8 Secrets Behind WWE Posters You Never Noticed

2. A 29 Man Rumble

Takers Hands Posters
WWE

The fallout of the Chris Benoit tragedy saw WWE necessarily expurgate any and all traces of the Canadian from their material both retro and proactively, a practice which continues to this day with the deceased's name still inutterable on air and unsearchable on the company's proprietary Network.

Absolutely nothing has escaped WWE's understandably sensitive censors when it comes to bowdlerising Benoit from the record books, and the efforts even extended to some artistic airbrushing - about 13 years after the fact.

In the original hand-drawn poster for Royal Rumble 2001, Benoit could be seen just over the shoulder of eventual winner 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Meanwhile, Farooq filled the ranks in the back-row, leering behind former Ministry master The Undertaker. For the PPV's preview on the WWE Network, launched in 2014, the class photo had been reconfigured somewhat. Ron Simmons was the recipient of a full face transplant, cropping up alongside Austin, whilst an eerie grey nobody now stood in his original place. Benoit, of course, was now nowhere to be seen.

Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.