No More “Crossface”
Written: Some time in December of 2007.
iReason for this Writing:i
Shawn Michaels had recently begun using a submission-hold known as the “Crippler Crossface” during his matches, a move made famous by Chris Benoit. This is my opinion on whether or not the move should continue to be utilized in professional wrestling.
Article
Normally, when I write an article on wrestling, I try to articulate every detail, explaining who every wrestler is and how every move works. This time, however, the subject matter is well known, so I am taking the approach that everybody who reads this will know what I’m talking about.
Shawn Michaels should stop using the “Crossface” in his matches.
And my reasoning is quite simple: It’s the move that killed Daniel Benoit.
Need another reason? Any news-show could easily take the footage and use it to yet again portray professional-wrestling in a negative light.
I can understand the reason for the move being “brought back” to the spotlight, to try to take this particular move away from the terrible tragedy it was involved in, and bring it back into the realm of “sports entertainment”, a realm where Superstars are simply trying to “put smiles on peoples’ faces”. I mean, it’s just a move, right? It’s not a conscious, cognizant being that was aware of what was going on. Why punish the move, of all things? That’s pretty stupid, no?
In a sense, yes. In the same way that I believe that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” (though I’ll concede that guns do make it easier), there’s no practical reason to banish an admittedly cool-looking move from the spectacle that is WWE.
However, what makes me say differently is the fact that the Crossface now has something that it didn’t have before: History.
When Lionel Tate beat his playmate to death with Clotheslines and Powerbombs, nobody called for a ban on those moves in professional-wrestling - firstly, because they’re completely common moves that practically every wrestler on Earth utilizes, and secondly, because it was understood that, regardless of one’s opinion on the morality of WWE, Lionel Tate was not a trained professional and should not have been using these moves in a playful way.
The Crossface, however, will forever be linked with Chris Benoit; he brought it to prominence and he used it virtually exclusively. Furthermore, the role that the Crossface played in the death of a child was not accidental - it was not used by some random fan who arbitrarily decided to use it, but instead was used by the very man who made the move famous and used it on television for years.
While clothing and symbols are not dangerous or offensive in and of themselves, there’s a reason that you don’t go parading around in all-black outfits finished with black trench-coats, or armbands with swastikas on them - because of the history they now have. Same thing here. The Crossface will always be remembered as “Chris Benoit’s finishing move”, and Chris Benoit will forever be known as “That Pro-Wrestler who killed his family”.
It wouldn’t take much for any random news-outlet to find a clip of Shawn Michaels applying the Crossface to Randy Orton, and spin it as Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, professional-wrestling, and professional-wrestling FANS as having no respect for Daniel Benoit’s death.
I understand that there exists a good reason for the Crossface to be brought back to WWE.
But I think there exists a better reason for it not to.
