars took over the arena. People were brawling in the car park, backstage and in the ring. With the camera on the outside of the arena, Stone Cold pulled up in his pick up truck and proceeded to open a can of whoop ass. He made his way to the ring and delivered a Stunner to every Alliance member with a pulse. The fans went fucking crazy.
The Screwjob: This recap comes from Arnold Furious' FuriousRage.com.
Inaugural brawl – WWF's Steve Austin/Undertaker/Kane/Chris Jericho/Kurt Angle w/Vince McMahon v ECWCW's Booker T/Diamond Dallas Page/Rhyno/Dudley Boys w/Shane/Steph/Paul Heyman ??
One fall to a finish. All eggs in one basket anyone? Angle's pop is deafening. Taker goes out after DDP before match kicks off and Austin's pop takes the roof off. Massive brawl on the floor to start. Austin and Rhyno find themselves in the ring when the smoke clears. Thesz press with rights hands from Austin and an Austin elbow gets an early 2 count. Superplex from Austin gets 2 and D-Von has to break it. Jericho tags in and hits a flying forearm. Rhyno fires back and Jericho finds himself under attack from Booker T. Sidekick misses and Jericho hits some chops and a hip toss. Armdrag and a bulldog gets 2. Springboard dropkick on the interfering Rhyno. Missile dropkick on Booker gets 2. Angle gets the tag to another massive pop. He feeds off the fans and pummels Booker. Heel kick from Booker and he tags D-Von. Flying back elbow from him and he stomps Angle. One clothesline later though and Kane gets a tag and a sidewalk slam for 2. Bubba prevents a chokeslam but Kane connects with a back suplex. Bubba gets a blind tag and they hit 3-D-B for 2. Kane big boots Bubba down though and he follows up with a flying clothesline from the top for 2. Taker gets the tag and he hammers Bubba. Clothesline from Bubba gets 2. Taker gets up a head of speed and hits the flying clothesline. DDP gets decked off the apron and Taker covers for 2. Old School top rope walk of doom connects and Taker clears out the WCW guys. DDP hangs him up on the ropes though and Bubba hits a suplex and a tag to Rhyno. ??Rhyno assaults Taker in the corner with shoulder blocks and stomps. DDP finally gets in and attacks Taker in the corner. Clothesline gets 2. Taker fires back with rabbit punches and gets clotheslined again. DDT from DDP gets 2. Booker comes back in and he plugs away with rights. Sidekick takes Taker over for 2. Booker ducks early on a whip though and Taker hits a DDT for 2. Austin comes back in to another big pop. He pokes Booker in the eye and stomps him in the corner. Booker gets an eye rake. Touch?. Booker avoids the Stunner and they go outside. Austin suplexes Booker out on the floor and they go back in. Jericho tags in again and goes after the Walls of Jericho. DDP comes in and gets it instead. Lionsault misses on Booker and Bubba helps to Hot Shot Jericho on the ropes. D-Von back in again and he wails away in the corner. Bubba in and Jericho hits a spinning heel kick. Both guys down. Angle gets the hot tag and he takes out both Dudley Boys. Belly to belly on both Duds gets a 2 count on D-Von. DDP interferes and Angle punks him out. Bubbabomb takes Angle down. D-Von legdrops Angle for 2. Rhyno comes in and Angle is a touch isolated. Rhyno hits a belly to belly on Angle for 2 and Austin breaks it. Bubba back in again and he's bleeding from above one eye. D-Von back in again and he shouts at Vince while hitting Angle. Booker back in and the Axe kick and the Spinneroonie connect. That gets 2. Taker breaks it. DDP comes in and hits the spinning sit out powerbomb – Austin breaks again and he's psyched up. DDP distracts the referee and the Duds do the Waaaaasssuuuuup headbutt. Jericho breaks a pinfall. Cobra Clutch slam from DDP gets 2. ??DDP works Angle on the mat and the crowd get behind his comeback. Bubba rushes in to cover the tag and Austin is ushered out while Angle is stomped again. Oh, those WCW heel bastards! Diamond Cutter and that brings Taker in to beat DDP down. Everyone comes in and it's a mess in there. Booker gets GORE'd by mistake. Taker is still beating DDP down and he takes a chokeslam. WCW ref Charles Robinson gets in Taker's face and gets a Last Ride for his troubles. Austin is down on the floor selling a knee injury. Angle is still legal but still down. Everyone brawls around outside while EMT's check on Austin. Kane preps the announce table but the Duds jump him. Duds get the tables and set one up against the rail. Kane is back up though and he chokeslams D-Von through the announce table. Bubba punks Kane out with a monitor. Bubba and Rhyno double suplex Kane through the Spanish announce table. Rhyno walks by the table and Jericho jumps him from the apron putting them both through the table. Taker and DDP have long gone through the crowd brawling. Booker and Angle are in the ring and legal. Austin is being attended to. Everyone else is laid out apart from Bubba who gets in with Booker and they double team Angle. But he battles back and fights both men. Booker gets Germaned and an Angleslam takes out Bubba. Ankle lock on Booker and the ref is bumped again. Flapjack from Booker and both men are down again. Vince tosses the WWF title in the ring and Shane runs in to grab it and punk out his Dad. Bubba is backdropped out by Angle and he Angle slams Booker and goes to the Ankle lock. Booker taps but there's no referee. Austin throws the ref back in but turns heel giving Angle the Stunner in the process. Angle is counted out and ECWCW wins the Inaugural brawl at 30.14 thanks to Austin's devious heel turn. That son of a bitch. ****. Lots of fun. Lots of action. Not an outright classic by any stretch of the imagination, thanks to the final 10 minutes of mess, but entertaining nonetheless. Austin brings in Shane, Steph and Heyman to celebrate. The heel faction drink beer and pour it on the fallen Vince McMahon and that's the end of the show. ECWCW win the big one.
The Fall Out: With the WWE's biggest star now defecting to The Alliance, WWE needed somebody to fill the void and that someone would be The Rock who returned from a kayfabe suspension to help out the WWE. In the coming months, both sets of wrestlers would go to war stretched out over a 4 month period. At Survivor Series in November, everything would come to a head. I don't want to go into detail here as we'll look at that next week, so we'll leave it for now.
The Analysis: Again, next week people.
False Finishes and Fan Cams
Summerslam 2007
It is upon us folks, and I've decided to book the whole damn show, right here, right now. Feel free to send me your own ideas for Summerslam as well as thoughts on mine.
Intercontinental Championship Hardcore Match – Umaga vs. Mick Foley - This match already has a ready-made build due to Umaga's beat down of Foley on Raw a couple of weeks ago. All it would take to get this feud off the ground is for Mick to attack Umaga, and letting him know that he doesn't forgive, and he doesn't forget. To keep things interesting and less predictable, I'd go the TNA route and have Umaga have a fear of one of Mick's deadly weapons. Barbed wire's been done, so I say we go with fire. Every time it seems like Umaga is going to take Foley out, Foley pulls out lighter fluid, or sets something on fire, be it a table or a barbed wire bat, and Umaga backs down. This leads to the Hardcore match at Summerslam where Umaga would have to win by "overcoming" his fears, taking some sort of bump through a flaming table, and retaining the Intercontinental Championship.
Four Way Elimination Match for the World Tag Team Championship – Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch vs. The Hardys vs. Paul London and Brian Kendrick vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team - The series of matches between The Hardys and the new champions has finally brought some credibility back to the tag titles so now would be an excellent time to showcase them on a bigger stage, and there aren't many bigger stages that Summerslam. This doesn't need much build, just each team winning matches over each other and thus they all have reasonable claims to be top contenders. I'd eliminate Matt and Jeff first to put an end to their reunion for now, allowing both guys to go back to singles and also allow all the fans to get behind London and Kendrick. Benjamin and Haas would have to go next and then we're down to the final two. Let the champs retain via shenanigans and then we can build to a tag feud that lasts a couple of months and get some more great tag wrestling on Raw. Everyone's a winner!
Triple Threat Match for the ECW Championship – Johnny Nitro vs. CM Punk vs. Elijah Burke - This would be the culmination of the Punk/Burke feud that has been raging all year long, and with Nitro involved we get to settle it for the title. Summerslam would be the perfect time for the straight-edge superstar to claim his first world title and create a tremendous feel-good moment. I think it's just a matter of time until Punk wins the belt and now would be the best time to do it, in my opinion.
The Great Khali vs. Batista - Those who don't read SmackDown spoilers, skip this paragraph. From what transpired on SmackDown this week it is apparent that Khali and Batista will go one-on-one at The Great American Bash, however I expect this to be just the beginning of what will be a horrendously bad feud. But with that in mind, this is a match that should have the interest of the majority of fans who aren't smarks. Furthermore, having been losing for the pasts 6 months pretty much non-stop, The Animal needs to regain some credibility fast and beating Khali is a pretty good way of going about it.
Triple H vs. Randy Orton - We've been hearing about this one of a long time and it looks like it will finally be upon us come Summerslam, which should be The Game's first match back from injury. Orton has apparently been built up over the last few months, solely so that it'll make Trips look even better upon his return, but I'm not going to complain because I'm glad he's back and eager to see him in the ring again. I'm intrigued to know how they will book this match but I'd guess it'll be a simple rivalry with Orton bragging about how he nearly ended The Game's career and wants to finish the job. One thing is for sure though, come Summerslam, The Legend Killer will… bow down to the King!
World Heavyweight Championship Match – Edge vs. Rey Mysterio - Rey Mysterio is another guy that is set to return to the ring in the next couple of months and Summerslam is bound to be his first pay-per-view match since his return. That being said, WWE still wants to bill Mysterio as a top name and there's no one else on the roster at the moment that can face Edge for the title. The feud that was set up on SmackDown is clearly filler for the Summerslam program. I'd assume they'll set the match up with Mysterio winning a battle royal or a number one contender's match on SmackDown. Edge and Mysterio had tremendous chemistry when they were teaming together a few years ago and I see no reason why they can't make that chemistry work against each other.
WWE Championship Match – John Cena vs. Bobby Lashley - This feud is going to go past The Bash. Lashley spearing Cena last night wasn't a heel turn per se, because JR and King were putting it over as "sending a message" as opposed to "that bastard just turned on Cena." So I can tell you now that next week's Raw will end with Cena hitting Lashley with the FU and the match at The Bash will remain face vs. face. However after that, I expect Lashley to turn heel and continue to pursue the WWE Championship heading to Summerslam. These guys seem to have good chemistry and hopefully Cena can work his magic to get some pretty good matches out of Lashley and if he does indeed turn heel, I wouldn't be opposed to Lashley taking the title.
Reader Feedback
As opposed to respond to every piece of feedback this week, I'll just print what I got and if there's something I feel needs commenting on, I'll make a point to do so. However, I'd like to thank those who did send me emails, because every single one of them were understanding, reasonable, and no-one came out and said "fuck you" which is always nice. So thank you readers, for your kind responses and sharing your thoughts. Here we go;
Tend to agree with you totally on this. It was not good finding this out but I do believe that Benoit was not in a normal state of mind and couldn't really control his thoughts and actions like a normal human would. It is extremely sad and devastating, and I feel really sorry for everyone involved. Don't think many wrestling fans will ever wrap there minds around this. I don't know if I am making excuses for him because I'm a huge fan of him personally and as a performer or whether my thinking is what I would think of anyone in this situation. What I do know is that if I (and I don't think many wrestling fans) will ever wrap their minds around this.
Shane n Ireland
I did wonder myself if I was making excuses, and I still don't have that answer.
I just wanted to say Thank You.
Thank you for looking at the other side of things because I see it the same way
as you do. I feel that yes, murder is wrong. But at the same time, Benoit did
not seem to be in his right mind because something did not seem right about
leaving a body there for a certain period of time and not doing anything about
it (calling the police, etc). Of course, when I first heard it, it was 11:00
that Monday night, so my jaw dropped and I headed onto here. I couldn't even
access this page, so I had to go to a competitor's website (SHOCK!~!~!) and I
was honestly just devastated. I couldn't get the thought of Daniel out of my
mind (especially when I have a nephew who is the same age as him) and it just
tore me up. It was hard for me to sleep that first night, and I kept checking
the next day to maybe, just maybe find out that someone was wrong.
Yet it wasn't.
The news just kept rolling with the murder-suicide thing going on and everything
like that. It just made me rather sick to my stomach really. But like you, it
will NOT tarnish my view of him as a great wrestler. I rewatched the
documentary Tuesday night, and it actually gave me a bit of respect for him as a
wrestler.
Maybe I'm just a little crazy. Anyway, great column and your moments are right
on the spot because I absolutely LOVED that ladder match. I remember seeing
that chair shot and actually being scared for his safety because, even though he
had his hand up somewhat, it looked horrific.
Mick Price
You say that you couldn't get Daniel out of your head; well I have to admit to the opposite. The first few days, I barely thought of Nancy and Daniel, just about what we lost in Chris Benoit. This is probably because we didn't really know Nancy and Daniel like we all (thought?) we knew Benoit, but I still felt bad about it.
Thank you for your article on Chris Benoit. I feel the exact same way.
Shannon Martin
Shannon is such a cool name.
Imo, good job man, as I'm of the same of prolly not ever really processing this whole thing. but btm line for me, Chris was my hero and i'll always remember him as my hero. b/c i will always believe that the Chris that did this wasn't the real chris benoit. I could go on for days explaining that further but i'm not. Just end by saying, i thought your column was great and also I'll continue to pray that God will forgive chris.
I will miss them all (Nancy, Daniel and Chris).
Jamie
Thanks Jamie.
Much respect for even being able to write a column, my man. This is just crazy and i do not know, if ever, i will be able to get over this. Please let me wake up and find this has all been a horrible, horrible nightmare.
Kevin
Thanks, and I share your pain and disbelief still.
I have a funny feeling you're going to get a lot of Eff-You's over your column, and I hope you realize I'm not one of them. I've been e-mailing and posting for the past two days, expressing pretty much the exact same sentiment that you had -- that we don't know what was going through his head at all, and that 'insane' doesn't HAVE to mean 'heat of passion' like a lot of people seem to be saying (Sforcina suggested that while he 'hoped' that Chris was insane, that "that doesn't seem to be the case". I questioned his definition of the word).
And honestly, I want to hear from people that want to remember him fondly, even if they can't pull it off. Because I'm having difficulty with the 'fondly' part, but I'm also having difficulty understanding why people who loved the man's work want to see him burn in hell. I can't shift gears that quickly, and I can't comprehend anyone else who can, either. Hell, it took me two years to change my opinion of OJ completely, despite the fact that I judged that he was most likely (and then most definitely) guilty of the accused crimes by about halfway through the trial. And besides, anger is the most-wasted emotion of them all, as practically nothing good can possibly come of it, so why go there? For those raging about this, I say, go look at Edge's or Chavo's tribute ... oh wait, they took it down ... well, someone's probably got a torrent up somewhere ... and just let the waterworks go on automatic. Because you cannot imagine the hell his friends are going through -- they lost their friend, and in what has to be the DEFINITIVE worst-possible way now, because usually, when you lose a loved one, you can comfort yourself by telling yourself they're in a better place. Adam Copeland, Dean Malenko, Chavo Guererro, Jr., and Kurt Angle (among others) can't feel that as a certainty, not by any stretch of the imagination. I had a similar problem when my second cousin committed suicide, although my priest assured me that God's mercy is infinite, and that he shows pity on those with disturbed minds (she pathologically wanted to be with her late mother), so I personally feel he has an outside shot at seeing Eddie and Owen again immediately (and a solid shot at purgatory if that falls through). But that's just my opinion, and I have no idea whether their opinions will match that.
That's about it. I'm going to keep praying for all of the Benoit family, even Chris, but I think it's about time I make an attempt at accepting it happened. I hope I can ... I pray we all can.
Sincerely,
John Wozniak
Orlando, FL
Nice piece John. Good to see someone thinking about those close to Benoit, which unfortunately there hasn't been too much of recently.
"Not a damn thing to do with screwjobs" I disagree Dan.. This is the mother of all screwjobs. We've been screwed. Wrestling fans around the world have been screwed.. When we all have to watch wrestling without the joy of seeing one of the best ever in the ring, then Dan, we're screwed. Unfortunately, it's Chris Benoit himself who screwed us.
I'm not sure if i ever lived sadder days than these.. My emotions are mixed, and i don't know what to feel. What could be worse than losing your favorite professional wrestler when you're a wrestling fan? Well it's knowing that he killed his wife and kid before taking his own life.
Monday night, i'm in front of my television waiting to watch another 3 hour edition of monday night Raw, already pissed off that an entire show will be wasted on the Vince storyline, and i see Vince himself in the ring in an empty arena, i thought "wow, he's back from the dead in 2 weeks!".. Until he said that in real life, Chris Benoit and his family were found dead. Well i was struck by lightning, i started thinking what could have possibly happened, that made Benoit miss the PPV on Sunday and get killed.. As i'm watching the show in tears, i started thinking about what could have happened to one of my personal heroes in his last days, clearly something was wrong. But i never saw this coming.. The show itself was curious, and kind of suspicious, why an empty arena? If you hear Edge, Regal, and Chavo's words, you sense something was wrong. I didn't think too much about it, instead i just watched in shock the classic Benoit matches they were showing. That is until i logged in on the internet and found out the horrible truth. What could lead a man who has seemingly never got in trouble in his life do something like this? How can a man so loved and so respected by everybody do something like this? He always talked about the importance of his family, and his love for his child, how could he wake up one day, cancel his flight and decide to kill his wife and child.. I don't want to know. And frankly i think people are trying to analyze too much into this, we'll never know the truth. It might have been depression, it might have been insanity, we'll never know. Roid rage? yeah right, roid rage that lasts 3 days? where you kill your wife one day, your son the next, you spend time with the bodies then you kill yourself? That's what the media is trying to make out of the story, a professional wrestler suffered from the effects of steroids and killed his family...
But all that aside, am i supposed to hate him now? Maybe i should but i can't.. Yes i'm really disappointed, i'm no longer able to think of him as only one of the best of all time, but also the man who killed his family. I believe we should try to separate the wrestler from the man, but we will be fooling ourselves. Is that possible? After all he wrestled using his real name, his character was really close to what he was in real life (at least that's how it looked), he didn't have an over the top gimmick or anything, he was just Chris F'N Benoit, the most respected man in professional wrestling today, and by a mile, the best wrestler of his generation. Everybody's mad, because he was THE man to imitate if you're a wrestler, weather it's in the ring, outside of the ring, backstage attitude, everything. Benoit was the man. Or so we thought. I have trouble swallowing the news, because for me it's almost personal. I feel betrayed. He was a hero for me. I grew up idolizing Bret Hart, i still do, the Hitman was my personal hero, he was superman. I broke into tears after he "lost" in montreal. Then as i started getting into the internet thing, a new hero was on the rise. His name was Chris Benoit. My favorite wrestler ever, he's now gone, and HOW! that's the saddest part. This isn't like when Eddie Guerrero died. Benoit got a tribute in an empty arena that later the WWE apologized for it. His name will no longer be mentioned on WWE television. He's erased from the company's history. They don't want anything to do with him. No hall of fame no nothing. I can't say i blame them. But it's just sad, that one of the greatest of all time just ruined his legacy like that. I usually watch 2 hours of wrestling a day, when there's no wrestling show on television, i watch some of my wrestling tapes, DVD's and matches that i download each day. Ever since he died i haven't watched a minute of wrestling. Will i ever watch again? Probably.. Is it anytime soon? i don't think so. Though i sure hope so. I can't do it. I watched his tribute, and then was thinking that i'll be watching Benoit matches all week, but after i heard the details i couldn't. I watched the WM XX match so many times, i can do the Play by play without watching it. Like you said, J.R's words are stuck in my head as HHH tapped out. I can't watch it again. It's really a mixture of emotions. It's anger, sadness, disappointment, everything. I don't know anything anymore, we can't even say Benoit was a bad man. I refuse to think that way. I refused to think that a man who lived 40 years with no trouble at all is a bad man. But he's a murderer. And murderer = bad right? i don't know. Who knows what happened, we probably never will, and i don't even want to know.
One fact is for sure, He was one of the best ever. That's something that should never be forgotten. Years of entertainment and pleasure won't be forgotten. Maybe they don't taste so well after what he has done, but they won't be forgotten. Ask anybody to mention a top 5 wrestlers of all time list, and Benoit's name is up there. He belongs there with the likes of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Jushin "thunder" liger, Misawa and others. No matter what happened he will always be my favorite wrestler ever and i just hope i can get over his death, and go back to watching wrestling as soon as i can. In closing here are my favorite Benoit moments ever:
10- Benoit Shows up on Raw. Well simply because finally we were going to be able to watch Chris Benoit wrestle in a place who's not a shithole called WCW.
9-Austin vs Benoit, Smackdown, June 2001, in Edmonton, Benoit's hometown. The best Smackdown match in history.
8-His match when he was still wrestling as Pegasus Kid against Jushin "thunder" Liger in 1991, Benoit lost and he had to unmask.
7- Diving headbut off the ladder, at WrestleMania 21, money in the bank match. Sure he has done tones of diving headbuts from ladders and even cages before, but his image AFTER the headbut is one i'll never forget. With blood pouring out of his head after the stitches got opened, and the way he sold it, Just beautiful.
6- The series of near falls against Dean Malenko at WCW hog wild 1996. Just watch it if you haven't. Those 30 seconds just make me want to watch the match over and over whenever i think about it. The way the traded nearfalls with complete ease proves that wrestling is, as Bret Hart calls it, an art. And Benoit was an artist.
5- His match against the great sasuke for the super J cup in 1994.. Just fantastic action.
4-His match with Kurt Angle at the Royal Rumble 2003, and the standing ovation he received after the match, even though he lost. The match was fantastic, and the emotions on Benoit's face as the fans were applauding and chanting his name were priceless.
3- His match against Bret Hart at Nitro in 1999, in the memory of Owen. My two favorite wrestlers ever having a 5 star match in WCW, something i never thought i would see.
2-Raw is War, May 2001, Benoit and Jericho beat HHH and Austin for the world tag team titles. Quite possibly the best straight tag team match ever. The drama, and the emotions, and the finish of the match or fantastic. This is also in my opinion the best match in Raw history.
1-Wrestlemania XX.. What it is to say that hasn't been said already? This is the best Wrestlemania main event ever (notice something on this list?) I got choked up on Raw last monday when they showed Benoit celebrating with his wife and kid after the match. No i don't believe he was faking the emotions. His image as he kissed his son again and again are disturbing when you think 3 years later he took his son's life. I just don't understand things like this.
In the end, just like you said.. Thank you Chris Benoit for the memories.
And thanks for your time..
Samer
Some great points Samer. I think you're right about the idea that we'll never know what really happened, because the only ones who may be able to tells us are now gone. And a tremendous list as well, the Angle/Benoit match in particular is one I can't believe I didn't include on my own list.
And that's it. Thanks again to everyone who wrote in. It's shitty times like this when you appreciate those willing to share their views with you even more. Thanks guys.
Taking It Home
Another week, another Screwjob. Same time, same place, next week.
