Chris Benoit's Title Run

[Cruiserweight 3:16]

At the moment Raw has been a pretty good show to watch and the reason I believe for it to be is down to the push of one man - Chris Benoit. A guy that has been stuck in midcard hell throughout his career, yet loved by the fans throughout, the WWE soon realised his potential in drawing business and so was given the opportunity he deserved as WM 20 by winning the World Heavyweight Title. I'm not really too sure of the general consensus in relation to their opinions on whether his title run is successful or not (I suppose I should create a poll on this), but I for one think his title run has been great.

Whenever I watch Raw, I watch to see this guy pick up victories. I want to see him win and it's only him and Eddie I feel strongly about in terms of them wanting to win. In fact I would compare his title run to Austin's in terms of how the fans seem to really behind him. Anyone who has been to watch the WWE over the past year understands how over Benoit is with the crowd. I love watching Benoit battle against the odds and conquering. To me, Benoit is as important to the WWE as Bret Hart was to the company in the 90's.

But it's inevitable that he's gonna have to drop the title quite soon. The reason?? To push PPV buyrates. The WWE look like they will soon give the title back HHH because 'everybody sooo loves him' and there hasn't been enough PPV's with him main eventing on them :shifty: . But having this occur would be detrimental to the business. The days of one man carrying the entire company are long gone, yet HHH is the guy that has to try and carry the WWE despite the fans not really wanting him to. The guy is supposed to be heel, but encourages face pops to occur. He also holds down Evolution in promos, but Randy Orton is supposed to be a future Main-Eventer. He's not helping business in the slightest. But HHH holds all the power. HE is the one guy alone that could elevate Benoit even further. HE could help business alot by putting this guy over even further.

As soon as Benoit drops the title to HHH the WWE will probably shove him back down to mid-card hell to help elevate others. But if the WWE had any sense, they should listen to the fans more and realise that Chris Benoit is their best bet to make the title seem more creditable and help make the main-events more entertaining to watch. I know I don't post threads often, and what I've said hasn't been as clear and interesting as I would like it to be, but I would appreciate people's opinions on this.

[Londoner]

All i can say is here we go again..if you read threads at all you would've seen a million other posts about this.

[Champion of Europa]

OH YEAH, the only reason RAW is good right now is because of Benoit.

Eugene, Edge, Orton, Jericho, Batista, Victoria, Matt Hardy, etc. are all just along for the ride.

I'd love to hear more from you, genius.

[Londoner]

And i doubt Benoit is that big a part of Raw, due to bad-booking and a certain guy named HHH.

[James Steele]

Meh....


Benoit's run is a hell of alot better than i ever expected it to be. He can't hold the damn belt forvever, and Triple H is the only one who is over enough to challenge him in the booker's eyes.

At least Triple H is getting back to the man he once was, politics or not, you have to admit he has had a great year. Benoit is not going back down to midcard hell. He is too over now to do so. He is a big name to marks now. He will be in the main event scene for awhile.

So i am only worried about people bitching about HHH winning the belt back and holding it until WrestleMania. A little lengthy, but his matches are getting better so maybe he won't be such a damn bore this time.

[Londoner]

I wish i could be as optimistic as you guys about Benoit, i can just see him fitting into the midcard again though once his run is over, im a Benoit mark n all, all you have to do is look at how many threads where people have said about how they got there friends to watch wrestling for the first time and there friends didn't know who Benoit was until the end of the show, but they certainly knew about HHH.

[.44 Magdalene]

all you have to do is look at how many threads where people have said about how they got there friends to watch wrestling for the first time and there friends didn't know who Benoit was until the end of the show, but they certainly knew about HHH.

Holy hell, I made one of those posts.

[Tornado]

I'd love to hear more from you, genius.

Remember, this is the guy that gets to wrestle in a WWE ring...best listen to what he says....


:shifty:

[HankScorpio]

pointless thread.

[Wildcat789]

How could you possibly compare Benoit to Austin in his prime? Benoit's face pops are about 60% of what Austin could get in his day just letting his music hit. Not that Benoit isn't a good worker, but alot of people don't see him as "For Real". He hasn't gone over HHH OR Michaels cleanly 1 on 1. The only person he beat cleanly in singles competition so far is Kane. And Kane has been de-pushed so much since his mask was taken off that he doesn't look like a threat to anything anymore.

Out of the entire Raw roster, I'd say Benoit deserves it the most. Doesn't change the fact that after he loses the strap he'll probably lose all effect of the push he got and end up jobbing to everybody who is holding the belt. I don't get why people think Benoit is so 'over'.

-He has won ONE singles competition for his belt with a ROLL UP. To me, rolling a guy up is catching him by surprise, not beating him legitimately.
-He went over HHH using a chair, and Eugene's help.
-He went over Shawn Michaels with HHH's help.
-He won 2 Triple Threat matchups. To me, triple threat matchups don't put a guy over because 1 guy could be working on the other guy the entire match, and then the third guy can come in, hit a trademark move and score the win. I.E. Benoit's second victory at Backlash.

In my opinion, none of this solidifies Benoit to be "seriously over". To me, he's one of the least over champions we ever had. It's refreshing to see him at the top, and he was extremely underrated before his push, but before he looks truly over, he has to go over HHH AND HBK CLEANLY! After that, the face pops will get bigger and his over-ness will stick to him for the rest of his time in the WWE.

[James Steele]

Some of you people will never be fucking happy will you?


At least Benoit hasn't been squashed. He may not be over as Austin was, who in the hell ever could be besides The Rock and Mick Foley, but he is still a legitimate champion. WWE needs that right now more than ever. HHH hogging the gold pissed all over its credibility. Benoit is sort of playing the role of Bret Hart. There is no scandal, but they need credible champions, unfortunatly SmackDown! got derailed in the whole thing, but RAW is doing better than I EVER thought they would with Benoit's run.

[Favre4Ever]

At the moment Raw has been a pretty good show to watch and the reason I believe for it to be is down to the push of one man - Randy Orton.

[Loose Cannon]

good man. No Deletion needed.

[Mr. JL]

Chris Benoit's run can be summed up in two words. Fighting Champion.


Nuff said. Thats the right way to book Chris Benoit. He's been great at it. He won the Royal Rumble and was the first man in the ring. He beat two other men at Wrestle Mania XX to win the title. Then he beat those two men again. Then he beat Kane (though everyone can say that nowadays) but still.. it was Kane's best match this year. It was a great match. And their rematch on RAW where the only way Benoit could win was to make Kane submit when Kane could win in any fashion made Benoit look great.

Yes, I would have liked to have seen a one on one match at Mania against Triple H and a one on one match against HBK at Backlash but oh well. Anything thrown Benoit's way he's fought through. Fighting Champion. And I wouldn't have it any other way for Chris Benoit.

[Mayo]

To summarize:

-Benoit is not being featured on Raw by any means because of HHH
-The fans are still behind Benoit even though he doesn't cut promos
-His push went a lot better than most people thought it would (because of his mic skills)
-Benoit is a fighting champion and is 'for real'

[#1-norm-fan]

-He has won ONE singles competition for his belt with a ROLL UP. To me, rolling a guy up is catching him by surprise, not beating him legitimately.


... He then went on to make Kane tap out a week later. He has also beaten HBK in a singles match for the title. And Rhyno on the night of the draft lottery. I know he had a couple more singles defenses on Raw that I can't really remember.

Also, though the triple threats against HBK and HHH weren't singles matches (Though I don't see why that matters), he did get clean, dramatic wins in both.

Basically what I'm saying is that made no sense.

[#1-norm-fan]

To summarize:
-The fans are still behind Benoit even though he doesn't cut promos

I'm gonna have to disagree with that now. Benoit is not getting half the reaction he got early in his title reign. And when Batista powerbombed him on Raw the crowd was cheering pretty loud.

[James Steele]

You do know that Batista is from Washington D.C. , right? (Where RAW was at this week)

[Kane Knight]

To summarize:

-Benoit is not being featured on Raw by any means because of HHH
-The fans are still behind Benoit even though he doesn't cut promos
-His push went a lot better than most people thought it would (because of his mic skills)
-Benoit is a fighting champion and is 'for real'
Indeed.

You forgot a breath of fresh air.

That certainly helps.

Benoit, sadly, isn't getting as featured as he should.

AND HE'S STILL GETTING OVER WITH THE FANS!

The WWE should run with this, and build up a main event, instead of putting him against Triple H every week.

Benoit has his own little thing going on. He's not big on talking, but it seems to work. People say he can't draw interest because he doesn't cut good promos, but frankly, I'm sick of 20 minute promos where the champion avoids matches. Not every champion should be the same, anyways. Some people don't need great ring skills to get over. Some people could be mute.

[Kane Knight]

I'm gonna have to disagree with that now. Benoit is not getting half the reaction he got early in his title reign. And when Batista powerbombed him on Raw the crowd was cheering pretty loud.
As mentioned, it was his hometown. If he gets larger pops elsewhere, we'll talk.

[#1-norm-fan]

Well he got a large pop in my house too and he lives NOWHERE near me. :cool:

And since when did BATISTA start getting pops from his hometown crowd? I thought that was a thing for guys who are already over, not the 5th wheel of Evolution.

[#1-norm-fan]

I stick by my point though that Benoit is far from the most popular face on Raw.

[James Steele]

A) Don't double post unless you are "big enough" like Kane Knight

B) Don't Be Such An Ass :shifty:

C) And Of Course Benoit is not the most over face on RAW. Kevin Nash is a former World Champion too you know.

[Kane Knight]

Well he got a large pop in my house too and he lives NOWHERE near me. :cool:

And since when did BATISTA start getting pops from his hometown crowd? I thought that was a thing for guys who are already over, not the 5th wheel of Evolution.
We've seen some odd choices get pops in their hometowns.

Several of my friends are fans of Dave, buit I have troubl;e getting behind him right now, since he has no personality, no real direction, and minimal gimmick. Not to mention his limited wrestling. He has the look, I'll give him that.

[James Steele]

Meh... Canadians booed Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho simultaneously.

[Transplant]

RAW is forced to only have two main eventers, due to both Benoit's and HHH's gimmicks. I mean, how "Real" will Benoit be when he drops the title? Probably "Real" enough to have about 3000 rematches at PPVs with Triple H. RAW is building Benoit up like they have with HHH, ie God-Like. Smackdown will prevail if RAW keeps building both Benoit AND HHH up like this.

[Jaton]

I agree, I'm already tending to lean more towards Smackdown these days.

[Wildcat789]

What I'm saying is that Benoit isn't getting put over in alot of eyes because he isn't getting featured in singles matches. Triple threats are a complete joke. They don't put anybody over, and are a snorefest to watch.

I don't have a problem with Benoit's mic skills. I don't even find them to be that bad. I come to the conclusion that we don't see enough of Benoit is because of HHH. He's definately ready to grab the belt off of Benoit and it shows big time. Benoit get's less matchups every night. More slowly Benoit's matches become gimmicky and don't put him over.

They should put Benoit in bigger and better matches. First of all, they need a re-match with HHH where Evolution is banned from ringside. Benoit goes over cleanly. Maybe put Benoit in a gauntlet and defeat 5 other superstars. He should also feud with the GM so he can be put into some serious and tough matchups.

To me, it's refreshing to see Benoit finally get the push he deserves. But due to lack of good booking, The Hunter Effect, and lack of contenders for the strap, Benoit doesn't look as strong of a champion as, say, Goldberg. No I'm not comparing Benoit to Goldberg, I'm just saying that crowd reactions were bigger for Goldberg, and Goldberg was more over than Benoit is right now.

Benoit is great, pure talent that has finally been put to good use. But if he doesn't start to get booked correctly, HHH could start looking really good with Raw's belt.

I did see the pop for Batista, and I just figured it was his hometown. I doubt any other place will ever pop for him that big.