I
know this is very touchy subject but recent comments have led me to write about
this. Someone created a poster of Chris
Jericho, with Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit shown behind him. Chris saw it and dedicated his recent match
at WrestleKingdom12 against Kenny Omega to his fallen friends. Ryan Satin, of dirt sheet fame, took it upon
himself to bring up the events of the Benoit tragedy that took place over 10
years ago. He basically blasted Jericho
and fans alike for being okay with the poster and dwelling on what happened,
something to the effect of Benoit being a murderer.
Jericho
responded by saying he’s devastated about that tragedy and still thinks about
it all the time. It doesn’t take away
from the fact that Benoit was one of Jericho’s best friends in real life. Can’t Jericho just mourn about the friend he
lost? Why bring all this up? It’s not like everyone isn’t aware! To that, I say to Mr. Satin, you can take
your comment, turn the sumbitch sideways…oh hell, you know the rest!
With
all that being said, I’ve never formally spoke about my opinion of the events
that went down. Call me a conspiracy
theorist but I’m not totally convinced things happened the way they were
reported, especially considering what was reported changed several times and
the investigation ended rather abruptly.
I’m not necessarily saying Benoit is innocent. This is truly a tragedy and I am not
condoning deaths of the three parties involved at all. There are just things that still don’t make
sense to me. Perhaps I never wanted to
believe it! Fair enough, but the whole
thing doesn’t sit right with me, never has, and never will.
I
am open to comments but please be respectful.
Benoit was one of my favorites and the tragedy that occurred absolutely
breaks my heart. Don’t go calling me a
murderer supporter or anything like that!
Despite whatever did happen, you can’t remove him from wrestling
history. I understand not promoting him
but he did exist. He wasn’t a figment of
our collective imaginations. Do I understand
him never getting into any wrestling Hall of Fame? Yes, I do!
I’m not saying that what he did in the ring should overshadow real life,
but the fact of the matter is, he was one of the greatest wrestlers of all
time. No one can deny it!
Think about
the OJ verdict! Because OJ was never
charged as guilty of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, people
feel he still deserves his Hall of Fame spot in the NFL; even though there is a
lot more evidence that OJ was guilty than Benoit was, in my opinion! Hell, OJ wrote a book basically telling the
world he did it, in so many words. Also,
I know there are conspiracy theorists about this as well. My point is, that I don’t think everyone has
examined all of the facts concerning Chris Benoit. I for damn sure don’t think the police
examined all the facts! People were
quick to jump to conclusions, despite not everything making complete sense. I’m also not judging those who sincerely
believe he did it. That’s your
perspective and I respect it.
Before I
get further into this, let me quickly discuss Chris Benoit, the wrestler. Let’s take real life out of the equation for
a second. For instance, I still somewhat
believe Michael Jackson was innocent.
Even if I thought he was guilty, it doesn’t change the fact that I loved
his music. In the same tone, I think
Kanye West is a douche bag but that’s not why I dislike his music. I just don’t like it! In recent news, I in no way condone what
Kevin Spacey has been accused of. I also
completely understand him being written out of House of Cards. By the way, I’m glad they just cut ties with
him and decided to finish the series in his absence. Regardless, even if I may look at him in a
different light, does that mean I have to all of a sudden hate his past acting
performances?
Again, I
don’t want to come off as celebrating the guy but I feel like it’s necessary
for me to talk about him as a wrestler.
Not the man, Chris Benoit, but the wrestling character Chris Benoit. As far as ring technicians, he was one of the
best ever. Despite his limited mic
skills, his intensity more than made up for it.
I’ve been a wrestling fan my entire life so I remember his days in Japan
as Wild Pegasus. He did great work in
ECW as one of the original Triple Threat members, along with Dean Malenko and
Shane Douglass. His match with Sabu was
nuts and after breaking the man’s neck, that’s what gave him the nickname “The
Crippler.”
In WCW, he
did some pretty great things. He was
almost immediately named a member of the elite Four Horsemen. I thought the version of Benoit, Pillman,
Flair, and Anderson was a pretty good incarnation of the group. He won every major Championship there. He was a multiple time United States
Champion, World Television Champion, and had several Tag Team Title reigns with
different partners. His best of seven
series with Booker T for the TV Title was incredible! On his last day with the company, they
finally gave him the World Heavyweight Title.
He took on Bret Hart in a match honoring the late Owen Hart, which
brought tears to my eyes. His intense
feud with Kevin Sullivan led to life imitating art, as Sullivan’s estranged
wife Nancy, known as Woman, became involved with Benoit and eventually those
two were married. I’ll get to Kevin Sullivan
a little later on.
Benoit also
had a tremendous WWE debut. There was a
mass exodus from WCW in January of 2000 and four of those men were Chris
Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn. They made their debut on Raw, watching the
event as audience members. After getting
into it with Degeneration X, they became known as the Radicals. An early injury to Guerrero led them into
different directions. Benoit quickly
found himself in the Intercontinental Championship picture and won the Title at
WrestleMania that year. He went on to
hold the Intercontinental and United States Titles several times over in the
next seven years.
Benoit had
great matches with the likes of Kurt Angle, Booker T, Chris Jericho, etc. He had main event matches against The Rock,
Triple H, and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
His match for the World Title against Kurt Angle at the 2003 Royal
Rumble got a standing ovation. The
following year, he won the Royal Rumble by going the distance from number one
and unlike Shawn Michaels, the Rumble match that Benoit participated in had
full two-minute intervals, as opposed to one.
He went on to defeat Triple H and Shawn Michaels in the main event of
WrestleMania XX. His celebration with
best friend Eddie Guerrero didn’t leave a dry eye in the building. I’m sorry, if you watch that moment and don’t
shed a tear, you’re not human! However,
now it makes me cry for a different reason, in that they’re both gone. We all cried with him when Eddie Guerrero
passed away.
MVP was a
made man after his series of matches with Benoit. Benoit even revisited his best-of series with
Booker T. In April of 2007, he was
drafted to the ECW brand and was set to compete for the vacant ECW Championship
against CM Punk, which would have been an incredible match. However, he did not make it to the arena, and
the grizzly turn of events would soon develop over the next day or so. The wrestling world was devastated when news
broke that Benoit, Nancy, and their son Daniel were found dead in their
home. Reacting before knowing the full
details, Vince McMahon and the WWE did the right thing in my opinion by putting
out a tribute show. Unfortunately, the
heartbreaking details started to come out during the show and soon WWE was met
with a series of negative attention and scrutiny. This incident almost single handedly
destroyed professional wrestling as a whole.
It was reported that over the course of three days, Benoit killed his wife
Nancy, his son Daniel, and himself in their Georgia home. Here’s where things get complicated!
I hate to
say it and I feel like a horrible person for even thinking it, but my first
immediate response was that Kevin Sullivan did it. That lasted only a few hours, though. I think based on the way things went down in
the past between Sullivan and Nancy, with Benoit pretty much taking her away
from him, there was motive. I don’t
think that necessarily means motive enough to commit homicide. I mean no disrespect to Kevin Sullivan but it
was just my reaction at the time. I
don’t think that now! Although, it was
odd that this day happened to be the anniversary of Kevin and Nancy’s divorce. Kevin is also a known Satan worshiper.
There are
so many things that don’t add up about this.
The conversations between Benoit and Chavo Guerrero were odd. There was a point when police informed the
public that the entire thing happened over a three-day period starting on a
Friday. Chavo spoke to Chris on Friday
night and some time during the conversation, there was a knock at the
door. When Benoit answered the door,
there was an apparent scuffle heard and then the line went dead. Chris would then communicate through his cell
phone. Police reports said there was no
forced entry so it’s entirely possible that if Chris was innocent, he may have
let the one responsible in.
When Chavo
reached Chris on his cell phone, he said Chris sounded tired and groggy. He also said “I love you, Chavo,” which
seemed forced as although they were close, it was not something he would
usually say. Benoit’s cell phone was
missing at the time of the investigation and then turned off. The police also couldn’t find the needles
they say he used to inject himself with steroids. People also need to stop with the whole
steroids argument. If the murders and suicide
happened over a three-day period, that’s methodical and not something someone
under “roid rage” would do.
Although
initial reports stated he was hanging from a weight machine, he was actually
laying underneath the machine. A
different officer said he was slumped against the machine. There was a cloth wrapped around Chris’s neck
but that doesn’t coincide with an apparent suicide since caring about a bruised
neck at that juncture would make no sense.
Also, the weight on the machine was changed from what Benoit was able to
bench at 225 to 185.
According
to the medical examiner, Benoit died on Saturday, yet the text messages were
sent on Sunday. If he was already dead,
who sent the texts? Also, no one
reportedly spoke to him on Sunday. It
also conflicts with other reports saying that Benoit killed Daniel on Friday,
killed Nancy on Saturday, and then himself on Sunday. Steroids were found in the Benoit home yet
not in Chris’s body during the toxicology reports.
It
was odd for him to text people if he committed the murders. If no one was there to hear him talk, why not
call? Chris also sent Chavo a text of
his address. Since Chavo already knew it
and spent the previous weekend with him, why would Chris send it? Both the bodies of Chris and Nancy were badly
decomposed, which shows he had to have died sooner than Sunday. When Nancy’s body was found, she was tied
up. With Benoit’s size and strength,
that wouldn’t have been necessary. Other
reports came out that Daniel was shot in the head and Nancy was shot in the
chest.
Chavo said
Chris sounded worried on the phone but wouldn’t expand upon it. Reports said that Bibles were placed by Nancy
and Daniel’s bodies but not Chris’s. The
fact that Bibles were there at all was odd considering they were atheists. Toxicology reported no alcohol in Chris’s
system, yet there were empty beer cans and wine bottles next to his body. The toxicology did confirm traces of Hydrocodone,
a pain killer, and Xanax, for anti-anxiety.
These two combined would sedate him, which would explain why he sounded
groggy to Chavo on the phone.
The police
changed the manner of Daniel’s death three times. One was from asphyxiation from a garbage bag,
another was from a choke hold, and the third was being smothered by a
pillow. The location of Nancy’s body was
also changed by the police. Three
different reports stated she was found in the downstairs family room, she was
found in the upstairs bedroom, and she was found in the office. Why one is it?
Nancy’s
death was posted online, 14 hours before her body was found. How is that possible? Chris was reported to be paranoid according
to friends, weeks before his death when he started taking alternative routes to
work and he was convinced they were being followed. Unfortunately, these deaths were during the
same week of the “Who killed Vince McMahon?” storyline. Sensational Sherri died seven days
prior. That seemed to be not spoken
about much and she had ties to both Nancy and Kevin.
The fact
that the police changed the reports many times in a short space and that the
investigation ended so abruptly, leads me to believe it’s possible that Benoit
didn’t do it. For me, those two factors
alone make me question everything, not to mention all these other things that
came out. I don’t think we’ll ever know
what really happened. If there was
substantial evidence and non-conflicting reports, I might have believed he was
guilty of this heinous act. Maybe I’m a
conspiracy theorist but these are my thoughts on the situation and the
different things that were reported from this case.
If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments. Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans. Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport. For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
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