Although Chris Benoit has been banned from being mentioned on WWE TV and banned from being mentioned on future DVD’s and network specials, he is still shown on their on demand footage. He is on so much stuff that it would be hard to cut him out of everything, especially the major pay-per-views. The same goes for “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka.
However, they have taken steps to remove 80’s ring announcer Mel Phillips from their on demand footage. For example, the 11/11/83 Philadelphia Spectrum show has about 7 minutes of footage removed because Phillips is shown on camera.
Several years ago, he was taken off a DVD/Blu-Ray release that included footage from WrestleMania III. They were able to use alternate camera angles that didn’t show Phillips. In 2013, WrestlingDVDNews.com reported that the major reason for removing him is because one of his alleged victims is a fan of the current WWE product and claims to suffer flashbacks when seeing Phillips in old footage. The story said that the victim has threatened to sue WWE if Phillips was not removed from old footage. However, he was shown in footage on Bret Hart’s “Dungeon Collection” DVD and is still shown on Prime Time Wrestling footage. The only reason I can think of is that the footage he is on now was edited years ago and they haven’t gotten around to it yet.
For those of you that don’t know, Phillips was involved in the ring boy scandal in late 1991-92 that led to his firing from the company. He was in charge of the ring crew and he allegedly had a black book with names of kids that he would meet up with after shows in different cities.
Phillips is still on other footage and he might be removed eventually but he has been removed from the newly uploaded footage.
There’s been a ton of news in the last 48 hours. Click on the links below if you’d like to catch up on some of the top stories:
- Get all the updates about Ric Flair’s current health situation here
- GFW strips Alberto El Patron of World Championship
- Bayley’s injury may force WWE to delay plans for a major angle
- WWE star might be getting repackaged soon
- Enzo Amore’s deleted post may have gotten him more heat in WWE
- More incidents involving Alberto El Patron that have not been reported, Alberto’s lawyer sends letter to GFW
