u/Fuzzy_Variation7343

This didn't last long at all. From Nov. 1990:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNjR61zMRFE

I really liked his matches, especially in the Newborn UWF days. That 1989 match with Nakano was awesome

Forgive the long rambling post, but I am curious if anyone else thought of this over the years. I always wondered why exactly Chris Benoit was held down so much in WCW.

He had already made appearances in the past, teaming with Bobby Eaton or wrestling 2 Cold Scorpio on ppv, for example. But it was after his ECW run when he was signed, along with the likes of Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, and even Sabu and Jushin Liger were brought in around the same time, coinciding with the debut of Monday Nitro, that they actually made a little bit of a big deal about him. His Nitro debut was showing up in a limo before they ran that trope into the ground, and he was put over quite well on commentary during his matches, whether it was his singles matches against Guerrero or the various tag team matches he had while teaming with Malenko.

At the time, Eric Bischoff would occasionally mention that there were talks of creating a cruiserweight division, and as Benoit had been one of the top junior heavyweights in the world at the time, having won multiple tournaments and held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title, it seemed natural that this was going to be a division in which he played a significant role. By the time the title was finally created, he was actually in the finals of the tournament, but lost. And that was pretty much it. He never held that title, even though that was the natural fit for him. So the one belt that seemingly he should have dominated, at least through 1996, he basically had nothing to do with. Once in a blue moon, he would wrestle against Malenko or Guerrero while they were champion in a throwaway match on Nitro where the belt was involved, but it was never anything that was built up to, and there was always some sort of interference, or he would just lose.

Some might say they did not want to pigeonhole him and label him as a cruiserweight, and that is fine. They had two other mid-card singles titles that he could have held, but he did not so much as get to even sniff them. The World TV title would have been a nice way to build him up, but they were too busy putting that on failed projects like Prince Iaukea, Disco Inferno, or even a heel Alex Wright. Even Rick Martel rose from the dead and wandered in to win the TV title for a week in 1998. Now I know Benoit and Booker T traded the belt on house shows that were untelevised and not mentioned on TV, but there is no way to count holding the title for 24 hours and being ignored. That is not a push, that is just something to do to drive interest in house shows.

This matter with the TV title was especially infuriating as a fan because Booker T at the time was just getting started as a singles, and he immediately surpassed Benoit and got multiple reigns with this belt. And then even Fit Finlay got a random title reign that lasted for over a month, and during that time, he defended the belt against random people. Meanwhile, Benoit and Booker T had to compete in a best of seven series just for the opportunity to wrestle Finlay for that belt, which made no sense for either of them. While they produced some good matches, it was just another case of Benoit being used to elevate someone else, when that should have been his moment to shine and to finally be rewarded for his years of hard work in the company.

Now I want to back up a little bit because in late 1995, when Benoit was still fresh and new to the company, they put him with the Four Horsemen. That would seem like a big deal, but if you followed the product at the time, all that did was get him bogged down in pointless nonsense. Despite having a great showing against WCW World Champion Randy Savage, around that time, proving he could hang with the main event talent, he was just one of Flair's underlings. This might have been the weakest version of the Four Horsemen, particularly after Brian Pillman left and was replaced by Steve McMichael, a guy who was so green that he looked like he was still in training even two years after this. And his wife was grating and just ate up television time for absolutely no reason. It was through that he got dragged into the endless feud with Kevin Sullivan that went nowhere. And had it lasted for a couple of months, it would have been fine, but it dragged on and on for over a year. The storyline of the Horsemen having dissension within the ranks when USWA loser Jeff Jarrett showed up to WCW and tried to force himself into the group was such an awful storyline. Even worse than that, Chris Benoit lost to this guy multiple times, and was made to look like a chump over and over again by someone who he could wrestle circles around and who had X-Pac heat before the term was even invented. I know it meant a lot to Chris to be a member of the Horsemen, but I do not think that it really did very much for his career.

But while going back and speaking about that same late 1995 period, I remember he had a match against U.S. champion Kensuke Sasaki. I really thought that he was going to win the title from him since hed already beaten him clean on Nitro weeks earlier. But no, he lost. So once again, Chris Benoit was deemed unfit for a title. Mind you, they put the belt on One Man Gang following this. Let that sink in. Even Konnan came in and had the belt for over six months and really did nothing with the belt, had no storylines, and did nothing to elevate the title, and at times fans even forgot that the belt existed.

Fast forward a little bit, and some of Benoit’s peers like Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko got to jump straight into the U.S. title picture in late 1996 and early 1997. Even the aforementioned Jeff Jarrett and Steve McMichael got to dominate the U.S. title in the summer of 1997. Just let that sink in. An absolute nobody with go away heat, and someone who looked like he had about five minutes of training. But again, Chris Benoit was just not good enough.

By the time they finally started putting belts on Benoit in 1999, he won the World TV, the U.S., and the World Tag Team titles all in a short span of time, but it was too little too late. It was during a period where titles in both of the big companies were just flying back and forth week to week, and nothing mattered anymore. So even those title reigns almost feel like a belated consolation. And if you look at his U.S. title reign, he was not even allowed to win from a real wrestler. He won it from David Flair.

Now, people talk about heat with him and Sullivan and Nancy. Well, that developed during their feud. That was not present the second that he walked in the door. So does anybody have any thoughts/theories as to why he was brought in and featured like those other guys, but then consistently held down and not given the opportunities that they were, even before he got mixed up with Kevin Sullivan? It did not make sense to me as a fan at the time, and even looking back all these years later, I just do not get it. He was one of the best wrestlers in the world at the time, and it just seemed like a huge fumble to not do more with him and to just use him to put over other people.

You can talk about promo skills or whatever. What great promos did Dean Malenko cut in WCW? How about Rey Misterio? What about Guerrero? None of these people cut good promos, but they were featured because of their talent in the ring. I do not remember too many great Ultimo Dragon promos, but yet multiple title reigns with the TV and Cruiserweight titles.

I know a lot of people hate him, but I would ask that people keep the comments constructive if possible. I am a person just like you and would appreciate the respect of a mature discussion without the trolling. IF you read this far, thank you :)