more crazy stuff:
The wikipedia entry about Benoit's death was entered at 12:01 AM monday morning.
What's fishy about that? The Police didn't even know about the death and it wasn't reported until 2:30 PM EDT. Crazy, eh?
anyways, I thought I was going to start a new thread, but I'll put it here since it is related to Benoits death.
I used to follow wrestling pretty avidly-- although I've stopped following it circa 2001 after I finished high school.
The WWE is nothing more than a human circus. If you're not a headliner (i.e. the Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, etc.) then you're not going to be making much money at all.
On top of that, the travel schedule is brutal. Unlike "real" sports that have offseasons, the WWE has a brutal schedule, as most wrestlers are on the road 300 days or more during the year. There's not much time to rest when you're in between a house show or a RAW/Smackdown! Taping, as you're probably going to the airport travelling to the next venue.
There's no wrestlers union, as Vince McMahon holds virtually all the cards. Most of the gimmicks and the names of the wrestlers are trademarked, so a wrestler really has no place to go if he didn't want to wrestle for the WWE.
There is also a huge pressure on the wrestlers to maintain incredible physiques. Combine this with the horrific travel schedule, and you can see where the allure of steroids come in.
The pension/benefits package of the WWE is pretty horrible too. Wrestlers are pressured to work through most of their injuries, as most of them are living from paycheck to paycheck. And once they leave the game, there's no pension for them, so there's really no where for them to go once they do decide to hang up the boots.
As far as deaths are concerned, it reads almost like a hall of fame list of WWE wrestlers. Its a shame, as a lot of these guys suffered from drug problems (painkillers, alcohol, or whatnot) and their bodies can't hold up anymore after years of being beat up on.
*******
If I were Vince McMahon, here's what I would do:
1) Have a home base venue, as it were. Maybe have 75% of the RAWs at the same place on the east coast, and perhaps 75% of the Smackdowns at the same place on the West Coast. Then maybe once a month, go and have a taping somehwere else. This would at least give the wrestlers a home base to rest and to lead somewhat normal lives.
2) Have an offseason! Have the wrestling season run 9 months out of the year, and let the wrestlers go home for the winter. Perhaps have it coincide with Football season, as the WWE doesn't stand a chance against Monday Night Football anyways. You can start the season off with a big PPV event, and then you can end the season off with an equally huge PPV event.
Also, you could probably cut wages by 25% as you don't have to make the wrestlers work during that time.
And on top of it all, that gives the writers 3 months time to set up feuds and storylines that are compelling, aren't crap, and have a 9 month story arc, so that stuff makes sense every once in a while. Right now they go by "booking on the fly" which is crap.
3) Have a pension program for wrestlers who have worked for 10 years or more. Also provide healthcare and a drug rehab policy to help the wrestlers cope with any problems they might have. Also have a zero tolerance policy on steroids.
