Maxim article on Benoit murders

[Bix]

http://www.maximonline.com/Thelastdaysofch...icles/9733.aspx

 

The best mainstream piece I've seen. Nothing new if you've been following the newsletters, but certainly interesting to see in a magazine w/ 2.5 million readers that's geared towards WWE's target demographic.

[S.L.L.]

Ah, but in the second paragraph, they forgot the "c" at the beginning of "classic", so clearly everything here is false and Benoit is innocent and there's no drug problem in wrestling and EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE I SWEAR!

 

[Tim Evans]

How the hell can you forget c in classic? It's a good story but at the end of the day, no one will care except the marks and smarks that know what happened. I saw the guy that did the Article was on Dan Abrahams show tonight.

[Loss]

It doesn't matter if wrestling is a sleazy business or not as long as no one cares whether or not it's sleazy.

 

Trees that fall in the woods don't make noise if there's no one there to hear them.

 

Right? Right? Right?

[Bix]

It's a good story but at the end of the day, no one will care except the marks and smarks that know what happened.

...and now millions of Maxim readers will know what happened, with all of the ugly details.

[Indikator]

Remember when a newspaper from IIRC Los Angeles more or less copied an article from the Dragon King Wrestling newsletter about the topic? No? See, Tim is right. Nobody will care

[Loss]

Why has the argument become about whether or not anyone will care? Comment on the article itself.

[S.L.L.]

Attorney: Your honor, the defendant is a child pornographer and serial killer responsible for the deaths of several hundred young children. The massive and indisputable stack of evidence is Exhibit A.

 

Judge: Damn, that is massive and indisputable.

 

Defense: Your honor, I move that this case be dismissed. My client is a pro wrestler, and nobody cares about pro wrestling.

 

Judge: Oh? So be it. Case dismissed.

 

[Defendant kills several small children on his way out. The Judge waves it off.]

 

And that's exactly how it would happen, because no one cares about pro wrestling, thus making it immune from any potential outside threat ever. SERIOUSLY! I'M SUPER SERIAL YOU GUYS!

[Bix]

Remember when a newspaper from IIRC Los Angeles more or less copied an article from the Dragon King Wrestling newsletter about the topic? No? See, Tim is right. Nobody will care

???

 

I doubt that the newspaper was a favorite among WWE's target demo with massive national circulations.

[Tim Evans]

Remember when a newspaper from IIRC Los Angeles more or less copied an article from the Dragon King Wrestling newsletter about the topic? No? See, Tim is right. Nobody will care

???

 

I doubt that the newspaper was a favorite among WWE's target demo with massive national circulations.

 

 

I'm guessing WWE's Target Demo is 18-34 right? You really think someone is going to read that article and say "Well damn now that I know how they died, I"m so angry I won't watch.?" Isn't everything that's in that article already been covered on TV, Internet, and newspapers. As you said, Nothing new came out of it so people probably already made up there minds.

[Loss]

That wasn't the point. The point wasn't moral outrage or THISISGOINGTOHURTWWE. The point was wow, interesting to see this stuff published in a magazine with such a wide circulation. WWE fans are *more likely* to read this than they are anything else. There were no assumptions made on what their reactions to it would be.

 

You don't think anyone cares. That's understood.

 

What do you think of the article?

[Al]

One thing I couldn't help but notice, on the bottom of page three.

 

From his office in Stamford, Connecticut, McMahon lords over a $400 million-a-year empire with 15 million weekly viewers. He rewrites story lines, signs new talent, and insists that office employees never wear jeans (suits or “business casual” only)—all part of the WWE’s “clean” image. “If you complained, he’d fire you, so you’d better keep your mouth shut,” says former WWE wrestler Rick Steiner. “If he wants you to be the biggest star, he’ll make you the biggest star. He has total control.”

What the heck is that supposed to mean? It's some scandal that Titan Towers has a dress code?

[Loss]

It read to me like it was just an attempt to explain part of the culture of the company, not to imply that having a dress code is scandalous.

[Tim Evans]

That wasn't the point. The point wasn't moral outrage or THISISGOINGTOHURTWWE. The point was wow, interesting to see this stuff published in a magazine with such a wide circulation. WWE fans are *more likely* to read this than they are anything else. There were no assumptions made on what their reactions to it would be.

 

You don't think anyone cares. That's understood.

 

What do you think of the article?

It was very well done. Much better than most of the stuff i've seen on the topic.

[gordi]

Not surprising that it was a damn good article. Michael Lewis is among the very best writers covering sports in America. His book "The Blind Side" is amazing insightful about the way (American) football has evolved recently. It's refreshing to read something in the mainstream press where the writer has obviously done some actual research about pro wrestling. It's a shame that it took something like the Benoit murder-suicide to make that happen.

[CodySave]

Not surprising that it was a damn good article. Michael Lewis is among the very best writers covering sports in America. His book "The Blind Side" is amazing insightful about the way (American) football has evolved recently. It's refreshing to read something in the mainstream press where the writer has obviously done some actual research about pro wrestling. It's a shame that it took something like the Benoit murder-suicide to make that happen.

I honestly hadn't taken a look at the article yet, but definitely will just based on the fact that Michael Lewis wrote it, much less the fact that I'm interested in the subject matter itself. "The Blind Side" is an amazing book, just as good, if not better, than the more-popular "Moneyball" by Lewis in my opinion.

 

Even my Mom loves "The Blind Side" and she could give a crap less about football.

[Marty]

Maxim's webpage is actually blocked at my workplace, but Michael Lewis wrote the article?? Cool! I have to agree with the last few posters. He's a fabulous writer.

 

I'll check this out later tonight.

[PeteF3]

I'm about 99% sure it's not Michael "Moneyball/Liar's Poker" Lewis.

[Marty]

I actually bought the mag, mainly because of the existence of Sarah Michelle Gellar in the issue ( ) and read the article.

 

Definitely felt it was very well-written and descriptive, as there were things written that I (not speaking for others) wasn't aware of. The general early statements of the article in that reading it leaves more questions than answers is definitely true. When they discuss the phone call between Chris and his family friend, why, if Benoit's brain was as messed up as it was, did he sound normal and fine to his friend? Is this an affect of pro wrestling (where guys work people so much that they get in tune with working their friends in order to present themselves as stable)? Or is it something else? The article did very well summing things up, but (and this might not be at fault of the writer, because he did a good job presenting the reader (the average one of which may not have a clue about wrestling's inner workings to begin with)) as usual, we're still left with many, many questions, because some things (e.g. Benoit having a brain of an 85-year-old with Alzeimers + Benoit acting fine heading into that weekend) just don't add up.

 

I wanted to bring up something that has to do with the situation, but not with the article. Earlier this week in the city I live in (Ottawa), a triple-murder suicide happened (a man of Indian descent killed his wife and two daughters before killing himself). It's obviously been the biggest story here all week, as the part of town they lived in was very peaceful, and the neighbours mention how they wouldn't have suspected anything. What did the man do for a living? He worked for the local public transportation company, which is unionized, publically ran, etc. Simple job: Drive a bus all day. If someone like that, who has good, solid working conditions like that, can wipe out his family, than there may be more to these cases than what they do for a living. While regulation of wrestling is definitely worth a look for many, many reasons, ask yourself (that is, the strong supporters of it) this: Do you honestly think it would've stopped Chris Benoit for doing the deeds he did? Somewhere along the line the general personality of the subject takes over, no matter what his situation is (and heck, aside from any possible health issues, it's not like he was living in a bad situation). I think, one way or the other, and this article proves it, there's still more to Benoit we don't know, and that we may never know.

[Loss]

I do agree with you Marty. I don't think WWE, or even wrestling in general, is to blame for Benoit killing his family and then himself. I do think WWE is to blame for paying tribute to him on television when they knew he murdered Nancy and Daniel, having Jerry McDevitt and Chris Jericho spread false rumors through the media of Daniel having Fragile X Syndrome and letting guys like Kennedy totally embarrass them by being so adamant about how wrestling has changed, only to show up as receiving steroids after the introduction of the wellness policy after a government investigation.

 

The obvious three questions still haven't been asked in all of the Vince interviews:

 

1. How was Benoit able to pass drug tests while receiving a 10-month supply of steroids every 3-4 weeks?

 

2. How can they argue that the new generation is different when they just had to suspend 10 wrestlers for wellness violations less than two months ago?

 

3. Why didn't the Wellness Policy catch the Signature Pharmacy guys?

 

I don't think the 85-year old Alzheimers patient line has ever really held up at all, and do actually agree with Vince when he says there's no way Benoit would be able to function in terms of getting to work.

 

I'm also thinking that when the Benoit family and Nancy's family both sue WWE for wrongful death, if the whole Fragile X rumor will end up being part of the court case. It certainly doesn't help WWE's case that they publicly slandered a 7-year old.

[Bix]

The article mentions one example of Benoit's mental deterioration before the murders, his paranoia.

 

Not mentioned is the possibly more damning story of where he called up Regal (long after they stopped being social friends) and asked him to bring over '90s AJPW tapes to watch. Regal got there and Benoit had no memory of their conversation, refusing to open the door.

[Marty]

The article mentions one example of Benoit's mental deterioration before the murders, his paranoia.

 

Not mentioned is the possibly more damning story of where he called up Regal (long after they stopped being social friends) and asked him to bring over '90s AJPW tapes to watch. Regal got there and Benoit had no memory of their conversation, refusing to open the door.

There's also all the stuff we know about his backstage behaviour that wasn't mentioned either, like throwing Matt Striker out of the locker room, the infamous hack squat incident, etc.

 

Also wasn't mentioned was a lot more about Benoit's past, such as the DUI he had in '98.

 

It was definitely well-written and easy to read (although not exactly easy to visualize), but it could've been more complete with items like those.

 

Loss, thanks for your reply. I'll reply to it later.

[Al]

The article mentions one example of Benoit's mental deterioration before the murders, his paranoia.

 

Not mentioned is the possibly more damning story of where he called up Regal (long after they stopped being social friends) and asked him to bring over '90s AJPW tapes to watch. Regal got there and Benoit had no memory of their conversation, refusing to open the door.

There's also all the stuff we know about his backstage behaviour that wasn't mentioned either, like throwing Matt Striker out of the locker room, the infamous hack squat incident, etc.

 

Also wasn't mentioned was a lot more about Benoit's past, such as the DUI he had in '98.

 

It was definitely well-written and easy to read (although not exactly easy to visualize), but it could've been more complete with items like those.

 

Loss, thanks for your reply. I'll reply to it later.

 

It's easy for us to come up with these things, but if someone has limited knowledge of the subject matter it is VERY hard to get all the little details straight, no matter how studious a researcher.

[Loss]

I've always thought Michael Landsberg has done a terrific job on Off The Record. He's not even really much of a wrestling fan, if he's even one at all, but I've read that he's typically done prep work by simply talking to Dave Meltzer, who tells him what to prepare for and what kind of questions are good to ask. The Vince interview a few months after Montreal was really good.

[Tim Evans]

1. How was Benoit able to pass drug tests while receiving a 10-month supply of steroids every 3-4 weeks?

Probably because of the Loophole. Wasn't Astin the one that gave him a prescription?

 

As for number 3, They probably didn't want to catch the Signature crackdown.