Deleted Match of WrestleMania XX

[Wald]

I agree with the WWE on whitewashing Benoit from their history. No way in hell would I want my company to be associated in any way shape or form with that guy, to even keep him on DVDs allows a younger generation a chance to see him, become fans and eventually find out what he did.

Think about it, especially in that match. Kids love DX, so they hear that DX were apart of a main event of Wrestlemania with some guy named Benoit years before they started watching. Those kids get the WM XX DVD, stick it in and watch what was genuinely a classic match. They see this huge celebration for Benoit winning the title, the fans even rooted for him over HBK, so they think 'jeez I gotta find out more about this wrestler'. We all know what happens when they google him.

This is a family based entertainment, no matter what Benoit did in the past it doesn't matter now and it never will.

 

[The Snake]

If George Foreman, Lennox Lewis or Michael Schumacher did what Benoit did do you think they would be erased from their sport? They would acknowledge that he once existed and probably remove any products with their name on it and donate a his "appearance fee" from any videos/DVDs sold to charity.

Just want to pick you up on this point. Benoit isn't erased from the sport on professional wrestling, he's erased from one company (if that, I'll come onto it). It would be like the WBO or FOTA refusing to talk about those guys, which in fairness, would be something that might happen. In professional settings, it doesn't make sense to talk about murderers, especially as those guys are trying to achieve commercial success. You'd still get journalists talking about it, which is the case now, he's openly talked about in Wrestling Media.

For me, Benoit can be alluded to, but shouldn't be mentioned. For example, I don't mind them saying '23 guys have been Triple Crown champions in WWE', he isn't erased from the history, they don't annul his title wins (which in an arbitrary sport is something I assume they could have done) but they also don't expressly mention him when they are talking about Triple H's record at Wrestlemania or guys who Daniel Bryan reminds them of in style.

I've seen Benoit documentaries on my TV listings, so it's not like WWE are being aggressive in attempting to remove him from all forms of media, which they also could do.

If WWE were for example telling any media outlet who covers him will not get interviews or communication from them, then maybe people could say they are taking it too far.

Is this 'really' any different to WWE saying that Randy Savage won the WWE Championship instead of the WWF one? Why should the courts be allowed to force WWE to change what is remembered about history, but WWE themselves aren't allowed to make similar value judgements.

I haven't watched a Benoit match since he died, I've only seen two Eddie Guerrero matches since he died, none of Macho Mans. I have stacks of videos and DVDs as well as the whole of the internet to view their matches and in the case of the latter two, there's hardly anyone I loved more as performers, but I still get upset whenever I watch Eddie pinning Lesnar for the title or watch him lose several pints of blood against JBL. It's very hard for me to relive their matches, it's even harder with Benoit, and for an additional reason...

Frankly, I don't want to own a DVD with Benoit on it, and if I had one, I wouldn't watch the match. It's hard to get lost in his matches knowing what those hands did to his family members, regardless of the morality of it being down to drugs, his storytelling is undercut by those events.

I think people forget this is the Digital Age, you can't erase stuff from history, it's on the internet, Benoit will never descend into heresay, we all know he existed. I just don't think we should want his legacy perpetuated by WWE.

I would be more opposed if WWE had a dictatorship on their media, but in a world of piracy and copyright infringement, we're free to watch whatever version of Wrestlemania XX we want. WWE releases it without that match, fine - If you want a version with it, it's not that hard.

WWE retroactively doesn't mention/release lots of things - Bob Holly calling Michael Cole a Shithead at WM17, but as long as it's 'out there', I'm happy to let WWE make their own decisions.

 

[Beastmode 24]

This is still, 5 years removed from the tragedy, one of the sorest spots of conversation to me. I was a HUGE Chris Benoit fan when i was younger, and when he won at XX and his wife and son and Eddie Guerrero came down to celebrate, i was literally crying. Tears pouring down my cheeks. In my opinion, WWE CANT show any footage of him winning the belt like that, with that celebration, without celebrating the man. Looking at that footage now, it almost makes me sick to my stomach. I just can't agree with the whole "dont take away what he accomplished just because of one thing" belief. We have an old saying in the Army...you can buld 1,000 bridges, but if you F**k a goat, that's all you'll be known for for the rest of your life. Benoit was a great performer, but the last days of his life severly overshadow that.

 

[Pedigree1]

Considering what he did to his wife and son it is extremely light punishment!! Wrestling in general is frowned upon by alot of people its not cool and gets bad press! WM 20 was and is still one of the greatest WM of all time and that triple threat match was a very very good match!! Loved it and i am proud to say that my WM20 has that match!! I tend to buy WWE dvds if there any good as soon as their released,

But Benoit will never be in the HOF at least in our lifetimes and my guess if it were to happen it would have to be all of benoits and his late wife family members pass on!! Not mentioning him doesn't do anything at all IMO!! People still know who Benoit was and is and what he did!! Yes its smart to erase him completely but the man is wrestling history.

Terrible low thing i cant think of anything lower but if anyone remembers Michael Cole at the RR almost flubbed at one point!! During the RR match itself he mentioned that two people have entered at no 1 and won the whole thing. He said SM obviously won it and almost said benoit but caught himself and went on to another subject!! There mentioning him little by little if you catch the signs

 

[ryanl2607]

if they want to erase him as the main focus of the matches from history thats wwe's choice, what i feel is unfair is that some of the other talents best/better moments involve him. Erasing him from memory takes away from the talent that worked with him.......when the likes of mysterio/jericho/angle/ get into the hall of fame alot of their biggest profesional/personal moments are intertwined with benoit himself....these people are his friends. i.e eddies and benoits mania 20 moment after the match had eddie not of died when he did and went on for another twenty years before he passed.....would it of been fair on him for wwe not to include the moment with chris in the video package? eddie was and woulda been a loyal friend reguardless.... think to yourselves before you answer......but if your very best friend youd known for years did what chris did would you bin them off? like everything they did in life counted for nothing? from a corporate companies point of view they are right to not include him in videos and moments...from a personal point of view as a fan.....like many of you admit you once was.......i think your very much up your own asses......if your whiter than white fair enough.......but judging him aint your place, judging anyone but yourself aint your place.

 

[Superbeast_85]

http://www.wwedvdnews.com/walmart-wrestlemania-sale-wwe-dvd-deals/22195/

Just a tidbit of info. Walmart is running a promotion for WM28 and features a variety of double pack DVDs including Wrestlemania 20/Triple H King of Kings and it is free of any editing of Benoit (including his backstage segment with Eddie) so if WWE does decide to edit, I'm assuming it will be future versions and not have some massive recall (sarcasm, yes)

 

[WallsofZakku]

I can understand WWE's decision to do that but in retrospect it was a great match that shouldn't be erased from WM XX dvds or forgotten about in general. Like someone else stated just don't publicize the match and let it be, regardless it will always be remembered by the fans like all of Benoit's other great matches; though it should just be like a hidden gem from today's viewers who can only watch it threw tapes, youtube, or the WM XX dvd.
I personally like to remember Benoit for his tremendous in-ring skill and for the classic matches he left engraved in mine and many other fans minds, not as the monster who killed himself and his family.

 

[red ass skull muhfukkah]

So should we try and erase any legacy you build after your death based on the worst thing you ever did? What Beniot did was terrible, there is no disputing that, it tarnished his legacy as a human and as a person. That doesn't mean it should destroy his legacy as a wrestler or entertainer.

There is a difference in promoting Chris Beniot the man who murdered his family and in promoting the Rabid Wolverine who broke his body in the ring to entertain us day after day for years. You can acknowledge one without celebrating the other, and yes I am one of those who believes he should find his rightful place in the Hall of Fame some day.

He murdered his 7 year old, autistic son. He deserves absolutely nothing. You cannot separate his actions outside the ring to the ones inside the ring, it's impossible to do because they're eternally connected. He did what he did because of his injuries in the ring, why would WWE highlight the main cause of him going ape shit? They are trying to do everything to distance themselves from him to protect the company and you cannot blame them, at all.

WWE will never induct him in the Hall of Fame and frankly they shouldn't. He had an amazing career and was a great wrestler (one of my favorites) but he murdered his wife and son. And for those who are making the argument that WWE has honored wrestlers who have allegedly killed people, on drugs or whatever; none of those crimes compare to murdering your 7 year old, autistic son.

 

[terry67401]

Superbeast_85 is right...saw that very 2 pack at my local Walmart and the match from WMXX is NOT edited out...the entire show is intact!!

 

[DirtyD79]

And for those who are making the argument that WWE has honored wrestlers who have allegedly killed people, on drugs or whatever; none of those crimes compare to murdering your 7 year old, autistic son.

Nice try poisoning the well, but no we're still gonna call WWE out on their hypocrisy because the rest of the world will do the exact same thing. If WWE can put a convicted rapist like Mike Tyson in the hall of fame we can have Chris Benoit's matches on our DVDs.

 

[ner0]

Think about it, especially in that match. Kids love DX, so they hear that DX were apart of a main event of Wrestlemania with some guy named Benoit years before they started watching. Those kids get the WM XX DVD, stick it in and watch what was genuinely a classic match. They see this huge celebration for Benoit winning the title, the fans even rooted for him over HBK, so they think 'jeez I gotta find out more about this wrestler'. We all know what happens when they google him.

And how would removing the match from Wrestlemania on a dvd stop these kids from doing anything short of owning that match? In your example in particular it points out that people are gonna know what the main event was and are gonna know who Benoit is regardless. I would never justify what happened in the final days of his life but removing the main event from Wrestlemania XX (which already exists and happened) isn't gonna do anything. The guy was on WWE tv alone for 7 years

 

[d_henderson1810]

1. They obviously should. While I think some of the lengths they have gone to erase Benoit from their history is a bit too much,I can understand why they've done everything they could to make it seem like he never existed. Benoit will forever be remembered as a murderer and if the WWE were to continue celebrating his career by showing off his greatest matches and talking about his accomplishments,then they would come off as glorifying a murderer. It's as simple as that. It's bad PR for the company and they don't need any of that. To us,the WWE may be celebrating his undoubtedly great career while not glorifying the tragic way he chose to end his life,but to the casual fan or even worse,the non-wrestling fans who know of Benoit from the news,it would be seen as an attempt to use Benoit's notoriety to sell DVDs and trying to cash in on the death of a woman and a child. That's the worst part,that Benoit killed a white woman and a child. Nobody in the mainstream will ever forgive him for that. I know it sounds racist,but it's not,the mainstream media has a fetish for dead white women. People would give less of a flying fuck if Benoit had killed a man instead.

While we're talking about whether the WWE should do this or that,we forget one fact,that frankly,Benoit was never THAT important to pro wrestling. He was a one-time WCW Champion and a one-time World Heavyweight Champion and neither title reign was legendary or historic in any way. He wasn't one of the greatest champions of all time,and anyone worth his salt could come up with a top 50 greatest wrestlers list without including him. I'm coming off as an insensitive asshole again,but people are just playing up his career because he's dead. I love Benoit,and I just watched a few of my 2001 PPVs yesterday,so his matches are still fresh in my mind,and I know that Benoit was that damn good,but I also know for a fact that he was never a big part of pro-wrestling history.

2. WrestleMania XX was a historic WrestleMania,so I think they would definitely release DVDs and Blu-Rays of the show with Benoit's match edited out. Besides,WrestleMania XX was the official beginning of the rise of Cena,plus it marked the return of the Undertaker's deadman gimmick. It also had the return of the Rock 'n' Sock Connection,plus Lesnar vs. Goldberg and Angle vs. Guerrero. There's too much on the show for them to leave it out. Can I deal with that fact that Undertaker vs. Kane is now the main event? Yeah,I could deal with that,so can most people.

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Do you think that Triple H or HBK would like the fact that they "no longer officially" had a match at WMXX. If you get rid of the match, then officially Triple H and Shawn Michaels weren't in a in-ring capacity at one of the biggest WMs ever.

I think once Vince moves on, Triple H may restore the match, just for his own ego's sake, if nothing else.

 

[d_henderson1810]

Something I noticed today.

I stuck in my DVD of "ECW One Night Stand 2006" I got for Christmas (BTW, the Foley-Edge v Dreamer-Funk match is still awesome all these years later). Now, I stuck in my DVD, fast forwarded the previews, until the DVD stopped me on the "Don't Try This At Home" Ad.

What I noticed was that Chris Benoit featured heavily in the ad, and even speaks about his injury in the ad.

Now, it is possible that every WWE DVD for a few years has this ad at the start. So, are the WWE going to go through their extensive library, and replace every "Don't Try This At Home" Ad to the current one, so that it doesn't have Chris Benoit in it.

I'd hate to be the guy that has to watch the start of every DVD in the WWE archives to see which ad they play, just so one person from it can be removed.

I think that the Benoit ban should just apply after June 2007. WWE should never mention him again, or show any further footage of him. But you can't go back in the past and change it. If I could, I would do other things than waste it removing one guy who committed a crime.

Wonder how WWE would have dealt with this problem if it had been Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, SCSA, Triple H, John Cena or the Rock?

 

[Dagger Dias]

Sometimes the WWE try too hard to ignore Benoit. They can try all they want, but removing every last piece of footage of him from their massive library does not change the fact that he was in fact a member of the roster and won in the main event of Wrestlemania 20. What he did was horrible and bad publicity. That's not an excuse to pretend a match never happened. Luckily Trips and Michaels both have countless other main events they will be remembered for.

Instead of removing all the footage to hide the fact that he was on the roster, WWE should leave some of it intact so that Benoit the WRESTLER can be remembered for what he did in the ring. It is unfair to hide a decent match from fans due to what the man did the day he died. It's a controversial subject so several different opinions have already been voiced, and it will likely be an ongoing disussion for a good while.

A happy medium could be to still mention that his matches took place, but without mentioning that Benoit was in them. For example, I remember reading in the program at Wrestlemania 25 about older shows. Under Wrestlemania 20 one of the bullets read "The World Championship was defended in a triple threat match". That's how they should go about it. If WWE want to erase Benoit then they have obvious reasons to, but they should not erase entire matches from history just due to him being in the matches. They can mention that these matches happen without going into specifics on who was in them when bullets are written and they can simply mention without showing footage or revealing names if the matches get discussed in a documentary. This is just one of many solutions to the problem. As for Wrestlemania 20 DVD's, they should stay intact, it was three years before his death.

 

[MCMG]

I have always been of the opinion that what happened with Benoit, regarding his death has nothing to do with his wrestling past.

I would always want his matches to be shown simply because they deserved to be seen. Benoit was incredible in the ring, perhaps top 2/3 ever. This 'mania definitely deserves to be covered. That moment with Eddie and Benoit was amazing and one of the greatest in the history of the WWE and they want to delete it. Baffling how that is a plausible reaction to one of the most memorable moments ever.