10 Ways The Chris Benoit Double-Murder/Suicide Case Changed WWE Forever
6. Be A Star?
Stephanie McMahon once infamously piggybacked a quote on Twitter, noting that 'philanthropy is the future of marketing, it's the way brands are going to win'. It undermined some of the great charitable gestures WWE had made over several decades but also foreshadowed a new generation of campaigns designed to reposition the WWE's battered brand.
It was no more in the doghouse than during some 2007 congressional hearings following the Benoit murders. Revelations from the McMahon family opened up the reality of their 'giving', but it didn't stop the company moving headfirst into benevolent causes in order to match the WWE name with all things good.
The 'Be a STAR' initiative was step into countering bullying amongst young people. As is always the case with such a campaign, the message was fundamentally good, and should a performer parroting rhetoric make a single difference, it was probably a worthwhile pursuit.
However, the company itself has ran from bullying accusations for decades, under a carefully guarded mask of hazing, paying dues and other collegiate synonyms. An organisation that employs chief locker-room general John Bradshaw Layfield to preach on bullying borders on black comedy, but all humanitarian efforts in the shadow of the Benoit tragedy can justifiably face similar censure.