Chris Benoit dead

[JNLister]

It goes out live (I think) and also airs at 10am the next morning.

[remlap]

Does anyone know exactly when the Larry King Live show is shown on our version of CNN? It's tomorrow night at 9pm in the US, is it actually live over here, or does it go out on a days delay or something? Chris Jericho, Bret Hart and John Cena are the guests tomorrow night, it is a full 1 hour show all about the Benoit tragedy.

10am Tuesday hopefully.Its interesting Larry is not simulcast any more yet Anderson Cooper is. Edited July 8, 2007 by remlap

[Phil Lowe]

Handy little website if you're wanting some of the U.S channels without downloading any software:

 

http://www.30minutelunchbreak.com/

[The Dart]

Larry King is on live tomorrow at 9pm with John Cena as a guest? The same time Raw is on live?

[NBT]

Yes, Cena has been pulled from RAW to go on the Larry King show it appears.

[The Dart]

Oh yeh. They did change the main event, didn't they.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Just saw this over at 1wrestling:

 

 

Dr. Phil Astin, Chris Benoit's personal doctor, faces what amounts to life in prison if found guilty of the seven counts he is currently indicted under. Each count carries a possible 20 year sentence and authorities are investigating the deaths of Johnny Grunge and Chris Benoit to determine if more charges may be forthcoming.

 

 

Looks like Astin is absolutely screwed.

[Loki]

So, now we know that Benoit was sent insane by the fiendish drug-pushing antics of a needle-wielding Nazi doctor, can we go back to having him mentioned on tv? It was really weird seeing them discussing MVP on Smackdown "He's had some great feuds this year... umm.... Kane and.... errr...."

[Jaffa]

Just saw this over at 1wrestling:Dr. Phil Astin, Chris Benoit's personal doctor, faces what amounts to life in prison if found guilty of the seven counts he is currently indicted under. Each count carries a possible 20 year sentence and authorities are investigating the deaths of Johnny Grunge and Chris Benoit to determine if more charges may be forthcoming.Looks like Astin is absolutely screwed.

I don't like Dr Astins chances of being found innocent.

[DJ Kris]

Firstly, that article doesn't specifically say anything about roid rage being to blame for the Benoit deaths. It says that "it is feared" that that Benoit was under the influence of steroids when he killed his family. That much is true. The rest of the article is about the legitimate problems that steroids are linked to, and merely uses the Benoit issue to bring things into sharper focus. Really, as long as Vince can defend himself against blame for so many wrestlers' deaths by saying "hardly any of them were working for me at the time," and yet ignore the fact that the likes of Crash Holly and Mike Awesome had only been out of the company a very short time, or that 90% of Davey Boy Smith's non-British career was with the WWF, it's going to be a real struggle to change anything at all.

While you busy holding Vince McMahon (and the WWE fans) responsible for all these deaths, how about you mention the fact that while Bulldog spent a lot of his career in WWF, he actually had a serious pain killer addiction stemming from the back injury he sustained in WCW. In fact if I recall correctly Vince McMahon paid for him to go into rehab while back in WWF, he didn't get clean and refused to go back in so Vince released him.Earlier someone mentioned Chris Candido, now while he may have worked for Vince in the past, the fact is he suffered an injury in a TNA ring, an injury that led to a blood clot that killed him, so his past in WWE played no part in that.I accept that to some WWE IS wrestling, but surely we should know better?

There was a massive steroid scandal (you may have read about it!!!!!) that led to them getting rid of the LOD, Hulk Hogan, Bulldog and others, and they put the belt on a far more normal looking guy to try and divert some of the heat.and???They did that because they had to, not due to a change in tactics that Vince just decided on. The fucking Feds were on their case. So, yes, they focused on Hart and Michaels for a bit, then when things settled down again they re-hired Hogan, Sid, Bulldog, LOD and many others.

I think you need to really look at your time frame on this somewhat.

[Finlay]

Yes, Cena has been pulled from RAW to go on the Larry King show it appears.

Makes you wonder if/how they acknowledge it on TV. Do they state the WWE Champion is injured due to the Lashley spear with every fan worth their salt knowing he is on the Larry King show, or do they announce this and take the chance of a large portion of their audience turning over to see Cena, representing the WWE, probably being put under a bit of pressure with some really tough questions? I hope King asks Cena outright if HE is on/was on steroids. The guy has a better physique than Benoit ever had.

[Dirty Eddie]

There was a massive steroid scandal (you may have read about it!!!!!) that led to them getting rid of the LOD, Hulk Hogan, Bulldog and others, and they put the belt on a far more normal looking guy to try and divert some of the heat.and???They did that because they had to, not due to a change in tactics that Vince just decided on. The fucking Feds were on their case. So, yes, they focused on Hart and Michaels for a bit, then when things settled down again they re-hired Hogan, Sid, Bulldog, LOD and many others.

I think you need to really look at your time frame on this somewhat.

In January 1992 the WWF roster contained the following overly muscled wrestlers...Hulk HoganHerculesJim PowersUltimate WarriorWarlordBarbarianSuperflyHawkAnimalTexas TornadoBritish BulldogSid JusticeBy December 1992 all that remained from this list was...Jim PowersWith The Steiners being the only big dudes to be added to the roster.Dr Zahorian was found guilty in June 1991 and the case was being built to charge McMahon (ended up happening in '94).So in 1992 Sid main-evented Wrestlemania, Bulldog sold out Wembly and the LOD were the hugely popular Tag Champs, yet Vince let them all go by the end of the year. Hogan left the company after Mania in '92 and returned in March or April '93, looking about 30lbs lighter than when he left.

[DJ Kris]

There was a massive steroid scandal (you may have read about it!!!!!) that led to them getting rid of the LOD, Hulk Hogan, Bulldog and others, and they put the belt on a far more normal looking guy to try and divert some of the heat.and???They did that because they had to, not due to a change in tactics that Vince just decided on. The fucking Feds were on their case. So, yes, they focused on Hart and Michaels for a bit, then when things settled down again they re-hired Hogan, Sid, Bulldog, LOD and many others.

I think you need to really look at your time frame on this somewhat.

In January 1992 the WWF roster contained the following overly muscled wrestlers...Hulk HoganHerculesJim PowersUltimate WarriorWarlordBarbarianSuperflyHawkAnimalTexas TornadoBritish BulldogSid JusticeBy December 1992 all that remained from this list was...Jim PowersWith The Steiners being the only big dudes to be added to the roster.Dr Zahorian was found guilty in June 1991 and the case was being built to charge McMahon (ended up happening in '94).So in 1992 Sid main-evented Wrestlemania, Bulldog sold out Wembly and the LOD were the hugely popular Tag Champs, yet Vince let them all go by the end of the year. Hogan left the company after Mania in '92 and returned in March or April '93, looking about 30lbs lighter than when he left.

Right, so the heat was on between 1991 and 1994. I'll ignore the fact that Hogan was Champion in 1991 as perhaps things weren't really turned on Vince until 1992. So yeah, some of these buggers guys disappeared, Bret Hart was made Champion at the end of 1992. However Hogan (yes, slightly trimmed) returned in early 1993 (while the heat was still on) and held the title for a couple of months before dropping it to Yokozuna. Bret would then regain this title in April 1994 at WrestleMania X. He held it numberous times afterwards right through to 1997, 3 years after the McMahon trial.Shawn Michaels didn't win the title untill March 1996, 2 years after the trial. So yeah, it's fair to say Vince ditched some of his big guys in 1992 because of the steriod scandal, but to say Bret and Shawn were only the focus because of it, doesn't really fit the timeframe. Let's not forget in 1993 Vince made an attempt to build up Luger, who was hardly small.

[Dirty Eddie]

Right, so the heat was on between 1991 and 1994. I'll ignore the fact that Hogan was Champion in 1991 as perhaps things weren't really turned on Vince until 1992. So yeah, some of these buggers guys disappeared, Bret Hart was made Champion at the end of 1992. However Hogan (yes, slightly trimmed) returned in early 1993 (while the heat was still on) and held the title for a couple of months before dropping it to Yokozuna. Bret would then regain this title in April 1994 at WrestleMania X. He held it numberous times afterwards right through to 1997, 3 years after the McMahon trial.Shawn Michaels didn't win the title untill March 1996, 2 years after the trial. So yeah, it's fair to say Vince ditched some of his big guys in 1992 because of the steriod scandal, but to say Bret and Shawn were only the focus because of it, doesn't really fit the timeframe. Let's not forget in 1993 Vince made an attempt to build up Luger, who was hardly small.

The McMahon trial was in 1994 though, so having Bret as World Champion and Michaels as IC Champion gave the impression that the company was not pushing musclemen as it's main stars. It's also worth remembering that Michaels was the biggest asshole/backstage politician since Hogan. He got close with McMahon (along with his clique buddies) and managed to position himself as the future of the company by 95/96. Also note that, once the heat was off a bit (by 95/96) Vince re-hired Bulldog, Sid and The LOD, along with pushing Ahmed Johnson as a future main event guy.He was hardly going to suddenly demote Hart and Michaels - he had put the effort in and they had been accepted as Main-Eventers.The Lex Luger thing I will give you though. It did seem an odd time to push him.It still seems apparent to me that Vince went "Shit, the Feds are looking to do me for steroid distribution. Fire The Warrior, Bulldog, Sid etc.. and put the belts on more athletic, normal looking guys". Then when he got let off the hook he re-hired them all!

[DJ Kris]

Right, so the heat was on between 1991 and 1994. I'll ignore the fact that Hogan was Champion in 1991 as perhaps things weren't really turned on Vince until 1992. So yeah, some of these buggers guys disappeared, Bret Hart was made Champion at the end of 1992. However Hogan (yes, slightly trimmed) returned in early 1993 (while the heat was still on) and held the title for a couple of months before dropping it to Yokozuna. Bret would then regain this title in April 1994 at WrestleMania X. He held it numberous times afterwards right through to 1997, 3 years after the McMahon trial.Shawn Michaels didn't win the title untill March 1996, 2 years after the trial. So yeah, it's fair to say Vince ditched some of his big guys in 1992 because of the steriod scandal, but to say Bret and Shawn were only the focus because of it, doesn't really fit the timeframe. Let's not forget in 1993 Vince made an attempt to build up Luger, who was hardly small.

The McMahon trial was in 1994 though, so having Bret as World Champion and Michaels as IC Champion gave the impression that the company was not pushing musclemen as it's main stars. It's also worth remembering that Michaels was the biggest asshole/backstage politician since Hogan. He got close with McMahon (along with his clique buddies) and managed to position himself as the future of the company by 95/96. Also note that, once the heat was off a bit (by 95/96) Vince re-hired Bulldog, Sid and The LOD, along with pushing Ahmed Johnson as a future main event guy.He was hardly going to suddenly demote Hart and Michaels - he had put the effort in and they had been accepted as Main-Eventers.The Lex Luger thing I will give you though. It did seem an odd time to push him.It still seems apparent to me that Vince went "Shit, the Feds are looking to do me for steroid distribution. Fire The Warrior, Bulldog, Sid etc.. and put the belts on more athletic, normal looking guys". Then when he got let off the hook he re-hired them all!

Michaels as Intercontinental champion is hardly an indication of a focus on smaller guys, since numberous smaller guys had held it. You also have to wonder how Shawn got all this influence. Surely it was because McMahon felt he was talented and was going to the top of the business.A few other points, the McMahon trail didn't finish until late July, Bulldog returned a month later at SummerSlam, wouldn't you say that's a quick turn around? It's also during the trial Diesel made his debut (another big guy) and was as much at the forefront as Shawn Michaels.