WWE WrestleMania 27: Chris Benoit's Banishment a Black Eye for WWE

It is WrestleMania weekend, which is held in the same regard as the Super Bowl in football or the World Cup in soccer.

However, the world of wrestling is more of a business than other sports. The entire selling point for the WWE relies upon people trusting the judgment of the company that they are being pushed in the right direction. That is why they make business decisions to hire or fire wrestlers and allow certain wrestlers to win championships.

I am not one of the Bleacher Report writers who regularly writes long-winded editorials about WWE, usually centering around them being a TV-PG product and how that is a mistake. However, after I was told about an interesting point at WrestleMania weekend, I decided that I needed to say something about it.

It was three years and nine months ago that Chris Benoit, a world champion in the wrestling business and a future Hall of Fame inductee, committed a double murder-suicide at his home in Atlanta, the site of WrestleMania 27 this Sunday.

When the death was announced by WWE, the company made the following statement to the public:

"World Wrestling Entertainment is deeply saddened to report that today Chris Benoit and his family were found dead in their home. There are no further details at this time, other than the Benoit family residence is currently being investigated by local authorities. Tonight's RAW on USA Network will serve as a tribute to Chris Benoit and his family. WWE extends its sincerest thoughts and prayers to the Benoit family's relatives and loved ones in this time of tragedy."

Benoit was then honored on the next RAW, which was already scheduled for three hours. Ironically, it was intended to be a memorial service for the "death" of Vince McMahon. In that made-up story line, McMahon had been blown up in his limousine, in an attempt by the company to take the owner off of television. However, due to real-life circumstances, McMahon stood in the ring of an empty arena in Corpus Christi, Texas, to address the fan base. On the following RAW, the storyline was altered to have it seem like McMahon had faked his death for the attention.

It was the real death, however, that put the wrestling world under a microscope. Just hours after that special RAW episode went off the air, details arose that Benoit had murdered his wife and young son before committing suicide. In the span of 48 hours, the WWE had gone from having a world-class wrestler to a nationwide tragedy to a Pandora's Box opening in midst of the wrestling world.

Despite dealing with Eddie Guerrero's death just a year and a half prior, Benoit's death became more of a problem to the company. Guerrero was a man who died in part from pill and alcohol addiction. The WWE responded by establishing a wellness policy and suspending some talent while the world was still watching. As for Benoit, the company now had its hands full with a bunch of rumors floating around, and the company as a whole was being shone in an equally bad light.

For survival purposes, WWE had to do something fast. The night after the RAW tribute to Benoit, McMahon appeared once again to state that Benoit would not be mentioned on ECW, the brand that Benoit was shortly thereafter scheduled to become the champion of.

It was not long after this announcement that Benoit's name was pulled from nearly everything in the WWE library. A current search on wwe.com for Benoit content yields just 31 hits. Most of the hits are title history pages and pay-per-view results. Many of these were altered shortly after Benoit's death. There are short press releases that do make it known that Benoit had passed away. There is also a story that still remains which details the time line WWE had with the wrestler during the weekend on which his life ended.

Much of the video footage of Benoit was removed. In almost all public footage with Benoit, he is either removed entirely or only shown when absolutely necessary. Some of the footage not attainable from WWE is Benoit winning the Royal Rumble in 2004, Benoit becoming World Heavyweight Championship in the main event at WrestleMania XX and Randy Orton winning his first world championship against Benoit at SummerSlam 2005. While there are now mentions in title and pay-per-view history, the footage is no longer shown by WWE.

These days, Benoit, who would now be 43, would likely be retired from wrestling or nearing the twilight of his career. It is my honest belief that, had he stayed with the company, Chris Benoit would be partaking in WrestleMania weekend right now and could have potentially been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this weekend. Instead, WWE has forcibly eliminated Benoit from its history.

Wrestling fans are not so lucky, however. Fans have not forgotten who Chris Benoit was as a professional wrestler and what he did as a normal human being. I have respect for Chris Benoit as a wrestler and nothing but disgust for what he did with his death or how it happened.

Regardless, I still feel that Chris Benoit is a Hall of Fame wrestler, regardless of his personal demons. I don't buy the idea that Benoit does not get considered due to the way his life ended. Just two years ago, the Von Erich family was inducted. Of the six sons in the wrestling family, three of them killed themselves. Benoit is neither the first, nor the last wrestler, to have murdered a person.

Roughly eight months after the death of Chris Benoit, WWE announced the change to TV-PG. They have since eliminated some holds and high-risk maneuvers, including direct chair shots to the head. This has all been done to eliminate injuries in superstars, specifically with concussions.

The problem is that WWE does not have a reason to do such a thing, at least nothing that they are willing to address. I don't blame them for distancing themselves from Benoit's tragedy, but they could have come out of the situation looking better if they handled some things differently.

For instance, the WWE often runs promos urging children not to attempt any of the moves that they see. Beyond seeing a wrestler holding an arm or leg in pain, they are not presented with anything else that could happen to them.

Studies to Benoit's brain function show that repeated head trauma was a major factor in putting Benoit into the state of mind he was in on that fateful day. Why not use the story of Chris Benoit to show kids what is really dangerous about the business? After all, they are bound to find out anyway; wouldn't it be better for WWE to be the ones to say it?

The tragedy certainly tied WWE's hands, but two wrongs certainly do not make a right. Not addressing what happened with Chris Benoit is only making WWE look more guilty than it probably is or should be. While many fans did not leave a few years ago after the matter, the poor handling of the sensitive situation has led to a hole in the bond between the older generations of fans and World Wrestling Entertainment that will never truly be perfect again.

WWE is not expected to come out and tell people that they did this to Chris Benoit. The actions taken by Benoit were committed solely by him. Nobody is accusing the WWE of murder, but the company is being found guilty of running away from reality. WWE can easily use this as a teaching tool and speak about a topic like concussions, which has become prominent in many sports lately. Not only has the public-relations aspect of this event cost Linda McMahon a spot in the Senate, but it has also tarnished the image of the WWE product in the mainstream.

Chris Benoit was not the only wrestler to have suffered from extreme amounts of head trauma during his career. To believe that another wrestler is not capable of doing the same is a naive thought. Addressing the story of Chris Benoit would not only save face for WWE, but it could possibly save a life as well.

Follow Robert Aitken on Twitter  @ShakesWithAitks. This is one of a series of articles to be published on Bleacher Report pertaining to Chris Benoit. Another article about Benoit was written by Big Nasty.