Wrestling great Chris Benoit, the Rabid Wolverine, was found dead in his home on Monday, apparently resulting from a murder-suicide. Despite his apparent culpability in the tragedy, this is still a horrific event and a terrible loss for the wrestling community, and the extended Benoit family. My sympathies to the family and to all of his friends, and kudos to Vince McMahon for being the bigger guy and dropping the “Mr. McMahon is Dead” storyline in favor of a three-hour Chris Benoit tribute last night on Raw.

Blessed be.

Sources:
WWE article
NY Times article

One of the last truly entertaining wrestlers in the WWE. The owners must certainly feel like idiots for their current choice of morbid storyline, though they could not have known. I read the story and just could not believe it. This is a huge loss for WWE fans. I do not have cable, so I missed the Raw show, but will be watching the Friday Night Smackdown b'cast.

The tribute to Benoit as great wrestler and family man rings hollow with the report he strangled his wife, suffocated his son, and hanged himself.

That is true, Juan, and I wonder if they would have gone ahead with such a lengthy tribute had they known more about the situation, but it is still a tragedy regardless of the details -almost more tragic, I think. I can't imagine what must have been going on for him to do what it seems he did.

the news conference that was held just a few minutes ago claims there were steroids and prescription pain medication in the home.
Instances of steroid use can result in whats commonly called "Roid Rage".
Mixing steroids and a combination of alcohol can bring horrific results.
I still can't believe this happened. Whats so strange about this is there was a bible found next to his wife and son.
What I'm curious about also is the text messages Benoit sent out to some of his colleagues. Hopefully they release those soon.

I also hope that this finally opens up a full investigation into the abuse of steroids and prescription medications in the Sports Entertainment industry. Abuse of these things have cost the lives of 60 professional wrestlers in the past 10 years. Most found dead of heart failure in their homes, hotels, or by suicide.

Alot of people only think of professional wrestling as a choreographed soap opera for men, when in fact these athletes put themselves through pain, that is very real 340 days a year. They don't have an off season, and travel constantly to difrent cities and states on a daily basis, sometimes twice a day.
To put your body through that is nothing short of amazing, and is a huge sacrifice for your health and wellbeing.

Despite what has happened to Chris Benoit I still have respect for him as an athlete and a person. My thoughts and prayers are with the Benoit family, and my sympathy goes to out to the entire World Wrestling Entertainment family, who brings us countless hours of top notch sports entertainment every week.

Thank You Benoit.

As I understand it, some time ago his wife had a restraining order on him, and was filing for divorce. That all seems to have fallen through.

As for Ron's comment...yes. Although pro wrestling is scripted, the old days of what was called kayfabe are over. Everyone knows results are predetermined. Yet the wrestlers themselves are subject to excruciating pain. The injuries they suffer are not fake. The pills they take to build muscle and deaden the pain take their toll. What Benoit was thinking only he knew.

Wrestling is like a soap opera and professional wrestlers are actors, but there are also tremendous athletes. I can’t imagine what they must go through physically in order to stay in the game, even after potentially career-ending injuries.
It is hard to muster sympathy for a man who could do such a thing to his family, but it is also hard to reconcile the passionate and caring man that his friends, family and fellow wrestlers spoke of (and I don’t just mean on Monday’s episode of Raw) with a man capable of murdering the family he supposedly loved so much.
If anything good can come of this, I just hope we can shine a little light into what these athletes go through and understand what made Chris Benoit reach this breaking point -so that we can help prevent anything of this sort in the future.
Chris Benoit was a tremendous athlete, and apparently a great and caring friend and a passionate and loving father. I hope that in merging the two halves of Chris Benoit we can get a better understanding of what makes people do the things they do, and help other people not to do it.



Steroid abuse is a serious problem in many industries, including professional wrestling. It should be noted, though, that according to WWE’s latest press release, Chris Benoit tested negative on April 10, and that his actions are not consistent with a person in the grips of “’roid rage.” I don’t know if that makes it better, or worse.

A timeline, including the substance of the text messages Ron was curious about, has also been released by WWE. This all just gives me the creeps.

that is pretty creepy. I wonder if Nancy was the one texting the messages from her phone, or Benoit using both phones.
There is a lot of details about this on
www.wrestlezone.com

I believe Nancy was already dead at that point.

I'm not sure about Wrestle Zone as a trustworthy site, it gives me a lot of pop-up warnings and ads. WWE may be biased, but they do have real news on there, as does the NY Times. I think we have to be very careful about what we believe -not just in this case but in any sensationalized story- before the final reports have come out.

I wonder how long it takes before this is an A&E documentary.

quote:

Originally posted by SeattleRon:
Despite what has happened to Chris Benoit I still have respect for him as an athlete and a person.
Thank You Benoit.

Why is Benoit thought of as a great athlete and person worthy of respect; he's a murderer! O.J. Simpson was a hall of famer playing for Buffalo, yet everyone hates him for killing his wife and her friend! I really don't get it! At least Benoit had the decency to take his own life, too.

quote:

Originally posted by Sailracer:


Why is Benoit thought of as a great athlete and person worthy of respect; he's a murderer! O.J. Simpson was a hall of famer playing for Buffalo, yet everyone hates him for killing his wife and her friend! I really don't get it! At least Benoit had the decency to take his own life, too.

I can understand how someone can see him as a great athlete still. Since one's athletic ability has nothing really to do with one's personal life, isn't it possible to separate the man's actions in his personal life from his athletic acheivements and then respect his athletic acheivements? Or would you only be respecting an athlete's achievements itself and not the athlete. Even so, I think you have to take the person who peformed the achievements into consideration when respecting the achievements.

Hmm. As far as a person, I don't know. But I wonder, how much is a person's life history tainted and destroyed with one horrible action? I suppose one could still respect the rest of his life.

The difrence between Chris Benoit and O.J. Simpson is a big one. Yes they are both murderers.
But O.J. flaunts it in our face everyday, and even wrote a book about it. "If I did it."
If I was Ron Goldman I'd have shot simpson myself.
Chris Benoit obviously realized the shameful thing he did and tried to make ammends for it by taking his own life. Not that I'm trying to justify any of this.

As heinous of a thing Chris Benoit did, he was a person that everyone in the locker room could look up to, and it shouldn't taint what was a legendary wrestling career. He acted completely out of character. What I think happened was he wasn't himself those days, something evil got inside of him. He was a really nice man, always taking time out to autograph something for a fan, even if you saw him in the restroom trying to take a leak. Trust me I know,lol.

I have two theories, Him and his wife were arguing, it went too far, he strangled her to death. Realizing what he did knowing it was too late to go back. He knew he would be going to prison, and didn't want anybody else to raise his son who has a disability, he didn't want that burden on anybody else, nor have his son deal with the loss of two parents. As sick as it is he felt it better to take his sons life, then take his own.

The other theory is way far fetched, but Benoit was framed. And thats going way out there.

I believe Steroids could be partly to blame for the murder of his wife, but not for the death of his son or his suicide. News reoprters are way off when they say everything was roid rage. Roid rage does not span a 2 and a half day period.
I used to see it in high school locker rooms when I used to be an amateur wrestler. "Roid Rage" was a short 3 to 6 minute burst of extreme anger usually resulting in the person breaking everything or acting out in violence towards people around them.

I know that the Chris Benoit is a monster, and whatever happened to him last weekend is an absolute tragedy, but we have enough hate in this world already. I won't take part in it.
Instead of looking at him for what he did, we should embrace the surviving family, and the friends of the Benoit's. They need our love and compassion now more than ever.

quote:

Originally posted by juanruiz:
The tribute to Benoit as great wrestler and family man rings hollow with the report he strangled his wife, suffocated his son, and hanged himself.

Truer words were never spoken.

Here's an excellent take on the whole story


http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/jul/01/finish_goes_...lift_benoit_tragedy/

I have been following this story from day 1. Being a big fan of the "rabid wolverine", I was pretty shocked to learn of his death and the death of his family.

I realize that WWE is one big show, that the way the wrestlers act is just that. An act. That most of them are different off screen as they are on screen. Benoit had no personality on screen. I don't know him nor have I ever met him. So I really can't say what kind of person he was in reality.

However, I am also entitled to an opinion. just as everyone else is. I do not believe that Benoit killed his family. I get so sick of everyone saying it was the steroids that did it. Just as Ron mentioned eailer, 'roid rage' only last a short few minuets. It does not last an entire weekend.

Benoits son had an illness, fragile x syndrome (a form of mental retardation) and the steroids very well could have been his sons. For all we know, the medication could have had steroids in them but not necessarly been steroids themselves. I was put on 2 inhalers last year for asthmatic bronchitis. They both had steroids in them. His son could very well of had a medication w/ steroids and the media made the medicine out to be straight steroids.

The wikipedia entry that was entered on the wikipedia web site about his wife's death before it went public...If Benoit did it, then why was the IP for that entry traced to Stamford, CT? You mean totell me he killed his wife in Georgia, travled appx. 900+ miles, added the wikipedia entry about his wife, then travled the 900+ miles back and finished the job? Sounds fishy to me.

I know from reading alot of true crime novels (mostly Ann Rule) that when a family member kills their family, they are usually all killed the same way. Shot, burned, whatever. It is very unusual for them all to be killed in different ways. His wife was strangled, his son sofficated, and he was hung. Very abnormal.

I have my theories has to who did it and why. I have received alot of negativity over my response and as to who I thought did it. I am not so sure I want to name names on here but then I really don't care what any of you think of me for voicing my opinion. So, here goes.

I honestly believe that Mcmahon did it. Or at the very least, he is an accessory to murder. Benoit had a chance for the ECW World title at Vengence. Mcmahon didn't want hom to have it. Why? Because that was the only title Benoit never held. not even in his days on the original ECW, where he first started. Benoit wanted that title and Mcmahon simply didn't want him to have it. (Specualtion, you say? Well, whatever.)

I have a few more reasons but don't have the time or the mood to post them now.

quote:

I honestly believe that Mcmahon did it. Or at the very least, he is an accessory to murder. Benoit had a chance for the ECW World title at Vengence. Mcmahon didn't want hom to have it.

You make it sound as if VM's only way to stop Benoit from getting the title was to kill him. These events are all scripted in advance. Everyone in the organization knows what is going to happen. But I'm interested in your scenario. Benoit sat and watched while others killed his wife and son? He allowed himself to be hanged (there were to signs of a struggle involving his demise)? What would you tell a DA that was convincing?

as of last nights Nancy Grace show, it was revealed that Daniel did not suffer from Fragile X syndrome, as there was no medical condition of any sort in his medical records. Along with statements made from his surviving family members and his kindergarten teacher also stating he excelled in school and passed to the 1st grade with everybody else.

The person who made the wikipedia entry had his computer seized Friday. The person may face charges.
Benoit was scheduled to take the ECW title at Vengeance. They moved him to ECW because it is a lighter schedule, and Benoit had requested
to work only 165 days cutting his travel time in half to be home more with his son.
ECW was the right move for Benoit because of the workload factor.

This part is just speculation, but I heard from a source that Benoit had been growing more paranoid the past few months, believing someone was stalking him and his family. He would even go as far as taking several difrent routes home from the airport.

You have a good theory there esencia, while everything is still on the table. I think if Vince had anything to do with it,they probably would have found evidence by now. They were all over the doctor within days of the tragedy.
Plus if you were an acomplice to or directly involved in something this high profile, I would stay away from the media and the spotlight as much as possible, not go on Good Morning America, or the Today show.

As much as I don't want to believe it, I have to say it was a double murder suicide with Benoit being the murderer then taking his own life.

you guys might also be interested in reading this.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0702071benoit1.html

I applaud your realistic response Ron.

McMahon is worth more than 1.1 billion dollars, net. He has no reason in the real world to involve himself in that kind of situation.

Somehow, I believe something made Chris snap and he did exactly what is being said. He was taking more than steroids, according to a couple of newspaper reports I read.

Crime scene detectives and investigators by and large do a great job in figuring out exactly what happened in cases like these. And they have to axe to grind. They are in the business of finding out the truth no matter what. That being said, I believe the scenario they have come up with and will until other evidence comes forth that says otherwise.