I think wrestling is going to be banned around here.
The big news at dinner last night was that heroic Chris Benoit, having canceled an engagment on Saturday and rushed home to handle a "family emergency," was now dead, along with his wife and, Christian thought, her step-son from a previous marriage. (The details got mangled in translation.)
The spin seemed to be that the wife's ex-husband had slaughtered them all. Years ago the ex-, a writer for WWE, had created a storyline in which Chris Benoit stole his wife away from him; shortly thereafter Chris Benoit did steal the wife, or so I'm told.
And now everyone was dead.
A great tragedy, and WWE aired a 3-hour tribute to Benoit a few hours later. Little kids all across the country watched it, I'm sure.
Come to find out, they were watching a tribute to a man who had murdered his own little kid, which the WWE certainly knew would prove to be the case. Benoit's wife had accused him of domestic abuse in a divorce complaint in 2004.
So the WWE rushed a Chris Benoit tribute on air Monday night because they knew they wouldn't be able to air a tribute Tuesday night, when the public knew what they knew.
I've spent my own Tuesday night deprogramming C., who was failing to register the horror of the situation. "He was one of the greatest wrestlers ever"; "They're investigating"; "They didn't know."
Horrifying.
He's got it now, thank God.
If you want to send WWE an email, go here.
I did.
Anabolic steroids and the mind
Professional wrestling has always had more in common with carnivals and side shows than with actual professional sports.
ReplyDeleteI do find this situation appalling, but I'd say the WWE is being true to its internal moral compass (or lack of same).
I’m very open to pop culture in my house but I don’t think I care to have modern professional in the mix, to the extent I can screen it out.