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This seems fair to me. Allow those who wish not to watch the chance to skip it, while not disallowing those who wish to watch.
It's certainly less trouble than editing out all his appearances and muting the commentary. Between that and the music rights, it would make Monday Night Wars era shows a nightmare to present for airing. Plus yeah, if anyone feels that watching Benoit engage in sports entertaining will warp their fragile minds, they can skip it.
I have no issue with this as Benoit's opponents deserve to have their matches seen....
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the wording will look like on that advisory. I sense a great deal of time and thought will be put into it.
ReplyDeleteAnd here we go.....
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I'm sure they will pay attention to the commentary. Things like Tony Schiavone saying "Benoit now, choking the life out of this young kid" will likely get never make it to air.
ReplyDeleteThat's perfect. Good compromise
ReplyDeleteJeeze, that is all kinds of awful...
ReplyDeleteIn WCW, his catchphrase was "Silent, but Violent". Can't see that making it on air.
ReplyDeleteBut enough about Benoit's farts
ReplyDeleteLet his matches be seen. None of us condone his actions, but at the same time...when he was alive, he was the brightest star in an increasingly dim world of North American wrestling.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a shame that all of this was probably started over Nancy leaving Chris, and Chris just couldn't stand losing another person in his life. He'd lost Grunge and Wellington days apart, and the thought of his family leaving him was just too much. By no means does this justify his actions...but his state of mind must have been so rattled (by June 2007) that he found no other recourse than to selfishly take his spouse and child's lives before taking his own.
Grunge died in February 2006. Benoit and Wellington died on the same day, so I don't think he knew about him.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm sure someone's entire job will be to watch all of those matches and note what needs to be cut or produced over and what can stay.
ReplyDelete/any benoit thread
ReplyDeleteFOREVER
quit downvoting me, wwe network
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this disclaimer is gonna be something. What do you even say? "We understand that Chris Benoit is one of history's greatest monsters, but hey, he's in 5 segments in this show, so it would be a fucking mess if we don't show him." Hopefully they have Cena do the dubbing for it because he can sell pretty much anything, but I don't even begin to know how you'd word that.
ReplyDeleteAdd that in to him working for them for 7 years and his appearances on Nitro (although he didn't really do anything that couldn't be removed from the shows for the majority of his time there).... there's gonna be alot of disclaimers.
And having to redub every single one of his Raw/Smackdown matches? Yikes, I'm sure they've done most of the PPV's already, but... yikes. It's an astronomical amount of time to be putting into this.
It's almost like they'd just be better off airing the shows as is and just hoping people don't notice.
I think that's fair and not too offensive. I mean, you can still go anywhere and hear songs that Phil Spector wrote or produced. You can still catch Rebecca Gayheart movies on basic cable. NBA TV and NFL Network probably wouldn't think twice of re-airing a classic game that involved Jayson Williams or Donte Stallworth.
ReplyDeleteYour "theory" and "reasoning" for your hero killing a child is way off base. Grunge died a year and a half before that and Wellington died the same day. Also at no point was he the "brightest star in a dim world of pro wrestling". By 2007 he star was already fading.
ReplyDeletelol'd
ReplyDeleteLots of people suffer the loss of loved ones without murdering small children.
ReplyDeleteAgree that this is a good decision and the timing is probably right. Bottom line, we're just never going to see WWE PROMOTE Benoit. He'll be there, but not in an advertised fashion.
ReplyDeleteI hope the entire message is just Edge and Christian singing his theme song with kazoos. Maybe do a dark remix.
ReplyDeleteLet's spend some time discussing whether we should or should not enjoy/watch Chris Benoit matches. I don't feel like we have ever really gotten into this discussion here.
ReplyDeleteWhere can I send my resume?
ReplyDeleteI think 6 years has been a good enough wait.
ReplyDeleteYeah I noticed this on the FAN boards the other day. I know we poke fun at the Network idea a lot, but hey, it's been restoring the classic footage back to what it once was. There's this, and the less said the better, but there's also the restoration of all WWF logos and utterances. Only thing left, really, is the inpenetrable music clearance monster. And maybe being willing to pay Jesse royalties more often.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic, does anyone know why they couldn't use the block logo for a spell? As that was getting blocked (no pun intended) from classic footage on the web shows and in the magazine. Now, everything is back on the actual shows...yet ads on CoD and Raw/SD, and pics in the magazines, are still being censored. What's up with that?
Can't have anyone treading on Nattie's turf...
ReplyDelete"This is not Stevie Richards. Really, it isn't."
ReplyDeleteThere's also ECW to consider if they rerun that, from 1994-95.
ReplyDeleteHow is the NFL Network as far as games involving a certain Orenthal James?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you forgot watching reruns of Baretta (even though after his Piers appearance, Robert Blake is more of a joke than sinister to me).
Spector songs rub me the wrong way, not just because of the murder, but because of how he treated Ronnie, and as revenge for leaving him (she should be like Rihanna and keep coming back, dammit!), apparently blocked the Ronettes from being in the RnRHOF.
put it this way: in 2009 and 2012, when Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson were on the verge of joining the 2000-rushing yards club (which OJ was the first member of in 1973), CBS, Fox, whoever would show the prior members, and OJ was always included. Never reverent, just factual. Jim Nantz or whoever may say "Simpson was the first to break the mark in 1973, followed by Eric Dickerson in 1984...."
ReplyDeleteAgain, nothing reverent, just stating history. Nicole Brown's sister, should she happen to watch those games, would have to see OJ's face on a graphical timeline of 2000-yard rushers. No big deal's been made publicly.
Ha, yes, "one of history's greatest monsters."
ReplyDeleteJesus, you people.
I'll give you an up vote.
ReplyDeleteWhy does this debate have to be so extreme on either side?
ReplyDeleteHe's either "history's greatest monster" or grossly misunderstood. It's Chris Benoit. Short, squatty man with a bad neck and a good move set. If his presence affects you enough that you find yourself waking up in a cold sweat debating the merits of his career or how we should remember him, you should probably just let your unhealthy obsession with wrestling go.
You really had to reach for that one, huh?
ReplyDeleteIn my case, I don't mind him being there, I just personally don't want
ReplyDeleteto watch it. I'm not in agony over it, it's just simply hard to see him
as anything else but this cold blooded killer - I'm sure comparisons
will be made with movies and actors, but wrestling has a very noted
blurring of the lines.
Hell, most people feel when those lines
AREN'T blurred is when a character inevitably fails - you have to have a
lot of 'yourself' in them in wrestling, a many magnitudes greater
version of your normal personality in some of the most successful cases
(Austin, the Rock). I don't feel it will 'warp my fragile mind', I just
don't have any desire to see it. If they want to restore it, that's fine
- but I understand why they are doing what they are, and it's not a big
inconvenience for anyone anyway, so why complain?
I've heard plenty of people state opinions in the middle, they just seem to be ignored in favor of insulting anyone who doesn't agree with them.
ReplyDeleteI imagine they'll simply say something like "The WWE would like to note that, in order to maintain the original broadcast of this event, we have chosen to keep scenes featuring Chris Benoit as to keep the broadcast whole. WWE does not endorse or promote Mr. Benoit; we simply acknowledge that he is present, and that that the fans want a full, unedited version of RAW/Summerslam/ECW/etc."
ReplyDeleteThey're shouted down by the two extreme ends arguing with each other.
ReplyDeleteWarning:Chris Benoit is here and he's really mad! Chris Benoit is here and he's really angry!
ReplyDeleteI've seen a few NFL Network "Top 10" shows where O.J. was one of the guys featured. They glorified him about as much as you can on those shows, and in at least one of them mentioned "What happened later in life," but it seemed appropriately covered.
ReplyDeleteNow you could say a big difference between O.J. and Benoit is that legally speaking, O.J. didn't kill anybody. However, the fact that mainstream American pretty much hates O.J. anyway puts him in the same boat as Benoit.
Ever since I saw this post, it's been on my mind quite a bit. I have no problem that I was a huge Benoit fan since the first time I saw him in WCW. Honestly, I think this compromise is pretty fair. Like others, I can't imagine what the disclaimer is going to say and it's also hard to envision the airing of, say, the Backlash PPV with the triple threat rematch because everything about it is so geared towards glorifying him.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, simply showing his matches/segments with no new material being recorded that focuses on those moments seems easy enough. Sucks for guys like Orton because he can't really talk about the situation regarding his first ever title win but that's just one unfortunate consequence of Benoit's actions.
I'm more interested if they will be editing out other stuff like chair shots to the head and other violent stuff.
ReplyDeleteI was being sarcastic. The snapback they need now because of the Network is partially because they refused to even address Benoit at all. Look at that comic con panel with Sheamus and Punk where Benoit gets brought up, Sheamus looks like he saw a ghost (more than usual). At least Punk handled it like a pro
ReplyDeleteI'm being sarcastic, you lunk.
ReplyDeleteUm, you more than intimated that those were your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, whatever. You're a cunt.
Yes, a guy that murdered two people is history's greatest monster.
ReplyDeleteIn his matches or in general? Cause they flirted with that when they took the color out on CoD presentations whenever blood appeared. Thank goodness they realized that all they needed to do was up the rating for shows where that happens.
ReplyDeleteAll that's left however is the ban on showing strangulation-type attacks.
Based on what I said in another post, given all the things WWE is doing to restore old footage for the Network (this, returning WWF references), how possible do you think it is for them to shell out extra cash to get the original theme songs restored?
ReplyDelete