Benoit's Title reign

[Sexy Dad]

For those who have read Chris Jericho's second book you will have read that he felt he was pushed down the card after what he believed Vince considered to be a poor title run, story and Wrestlemania mainevent. If you look at Jericho's career post April 2002-August 2005 it is very similar to Benoit's after he lost the WHC at Summerslam 2004. Do you think Benoit deserved to be pushed down the card in the same way as Jericho did, as from a storyline perspective Benoit had a great feel-good element to his title win and pulled out some great matches with Triple H, HBK and Kane. A polar opposite to Jericho's Undisuted title win? What do you think went wrong and how he went from making Triple H tap out to feuding with Orlando Jordan?

 

And yeah he's a murdering bastard, just thought I'd get it out of the way.

[Loligan]

The push was never there for Benoit. Much

in the same way it wasn't for Bret Harts last run with the Wwf title. He had the belt but that was it. It was very much "there he is the world champion - coming up next TRIPLE H!!!" Trips dropped the belt but remained the man. Plus Benoit was horrible at everything else other than wrestling!

[Magnum]

I doubt they ever had that much faith in or expectation of him as a legitimate draw at that point - by the time they gave him the world title, everybody was already well aware of Benoit's limitations. I think in that respect it differs from the Jericho scenario because, to me, back in 2001 they were probably still hoping Jericho was capable of stepping up to the next level and becoming the eventual replacement for Austin or Rock. With Benoit, I think he was just someone who could be relied on to hold onto the belt, keep it credible and have some entertaining matches in the process while getting Orton/Cena/Edge ready for their first big run.

 

And as I've said on numerous occasions, while he wasn't a long-term main eventer in that role because of his lack of verbal charisma, he could have been had they chosen to switch him back to the silent, sadistic heel role he played in 2000. They weren't short of heel main event talent in those years, though, so c'est la vie.

[King Pitcos]

For those who have read Chris Jericho's second book you will have read that he felt he was pushed down the card after what he believed Vince considered to be a poor title run, story and Wrestlemania mainevent.

The storyline going into the title win, and the main event itself, were fine. The problem is that Benoit was pretty fucking rubbish, so you were limited on what you could do with him after that. Nobody was ever going to be that interested in his title defences.

[jimufctna24]

Whilst is was a very nice feel good moment at the time, Beniot was never going to be number 1 babyface material.

 

I think most knew he would be transtional while WWE searched for someone new at the time like Orton or giving it a break from HHH. Beniot as tremendous as a in ring performer that he was, never had the charismia or presence to main event as a face. As a sadistic heel he might have had a chance.

 

I t was a weird time for WWE, sort of trying to transition from the Attitude era to the PG Era

[Ron Simmons]

Had Benoit not did what he did I think he'd probably have had a second World title run on Smackdown at some point. As far as his "de-push" goes, JBL had a US title run and an IC title run, and Rey Mysterio was in a similar situation. Then you have Chris Jericho, who bounces between the main event and the upper card. That's kind of what Benoit did. He simply didn't have the mic skills to be a John Cena, or a Triple H in terms of being top dog. But he was always going to be in a solid spot regardless of who he feuded with. Should he have not killed his young child and wife he'd probably have had a Smackdown world title reign to look forward to, probably a singles match with Undertaker, an ECW title run of course, and maybe being credited with having a "star making match" with CM Punk. He'd have retired to become a top road agent, before taking a spot in the WWE Hall Of Fame, and being remembered as the greatest technical wrestler of all time when WWE looked back at his career. He'd have been remembered with much affection by casual fans, internet fans and other wrestlers alike, instead of a child murderer.

[thefallenangel]

Had Benoit not did what he did I think he'd probably have had a second World title run on Smackdown at some point. As far as his "de-push" goes, JBL had a US title run and an IC title run, and Rey Mysterio was in a similar situation. Then you have Chris Jericho, who bounces between the main event and the upper card. That's kind of what Benoit did. He simply didn't have the mic skills to be a John Cena, or a Triple H in terms of being top dog. But he was always going to be in a solid spot regardless of who he feuded with. Should he have not killed his young child and wife he'd probably have had a Smackdown world title reign to look forward to, probably a singles match with Undertaker, an ECW title run of course, and maybe being credited with having a "star making match" with CM Punk. He'd have retired to become a top road agent, before taking a spot in the WWE Hall Of Fame, and being remembered as the greatest technical wrestler of all time when WWE looked back at his career. He'd have been remembered with much affection by casual fans, internet fans and other wrestlers alike, instead of a child murderer.

 

 

IMO he still should be regarded as one of the best technical wrestlers as inside the ring which was why he was given the run. I think Benoit would of benefitted from not having HBK in the main event too. Problem was you had 2 similar storylines running on both shows and people had Eddie as the Smackdown champion at the time which took a shine off Benoit's win. was bad booking really.

[Foale]

Problem was you had 2 similar storylines running on both shows and people had Eddie as the Smackdown champion at the time which took a shine off Benoit's win. was bad booking really.

 

Nah, if Guerrero wasn't champion then we wouldn't have had the iconic moment of the two of them embracing at the end of the show, both finally at the top of the mountain.

 

(at least it would still be iconic if it weren't for Benoit going ape-shit 3 years later)

[Loki]

They pulled the trigger a couple of years too late on Benoit. He was more over when feuding with Angle than when they finally gave him the title. Benoit's connection with the fans was based purely on his in-ring persona and performances, which is very rare, and I think timing was everything with him.

 

As far as his actual run was concerned - what more could you do? He couldn't talk, so just banging out good matches with all and sundry was all you could do really. He was never going to be the glue that held every Raw together, you need a good talker for that.

[Ron Simmons]

Had Benoit not did what he did I think he'd probably have had a second World title run on Smackdown at some point. As far as his "de-push" goes, JBL had a US title run and an IC title run, and Rey Mysterio was in a similar situation. Then you have Chris Jericho, who bounces between the main event and the upper card. That's kind of what Benoit did. He simply didn't have the mic skills to be a John Cena, or a Triple H in terms of being top dog. But he was always going to be in a solid spot regardless of who he feuded with. Should he have not killed his young child and wife he'd probably have had a Smackdown world title reign to look forward to, probably a singles match with Undertaker, an ECW title run of course, and maybe being credited with having a "star making match" with CM Punk. He'd have retired to become a top road agent, before taking a spot in the WWE Hall Of Fame, and being remembered as the greatest technical wrestler of all time when WWE looked back at his career. He'd have been remembered with much affection by casual fans, internet fans and other wrestlers alike, instead of a child murderer.

 

 

IMO he still should be regarded as one of the best technical wrestlers as inside the ring which was why he was given the run. I think Benoit would of benefitted from not having HBK in the main event too. Problem was you had 2 similar storylines running on both shows and people had Eddie as the Smackdown champion at the time which took a shine off Benoit's win. was bad booking really.

At that moment in time the momentum was swinging towards a Benoit/Lesnar match at a PPV, not Benoit/Triple H - that kind of came out of nowhere, and at that point (And perhaps even now) the WHC didn't seem quite as special as the WWE title. At the time I was disappointed Benoit didn't face Lesnar at Wrestlemania, but it was great to see Eddie Guerrero finally win the big one, and had Benoit not moved to RAW that might never have happened.