10 Times WWE Bounced Back From Adversity

1. Chris Benoit

Vince Mcmahon Dawn Marie
WWE.com

Not just Vince McMahon, not just World Wrestling Entertainment, but the entire wrestling industry was left tarnished by the final days of Chris Benoit’s life.

In terms of the company having dark days and negative publicity, it doesn’t get any darker than one of the promotion’s top stars and one of the greatest wrestlers in the world murdering his wife and child before then taking his own life.

Any and every mainstream media outlet wanted a piece of WWE in the aftermath of this, and so many were keen to exploit the wrestling world and show how messed up the industry was. Of course, sure, WWE and the wrestling business had its issues, but the events of the Benoit tragedy were the acts of one man.

There is the argument, however, that if WWE did more to protect its in-ring talent over the years, Chris Benoit may not have suffered the brain trauma that played a part in what tragically happened, but that’s something we’ll sadly never really be able to know about for sure.

WWE struggled immeasurably to move on from the horrors of June 2007, and it was a case of the promotion just having to somehow push itself forward. Even now, at least in a mainstream sense, you can argue that WWE has yet to fully bounce back and put this horrendous incident behind them.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.