In a surprising break-up, WWE announced on 2/7 that Smackdown would finish on the CW Network at the end of the current television season, with the final episode on 9/12.
The company sent out a press release late that night which read, “After a successful decade of Smackdown on both UPN and the CW, World Wrestling Entertainment and The CW have agreed to conclude our partnership. Since the CW’s exclusive negotiation period ran out as of last Thursday, January 31, we have been contacted and have been in negotiations with other networks. WWE Smackdown will continue to air on The CW until the conclusion of the 2007-08 broadcast season. We are grateful to Les Moonves, Dawn Ostroff, and their entire organization for bringing WWE Smackdown to millions of viewers for so many years.”
The press release sent out at around midnight on a Thursday was because CW was starting to inform its affiliates that Smackdown would not be renewed, leaving it as a lame duck show on the network.
The road to Wrestlemania, through the Royal Rumble, had a few changes made over the past week, which changed the finish of the HHH vs. Jeff Hardy match at Armageddon on 12/16 in Pittsburgh.
In the build for Wrestlemania, at least based on this week’s concept (and all of this changes weekly), whomever wins the Rumble will not be able to pick the champion he faces but will have to face the champion of his brand. Then the other brand would have the Elimination Chamber. I can see this becoming an annual tradition because annual traditions draw better, and No Way Out has been a very tough draw sandwiched between Rumble and Mania, and this will make it more relevant. Based on the Chamber being originally a Raw match (which obviously could change, since the participants in the match originally were based on the idea HHH would win the title from Orton in the Rumble, which is no longer happening), that would indicate a Smackdown winner of the Rumble, who would have almost surely been Undertaker.
The issue of performance enhancing drugs is always going to be an exercise in frustration, but actions in both MMA and WWE this past week continue to show certain colors that make things even more uneasy.
The WWE’s Wellness Policy was shown this past week to be far more about the corporate fiscal Wellness. And in MMA, hearings conducted before the California State Athletic Commission on 10/31 left everyone on all sides confused, with the mixed messages being sent.
On 11/2, WWE announced D.H. Smith (Harry Smith) and Chris Masters (Chris Mordetzsky) had been suspended due to violations of the company Wellness policy. These were the first wrestlers suspended for drug policy violations that were announced publicly, as per the change in policy on 11/1. Smith was announced as being put on a 30-day suspension, and Masters on a 60-day suspension for a second violation.
There is the obvious aspect of the story of Smith’s father dying at 39, with the coroner who conducted the autopsy specifically mentioning steroids as a prime cause of the death, and his mentor in many ways being Chris Benoit. But everyone knows the rules of the game and to be surprised anyone does anything to get ahead in this business, no matter what their family history is, shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Our Lady Peace is reclaiming ownership of “Whatever,” the song once used as Chris Benoit’s WWE entrance theme.
The band had not performed the song live for years even before Benoit’s 2007 double-murder suicide, which took the lives of Nancy and Daniel Benoit. Now, they’ve decided to bring it back. Singer Raine Maida told the Edmonton Journal that the song carries a strong mental health message.
“We’re playing Whatever, which we did for WWE and it’s kind of got a terrible (Chris Benoit) story attached. But we’re taking it back as there’s a good mental health message,” he said.
The band performed Whatever in Calgary on Friday night.
Maida introduced the song:
“We decided to take back ownership of this song because it is our song. And it has to do with mental health, and that’s how we’re taking control. This is about not being scared to reach out. And we’ll put a hotline up at the end of the song but for anyone that is struggling, there is hope, there is help, and sometimes it’s just three digits away. This is called Whatever.”
A fan recorded video of the performance is available below:
Our Lady Peace also has a connection to Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who has referred to them multiple times as one of his favorite bands.
With the toxicology report being released, the biggest mainstream media news story in the history of U.S. pro wrestling, with nearly a month straight of daily national coverage, is likely coming to a close, although its repercussions and ancillary news stories could be felt for a long time, particularly on the small chance it actually leads to a Congressional hearing on the pro wrestling industry.
The story of the murders of Nancy and Daniel Benoit, and the suicide of Chris Benoit left with them a slew of questions that will likely forever go unanswered.
The most likely conclusion is that Chris killed Nancy in a domestic dispute, most likely over either her threatening to leave him, or over money. Whether or not Daniel had Fragile X syndrome will never be known, but there is not any concrete evidence to believe that he did, and no friends, family or teachers knew. The only person who would have talked with Chris about it allegedly was a Canadian man who is now deceased.
As expected, the final toxicology report on Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit provided nothing close to what could be called answers.
About the only significant piece of information was that Daniel Benoit at enough Alprazolam (Xanax) in his system that would have put him unconscious, and would have been very close to a level that could have been a lethal overdose. The theory is now that Chris gave Benoit the drugs, which are not designed for a seven-year-old child, with the idea he’d be out cold and wouldn’t feel any pain when Chris killed him with essentially a modified version of his crippler crossface finisher.
Chris Benoit tested positive for high quantities of testosterone, which has in almost hilarious fashion attempted to have been twisted by WWE as him being steroid free. Benoit had a 59-1 testosterone/epitestosterone ratio (1-1 is considered normal and 4-1 would fail drug tests in most sports; to my knowledge, in all of the athletic commission drug testing here in California and with all the steroid positives of fighters and boxers, there is only one test, that of Johnnie Morton, that came in with a higher t/e ratio.
Okay. Let’s get some things out of the way first. They’ve been said before, but to preface all this, they have to be said again. Vince McMahon is not to blame for Chris Benoit killing his wife and son. The WWE is not to blame. Anabolic steroids are almost surely not the main reason, whether they show up in his toxicology reports at the time of his death. However, they may be a part of the equation, perhaps small, because no matter how much of this can’t be understood by anyone, the closest thing to an explanation is that drugs ruined Benoit’s mind.
While we will never understand why things happened, there was a history of marital issues that at some point did get violent in the past. While you hear people say if you lined up 1,000 people in wrestling and asked them who would commit such a crime, he’d be right at the bottom of the list, that’s because those people didn’t know him at home.
The shocking double murder-suicide involving Chris Benoit, including the death of wife Nancy and son Daniel, took numerous twists and turns over the past week including the arrest of Dr. Phil Astin, heat put on World Wrestling Entertainment, and an unprecedented amount of mainstream media coverage of the industry and the ridiculous human toll it has taken over the past decade.
There is only one thing certain. There will never be an answer, or any kind of explanation of what caused Chris to do what he’s believed to do. If the two were arguing, which is still the prevailing theory, only they know what it was about. Nancy did reach out to one of her best friends the prior day and give her a list of things she was concerned about, did offer a premonition of her fate, but she was still home the next day. But whatever was discussed, only two people knew. Perhaps Nancy didn’t even know what caused Chris to snap. Plus, the nature of all three deaths were bizarre to say the least.
The murders of Nancy and Daniel Benoit and the suicide death of Chris Benoit continued to be major news, particularly on the U.S. and Canada television news channels, all week.
There were many different facets of the story. There has never been any story having to do with pro wrestling in its history that has garnered this degree of mainstream coverage. I never expected anything would approach the death of Owen Hart in 1999, and the election of Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota in 1998 for national mainstream coverage of pro wrestling, but who could have ever expected anything of this nature? For those in wrestling it was even more shocking because of the person perpetrating the crimes.
It would be easy to decry all the coverage, but the truth is, most has been fair. It’s just that the highest profile coverage that most people have seen, on the television news channels, where the death of the Benoit family was used as ratings fodder just underneath Paris Hilton’s latest escapades of coming out of jail and her performance on Larry King.
On Sunday afternoon, if you were to poll wrestlers from around North America and ask who the single most respected wrestler in the business was, or who the best wrestler in the business was, the name Chris Benoit would be in the top three, and as likely as anyone to be at the very top, of both lists.
The legacy of a man that took two decades to build of traveling around the world and working as hard as any wrestler alive during that period, took one weekend to become forever remembered as the closest thing the modern sports world has seen to Charles Manson, as he killed his wife Nancy, his seven-year-old son Daniel, and then himself over about a 30-hour period, leaving an entire wrestling world filled with psychologically conflicted fans, wrestlers and other employees. What caused this quiet, intense, model employee who had been consumed by wrestling since seeing Dynamite Kid on Klondike Wrestling (the Edmonton version of Stampede Wrestling) at the age of 12, in 1979, to commit crimes so heinous and so far beyond imaginable?
There are probably only two people who really know, and both of them are now dead. Everything else is just theories. But in many ways, there were also two different Chris Benoits.
Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace is doing her best to make something positive come from a negative situation.
After drawing criticism for a tweet she made about Chris Benoit last week, Grace issued a statement on Monday announcing that she’s launching a fundraiser to benefit the Concussion Legacy Foundation. The fundraiser “will serve to push forward the research and education of CTE.”
The fundraiser has a goal of $20,000, with Grace donating $5,000 of her own money to begin the campaign. Grace launched the fundraiser after speaking privately to friends and family of Benoit’s that she angered or hurt, including Benoit’s son David and Benoit’s friends Chris Jericho and Chavo Guerrero.
Grace wrote:
Last week I made an irresponsible and unnecessary tweet. Regardless of how my personal emotions influence my opinion, I should have recognized the impact my words would have on friends and family close to the situation. I was completely thoughtless in that regard.
Since reflecting this past week, I’ve reached out privately to friends and family that I angered or hurt.
Among those was David Benoit, Chavo Guererro, and Chris Jericho, who are supporting me in the decision to partner and fundraise with the Concussion Legacy Foundation (formerly Sports Legacy Institute). I have pledged $5,000, with the overall campaign goal being $20,000.
I’m acutely aware that the damage has been done. I would never intentionally add onto the suffering of those already dealing with such a traumatic event, and I am sorry for my insensitivity and aggravating this already delicate topic.
This is my way of attempting to squeeze something positive out of the negative situation I created. Thank you in advance to everyone who donates.
In response to a tweet about wrestlers who still praise Benoit in a professional context despite his heinous actions, Grace wrote on July 6: “This is gonna be the coldest take I ever tweet on this app. I already know y’all gonna be mad. I don’t think Benoit could 100% hang with most of the present day best wrestlers. He would not be able to remember matches. Also may he burn in hell, amen.”
Guerrero then responded to Grace: “I think @JordynneGrace just lost a lot of wrestling credibility from some of her comments.”
Last month marked 15 years since the Benoit double murder and suicide, where Benoit murdered his wife Nancy and seven-year-old son Daniel before killing himself.
After the first 60:00 singles match on live U.S. TV in 23 years, and the first ever to a national audience, the SummerSlam show for 8/15 in Toronto has finalized its top seven matches.
The Raw brand top matches will be Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton for the World title, HHH vs. Eugene, Chris Jericho vs. Batista and Kane vs. Matt Hardy. The Smackdown brand matches will be JBL vs. Undertaker for the WWE title, Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero and John Cena vs. Booker T for the U.S. title.
The long-term plan is to build toward HHH vs. Orton as the big match at Wrestlemania. With Orton garnering so much momentum, this seems like an easy build by putting Orton over as champion and causing dissension in the Evolution group. HHH originally wanted that match for last year’s Mania, but recognized it was too early for Orton, who has really come into his own as a major star in the past two months.
The WWE will attempt to create history on Raw on 7/26 in Pittsburgh with the longest match in the 11 ½ year history of the show, a planned 60:00 Iron Man match for the WWE title between Chris Benoit and HHH.
A few years ago, the idea of doing a match that long on television would have been considered stupid. Not one was attempted in the 90s. In the 80s, there were a few famous very long matches, and two legit time limit draws, a Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig match for the AWA title on ESPN (taped on November 21, 1986, in Las Vegas, but airing on a New Year’s Eve TV special, which, because of when it aired, is part of what made it memorable) and a Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich NWA title match from Honolulu, taped February 5, 1985, airing about two months later nationally on FNN (the old Financial News Network, which at the time aired Polynesian Pro Wrestling).
As we approach the 14th anniversary of the killing of Nancy and Daniel Benoit by Chris Benoit, who then killed himself, we take a look back at this tragedy as one of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history.
This episode, I present an interview I did with Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling’s Cocktail of Death author Irv Muchnick following the killings.
The single most controversial candidate in the history of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame balloting, Shawn Michaels, heads the list of four new members for 2003 in the Hall of Fame.
Michaels, 38, who had come close in three of the past four elections, got through easily this year, and was joined by Chris Benoit in being voted in on balloting from reporters, historians, as well as current and past wrestling figures. Two others, early 1900s world champion Earl Caddock, and famous Mexican promoter Francisco Flores were also added as overlooked figures from the past.
Michaels’ return to active wrestling after (with one exception) a more than four year hiatus largely due to lower back surgery, spelled the difference, as in particular his respect among past wrestling major players changed and gave him enough votes to make it by an easy 13 vote margin. Michaels got mentioned on 119 of the 177 ballots that came from or listed wrestlers from the U.S. and Canada region, or 67%.
