10 Things We Learned From Chris Jericho's Podcast On Chris Benoit's Death
6. Stigmatised In WCW
While Jericho didn't show up in WCW until 1996, Benoit was there as early as 1992. He was in and out of the promotion, and his appearances were fleeting, but he found himself fighting against extreme prejudice towards his size. Benoit was always muscular, but stood at just 5'11", and the company's larger athletes wouldn't take him seriously as a result.
The stigma endured for years, and it was as bad as ever when Benoit returned to WCW in 1995. In Meltzer's words, Benoit would be considered "a tank" in today's wrestling environment, but WCW's top guys didn't want anything to do with him.
Jericho said that "being a cruiserweight was like having leprosy." Heavyweight wrestlers flat-out refused to work with them, despite their obvious skills, with Jim Neidhart and Booker T given as specific examples. Meltzer stated that this was primarily because the headliners couldn't match the smaller guys for athleticism, and would actively hold them back to maintain their slower, easier working style.
The sport's athletic evolution eventually caught up, but Benoit's initial forays into WCW took a huge mental toll, as we're about to find out...