Did Benoit really almost kill the business?

[ChitownKnight]

Now what had happened was really f***ed up and honestly gave me nightmares as a 14 year old, but was it something that almost killed the business? I remember there being a lot of bad press and all, but i don’t think wwe was going to go down because of it

[The Heartbreak TWERK]

Kill the business? No.

Did he damage the industry? For sure.

[Aceorton]

I think you can draw some lines between what happened and the state of wrestling now. There was sort of a mass societal wakeup at the time to what most of us knew in great detail already: "Oh, wow, wrestling is a scummy business full of dark, disturbing secrets." Some of WWE's efforts to clean things up to pass the smell test with the public arguably had the side effect of making the product more boring.

[Perd]

No, but it put a spotlight on some very ugly aspects of the business.

[Tenshigure]

Mar 29, 2019 14:23:59 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

I think you can draw some lines between what happened and the state of wrestling now.

Yeah, the average lifespan and duration of people's careers have increased exponentially since the introduction of the Wellness Policy. How many guys who debuted in the Attitude Era made it to 10+ years in the WWE compared to today? Even those who made it a decade plus from those years back did not nearly perform as well as some of the guys that have been running since the changeover.

Some of WWE's efforts to clean things up to pass the smell test with the public arguably had the side effect of making the product more boring.

I'll gladly give up "exciting product" if it means the average lifespan and quality of life of the performers improve exponentially. The mere existence of the Wellness Policy has saved the lives of countless guys and girls who have come through the doors.

*****

On-topic, Benoit didn't kill the business, but it certainly destroyed the mainstream appeal the company had for a significant amount of time. It's rebuilt some of this appeal, but it'll always be a shadow looming over the company either way.

[Hit Girl]

The product is boring due to the company being booked soley to please an elderly old man.

[Deleted]

I always find it interesting that a few years after Benoit Jovan Belcher of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs murdered his wife, drove to the Chiefs practice facility and killed himself in front of some of his coaches and as far as I know there was no governmental inquiry or anything of the like. Granted wrestling needed to be cleaned up, but the NFL is just as shady. They don’t care about the players either.

I think if anything Benoit prolonged the business in the long run, obviously I wish none of it went down but something was eventually going to go down like that.

[salz4life]

No... he killed his wife and child.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

Considering the average attention span to news, not even close.

[Deleted]

He changed it that's for sure. Wouldn't say killed but he definitely forced it to change.

[Deleted]

He changed it for the worst.

[CeilingFan]

About a year after the Benoit murders and suicide, both Presidential Candidates appeared giving prerecorded messages on Raw. It feels like the damage was short-term.

[riseofsetian1981]

Quite honestly the seeds were already planted in changing the business when Guerrero passed away. The Benoit tragedy just sped up the change in actuality.

[Final Countdown Jones]

Mar 29, 2019 14:23:59 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

Some of WWE's efforts to clean things up to pass the smell test with the public arguably had the side effect of making the product more boring.

Nah I don't buy that; WWE only really lost steroids and chair shots to the head, there's nothing in those two things that is vital to the business or really what the problem with WWE is. The Benoit incident happened during a time where WWE creative was on a big downturn, but I don't see much structural correlation there, they happened largely in parallel.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Kill? Nah. Put a pretty significant dent in the hull? Yeah, absolutely.

[darbus alan]

PG Era was not a reaction to Benoit. PG Era was a reaction to advertising money losing interest in sponsoring the fading fad that was shock TV.

And going back to TV-14 won't make the product into the next coming of the Attitude Era in terms of engaging storylines and talent across the board being presented a whole lot better. It'd still be as terrible as it is now, just with a bit more cursing.

[Prince Petty]

If the changes that Benoit forced on the company were an end to unprotected chair shots to the head, and other moves that exposed the head and brain to potential trauma, then it's the only good that came out of his awful actions.

Head trauma and brain injuries are going to be defining narratives of the sporting world, over the next decade or so. The WWE got a head start on most other sports, and has done a fairly impressive job of limiting risks and strictly enforcing healing at the expense of the show.

[dbrussel]

Well, after rejecting go PG for a while, WWE embraced that very fast right after this sad event.

[arrogantmodel]

Mar 29, 2019 14:36:39 GMT -5 Tenshigure said:

Mar 29, 2019 14:23:59 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

I think you can draw some lines between what happened and the state of wrestling now.

Yeah, the average lifespan and duration of people's careers have increased exponentially since the introduction of the Wellness Policy. How many guys who debuted in the Attitude Era made it to 10+ years in the WWE compared to today? Even those who made it a decade plus from those years back did not nearly perform as well as some of the guys that have been running since the changeover.

Some of WWE's efforts to clean things up to pass the smell test with the public arguably had the side effect of making the product more boring.

I'll gladly give up "exciting product" if it means the average lifespan and quality of life of the performers improve exponentially. The mere existence of the Wellness Policy has saved the lives of countless guys and girls who have come through the doors.

*****

On-topic, Benoit didn't kill the business, but it certainly destroyed the mainstream appeal the company had for a significant amount of time. It's rebuilt some of this appeal, but it'll always be a shadow looming over the company either way.

When I think of "exciting product,"I don't think of or need swearing and unprotected chair shots. I think of engaging stories that lead to amazing matches.

If Benoit made the product what it is today, then yeah...he changed it for the worst.

[Deleted]

If anything I'd say in the long run it was probably a net gain for wrestling, just because it exposed a lot of an ugly underbelly to the business and while it still has a f***ton of issues it has noticeably improved since.