Jim Ross Discusses WCW Using Chris Benoit & Kevin Sullivan’s Real-Life Issues For An Angle

Jim Ross has reflected on his discomfort at WCW’s decision to turn the real-life issues between Chris Benoit and Kevin Sullivan into an angle. Nancy Benoit had been married to Sullivan from 1992 to 1997. In 1997, WCW started an on-screen romance between Benoit and Nancy. They would eventually have a real-life affair.

“I thought their private life got way too public,” Ross said on his podcast, Grillin’ JR. “It became an angle, it became a storyline. As if we’re obligated to share our personal life and that should be voluntary, it should not be made a storyline out of.”

Ross continued, “I felt like making that, the marriage, the adultery, all this other stuff was simply unnecessary, we have to be more creative. Did we have to go there? I wasn’t really sure what was true in that whole deal and what wasn’t. In any event it made me uncomfortable.”

Dark Side of the Ring Season 2 premiered last night on VICE TV. It began with a two-hour special covering Benoit’s tragic story. Chris Jericho narrated the documentary. Alongside Chavo Guerrero, he was heavily involved with the process of helping the production put the episode together.