News on Tonight's SmackDown and ECW; Personal Thoughts on the Benoit Situation
More news...and this time of a wrestling nature for tonight's SmackDown and ECW tapings in San Antonio.
First off, Wrestling Observer is reporting that the shows will go on tonight, and as we reported in all this madness early this morning, the shows will go on without it being a tribute show to Benoit, and the Vince "death" storyline (as of this moment anyway), has been scrapped.
The report says that tonight will be straight wrestling, without any sort of heavy storylines. I can imagine it being similar to the shows after the deaths of Owen Hart in 1999 and Eddie Guerrero two years ago in which the superstars basically just wrestled, and some then embraced after the matches. Ironic that the final match on SmackDown two years ago after Eddie died was HHH vs Chris Benoit, and after the match, the two hugged in the ring.
The Observer is also reporting that the one person that is really keeping things together right now is Vince McMahon. The story said that Vince was a rock yesterday, both to the wrestlers and the front office. I have no idea when things get straight how they are going to explain his limo storyline, but right now that is the least of most peoples concerns.
The other thing that will quickly become an issue, and it is starting to already, is the light that Benoit is portrayed in from here on out. If the reports are true, and he actually did murder his wife and son, then how will the WWE handle his death, and tributes to him. Some are already piling on the WWE for doing a 3-hour tribute show dedicated to the life of a "murderer" last night on RAW.
While I personally will not make any judgements, the only thing I can say at the moment is IF THIS IS TRUE, and Benoit did indeed murder his wife and child, I would have to think that there was chemicals or medication involved. I have met Chris, and have listened over the last 14 hours to so many people on the web and even last night on RAW talk about Chris in glowing terms. I cannot believe that this was somehting he could have done, but if he indeed did it, and we should know that shortly, that will make the sad demise of he and his wife and child even more tragic.
For now, I invite you to keep leaving your comments - good, bad or indifferent, on the SHOUTBOX and in the comment section of the stories. I don't think at this point anyone can judge anyone for what someone says or thinks about Benoit after all this has taken place until we for 100 percent know the facts that could come as early as today.
I just wanted to thank you Matt for keeping us updated as the hours drag on. I came across your blog late last night and I have to say it has been my primary source of information ever since. I feel your reporting has been very fact driven and 'as objective as possible'. I have already saved it as a favorite and will return even after this tragedy is put to rest.
Posted by
Jenla |
10:52 AM
I just want to say, I have a hard time buying into this. From everything I have heard from Chris's friends he loved his family, yes him and his wife both have tempers and like any marriage I am sure they could have some heavy arguments, I can not see Chris doing this to his son. Lets just look at the facts; he missed 2 shows when he is known for his dedication and love of the sport. Johnny Nitro stepped into his match and won the ECW title telling me they were not going to let C.M Punk win against Chris, so Benoit would have been the ECW champion, then the reports I have read states he would have killed his wife and son a day apart and hung himself the next day. I am unable to see how someone (who was not altered) could stay in a house with a dead body for 2 days. Also if this were the case why did the son not try to get away Benoit would have to have slept sometime. Things to me just are not adding up and I will not believe it until the holes in this are filled.
Mike D.
R.I.P.
Benoit family
Posted by
miked |
12:55 PM
Jenla,
Thank you for your nice comments. We have tried not to invent stories in this tragedy, as many other sites have done, and we have tried to credit any information that we have gotten from the source in case it does in fact turn out not to be true. We appreciate your visiting our site.
Miked,
I realize how unreal this whole situation may be, but we as wrestling fans I feel are going to have to face the facts once the facts are indeed given. Please let us not distort the situation and start to pretend that there is more to it than there may be. Thank you for reading.
Posted by
Matt Loede |
1:42 PM