PEGASUS: THE CHARISMA MYTH

A wrestler wrestles. It is the chiefest requirement, if only in my criteria, in what makes a wrestler. It is a personal opinion. One that is often not shared by the WWE. If a wrestler is charasmatic but can't wrestle (See Terry Bolea) or at least can be easily marketed to fool one into believing he is charasmatic (See Bill Goldberg), the wrestler will receive a handsome push. Sometimes to the top. If an incredible wrestler does not have enough charisma (See Dean Malenko) or is marketed poorly (See 2 Cold Scorpio), he will not.

Therein lies the so-called problem of what to do with Chris Benoit as it pertains to the WWE title.

To many, he is one of the WWE's greatest talents. To me, he is my favorite wrestler. Sometimes my favorites list fluctuates, but I know at the end of the day that Benoit will be back at my number one spot sooner or later. I mention this not as if anyone cares who makes my greatest wrestlers of today list. Rather, I need to make my opinion clear early. I have certain favorites, and while I would like to believe I call everything fairly, there may be some bias in the column you are reading. Also, while this column will almost entirely be about charisma, it will also brush on a couple other areas on Benoit and the possibility of a WWE title reign. That minor disclaimer aside, let's move right to the point.

Chris Benoit is seen as half a man in the WWE. The company sees a wrestler as half charisma and half in-ring ability. Actually, that may be giving the McMahons too much credit. After all, since the 90's, there have been many paper champions (all talk and no walk) and almost none who were simply phenomenal wrestlers with little charisma. Sid couldn't wrestle his way out of a paper bag, but he had the look. Thus, he was champion. Goldberg, our current World Heavyweight Champion, is average at his best and boring at his worst. Again, he has the look. So, he is champion. Hulk Hogan, as described by someone interviewed in "The Untrue Story of Professional Wrestling," drops his leg worse than an old woman. Somehow, he is the most recognizable name and face in professional wrestling history because he can cut a promo. This all leads me back to the question:

Is Benoit so uncharasmatic to be undeserving of the WWE Championship, despite the fact that he is (arguably) the best wrestler in the company?

Well, for all of us who like reading the last page of the book first, I will skip to the conclusion. No. He is not so uncharasmatic that he can't be a convincing WWE Champion. If he were as stone-faced as Dean Malenko or Lance Storm, I may still cry that he should be champion anyway. Yet, he is not. He has charisma. It's simply the kind of charisma that isn't glaringly obvious and over-the-top like The Rock or Chris Jericho. Allow me to finally get to the meat of this column and list qualities that make up charisma in the WWE and how they relate to Benoit...

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MICROPHONE SKILLS

I will get this out of the way first and admit that Chris Benoit, at his best, is only "okay" on the mic. I say "okay" with emphasis because many believe he is not, in fact, "okay." That he is bad. Really bad. I disagree, and here is why. He is comfortable on the microphone. He doesn't stammer or ramble on about nothing. He knows what he is going to say, and damn it, he just says it. There are no jokes. There are no catch-phrases or one-liners. There are no cheap pops. You'll never hear Benoit say "Well, The Cripper is sure glad to be back...in Philadellllphiaaa!" He simply gets his point across.

I can see why that isn't enough for many WWE fans. Benoit is on the same show as great talkers like Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, John Cena, and The Undertaker. Though, if we must judge him by comparison, isn't he still better or at least on par with much of the Smackdown roster on the mic? Haas, Palumbo, Kidman, Stamboli, Jones, Moore, Gowen, etc.?

What's more, when needed, Benoit has the passion and the experience to speak about the importance of the wrestling lifestyle and what it means to him. It wasn't too long ago when we saw those well-crafted vignettes about Benoit's life as a wrestler. What did he do that made them memorable and enjoyable? Did he dance or sing or tell bad jokes? No, of course he didn't. He talked. He spoke sincerely and honestly, and the fans loved him for it.

There is more to charisma than speaking, though. If there weren't, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin would have been nobodies.

PHYSICAL EXPRESSIONS AND GESTURES

Look at Chris Benoit. Really look at him. Watch his expressions when the match is going his way. Watch his expression when the opposite is happening. Peer into his eyes and look into his soul. The lines across his face tell much of his character that words don't (and couldn't). Unlike some wrestlers, he doesn't have only one facial expression: angry. That is the look commonly associated with wrestlers. Yes, he can be angry. Better than most. Yet, Benoit portrays different moods depending on how the match is progressiny. Maybe this is naturally how he reacts. Maybe he doesn't, and he puts on that devilish grin or pained soldier image for our benefit.

Related to that are his gestures. His classic arm crossing that signifies "That's enough!" or his flailing limbs as if to cry "Get up and fight!" or that intense decapitation motion across his neck. His body tells us a story.

SELLING IT

On the set of a low-budget movie, I met an independent professional wrestler. He went by the monicker AC Gold-something-or-other. My mind is a bit of a blur. Anyway, what he would often tell me his instructions were simply "Get out there and sell it!" Draw the crowd in. Allow them suspension of disbelief. Make the match seem legitimate. Chris Benoit does this flawlessly by "selling" the offensive moves done to him. His previously mentioned pained expressions. His intense movements. Most important, his screams. Nobody sells the pain like Benoit. Of course, he is obviously in actual pain during much of his matches. It is an intense athletic display, and with Benoit, it's often fast-paced and physically challenging. Though, he goes that extra mile. He screams. Loudly.

He selflessly makes his opponent look more impressive than he already is. Nobody sell for his opponent like Benoit. In a recent discussion about who is the best seller in the WWE, I remarked that while Shawn Michaels' expressions are as good as gold, Chris Benoit's screams are priceless.

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Has Chris Benoit become a world champion and achieved the ambition that should have been his five times over by now? Yes and no, but mostly no. In January of 2000, Benoit became WCW Champion, but this happened as he was on his way out. It may have been a last-ditch gesture to convince him to stay. It may have been some booker's way to thank him for his services. I don't know. As the rumors go, Benoit left WCW the next day because of frustrations with the current state of the company. So, he didn't actually have a world title reign. If memory serves, the next night of Monday Nitro, the announce team led us to believe that the title never officially changed hands because of some technicality of where his legs were in relation to the ropes. Benoit wasn't really the champion. Now that WWE owns the rights to WCW, there is no doubt that it is in the official record books (if there are such things) but, to me, and possibly to Benoit, it barely counts.

Should he be WWE Champion soon? Yes, he should. There is no denying he has the wrestling ability. Besides Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero, who is on his level on the Smackdown roster? As far as charisma is concerned, he has it. The problem is that it's not the definition of charisma the way it is seen by the WWE bookers and many of the fans. Whatever weaknesses he has, his strengths make up for them ten fold. Even though many fans don't see Benoit quite how I am explaining him in this writing, they still love him. Listen to the cheers. Look at the standing ovations. Benoit is over. Enough to lead Smackdown if given the chance. If he is an unlikely champion, some fans will love that even more than a likely champion. Who doesn't want to cheer for the underdog?

Chris Benoit's career probably won't last into the next decade. Despite Michael Cole ridiculously calling him a "kid" more than once this year, Benoit is thirty-six years old. He is still in excellent physical condition, but he likely won't wrestle much, if at all, in his forties. Benoit will slow down, take it easy, and retire at the right time. Some may see this as reason enough not to put the belt on him. He's not a long-term investment. Is Kurt Angle? He has said publically that he will retire in less than five years. Is Shawn Micheals? Yes, he was only a transitional champion last year, but he still wore the belt. Is Undertaker? He's one foot in the career grave (deadman joke unintended) but he held the title not too long ago.

Give Chris Benoit the championship belt. Believe it or not, he has both the in-ring talent and the marketability to be a successful champion. More importantly, he deserves it. We, the fans, deserve it.