Just wondering about the McMahon death angle now.

[D Mac]

How will the tragedy of Benoit affect this whole McMahon death storyline or will it at all?

[Lara Emily]

It's off, you'd have to assume.

[Londoner]

Vince revealed it was a storyline on raw, he was in the ring so its not like they can continue it.

[EazyMack]

Certainly appeared to be off on RAW tonight.

Unless, for some silly reason, they decide the fans wouldn't mind seeing them drag it out after all this.

Heh... I wonder what those who thought Vince was really dead were thinking when they saw him on TV tonight.

[D Mac]

Oh, did'nt catch Raw so yeah.

[Corkscrewed]

But now that it appears that it wasn't just any death, but a double murder, I would think that the WWE would be a lot more internally pressured to end this, because the point of it was, effectively, "who killed Mr. McMahon?"

There'll be a lot of media attention on the WWE because of this, and even Vince isn't stupid enough to risk the backlash that would arise from continuing a "whodunnit 'murder'" angle.

[James Steele]

DMac, your user title is whats been running in my mind for hours.

[el fregadero]

I thought Vince's body was missing and he was only assumed dead, if I remember the "news" correctly. Pretty easy to make up some stupid thing about him escaping and go on.

[EazyMack]

Or he'll come out and announce that he's an indestructable superhuman who cannot be killed.

[James Steele]

I don't know if I want to read the autopsy results tommorrow.

[Shaggy]

I think they should end it....I dont see how they can continue after this and actually have something the fans want to see.

[NoRoolz]

What actually happened on RAW last night? I can't see another thread...

Still can't believe this :(

[D Mac]

What actually happened on RAW last night? I can't see another thread...

Still can't believe this :(

This is from Wrestleview.com: Beginning of Raw.

The show opens to a wide angle shot of an empty American Bank Center in Corpus Christy, Texas. Vince McMahon, abandoning his storylined death, stood alone in the ring and delivered the following message:

"Good evening. Tonight this arena here in Corpus Christi, Texas would have been filled to capacity with enthousiatic WWE fans. Tonight's storyline was to have been the alleged demise of my character, Mr. McMahon. However, in reality, WWE superstar Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel are dead. Their bodies were discovered this afternoon in their new, suburban, Atlanta home. The athourities are undergoing an investigation. We here in the WWE can only offer our condolences to the extended family of Chris Bennoit. And the only other thing we can do at this moment is, tonight, pay tribute to Chris Benoit. We will offer you some of the most memorable moments in Chris' professional life and you will hear, tonight, comments from his peers - those here, his fellow performers - those here, who loved Chris and admired him so much. So tonight will be a three hour tribute to one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time. Tonight, we pay tribute to Chris Benoit."

A short encapsulation of Benoit's career aired to the song "One Thing" by Finger Eleven.

[NoRoolz]

Thankyou.

Sounds pretty emotional... :(

[Theo Dious]

They'll probably scrap the angle.

[6to1]

they will pretend it never hapened it was a bad angle anyway.

[CSL]

<font color=white>I think the only way the angle could continue is by leaving it for quite a while, Vince still off of TV etc then gradually work it back in with the odd mention here and there in a few months time. But there's too much flying around and the possible backlash isn't worth it. It really would be best of just dropping it.</font>

[Theo Dious]

Here's what I would do:

Commentator X: "As you saw on Monday, Vince McMahon is alive and well. It seems he staged his death in order to take time off from public living, however with the tragedy of the Benoit family he felt it was in poor taste to continue the charade."

Sort of a worked shoot on the subject, and then you never mention any of it again.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Here's what I would do:

Commentator X: "As you saw on Monday, Vince McMahon is alive and well. It seems he staged his death in order to take time off from public living, however with the tragedy of the Benoit family he felt it was in poor taste to continue the charade."

Sort of a worked shoot on the subject, and then you never mention any of it again.

That's the best way to handle it, I think. Have Vince McMahon talk about how he decided he could manipulate things from behind the scenes, and maybe even throw in a reference to Eric Bischoff being right about controversy creating cash. Then have him state it would be in bad taste to continue his charade when it would be deemed more inappropriate than normal giving the Benoit family tragedy.

Then, knowing the WWE, Vince will probably "get cancer" the following week. Let's hope the WWE handles this tastefully, and lays off the high-level controvesy in the forseeable future.

[Theo Dious]

That's the best way to handle it, I think. Have Vince McMahon talk about how he decided he could manipulate things from behind the scenes, and maybe even throw in a reference to Eric Bischoff being right about controversy creating cash. Then have him state it would be in bad taste to continue his charade when it would be deemed more inappropriate than normal giving the Benoit family tragedy.

Yeah, I think it would be best to have Vince appear on-screen fairly frequently admitting that they couldn't continue the angle given what happened.

[Kane Knight]

Vince revealed it was a storyline on raw, he was in the ring so its not like they can continue it.

Uhh...Yeah. So he broke the fourth wall. That's never been done on TV before, and it'd be impossible to continue.

[Outsider]

Yeah, it can't really be continued.

Just out of interest, was this the first time that the fact that wrestling is fake has been acknowledged by the WWE on TV?

[Xero]

No, when Owen died and they announced it JR said that it "wasn't part of the show".

Though outside of deaths and possibly serious injuries I don't think it's ever been acknowledged.

[Theo Dious]

Yeah, it can't really be continued.

Just out of interest, was this the first time that the fact that wrestling is fake has been acknowledged by the WWE on TV?

No. The show after 9/11 kind of showed that as well. Also, Matt's return to take on Edge kind of skirted that issue a bit.

[Theo Dious]

And let's not forget all of the Tough Enough spots.

[Xero]

Also, Matt's return to take on Edge kind of skirted that issue a bit.
That was a worked shoot. I don't consider it breaking kayfabe because they're breaking it in character.

[Xero]

Though I still think the "Come see me at Ring of Honor. ROH!" thing was a nice touch.

[Kane Knight]

Yeah, it can't really be continued.

Just out of interest, was this the first time that the fact that wrestling is fake has been acknowledged by the WWE on TV?

Not the first time. And they moved on after.

There's no real guarantee that this is the end, because all he did was allude to his character while already breaking the fourth wall.

[FourFifty]

The show will go on. I believe that the WWE will keep up with the Mr. McMahon storyline. Yea, it'll confuse the marks and the small children out there, but this could be one of the best storylines the wrestling world has seen in a long time.

[Theo Dious]

That was a worked shoot. I don't consider it breaking kayfabe because they're breaking it in character.

Still though, he did say "when Lita was "married" to Kane on WWE TV, blah blah," which was an admission to the idea that the whole Kane/Lita thing wasn't real.

[Afterlife]

That, and he kept calling Edge "Adam" until he got his job back.

[Theo Dious]

Yeah but that wasn't on WWE TV.

[Kane Knight]

He was calling Edge Adam on WWE TV....

[Afterlife]

Yes...

<.<

>.>

He was.

[Theo Dious]

Oh.

Well I stand corrected then.

[Kane Knight]

the night he came back, at the very least. He said Adam like 50 times.

[ChiefStubbs]

I checked the RAW page a while ago and it had the "In loving memory" for Vince again. It's gone now, but WTF...

[Kane Knight]

Flip flop.

[Theo Dious]

I would hate to be a WWE webpage designer/operator right now.

[Stickman]

I think they have to drop the angle.

It's not funny per se, but it's funny that in a thread awhile back I said it's a stupid angle because if somebody like Hulk Hogan dies Vince will HAVE to make an appearance. Some of you said Vince won't to prolonge the story line. Well, look what happened.

[Theo Dious]

I still wonder though. Hulk Hogan isn't an active performer, after all. They didn't stop it for Sherri.

[Corkscrewed]

Meltzer seems to have confirmed it's off.

And with confirmation that Benoit did kill his family, they're not gonna run an angle with any connection to [potential] murder.

[Paranoid Rattlesnake]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUIgVJn-o18&NR=1