Chris Benoit: Legend, Erased.

So its been ages since this event. On June 25, 2007, Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their 7-year-old son Daniel were found dead in their Fayetteville, Georgia, home at around 2:30 p.m.

Holy shit. I had been a wrestling fan since late 2000. Benoit had been in WWE for about 8/9 months at this point. Benoit was a wrestler that the true fans loved. He was techically great in the ring. I really enojyed his matches, especially his world championship winning 3-way match in 2004. However by the time of this tragedy i had been watching less and less wrestling. I still have a passion for it somewhere and i do enjoy it when i watch it, but i can miss the weekly shows without thinking twice about it these days. So when i happened to watch the episode of WWE RAW after the benoit family tragedy, i was taken a back. First of all when you see 3 people have died in the same family, something is not quite right.

Then of course in the weeks and months following it was revealed that Chris Benoit had killed his wife and son, then hung himself. Now at this time i used to make videos on youtube about wrestling. I think it was because i had become less and less of a fan that i was able to make these videos and keep somewhat of a distance compared to some of the die hard fans on youtube. So the benoit thing happened, and what happened? the fans defended him to the max.

This was something i couldn't do. I'm sorry, yes he was a good wrestler, but if you kill your wife and young son, it changes everything. Of course it doesn't make him instantly not talented in a basic sense, that would be stupid to say, but it changes my perception of the man, whichi believe to be a natural and normal response. Not all the fans defended him, and they did mention his act was unforgivable, but there was also a lot of these comments that were tinged with comments such as "but it was the steriods" or "the working hours, the travelling". Perhaps. However to me (and i'm no expect on the effects of drugs or steriods) but there is a big difference between losing your temper or stress to killing your family, its worlds apart.

Benoit took the death of friend and fellow wrestler Eddie Guerrero very badly , when he sadly passed away in 2005. (i have an article on that too). With guerrero, it was easier to grieve. He had a heart attack, and even if it was from steriods (he claimed to be clean and i'd like to believe that to be true) or stress, he inflicted it on himself, he didn't take it out on those around him.

So in closing, i can't watch Benoit matches in the same way. I'm sorry its just the way i feel, its not that i don't respect what he did as a wrestler, but all this talk about how its a shame that the wrestling community has lost a legend. No, talk about how two innocent people, one a child were killed and how that is in no way excusable.

Daniel Christopher Benoit (RIP, Feb.23 2000-June 22 2007)
Nancy Elizabeth Benoit (RIP, May 21 1964-June 22 2007)