I used to handle the ring announcer chores for the WWF whenever they came to Cedar Rapids and Waterloo, IA in the mid-1980’s. I was a young man then(mid 20’s) and got a kick out of the performers. I was fortunate to make friends with a few of them, and found them to be, for the most part, regular guys.
I wanted to say that, lest someone thing that Ol’ BJ is a fan of “wrasslin’”. I haven’t watched it in years, only occasionally happening upon it when searching the dial, and when I have watched it in the last 10-15 years, it was only to see how funny Kevin Nash and the NWO could be on the mic, or how outrageous The Rock or Steve Austin could be. I’ve always called it “soap opera for men”, but the new guys just don’t have it like the old veterans did, as far as entertaining an audience. I never cared for the actual “wrestling” in the ring, I only enjoyed the between-match interviews and skits.
But trough the years, I’ve learned one thing and it’s that Vince McMahon, whatever you think of him, is a pretty shrewd marketer. But his latest stunt, which I just found out about today when I saw a promo, was his own “death” in an explosion while getting into a limo. Obviously, it was theatre, or it would have been reported, since apparently the stunt aired two weeks ago. So tonight, the WWE was supposed to air a “tribute to Vince”.
But sadly, word came down early in the day that Chris Benoit, “The Wolverine”, the man with the devastating “Cross Face Crippler”, was found dead in his home in Georgia, and worse, so were his wife and 7-year old son. The police believe at this time that Benoit killed his family before killing himself. Tragic.
The WWE rightly cancelled tonight’s tribute to Vince, instead showing three hours of Benoit highlights. Vince has got to feel pretty terrible about the timing. Sure, there was probably nothing he could do about it, but man, he’s got to feel like crap tonight. To McMahon’s credit, however, I’m reading reports that he apparently was shown in an empty arena where the show was to be held tonight, and announced Benoit’s death himself, thus ending the “Vince is Dead” saga.
It seems that a lot of the “80’s Wrestlers”, who looked so abnormally large and muscular due to steroid abuse, are dying young, whether from natural causes or abuse of other drugs, or now from apparent murder of some kind. Unfortunately, I think we’ll also start seeing a wave of 80’s and 90’s baseball “heroes” die young from many of these same reasons. As a matter of fact, in the case of Ken Caminiti, an admitted steroid abuser, it’s already started.
2 responses so far ↓
1
Vonster
// Jun 27, 2007 at 2:05 pm
60 dead in the last 10 years.
2
bjstone
// Jun 27, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Is it that many? I hadn’t realized. Scary…and sad. But even sadder is that the WWE was already on the defensive yesterday, saying it couldn’t possibly be steroids, because, heck, Chris Benoit just tested negative on April 10th.
Negative? Negative for what? Negative for not ENOUGH steroids in his body?
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