"He was a no go" - Former WWE VOD reveals the directive when it came to removing links to Chris Benoit
If you've ever wanted to watch a Chris Benoit match on the WWE Network, the company certainly didn't make it easy for you.
In 2007, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit murdered his wife Nancy and son Daniel before taking his own life that weekend. An episode of WWE RAW was held in his honor mere hours before the true details of the event were revealed to the public.
John Carlan, who worked in video-on-demand content for six years with WWE, recently sat down with Wrestlenomics to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about how the company handled Benoit before and after the launch of the WWE Network, Carlan offered a very interesting response:
"For Classics, he was a 'no go.' Matches were removed, mentions of him were removed, graphics were removed," John Carlan said. "That was a tough cut, like blurring the WWF logo. You would have to make notes of it and they would say, 'scratch logo, massive cursing, Benoit,' it would have to be noted. It was more when we got to the Network, he was allowed. We didn't want to lose any integrity of any shows. I guess, he did a lot of good wrestling. He did. Things changed. Legally, it changed. Feelings changed. We just followed direction. It was never something I made any calls on. I just did what I was told." [H/T: Fightful]
Full interview: youtu.be/-tcdxlraLugJohn Carlan tells us how he and his team that worked on WWE Network content took on the arduous task of preparing New Jack’s ECW matches, which played copyrighted song “Natural Born Killaz” throughout.
▶️ Full interview: youtu.be/-tcdxlraLug https://t.co/RRSih7jfTR
As content was added to the WWE Network, fans were still able to find matches featuring Chris Benoit, such as the main event of WrestleMania 20 in which Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship. However, searching his name didn't produce many results and he was never mentioned in the descriptions of WWE events on the platform.
Did WWE Network require notes on anyone beyond Chris Benoit?
Beyond Chris Benoit, not many former WWE Superstars required notes on the Network. But one man by the name of Buck Zumhofe did who wrestled for the company back in the 1990s.
Speaking on the subject of flagged content for the Network, John Carlan highlighted Zumhofe:
"Certainly, down the line, one I can remember in the last five or ten years was Rock N Roll Buck Zumhofe," John Carlan said. "You guys know the story about that dude, it's not a good one. He did a lot of really bad things to a lot of young women. He was on the list. He jobbed for [WWE] a lot in the 90s on Superstars." [H/T: Fightful]
John Carlan was instrumental in acquiring and preparing much of the content fans now enjoy on the WWE Network and Peacock.
The former VOD Director & Producer for WWE talks to us about how video libraries were purchased, why some weren't and more.
WATCH: youtube.com/watch?v=-tcdxl…
It's interesting to see how WWE has chosen to handle the Chris Benoit situation over the years. There's little doubt that Benoit will remain a controversial topic among wrestling fans for decades to come.