R.I.P. Chris Benoit

[Lil Bunny]

Well if I wasn't crying before (damnit I had just quit too) I am now. I couldn't even read the article, just the title set me off.

*sigh* C'est la vie eh? That reminds me, has anyone heard anything about Sensational Sherry's death yet? Last I knew that was being looked at too.

[Tigress]

Oh, man...

Say it ain't so, Chris. Just say it ain't so.

[Phoenix79]

I guess there's supposed to be a press conference at 3pm today. It's all just so sad . . . he was such a great wrestler!

Phoenix

[mrsjfreak]

Even if it's true, I don't care, I'll never change my opinion that Chris Benoit was an incredible athlete, and human being. If it's true, he made a mistake. And only he knows why he did it

[Casino Jockey]

this is immensely sad, and i worry he will be remembered more for the manner of this death than the awesome performances he put out during his great career.

i have seen chris live a few times and seen him at an autograph signing as well. chris was immensely nice, and i wonder what was going through his mind when this happened. it's clear chris had some mental problems, and i pray this tragedy will serve as a wake up call

[NightWolf]

Sad sad news indeed. I was playing WoW online when a friend logged on and said "you watchin RAW?" Nope....

Then he told me. I had to log off and go upstairs quick to see what was going on. Very sad.

Even more sad to find out the latest information on the investigation. I agree with Mysty. Even if he did do this, there was a reason. Something set him off, and I can only imagine that maybe she was leaving him and taking the kid. Thats the only thing I can think of that would set someone off like that. But, only he knows why, and even Chavo said, he was a very private person. We may never know just why it all happened.

Thoughts and Prayers go out to the surviving family.

[Emmeileia]

What strikes me as odd with this, though, it from the details described (I would rather not repeat them, they are easily found on the news) it does not sound like he 'snapped' so much as planned the whole thing.

I wish there were a note or something to explain why. Benoit was one of my favorite wrestlers and to have him do this ruins a lot of that for me. The absolute senslessness is what really bugs me right now. I can't imagine how the families and friends must be feeling at this point.

[Ryu]

Whilt I'm still hoping somehow it wasnt him who did it, I just saw this article and figured I'd post it. Theres something at the end which might help make it more sense, if thats possible, it would definitely still be a tragedy regardless, but maybe just maybe its the reason why it happened
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/us...in&oref=slogin

[Emmeileia]

It would be nice if it turned out to be some crazy stalker and the apparent murder/suicide was all a CSI-worthy ruse...Benoit was one of my favorite wrestlers.
Sadly, it is likely exactly what it seems. The head injury angle is interesting, especially if the drug tests come back with him being free from steroids.

[Tigress]

...just maybe its the reason why it happened

This could very well be the reason. Every wrestler gets a concussion at some point in their careers and Benoit got more than his fair share. Way too often, pride keeps them from seeking treatment.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

People who do this sort of thing don't "just snap." It might look like that to the casual observer, or people who only see his public life, but that' not what really happens.

This is the culmination of a probably escalating pattern.

His wife has had problems with him in the past. She has been afraid of him in the past. Something was going on.

Concussions don't turn people into murderers. It's not like he got a bump on the head and all of a sudden turned violent.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I'm going to be doing this ranting here because there's no reason to form a new topic for it.

At the age of not-quite-25, I myself have had seven concussions (that I know of). I never sought treatment, and I'm fine. While I admit I do see a difference between my behavior now and before I started with wrestling, I can't say that it wasn't as much from just getting older as it was from any head injuries (I was 19 when I worked my first show, six years is a long time).

I know I myself, as well as several others, are hoping for anything that could be used to explain Chris's actions, not to forgive or excuse them, but just to understand that a guy we all knew as a hard worker and a somewhat cool but still loving friend, could do something like this.

The thing that's really getting to me is that everyone in the media is already screaming about steroids and roid rage. Unfortunately, roid rage doesn't last for the better part of a weekend, believe me, I've had some friends who I knew were juiced and I saw go into raging fits, but they could usually be brought down in a few minutes. Even the longest I saw, when we were starting to fear it would never end, stopped after 30 minutes.

It's the same thing that always seems to happen. One member of a group, in this case, wrestlers, does something bad, and suddenly we're all getting painted with the same brush. In the last day, I've been very aware that there's been stares in my direction, people are giving me a much wider circle than normal, as though they think that I might be the next one to snap. And it's not that I've given these people any previous reason to fear me...despite how I might treat my SCs, I've always been kind and polite to my coworkers, at least to their faces. There's a lady who always tries to get me to stop and chat with her, today and yesterday, she's turned her back on me every time I walk past. My boss RM and a couple other of my friends are the only ones treating me normally, everyone else is either avoiding me or whispering behind their hands whenever I pass. I'm just here to do my job, damnit. I get paid to deal in death. Yes, I used to wrestle, yes, I will again when I'm ready. Two and two does not equal four in this case, though.

Chris was a friend of a friend, but I didn't know him. I can't say for certain what made him do what he did, be it just plain snapping or drugs or something more sinister. But I wish like hell that he hadn't, not just for the pain he's caused his own family and his fans and everyone else, but because it looks like "rasslers" are going to be getting thrown back on the "Public Enemy" list, and it's not fair.

MOST of us don't juice. Even of the ones who do, the vast majority are very careful about it. The ragers are few and far between, especially these days. Several I know who used to use quit after Eddie died. And sure, we wrestlers have our share of mental issues...it's a common joke that you have to be at least a little bit screwed up to be in this business...but we don't all let things get to a head and kill our families. Just because a man, be it a doctor or a lawyer or a wrestler, goes apeshit, it doesn't automatically mean every other person matching those criteria will.

Because whatever demon was in Chris's head, I DON'T HAVE IT. I'm rough cut, I have a bloody awful temper, and I do like physical violence maybe a little too much. But I also have good supportive family, friends I can count on, and I was raised to stay in control of myself and learned coping methods to keep from losing it. Going in my room and beating the hell out of my wall, or running sprints until I collapse, or even what I did last night, which was to spend three hours throwing up and screaming...it's all way, way better than going after my father, or kicking my pets, or anything else that cruel that seems like a good idea at the time.

I'm sorry for Chris's family, and for his friends who will be wondering for the rest of their lives what they might have done differently to have stopped this. And I'm sorry that there's a seven-year-old boy who didn't get to live, and two more children who will have to live the rest of their lives with what their father did over their heads. And I'm sorry that a lot of people, myself among them, had to see what we considered a hero brought low by his own actions.

But right now, I'm more pissed off than I am anything else because, just because one man did something completely horrible, in the coming weeks, maybe even months, all the rest of us are going to have to pay for it because none of the idiots reporting on it can be bothered to get their facts straight, and cops can't find all the evidence before they start having diaherra of the mouth. Okay, so there were PRESCRIBED steroids in the house. Did everyone forget Chris had had spinal fusion surgery a while back and steroids are a common prescription for recovery? No one's said whether they were new or old. "He was under investigation for steroids" well WHAT professional athlete ISN'T these days? There's gunpowder in my house, that doesn't automatically make me a bombmaker.

Maybe later it will all come out and steriods, wrestling, and everything else will be the direct, undeniable cause. But I doubt it. There are a lot of factors that could have played into this, there's no denying that...concussions, steroids, stress, grief, mental illness, etc. But without any clear evidence yet, I wish people would just shut the fuck up about their misplaced "facts", and especially quit acting like being a wrestler automatically means someone is an over-drugged meathead who will go off on a murdering spree at no provocation.

I'm sorry if I've said anything to offend anyone...and I'm not belittling anyone suggesting it COULD be one thing or another because speculation is way different than the out and out deceptions being put out there. (I want to be sure the posters here see that, because you're all behaving much better than some people I could name and I do thank you very deeply for it.)

But I'm just so sick and tired of this, after just 30 hours of hearing "It MUST be steroids, it MUST be because of wrestling, it's because wrestling is a horrible business", that I don't know what to do with myself. Yeah, wrestling is a HARD life, it's very damn hard, but we still chose it for ourselves, you know? No one forced us to take this anymore than a policeman shot in the line of fire was forced into that position, or a nurse who get exposed to some bad disease by trying to help a sick person was forced into that position. I chose it, and if I want to, I'll unchoose it. Simple as that. Wrestling doesn't force people into misbehavior anymore than video games or television on their own do.

As a sidenote, much as I dislike and sometimes even hate Vince McMahon, I have to applaud his handling of the situation as best he could handle it, knowing what little he did in the beginning, even though it's been easy to tell he's as devastated as anyone else. I'd like to, very publically, say that as much as I disagree with his politics and decisions most of the time, I'm really quite proud of him for how well he's done with this unprecedented situation.

[powerboy]

Its unbelievable that their saying it might be a double murder suicide, i really cant see Benoit doing that...

Same for me. Chris, was one of the true good guys, and I saw him wrestle in person a few times, and everyone cheer for him. I think that with Chris, it must have been something, that truly got to him, to do that to his family....That is, if he actually done it.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Guys, I have to say this, and it won't help my popularity here, but it needs saying.

Why can't you see him doing this? Did you know him personally? Did you talk to him about problems he may have been having?

You saw what he showed you. His stage persona. His public face. None of you know what was going on in this guys life. You admired his prowess and liked who you thought he was. That's cool, but your admiration does not mean that the guy didn't have some potentially dangerous problems you didn't know about.


The fact is, anyone is capable of anything. You have no idea what keeps other people up at night when they are going through their dark night of the soul. You don't know how many snakes really are in someone's head. We don't like to think about that, because it's scary as hell to have to live with the thought that your husband, wife, parent, child could be thinking the unthinkable.

What happened here is certainly a horrible tragedy, and a huge bummer for the fans, but it is not beyond the scope of this man, or any person, to have done something horrific.

[Emmeileia]

I guess the reason it surprised me so much was that there was not as visible a distinction between his public and private personas. Rey Mysterio does not wear his mask out to dinner, and I doubt Kane runs to the corner store for milk in white contacts and an intimidating glare, but Chris Benoit was always made out to be, even in his non-wrestling life as the good guy. I guess it shows how well marketing works. The sense of 'how could he?" is more a gut reaction than an intelligent, though out one.