What should of been the alternative to Raw is Benoit

[ChitownKnight]

People say this was a mistake, but at the the time the details were not fully known. What should of been the alternative?

[Push R Truth]

Probably a 10 bell salute and a quick video. Then "the show must go on".


But like you said, the true devil was in the details of the timing.

[realist]

Sept 3, 2021 20:03:24 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

People say this was a mistake, but at the the time the details were not fully known. What should of been the alternative?

Apparently, they had known since earlier in the afternoon. My alternative would have just been a compilation of the best matches from various shows.

[DrBackflipsHoffman]

Diva Search

[jimmyjackezekiel]

Do what School Days did... Just a 2 hour still-shot of a boat.

[The Rick Jericho]

Regal knew. They should've REALLY spoken to him first.

[fw91]

I never blame them for doing what they did. What could they do? As far as they knew at the time, a well respected veteran and his family just tragically died without knowing how. They couldn't just ignore it. Vince did the "right thing" the next night and was very transparent on ECW when everything was apparent. This wasn't an Owen situation.

[fw91]

Sept 3, 2021 20:50:14 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

Regal knew. They should've REALLY spoken to him first.

But how soon did he really know? It seemed like the facts were coming in during his testimonial. I don't think he knew as soon as it happened, unless he put two and two together with the "dogs in the enclosed pool area" text Chris sent to Chavo.

[Nickybojelais]

Considering they had an inkling that something dodgy had potentially taken place they should have taken a safer option like showing the 2007 Royal Rumble and the World title matches from Wrestlemania 23 until the full details were known.

Ploughing headfirst into a full on tribute was absolutely ridiculous considering the incidents over that weekend.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Sept 3, 2021 20:08:56 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

Probably a 10 bell salute and a quick video. Then "the show must go on".


But like you said, the true devil was in the details of the timing.

Problem with "the show must go on" is that the show in question involved the "death" of the Mr. McMahon character, and it'd be impossible to carry on like business as usual without the timing coming into question.

[Deleted]

A rerun.

[Deleted]

Sept 3, 2021 21:06:37 GMT -5 fw91 said:

Sept 3, 2021 20:50:14 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

Regal knew. They should've REALLY spoken to him first.

But how soon did he really know? It seemed like the facts were coming in during his testimonial. I don't think he knew as soon as it happened, unless he put two and two together with the "dogs in the enclosed pool area" text Chris sent to Chavo.

Story I heard heaven knows if there's any truth to it was the wrestlers were lined up outside the room in which to record their video tributes. JBL came out having finished his and shaken up said "you don't think Chris did this do you?" Regal probably thought this was the usual Bradshaw BS but as soon as he sat down it hit him in the face like a sledgehammer that murder suicide was by far the most likely explanation given what he knew about the family and then the cameras started rolling.

[BRV]

I don’t blame WWE for going the direction they did that night. The facts of the case didn’t become clear until hours later and one of their biggest superstars was found dead earlier that day. Even if the show went on as-is, it would’ve been a Benoit Tribute Show, much like how Raw became an Eddie Guerrero Tribute Show following the news of his death in 2005.

Hindsight being 20-20, the best-case scenario would’ve been to air two hours’ worth of matches from the previous night’s Vengeance pay-per-view. But this isn’t Eddie Guerrero in 2005 or Owen Hart in 1999, where the facts were obvious. Things were very grey even as the show went on, so I don’t fault them for going the route they did, then clearing the air on ECW the following night.

[nisidhe]

I'm not sure that they could have done anything different. Even if they knew the details, the rest of the world didn't (not for sure, anyway.) WWE was not going to show any leadership here, and they certainly weren't going to open themselves up to lawsuits by presenting details of a murder-suicide while the investigation was still active. At the same time, they had a death on their roster, and the alternative to acknowledging that was the continuation of a storyline in which the boss apparently died in a limo explosion. Cancelling the live event was probably for the best as well; there was no way they could have done it with the full Eddie treatment without some risk that some in the audience would be angry over the spectacle or taken the opportunity to mock it and foment discord among the crowd, _especially_ with Chris as well-regarded as he was among the talent and their grief over what happened.

As flawed as it came to be, the Raw tribute episode was the best they could do under the circumstances. They could afford to be wrong for a day as long as they appeared to show good faith in being wrong.

[Deleted]

Rod McMahon & the hobo army, dammit.

[Deleted]

Raw is Gangrel

[Aceorton]

The lesson of this (although it's WWE, so most likely they didn't learn anything and have not taken this step) is to have a filler "best of" show ready at all times in case tragedy strikes. "Break glass in case of emergency" programming would remove the pressure to scrape something together at the last second, especially when the right course of action may not be immediately apparent.

[eJm]

The problem with suggestions like this is, as pointed out, how could you prepare for something like that? You can’t really have a plan for if one of your contracted talent is going to commit such an act before it happens because you shouldn’t be thinking something like that is going to happen.

Like, I don’t think if, God forbid, a major sports star were to commit an act like it, there’s a plan in place because you can’t possibly have that in the back of your mind. Like, how can you? It’s unfamilable. Especially with how long these things can take to figure out. All you can do is figure out what to do after the fact and comprehend it all.

We can criticize WWE for a lot of stuff, much being fair and justified, but unless they had a rep at the site to be with police so they knew the details when they did (which why would, or any other company, have anything like that?), there was no way you can for this.

[Cyno]

I can't really blame WWE for what they did. It looks horrible with the benefit of hindsight, but outside of William Regal having an odd feeling that something wasn't right, they had no clue what had actually happened beyond Chris Benoit and his family found dead in their home. And it was first discovered a few hours before Raw started. And you not only have the optics of a wrestler and his family's death, but an entire grief-stricken locker room of friends and colleagues that there was no way they could just go on as business as usual.

It was an impossible situation at the time.

[Starshine]

Sept 3, 2021 21:06:37 GMT -5 fw91 said:

Sept 3, 2021 20:50:14 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

Regal knew. They should've REALLY spoken to him first.

But how soon did he really know? It seemed like the facts were coming in during his testimonial. I don't think he knew as soon as it happened, unless he put two and two together with the "dogs in the enclosed pool area" text Chris sent to Chavo.

They were informed by police that the Benoit house was a "major crime scene" with 3 bodies around 4 pm that day. They use the excuse of company policy to explain their decision to air the tribute show, so take that as you will. But there's a whole lot that's come out to not give them much benefit of doubt that they didn't assume the worst based on what knowledge they had. Remember this was also only a few years removed from Nancy filing a restraining order against Chris, so problems were serious for a while before the incident.

Hindsight tells us more than anything in the moment can, but there were flags that probably should have been considered were emotions and stresses not running so high.

It's wasn't a defensible action on their part, but it's also deserves an empathetic view.