Originally posted by Psycho PenguinHere's a wrestling based side effect that hasn't come up yet: How this affects ECW. I know it's silly and a small thing compared to the big picture, but he was going to be champion. Are they going to replace him on the show with someone else? I can't think of too many older babyfaces who can help train young guys right now. I think Kane will end up going. He's not doing anything on SD.
In terms of who will become the show's "mentor," I don't think it's a pressing concern. ECW didn't have anyone in that role before Benoit was drafted, so we know they can do without one for a while. And I'm sure it's far from WWE's top priority for the time being.
However, in terms of who will take Benoit's intended spot as the top star of the brand, I'm sure somebody will get shifted over there within a month or two. It's become clear that WWE wants the ECW champion to be on the same level as the Raw and Smackdown champions, so even though the roster is full of midcarders and jobbers they will almost certainly choose a guy who has either held a world title before (like Big Show) or is being groomed to win one someday (like Lashley). Unfortunately for Johnny Nitro and CM Punk, that's not them right now.
I suppose a bright spot in all of this is that circumstances have elevated Nitro and Punk more than anyone would have expected last week. I'm sure when the Benoit/Punk match was first made the plan was for Benoit to win and then dominate the entire roster for months. And then when Benoit missed the show I'm sure the plan was to have Nitro quickly job to him when he returned. With Benoit out of the picture altogether and without the option of running tribute shows, WWE has been forced to forge ahead with the Nitro/Punk feud. And it's a good little story--the hard-working future of ECW versus the A-lister who thinks he's better than ECW and lucked into winning his title. I could see these two having some good matches that make both of them seem worthy of the title, which might just convince WWE that they don't have to bring in, say, Randy Orton to carry the show.
One side effect that I've been thinking about all week is, how will WWE television address future deaths on the active roster? Before, it was simple reflex to air a tribute show after a death like this. But this time, WWE got burned big time, and you can bet next time they'll make sure they have all the facts before addressing the death on-air.
However, while they're waiting on that information, they still have shows to produce. It's a valid point that WWE messed up in running a tribute that was still airing in the West Coast when the murder-suicide report came out. But that assumes there was an obvious alternative to run in the East Coast. Should they have just aired a typical wrestling show like this week's ECW and Smackdown? Imagine if they'd held off on an Eddie tribute until they were sure he hadn't taken anyone with him.
Given the nature of the business, this is a hard question WWE is unfortunately, inevtiably going to have to answer someday--what is the ideal programming to run when you know one of your superstars is dead but you don't know if he murdered anyone? A rerun? Nothing at all? Maybe get USA to throw up an old movie for that week? Would USA go along with that?
Originally posted by Jim SmithOne side effect that I've been thinking about all week is, how will WWE television address future deaths on the active roster? Before, it was simple reflex to air a tribute show after a death like this. But this time, WWE got burned big time, and you can bet next time they'll make sure they have all the facts before addressing the death on-air.
However, while they're waiting on that information, they still have shows to produce. It's a valid point that WWE messed up in running a tribute that was still airing in the West Coast when the murder-suicide report came out. But that assumes there was an obvious alternative to run in the East Coast. Should they have just aired a typical wrestling show like this week's ECW and Smackdown? Imagine if they'd held off on an Eddie tribute until they were sure he hadn't taken anyone with him.
Given the nature of the business, this is a hard question WWE is unfortunately, inevtiably going to have to answer someday--what is the ideal programming to run when you know one of your superstars is dead but you don't know if he murdered anyone? A rerun? Nothing at all? Maybe get USA to throw up an old movie for that week? Would USA go along with that?
I'm pretty sure (at least I hope I am) that the Benoit situation was a fluke.
If anyone went back to their mindset of Friday last week and someone told them, "Hey, Benoit is gonna kill himself and his family over the weekend, just FYI" no one would've believed it. It was such a shock, such a unique situation, so unprecedented, that I don't believe it will happen again and Vince will be safe doing tribute shows in the future.
They did the best they could with the information they had at the time.
WoW Wisdom: "And then there's aggro to worry about." "What's 'aggro'?" "Well, it's complicated. But loosely translated, it means 'the priest dies.'"
This is the best synopsis of the Suka case ive read.
I found this quote particularly interesting.
According to attorney Cushing, McMahon made a remark at one point in their discussions that was at once insightful and chilling. "Look, I�m in the garbage business," the promoter said. "If you think I�m going to be hurt by the revelation that one of my wrestlers is really a violent individual, you�re mistaken."
My apologies if this has been stated elsewhere on the board, but I just finished watching the Monday Night Wars on WWE's 24/7 channel, for the week of 2-10-07. They did remove the tag match that Benoit was a part of on the Nitro broadcast.
As I believe we've already had the pro/con discussion of this, I won't both to rehash it in this post