– During this week’s episode of the Monday Night War looking back at the fall of WCW, Chris Benoit was mentioned by name. While footage featuring the late wrestler is featured in its original form on the WWE Network, this may be the first time where he was mentioned by name on an original program.
The subject of Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn defecting to WWE in 2000 was addressed and a clip of the group debuting on the January 31, 2000 episode of Raw was shown with audio of Jim Ross mentioning all four by name. The accompanying clips, however, were focused on Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn.
Vince McMahon has said in the past that he is okay with acknowledging Benoit within a historical context, but not in a promotional manner.
“It’s not right to pretend he didn’t exist,” McMahon said in a 2009 interview with WWE Magazine when asked whether Benoit’s history can be acknowledged by the company. “It’s one thing to include him as part of a historical perspective, which I believe is okay, and it’s another thing to promote him, which is not okay.
“The situation is very similar to that of O.J. Simpson—despite his controversy, O.J. was still a part of the NFL scene. You can’t deny that he existed.”
