Hitting Below The Beltway 11.25.07: The Crippler Controversy

Posted by Alex Barcham on 11.25.2007

Shawn Michaels' use of the Crippler Crossface at Survivor Series has caused a bit of controversy. Was it too soon? Will it ever be okay? In this week's column me and my special guest/roommate debate whether or not HBK and WWE made a mistake using the Crossface.

Last Sunday at Survivor Series, Shawn Michaels caused a bit of a controversy by using the Crippler Crossface in his WWE Title match with Randy Orton. Some people found this offensive, some didn't. On Monday, I got into a long and increasingly heated email debate with my roommate, who shall remain nameless since he doesn't want to be associated with the unwashed masses of the Internet Wrestling Community, over whether or not this was a mistake.

Alex: Apparently Shawn used the crippler crossface last night.

Roommate: Yeah I read that. Didn't seem like too much of an uproar happened.

Alex: Yeah, it just pisses me off when they do stupid crap like that. There was no reason for him to do it. He's a face stealing a murderer's finishing move, which he may have actually used to kill his son. And it actually would have been really cool if in its place he had used the Walls of Jericho as a tease for Jericho coming back.

Roommate: I see it as the opposite. Benoit was fucked up. The world knows that, but WWE can't go hiding from it and denying it that he ever existed.

If you go ahead and ban all the moves that are somehow associated with Benoit, I think it seems like you drawing attention to the fact that Benoit was a wrestler for your company. It's not like Benoit created any of those moves either, they were made famous by wrestlers before him and they can be adopted by wrestlers after him. It's just a move. Are you going to ban the diving headbutt, 3 German Suplexes, or even a stiff chop too?

The fans are smart enough to know that Benoit wasn't in his right mind. He had issues. The fans didn't boo or go silent when he did it. It just happened. It fit with the story of the match. HBK is using the most vicious moves to try to make Orton tap. He busted out the ankle lock and the sharpshooter too. It made sense.
They way you move on from the tragedy is to do business as usual. If you tiptoe around it...people are going to notice you are tiptoeing around it. Just move on.

Alex: I think they actually shouldn't give anyone the crippler, the diving headbutt or the triple germans for a long time. It's not hiding from it; it's not rubbing it in people's faces. I think Kurt Angle should keep doing the triple germans, because that's Kurt's move. Bryan Danielson should stop doing the diving headbutt, because it's a stupid move that causes head injuries, but not because it's a Benoit move. When Shawn does the crippler it's blatantly taking a Benoit move. I don't think it's such a terrible thing to take three moves, out of the huge number that exist, away as future options. The chop is fine, because everyone and their mother throws chops. If the chop is anybody's move, its Ric Flair's.

The crowd at Survivor Series was clearly uncomfortable for the crossface, while they were very excited for the sharpshooter and the ankle lock. A small but noticeable "Benoit" chant broke out afterwards. Harley Race invented the diving headbutt and Malenko invented the crossface, but in the fans' minds they are Benoit moves. I don't think guys should stop doing moves they were already doing, because that would be blatantly dodging that Benoit ever existed. But adding Benoit moves to your arsenal is specifically reminding people. Aside from drawing some really cheap heat it's not doing the wrestler or WWE any good.

Roommate: I don't see how that was trying to pull heat though. It wouldn't make sense for HBK to try to pull heat. Of all people, HBK is arguably the most respectful in the ring and backstage. Of all people, HBK is the last one to do something that he is uncomfortable with in the ring.

I haven't read a report yet saying people were "clearly uncomfortable". I can't imagine people were cheering, but haven't heard reports of boos yet.

If you look at some bad press in the past, you can see some semi-precedents. A few years ago a kid killed another kid by putting the stunner on him, but that didn't stop Stone Cold from doing it. I remember that being on the national news and it never stopped Stone Cold. Not the exact same thing, but I feel like there might be something to be said.

I mean maybe this is just my take on the entire situation, but its not bugging me. The whole Davey Richards thing doesn't annoy me. I can't imagine Benoit's friends freaking out about this. Benoit was a great guy (according to his friends) that obviously had some issues that got the best of him and there were really unfortunate consequences.

But this hasn't stopped Batista and or Jericho from acknowledging him in their books when the WWE wanted them not too (at least in Batista's case). Maybe it's just me, but it happened. Nothing can be done about it. There's nothing to do but move on. I honestly think the fans realize the how sad it is, but what can be done. Move on. It's a shame this will define him forever, because of all the things he did before hand.

Alex: I'm not claiming that HBK was attempting to use the Crossface to draw heat. As you said it doesn't make any sense for HBK to try to draw heat on himself since he's a face. What Shawn did didn't make sense. He's a good guy, he shouldn't be using a killer's moves; it makes him seem like a bad guy. It would at least make sense if Orton used the move since he's a heel. I'm saying that it did draw Shawn heat, whether he meant it to or not.

Having not seen Survivor Series myself I can't really say exactly how the crowd reacted to it. However, I can't imagine anyone in the crowd, aside from a few assholes, marking out for the move. According to reports, the crowd had was initially shocked, but then began cheering when it appeared that Orton might tap to the move. The Sharpshooter and the Ankle Lock got bigger reactions. The Figure Four, the Walls of Jericho or the STFU all could have accomplished the exact same thing storytelling-wise. If anything they would have been better, because they would tease the return of someone who's actually coming back to WWE and they wouldn't have offended the fans. It could have been a positive thing.

I agree with you on your point about Stone Cold, but I don't think the situations are comparable. Like I said earlier, I don't think guys should just eliminate parts of their existing arsenal because of Benoit. If Stone Cold had gotten rid of the Stunner that would have been admitting that what happened was his and WWE's fault which it wasn't. It was the kid's fault for being stupid, and his parent's fault for not explaining to him that wrestlers are trained professionals and shouldn't be imitated. I didn't like it when JBL started using the Three Amigos after Eddie's death, because that was exploiting a tragedy for heat. JBL specifically added the Three Amigos into his moveset to purposely upset and offend fans. It made sense because he was a heel and it worked, but that doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do.

A more comparable example is after Stone Cold got arrested a few years ago for spousal abuse. WWE continued booking Stone Cold normally which was the smart thing to do. They made a mistake though when they had Stone Cold attack and Stunner Stacy Keibler on Raw. Was it a fairly entertaining moment? Yes. But it was stupid to remind their viewers that Stone Cold actually beats up women. WWE was lucky that the Stone Cold spousal abuse story wasn't anywhere near as big a story as the Benoit story is. I don't think they should run and hide from their problems, but they shouldn't promote them either.

Before the murders I considered Chris Benoit to be my favorite wrestler of all-time. Benoit winning the title was my favorite moment is wrestling history. After the initial shock, appall and disappointment I've come to terms with what happened. I can now look back on his career and appreciate the excellent matches he put on. Benoit was a deeply troubled man, who suffered from steroid abuse, brain damage and personal issues. While I despise what he did, I feel bad for him at the same time. Many hardcore wrestling fans seem to have come to a similar place, but a lot of people have not. A lot of people still see him as a cold blooded monster and see WWE as the one's who turned him into that monster. It doesn't help anything to use the move he murdered his son with for entertainment's sake. It may not be exploitation, but it certainly looks that way from the outside. With declining ratings and pending Congressional hearings WWE doesn't need to create anymore
controversy for itself.

Roommate: When I look at this, I see WWE or Vince or Shawn or someone trying to tell the best story possible with this match and the subsequent use of the Crossface. I am not going to argue that it wasn't possibly too soon or maybe even wrong considering the chaos of the wrestling industry today, but considering the story that was being told, it was the move that would best tell that story. With Sweet Chin Music, the move that has put away Orton almost every week on Raw, being banned from use, Shawn Michaels was going to have to break out every trick in the book to beat Orton. He teased submissions on Raw the week before and here we are...

We knew the Sharpshooter was going to happen. I am almost surprised that they didn't make a bigger deal about it too. Vince could have come down with the Stooges. Blah, blah, blah. Vince thinks this is TV gold. Anyways. So the Sharpshooter is there. The same submission that put Michaels opponent away 10 years ago, albeit with a little trickery. So one of the most recognized submissions from one of the best technical wrestlers of any generation has been busted out.

Then comes the Crossface. One submission didn't work, so let's break out another one. We go the next WWE Technical Wrestling legend and their submission that has cememted its legacy. Sure there is a great deal of controversy, but one historied and technically vicious submission didn't work...let's go to the next.
On comes the Ankle Lock. We go to the last of the three great technical wrestlers that have graced the WWE ring in the past 15 years. We go to another submission that has made hundreds tap out without hesitation.

The three most unrelenting submissions from the three greatest technical wrestlers in the past 20 years (and most likely in the history of the WWE) were used by Michaels to try to get the job done. Michaels himself doesn't use submissions so he needed to go to the ones that have proven themselves time and time again. He even broke out a submission that while taboo in society today was feared in the ring for its effectiveness. If Michaels had gone and tried to use any other submission in place of the crossface, it would not have worked out near as well. Look at the three possible replacements:

The Figure Four: Great move, but it hasn't put too many guys away in the past 10 years and it's effectiveness is in question.

Walls of Jericho: Another badass move. But it hasn't put too many people away recently and I think it would have actually drawn even more attention away from the match. Everyone is waiting for Jericho at this point and well...no one likes a tease.

STFU: I love the STF. It has established itself over the past year, but that is only one year compared to the 15 years of the crossface. A submission move means more when it is performed by a master technical wrestler and while Cena is good...technical he is not.

And there is your story. Michaels can no longer use Sweet Chin Music. He must go to the most proven submission moves from the three most proven technical wrestlers in WWE history. You could have added any submission to that list, but if you take the crossface away, you take away the legacy that Benoit built in wrestling. He will unfortunately always be known as a killer, but for all the great things he did in and out of the ring I refuse to remember him just as a killer. I think that is what WWE wants to do as well. He added a lot to the business and that is shown in how they told this story. Show HBK's frustration and force him to do whatever it takes to win.

Alex: I really disagree with your insistence that using the Crippler Crossface was a necessity to the story of the match. Using the Crippler fit in with the logical story that the match was trying to tell, but it wasn't a necessity.

The storyline was that Shawn couldn't use Sweet Chin Music, so he had to use something else to pick up the win. The most obvious choice, given that it was the 10 year anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob, was the Sharpshooter. I wasn't expecting Shawn to win, but if he was going to, it would be to the Sharpshooter. So after the Sharpshooter fails, Michaels goes for the Ankle Lock. This also makes sense; it's very over as a deadly submission and Michaels himself tapped out to it in his feud with Kurt Angle. So after the Ankle Lock failed Shawn needed to try something new. The Crossface fits in with the trend of using nasty submissions, but so do the STFU, the Walls and the Figure Four.

Two of HBK's most memorable feuds were with Bret Hart and Kurt Angle. As a result, the Sharpshooter and the Ankle Lock have strong associations with HBK. He's seen first hand how painful they are. HBK also feuded with Benoit, but it wasn't anything like his feuds with Hart and Angle. If anything, the feud between Benoit and HBK was really just the each of them feuding with HHH and getting intertwined with each other. At Wrestlemania 20, it was Triple H tapping to the Crossface, not Shawn. And in the rematch at Backlash, Shawn tapped to the Sharpshooter, not the Crossface. Shawn had more intense feuds with Cena and Jericho than he did with Benoit. I don't see the story of the match being that Shawn was taking the submissions of technical masters, but of him taking the best submissions he could find. The Walls didn't get many wins at the end of Jericho's last run, but it's still a well known and over finisher. I think people would have especially bought with just about everyone being well aware the Jericho was about to return the next night. Cena doesn't belong in the same category of technical wizards as Hart, Angle, Benoit or Jericho, but that wasn't what the story was. The STFU has gotten over as a painful submission maneuver that picked up lots of wins. Shawn wanted to cause Orton pain and win the WWE Title. It fits and Shawn just came off a long feud with Cena where he tapped to the STFU, so he knows how painful it is.

While you and I and a lot of other fans have gotten to the point where we can remember Benoit's legacy as one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time many have not. And I don't blame them. As great a wrestler as he was, and as much as he was driven to his crimes by mental illness and brain damage, you can't just ignore what he did. Regardless of his mental status at the time of his illness, the man murdered his wife and his 8 year old son. That is absolutely unforgivable, and many fans will never look beyond that.

Perhaps using the Walls of Jericho or the STFU wouldn't have made for as good of a match. I don't believe that, but even if it would have I don't think that's the heart of the issue. The WWE shouldn't be offending a large portion of its fans (even if it's only 10%, that's still a huge number) at time when many people are disgusted with the wrestling industry and giving up watching WWE. People aren't going to stop watching simply because HBK used the Crossface (I continued watching after the repugnant exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's death), but it's another thing that could piss off already disgusted fans. May be getting rid of the Crossface would have dropped the match from 3 ½ stars to 3 stars, but it's still worth taking out of the match. WWE doesn't need to remind their fans of Chris Benoit and drive them away any more that they already have been.

End of debate

I'm interested to see how the rest of you view the situation. Feel free to email me and let me know where you stand in the debate. Thanks for reading.