Can you still watch Benoit matches?

[SAJ Forth]

Whenever a match he was in is on a DVD, if I don't Fast Forward then I just watch with genuine apathy.

[Designated Drinker]

I can't do it,i've tried and i just can't.I still have my copy of the Hard Knocks DVD,i'm not going to get rid of it yet i don't know if i can ever watch it again.

[A Dubya (El Hombre Muerto)]

icansleep said:

Yes. And I mark.

^

[Captain Wonderful]

I think I watched Wrestlemania XX once and that's been it.

[Jam]

curmudgeon said:

coksf said:

No. No amount of ring finesse substitutes for the fact this man choked the life out of his poor wife (which hurts me more than Daniel's killing, actually), and deprived his son of a chance at life. To top it off, his own suicide - crude, but well planned, just cannot be fathomed.

After watching clips of his matches, where he does a diving headbutt off a ladder, for example - at the time I used to be like everyone else, and marvel at his ability - now I think, "What a stupid risk he took there. No wonder he was brain-damaged"

But then again - I sort of deprive myself of a lot of wrestling matches involving the dead. I have never watched an Owen Hart match since May 1999, ditto Curt Hennig, Bulldog, Bossman....the whole lot. There's no point. These people have ceased to exist. Their emotions captured on camera are meaningless, because they are no longer here to have anymore.

I'm sorry, but what a deeply stupid thing to say. So by your reckoning the only work that is relevant is by people who are still alive? As soon as they snuff it any emotion they had on camera is "meaningless?"

So Bruce Lee, Laurel and Hardy, John Wayne, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, River Phoenix, Marilyn Monroe, Alec Guiness - all these actors and directors movies are no longer worth watching because they're no longer on the planet?

If that's the case, better bin any Sex Pistols, Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Doors, Queen and Ramones albums too. They're all worthless drink coasters now.

This comment annoyed me, not only for the sheer ignorance of its content, but for its poe-faced, matter-of-fact delivery too.

I'm glad someone said it. I was thinking the same thing. And yes I can still enjoy a Chris Benoit match. I didn't know the dude. Sure he went crazy, but that doesn't stop those matches from owning.

[BoilerRoomBrawler]

Yeah, sure, if not with a little sense of awkwardness.

In fact, the erasure of Benoit kind of ticks me off.

It's okay to blackball him, but to rewrite history?

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

I can sit through Benoit footage with no problem, I just don't get pumped anymore.

[Brother Ike: Thread Killer]

I havent actually watched one yet, but whenever I see a clip of one CNN or something I do just fine untill they show him doing the diving headbut or getting hit with a chair.

I could understand why someone else wouldnt watch any, but I surely hope it dosen't prevent aspiring wrestlers from studying his matches to learn what to do and what NOT to do (physically damge yourself in such fashion.)

[hotrod]

yeah but its still really strange

[Avalanche Alvarez]

No.
I honestly don't think I'll ever be able to.
But that's just me.

[machinegun]

Yup, as much of a horrible monster he is I still enjoy seeing his stiff offense

[Caglar13]

Most of the time it's when others are involved such as MITB, TLC, or the Rumble, then I'll usually run into one his matches when I pop in the occasional WCW ppv.

[Loser troll. Please ban me]

i never stopped watching, as for joe perry's flawed there dead they mean nothing logic, i recently watched a mr perfect match, and you know whats strange, his charasima was still there, i guess when you smile on camerea after you die, the magic that is flm makes so your smile is still there long after your dead. in fact i still find the los guerrerro stealing promo's to be hilarous after all these years. i feel sorry for you because your truly missing out on great matches simply based on a stupid assumtion that there work is meaningless, oh and btw id suggest to you joe perry to do the following

Stop celebrating christmas/Chanaka/kwanaza and listing to all songs realted becuase in case you did'nt know 98% of all popular holiday songs you hear are sung by dead ppl, and if you currently celebrate anything curring decenber id stop that aswell (and keep in mind im using your logic here) becuase the original people who started the tradition are long dead so it really does'nt have any meaning.

[wrongnesattax]

Its funny this thread is up cos other the past week i saw 2 benoit matches (mitb 1 and wrestlemania 19 tag match) and it was okay thouygh i avoided it for ages. I just viewed him as te wrestler not the killer

[The Thread Barbi]

santa said:

i never stopped watching, as for joe perry's flawed there dead they mean nothing logic, i recently watched a mr perfect match, and you know whats strange, his charasima was still there, i guess when you smile on camerea after you die, the magic that is flm makes so your smile is still there long after your dead. in fact i still find the los guerrerro stealing promo's to be hilarous after all these years. i feel sorry for you because your truly missing out on great matches simply based on a stupid assumtion that there work is meaningless, oh and btw id suggest to you joe perry to do the following

Stop celebrating christmas/Chanaka/kwanaza and listing to all songs realted becuase in case you did'nt know 98% of all popular holiday songs you hear are sung by dead ppl, and if you currently celebrate anything curring decenber id stop that aswell (and keep in mind im using your logic here) becuase the original people who started the tradition are long dead so it really does'nt have any meaning.

One post on an Internet discussion board, and you're an expert on my life.

And you obviously missed my follow-up post where I said I would celebrate the life of someone deceased, who made a profound impact on humanity, but I wouldn't watch/listen to deceased entertainers.

Before any recording medium was invented, who knows how good a singer or theatre actor may have existed. Can you say? I will appreciate their talent whilst alive, but afterwards...why bother? Will their lifetime's work really affect me and make me evaluate my own life and try and make it a little better for me and anyone I come across? I cited Mahatma Ghandi as an example. I can look back at his life and see the values and principals of earning freedom without violence, and not detesting your oppressors. Ditto Nelson Mandela. But we do not discuss politics and religion on this board.

I can get nothing out of Chris Benoit. A murderer, any which way you look at it (steroids, brain-damage etc). I can watch CM Punk, Bret Hart or anyone else of that ilk for a good, technical, match, with 'workrate'. Nor can I get anything out of a John Wayne film. A few hours of leisure at most, but in my life priorities, entertainment is somewhere at the bottom of the list.

And I personally don't give a damn about commercialised Christmas music. When an ever-increasing percentage of the population don't even know who Jesus was, why should I indulge in the commercialisation of a sacred holiday? But that's all I will touch on, on the religious aspects. Its against board rules.

[bobolebowski]

Yeah I can watch his matches

[-Lithium-]

Yeah I still watch them. I mean I dont forget what he didnt or nothing of course. Ive watched the Wrestlemania 20 ending a bunch of times and still picked Benoit in a couple matches on No Mercy...

[Lukin Stontmehn]

machinegun said:

Yup, as much of a horrible monster he is I still enjoy seeing his stiff offense

That's what she said !

[Feargus McReddit]

Before I went to University, I watched the ending of the triple threat match from WM XX, which I had saved as my YouTube favourites for yonks before the WWE caught hold of it and I was conflicted. For that whole period, I forgot everything that had happened and watched everything unfold. The only memory in my head was me at 14 staying up late to catch the match, watching it from beginning to end in the hope that Benoit would win the big one. For that night, I was a mark again.

I just don't know what to do now.

That whole collection of moments, HHH tapping, Benoit crying, Eddie raising his hand in front of a crowd that was exploding. All of that is what defined me as a fan. That one moment is why I love wrestling. A guy who deserved the belt after so damn long got it and for that night, as still a young guy, it's what did it for me.

Now....I just don't know.

Do I blackball this out of my life forever? Do I keep it and try not to feel guilty for keeping it?

The important factor for me is, in the past 4 years since that match, nothing has taken that spot. Nothing else defined me as a fan as much as that match did. The first ONS is my 2nd PPV ever, but that didn't do anything to take it. Nor did anything else after that.

I am tempted to not let it effect me, to keep on going and watching his matches. Because, like alot of people here, he was one of the best ever. But on the other hand, for now on, if I tell someone I like Wrestling who's not a fan, it won't be 'That stuff is fake' that I hear, it'll be 'You know about Benoit? I wonder who will be next?' and I just don't know if I feel comfortable spending the rest of my life doing that.

It's one reason why I haven't watched a full show since that day. I just can't bring myself to do it. But you guys have helped me out of this rut I'm in, especially with the awesome photoshops and random posters, which is why this forum is better than any other wrestling forum around.

If I forget it, I have nothing that I can look back on and say 'This is why I love Pro Wrestling'. If I don't forget it, I'll be condoning a Murderer and, even though I didn't meet or know Benoit, that's all that most people will care about.

[machinegun]

The thing is I never actually saw him kill Nancy and Daniel... I also don't really know him

May as well be a fairy tale to me...