If Chris Benoit had showed up for his ECW championship match against CM Punk?

Question

and then snapped in the ring could CM Punk have defended himself against the attack?

bq1. Would the ref had been able to call for help in time?

bq2 Would it have been harder for WWE to overcome then what happened in real life?

bq3 Would the WWE still be here today?

Answer 1

Very interesting scenario.



Firstly i think CM Punk would have been able to defend himself. If he would have noticed something weird into Benoit's behavior and eyes, then i am sure that someway/somehow he would have informed the referee, or someone from the guys that stand next to the commentators and he would probably count himself out. Of course this would be a huge risk for him, only in case that he was wrong(it would be very disrespectfull towards Benoit, to accuse him for something like that), but usually you can sense the danger at some point. Now if Benoit would have applied a crippler crossface or any other wrestling maneuver and he would about to suffocate Punk, i think that the ref would have figure it out. Usually you can tell by someone's body language if everything's okay or not, the referees are very experienced(not in these kind of situations of course but in general.



bq1: So to answer this bq, like i said above, then yes. He would probably try to break the hold or whatever and he would immediately call for help. ALTHOUGH, i am sure that WWE has raised awareness about such kind of incidents AFTER what happend to Benoit...WHAT IF..this would of happend if nothing like that has ever happend? Would the WWE had raised awareness for such a scenario?!..cause i don't think anything like that has happend on professional wrestling and especially in a live pay per view broadcast.



bq2: Yeah. It would be much MUCH harder. I remember those days, the media in general went crazy on how dangerous it's the WWE, and pro wrestling in general. We have been witnessing so many accusations about steroids and brain damages due to concussions etc. WWE have been critisized very much the weeks surrounding the incident, so IF such thing would have happend live on tv, then it would be much more difficult for them to cover anything like that up. Think logically here, even if it is a thing that happens once in a lifetime, as a parent, would you let your children watch a show, knowing that a few weeks ago a wrestler killed another one on purpose, on live television only because he had brain damage etc? I don't think i would let my kids watch it after that. I am not sure.



bq3: Tough to choose, but yeah, i think they would. It seems like WWE always finds a way to erase people's memory, so they would have probably find a way to cover up the story. Like ive said, they would lose part of the audience, they would of being accused even more, but still they would have sell it as *it can happen to anyone* sort of story to cover it up. But also imagine, what if Benoit wouldn't have attacked Punk, and he would attack a kid from the crowd with his desperate parent would have been trying to save his kid?! That would be even more tragic imo.

Weird & unique question.

Answer 2

Well you have to remember Benoit was trained by Stu Hart. So Benoit knew how to shoot and had legit skills. Punk also has some level of legit martial arts skills.



So for your question - would Punk have been able to defend himself. Probably yes - at least to some degree. Certainly he could have defended himself better than someone without any legit skills.



BQ1 - Yes. Typically they try not to show it, but if anything ever happens for real and assistance is needed (for an injury or whatever) the ref will throw up an "X" signal (arms crossed overhead). This is signal that something bad has went down and help is needed. Everyone responds very quickly to this. Security and other wrestlers would have swarmed the ring.



BQ2 - I think easier. They could have just played it off as one guy got mad at the other and tried to fight for real until it was broken up.



BQ3 - Yes, given my answer to BQ3.

Answer 3

Difficult to say. Punk would be expecting Benoit to work so he wouldn't be "on guard" against something like that. Benoit was considerably stronger than Punk and damn quick, too. If he suddenly put the crossface (or something similar) on Punk with the intention to kill Punk, he probably would have succeeded. The ref MIGHT have been able to keep Benoit from killing Punk but I imagine Punk would have been injured quite severely in the process.



But if Punk had some idea that Benoit might "snap" and was "on guard" I think he's skilled enough to prevent Benoit from really injuring him until Vince was able to get some security goons into the ring to subdue Benoit.



BQ1: No. With Benoit's strength and knowledge of legitimate crippling holds, the only way the ref could prevent Benoit from killing Punk would be to physically get involved in trying to pull Benoit off of Punk. If he did nothing but just call for help, it wouldn't have mattered. Punk would be dead.



BQ2: No. The WWE could say, "he just snapped" and spin things as they did to absolve themselves of any culpability. Benoit would have killed another grown man capable of defending himself, not a smaller woman and a child. That's assuming he attacked just Punk and not his family. But if he had made a real threat to cripple or kill Punk in the ring in front of thousands of people, the WWE would have covered it up and we wouldn't have heard about it at all. Especially if Benoit went on to kill his family, too. Revealing that (even Punk on his own) would have made it obvious that the WWE DID cover it up and would have put them in serious trouble as some sort of "accomplice before the fact" knowing that Benoit was a dangerous and unstable man and the WWE did nothing to inform anybody (especially law enforcement) about it, and two people died because of the WWE's inaction.



BQ3: Yeah, I think so. The WWE would have gotten the black eye and bloody nose they got, but nobody can hold the entire WWE responsible for the actions of one man. Things would have played out (for the WWE) as it did. The WWE would still have gotten raked over the coals by everybody and every media known to man, and they would have still put Cena in front of the world to show the world (not just wrestling fans) that the WWE isn't all bad just because one man had problems. The WWE would have weathered that storm as they did, and survived.

Answer 4

Chris Jericho became on television conversing approximately it, and between the failings he suggested became that Benoit became going to be a champion. i don't understand how nicely Chris Jericho knows issues that at present flow on interior the WWE, yet it quite is all i've got heard approximately that component of issues. stable use of wonderful judgment, regardless of the undeniable fact that. maximum folk in this section are incapable of employing it. The link the place Jericho says it truly is below.

Answer 5

He probably wouldn't have snapped. If he did it would probably be during the Crippler Crossface, in which case he probably wouldn't have killed Punk, just hurt him and then caused an altercation backstage. Benoit, being hte veteran, would see no repercussion, whereas Punk wouldn't have gotten a push and maybe released.

Answer 6

What?