1 post tagged “wrestling”
Interesting interview on The Today Show this morning with Meredith Vieira grilling Vince McMahon about the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide case. (Note: the link goes to the Today Show site. I couldn't link with the exact video. However, it should be up during the day today June 28th.)
Not sure what to think about all this. Chris Benoit was about the last person in the world I would expect to do something like this. He seemed very professional and he certainly could wrestle better than most of the WWE's performers. In an industry full of vicious gossip, one rarely heard anything bad about the man. He was, by most accounts, a mild-mannered man who worked well with others. Vince was as "charming" as usual in the interview--Benoit is now a "monster" and Vince mainly wants people to move past the tragedy and get back to business "of making people smile." I don't think it will be that easy.
I'll be the first to say that Vieira is an abysmal journalist for whom I have no respect whatsoever, but she did catch Vince on a few things, such as the WWE insisting that steroids did not and could not have had anything to do with the tragedy, which he claimed was at first not said, and then claimed that the quote was taken out of context. When she insisted that 60 wrestlers have died young since 1985, obviously that was some number given to her by a researcher because she had no clue who these people were, but Vince made it worse by arguing the point that only 5 wrestlers have died while under WWE contract. I guess the ones the WWE broke and threw away (like, say, Davey-boy Smith "The British Bulldog") don't count?
Anyone who scratches the surface of the pro-wrestling world will find it a very ugly place indeed, full of cut-throat competion, back-stabbing politics, shattered dreams and broken bodies. I won't say it isn't fine entertainment because that would make me a hypocrite. I enjoy watching pro-wrestling, even with the bad acting and staged matches. It's fun and I happen to love muscular men. But this situation now makes me wonder if pro-wrestling is an industry that I need to be supporting.
As for Chris Benoit, what a sad situation. Obviously the man cracked for some reason, be it stress or steroids or head injury. It's sad that despite the many, many years that he gave to the wrestling industry, he'll be remembered for this one heinous act. And now, we fans are left watching as the WWE scuttles, cockroach-like, away from the spotlight.
