WWE News: WWE Acknowledges Chris Benoit

Since the June 26, 2007 edition of ECW — which was the last time Chris Benoit’s name was mentioned on any WWE-related programming — WWE has gone out of its way to never acknowledge Chris Benoit’s existence. At the time, it was easy to see why WWE would want to erase “The Crippler” from the history books, but, most WWE fans have changed their stance on Benoit over the last eight years and believe that WWE should actually acknowledge his existence and stop pretending that he wasn’t a major part of the company’s history.

While you’ll never hear Benoit’s name mentioned on any WWE original programming on the WWE Network, you can watch all of his matches in WCW, ECW, and WWE on the online streaming service. Benoit isn’t tagged in any of the pay-per-views that he’s featured in, so, you’re not able to search for specific Chris Benoit matches and moments.

The closest that WWE comes to mentioning Benoit’s name on their live television programs is during the time of the Royal Rumble, where they’ll say that only two men have won the Royal Rumble match after entering at number one. But, WWE will never mention that Chris Benoit was one of the two men in the company’s history to win the match after being the number one entrant, as they’ll only mention Shawn Michaels’ name, who won the Rumble from the number one spot in 1995.

It’s unclear as to whether or not WWE has softened their stance on not mentioning Chris Benoit’s name, but, a Reddit user posted a snippet from a new WrestleMania encyclopedia that WWE produced, which acknowledges Chris Benoit’s participation in the main-event of WrestleMania 20. You can check out the photo below.

This is the first time that WWE has mentioned Benoit in anything new since it became known that Benoit had committed a double-murder and then committed suicide. Some WWE fans may read way too much into this, and think that WWE will begin to mention Chris Benoit’s name on a regular basis, however, that’s probably not the case.

Since the advent of the WWE Network, WWE has had a harder time erasing past big names from their history books, no matter how hard they try, and with them allowing Benoit matches on the Network, they’re having a hard time with trying to make their fans forget about the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

Since the Benoit family tragedy, some promotions, like New Japan Pro Wrestling for example, have not only mentioned Benoit’s name, but shown his matches during the intermission of their live shows. So, Chris Benoit’s legacy and impact on the business haven’t been completely ignored by some wrestling organizations.

[Image via Peter Kramer / Getty Images]