I wonder how close Vince was to making a DVD doc about the Benoit murders. It had to have rattled around in his mind a few times. And then someone said, "Are you fucking crazy?" and probably got a raise. Then Vince went fucking crazy.
I feel like there is a pretty direct link to the erratic and weird booking style and Vince's behavior and all the Benoit stuff. Vince hasn't recovered mentally from that, I think. He was already doing some weird stuff and that was just the final push. I watched the talking head parts from the Benoit tribute show not too long ago. It's really gross to see Chavo talking about how he would leave his kids with Chris any day considering he knew what happened at that point. Regal and JBL knew, as well. Regal came the closest to actually saying it. And then half way through the show things got really awkward when it was all coming out and they started talking about Nancy instead. Punk bawling and making the rest of his career a tribute to Benoit is pretty weird. I don't know who knew what except for a handful of guys. I think Taz knew at the beginning of the show as well, because he seemed super pissed to have to be saying good things about Benoit. But he changed as the show went on, so I don't know. He could have been pissed to have to work when he just found out a good friend and his family were dead.
They should have just gone for the technical difficulties excuse for the rest of the show and taken the hit on ratings. I'm also amazed that anyone does the Crossface still. There will never be a time when someone does the Crossface and half the audience or more doesn't immediately associate it with Chris Benoit. There is no "taking it back" for that move. It's been mostly relegated to HHH and HBK in WWE, which seems to me to be full on tribute to Benoit, but that it is used at all is so strange. I can't believe Vince lets anyone do it in his company. It leads me to believe that he would totally market Benoit stuff on DVDs and mention him in a positive light if there wouldn't be a massive backlash against it. I think he'd love to exploit him as much as they did and continue to do with Eddie (matches on DVDs, character in video games, t-shirts, toys, HOF, being referenced quite regularly), but feels he'd never be able to get away with it.
I realize that Benoit has been on DVDs since, but I mean advertising him as such. Going out of their way to put his matches on DVDs as bonuses and whatnot. I think it will happen eventually.
