The Benoit Tragedy
On June 25th, 2007 police discovered the bodies of Professional wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and 7 year old son Daniel in their family home in Atlanta, Georgia. In February of this year the police investigation concluded that Chris acted alone in first, killing his wife on Friday June 22nd then murdering his son on Saturday before committing suicide on Sunday, one year ago today. Details in the police report indicated that Nancy may have been trying to leave Chris; that she suspected him of having an affair with a WWE Diva, and that there were arguments about the insurance policies of Chris’s two children from his first marriage.
It was a tragedy that transcended Pro-Wrestling, dominating news programs for many weeks. I will not pretend to know Chris Benoit well, but I did, on more than one occasion, get a chance to visit with him when he was at the Hart House in Calgary, the place where his illustrious career as a wrestler began in the infamous Hart Dungeon where myriad stars got their start getting stretched on a regular basis by the legendary promoter of Stampede Wrestling, Stu Hart. Benoit was one of the few workers who had moved on to fame and fortune in WWE who didn’t forget his Calgary roots and I always respected him for that. I can remember Benoit taking a then 16 year old Harry Smith under his wing when Harry’s father, the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith died of a heart attack at the age of 39 on May 18, 2002. Harry’s cousin, current WWE Diva “Natalya” (Nattie Neidhart, daughter of former WWE tag team champion Jim “the Anvil” Neidhart) was good friends with Nancy and actually spent time at her home just weeks before the tragedy. She told me that all had seemed well in the household and that she was especially impressed with the way Chris doted on his son Daniel.
So how could someone who was held in the highest regard by millions of wrestling fans and peers around the world do something so unthinkable? Was it steroids? (An elevated level of testosterone was found in his system) A crime of passion? Unfortunately, we will never know the answers to those questions since Chris took the reason he did what he did to the grave.
Tests done on his brain tissue revealed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (due to sundry unprotected chair shots to the head) and had brain damage in all four lobes of the brain and brain stem His father Michael believes that brain damage may have been the leading cause of the double murder-suicide. Of course, as a grieving dad, he would want to hold on to anything that would give him some sort of closure and absolve his son of any direct culpability.
There was a hue and cry for change in the pro wrestling industry in the wake of the calamity and as someone who has been involved in professional wrestling for most of my adult life I actually believed that this catastrophe would serve as the impetus for real change in the pseudo sport I refer to as the “sickness”. Naivete is thy name! One year later, performers are still taking chair shots to the head and steroids still appear to be de rigeur (especially when it comes to those who appear in the main events). Oh, and WWE is coming off its most lucrative quarter ever. People may demand change but when it comes to professional wrestling, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Unfortunately.
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