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Chris Benoit dead at age 40
By Zach Arnold | June 25, 2007
By Zach Arnold
More on Benoit’s death can be found at SLAM! Sports, The Edmonton Sun, WWE HP, and ABC News. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WAGA-TV has further updates. Even Gambling 911 has an update. Fox News has an update with a very sad graphic photo. More details at the Observer.
TMZ is also covering the story. More information tonight at The Citizen newspaper.
Let me pay my respects to Chris Benoit, one of the greatest professional wrestlers in the history of the business. He, alongside his wife and child, were found dead in their Atlanta-area home. Chris Benoit died at the age of 40.
In a professional wrestling business where an extraordinary amount of people die in between the ages of 40 and 50, hearing about Benoit’s death is absolutely shocking.
In the past, I have talked about Japanese professional wrestling in glowing terms. The roots of modern MMA in Japan came from the professional wrestling business. Many New Japan wrestlers were trained as both wrestlers and shooters in their dojo system, which created legitimate toughness for all athletes that passed through that system. Chris Benoit was indeed a rare breed — he was a gaijin who lived in the New Japan dojo system. He was unquestionably one of the toughest, most respected men ever to come out of their dojo system — a dojo system that produced al lot of talented individuals.
I’ll never forget watching him in a fantastic Super J Cup tournament finals match against The Great Sasuke (the event took place on April 16, 1994 in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan). It was a fantastic tournament, topped off by Wild Pegasus (Benoit’s ring name in Japan) winning with a top-rope gut-wrench suplex. I have so many great memories of Chris Benoit ‘the wrestler’ in Japan.
This is one of those moments where everyone in the entire fight industry should pay their respects to one of the true greats to ever embrace the sport of professional wrestling. He not only embodied many good things about the industry, but also displayed a sense of toughness and credibility that you simply do not see in today’s industry that produces manufactured and cookie-cutter workers.
Update: The content up above was written before further details were released in the media in regards to a murder-suicide.
A murder-suicide… adding another layer of tragedy upon an already sad situation. I guess the best way to react to this story is to pay respects to the man as an athlete and a wrestler, but to also be fair and critical by separating the athlete from the person himself.
Furthermore, it was so bizarre and so surreal to see Vince McMahon on television tonight killing off his own ‘death’ angle and paying tribute to Chris Benoit. I can’t even put my fingers onto words to describe my first reaction when I saw McMahon talking on the microphone in the ring.
More columns: Larry Csonka, The Sydney Morning Herald, Mike Mooneyham (w/ Ric Flair comments), and Broadcasting & Cable. Michael David Smith at The Fanhouse has more thoughts.
Image credit: Multiple Romantic
The reaction in the Japanese wrestling industry right now is of total shock. (More in Japanese here and here).
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, WWE, Zach Arnold | 63 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
To this day I’m still a pretty big wrestling fan. I use to be a “columnist” at prowrestling.com and other sites as well and I just wanted to say how crushed I am today. It may be hard to understand if you are not a fan of wrestling, but today was just a dark day. I dunno, wish I could put it as well as Zach did…I dunno.
I’ve only felt this bad once before and that was with the death of Owen Hart. You see wrestlers pass and most of the time frankly you say “Well, that’s sad but not a shock” Well Benoit’s death is both a shock and very sad and he will be missed.
I haven’t watched pro wrestling in years, but I watched tonight, and the scene in the end from Wrestlemania where he won the belt and Eddie came into the ring to hug him, got me all choked up.
It is such a brutal business those guys are in. There is so much pressure to look a certain way, to perform a certain way, and to fight through terrible injuries. The combination of steroids, painkillers, and being on the road 300 days a year is certainly enough to drive a man crazy, and from what I read on Meltzer’s site, it drove Benoit crazy enough to kill his wife and son, and then himself. RIP to all of them.
Oh come one!! Don’t blame the wrestling business for Benoit killing his family and then himself. Listen, I am a HUGE Benoit fan. Always have been. And I am saddened by his death. But I don’t know if he should get a hero’s exit, because of the murder-suicide pact. RIP Benoit family. You will be missed. Too bad it was under these circumstances.
Want to read something messed up? I remember Eddie Guerrero dying, and then watching his tribute episode of RAW. I know many people were predicting Kurt Angle to go next (thankfully, he is still on this plane of existence). But you know who I thought would be the next active WWE wrestler to die and get a tribute episode? Chris Benoit. I don’t know why, but Benoit popped in my head. Total coincidence, but still. But this tribute episode was great. Thank God they cancelled the live event, and instead played a bunch of Benoit matches and obituaries from other wrestlers.
Murder suicide? No fucking way……no way in hell would Chris do something like that.
Well its certainly sounding that way. Fox News & WWE.com are both reporting double murder-suicide.
“Murder suicide? No fucking way……no way in hell would Chris do something like that.”
I’m sorry, did you know Mr. Benoit personally? No you didn’t. Just because someone SEEMS like a nice person real life (and I bet he really was a decent, kind person) that doesn’t mean he didn’t have mental problems or whatever. He probably had a short fuse ( his facial expressions in his matches and his intensity, he seemed like he did) and has was probably deppressed or whatever.
I didn’t mean to seem like an asshole, and I do apologize, but don’t be naive man. Hugo Selenski is a very personable man (my dad kind of knew him. My dad is a corrections officer and Selenski was jailed in Lackawanna County Prison where my dad worked) but he killed quite a few people, didn’t he? George Washington is considered a historical hero, but he slept around like crazy, right?
My point is bro, don’t just assume that someone won’t do anything bad. Everybody on this planet (besides infants, or rather newborns) is capable of going crazy and psychotic.
I think we should just wait a couple of days and let all the facts be sorted out before jumping to any conclusions. There is no way Chris would do something like this.
My first comment was my “knee jerk” reaction and Chuck does make alot of sense. Bottom line is, 3 people have died in a senseless matter.
Meltzer’s site says the police are working under the theory that he killed his wife Saturday, his sun Sunday, and himself Monday.
What a fucking tragedy..
As for blaming the wrestling business, any industry that has facilitated the deaths of so many young, overly muscular, pain-addicted, roided up monsters (via making steroids easy to attain, not testing for steroids, letting them abuse prescription painkillers and not intervening, making them work incredibly taxing schedules with very limited vacations, pushing only the most roided-up athletes, etc) gets no pass from me, even in a situation where the blame clearly lies with the individual. I just think that if Vince McMahon didn’t treat these guys like cattle instead of human beings, that Benoit would still be alive, Eddie would, Owen would, British Bulldog would, Brian Pillman would, Rick Rude would, Mr. Perfect would, Miss Elizabeth would, Crash Holly probably would, Road Warrior Hawk, etc etc etc..
Wow, I am absolutely shocked.
We’ll never forget you, Canadian Crippler.
It’s a little bothersome to me for people to “pay respects” to a possible murderer.
Even though I would assume Zach’s post was made well before the details started to surface.
“I think we should just wait a couple of days and let all the facts be sorted out before jumping to any conclusions. There is no way Chris would do something like this.”
Again, you don’t know this. You ever hear the phrase that a wrestler’s character is himself magnified by a lot, or something like that? Seems like the case. He was intense, and borderline crazy in the ring. And thank you to Getties and David M. (Boog too) for making sense. He had a history or head injuries, correct? Do the science here. Please don’t be naive here man. I don’t want to believe it either, but let’s get in reality here bro.
You are correct, sir. Post will be amended.
I have to agree with David M. As a longtime follower of wrestling, it’s sad to say, but the fact of the matter is that, over time, the business kills. And it does so in many different ways, as the deaths of, for example, Owen Hart, Brian Pillman and Miss Elizabeth have shown. And as if the names David listed were not enough, there are dozens and dozens more hiding behind the “etc etc etc” (Bam Bam Bigelow, Sensational Sherri, Big Bossman, Chris Candido, the von Erichs, Yokozuna to name a few).
Yes, nearly all “wrestling deaths” can be blamed on the individual when viewed as isolated incidents, but no “job” in the Western world (and certainly none in the pro sports/entertainment field) has the death rate pro wrestling has. Nothing is even in the same hemisphere when you factor in the extremely limited number of people performing pro wrestling. Maybe the first clean-up crew in Chernobyl had similar survival rates.
I have aften wondered what it would take for me to completely stop following pro wrestling and this just might be it. No matter what the exact circumstances of this latest tragedy are, it is hard enough to look at an old WrestleMania and realize that barely half of the guys are still alive, I don’t need to see the same thing happening with WrestleMania 20 (which was 2004, by the way).
Thank you Mr. Arnold for updating at the end of your post. You said it well, my friend.
Watching Japanese wrestling is hard enough these days on the same front. Hashimoto, Jumbo, Baba, Terry Gordy, Owen Hart, Eddy Guerrero, Chris Benoit, The Gladiator, etc. It never ends.
Woah there Chuck. Am I imagining it, or are you casting aspersions on George Washington because of his sex life? There is a massive gap between sleeping around and murdering people.
Chuck, son, I don’t think it’s naive to wait a couple of days for all of the facts come out before burning the guy at the stake. I will not believe it until all doubt has been cast aside. We owe Chris at least that much.
Woman was so fine when she managed DOOM.
Fuck Chris Benoit.
No I don’t know Chris Benoit…It’s just how Chris was passionate about the pro wrestling business and how he always seemed like he was a great guy…I refuse to believe that it was a suicide/homicide. There is much more to it that the cops aren’t looking at….that’s my belief due to the respect I had for him…
But…like what others said…we should wait for full facts first…I’m just hoping the Georgia police will leave no stone unturned….I’ll be praying for Chris and his family and ask God to prove Chris that he is innocent….If he is.
I’m still in shock over this. Even moreso with more and more details slowly coming out, it’s such an unreal situation. But i’m with Robert on this, let’s wait a little to see the whole story come out…
Rather than look at the unfortunate circumstances of his death, I’ll always remember Chris Benoit as an amazing performer.
I became a fan of him when I first watched him in WCW and remember him performing a Dragon Suplex on Ultimo Dragon. After watching him the match, I instantly became a fan of his.
All I know is that he performed with passion and entertained millions of people who saw him live or on TV. Pro Wrestling is so unforgiving, and it sucks to see another great entertainer leave the ring forever.
If anybody’s going to tell me that I’m wrong because I cried for a murderer during Raw tonight, they are cordially invited to kiss my backside. Regardless of the results of the investigation, it’s a tragedy that he and his family are dead, and they will all be missed. I don’t know what happened for sure; all I do know is that a wrestler I respected, a man who I went out of my way to ask for a handshake for an autograph session who gladly and firmly gave me one in return, is gone for good now. Regardless of this weekend I believe the record shows him to be a quiet, gentle man who was deeply passionate about wrestling and loved his family and friends above all else. Strange incomprehensible things happen in the human brain; good people go crazy for no good reason. It’s just a tragedy, and I cry because I don’t understand and because it’s a cruel world where people like Owen Hart and John Tenta and Eddie Guerrero don’t deserve the hand fate dealt them. You can call Chris Benoit whatever you want but I will miss him always.
If there was one guy who could of crossed over to MMA it was Beniot. His ability to come through the New Japan Dojo’s showed if there was anyone who could of shown the commitment to training and the desire to succeed it was him.
IMO, it’s kind of messed up when I think that pro wrestling probably has the same mortality rate as being an Alaskan King Crab fisherman. IMO, it also puts in perspective why boxers, kick boxers, and MMA fighters only fight two or three times a year.
Sure pro wrestlers matches may be pre-determined, but at the same time, IMO, they take more of a beating than professional football players in the NFL. Maybe the mental and physical toll was just way too much.
You bring up an interesting point. I would be fascinated to see if Chris Nowinski might be interested in having scientists take a look at the brain matter of dead or severely-hurt professional wrestlers in a similar vein to what he and the members of the project they are involved in are trying to do with NFL players.
If anyone does get a chance to send Nowinski a message on his MySpace, let me know.
I don’t think that pro wrestling churns out anymore weirdos and nutjobs then other professions. People started to bring up names like Woman, Chris Candido, Von Erichs, and Brian Pillman…didn’t some of them die ten, fifteen years ago? You are going to come up with alot of deaths when you go back that far. There have been alot of professional wrestlers and I think that more then most live happy, productive lives after they retire. All in all this is a tragedy, and I feel worst of all for his son..a young life is a terrible thing to waste.
With respect Liger05, I disagree. I think alot of people here are over-estimating Benoit’s ability to “Cross-over” into mma. Seriously folks, pro wrestlers usually don’t do shit in MMA…two references for ya are Bam Bam Bigelow (who lost to Kimo) and Jushin Thunder Liger (who lost to Minoro Suzuki). In both of those matches, that pro wrestler just laid there and looked really dumb. Now when talking about Brock Lesnar, do you think that he won because he was a legit tough guy pro wrestler, or because he had a NCAA collegiate background and knew how to take a guy down? Is Pro Wrestling easy? Of course not. But it is not MMA.
I’ll wait until the medical examiner gives the official report before condemning Benoit the person for what happened (since it’s currently a theory and could be totally off). As for the worker, he was one of my all-time favorites. RIP and my respects to the surviving children…
Benoit was a favorite when I actually followed wrestling. I loved all the old Stampede stars and that he was patterned after my true favorite the Dynatmite Kid, but I am disgusted by what I have read today.
Comparing Benoit’s death to that of Owen Hart is apples and oranges. Owen’s death was a tragedy, Benoit is allegedly a murderer. There is no excuse whatsoever to murder your own child or anyone unless in self defense and I doubt that will be the case here.
Anyone who eulogizes him or honor’s him should be ashamed of themselves. It is sickening that the WWE apparently ran a three hour special honoring Benoit.
There is a real and legitimate question to ask, however, in this horrible tragedy:
Did head trauma lead to perhaps some signs of mental instability?
Before you dismiss such a claim, take a look at past NFL players who have died (Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk of the Steelers, etc.) It was clear that the age of their brains was comparable to that of someone in their late 80s. In a high-stress environment like wrestling where there is so much physical and mental trauma (and little to no medical testing for the workers), it would be irresponsible for any of us to dismiss this potential angle of the story.
Too many questions and too few answers. 🙁
Wasn’t head trauma also linked to Billy Papke’s erratic behavior towards the end of his life (leading to his murder-suicide of his wife)? Also, some argue that the Clocktower killer was behaviorially screwed up by a brain tumor that he had. It’s not as though this would be the first time such an argument was posited.
A man, his wife and child are dead – are you’re debating if he could have crossed over into MMA? Give it a fucking rest for ONE FUCKING DAY, people.
Jonathan I dont mean Beniot going straight into MMA. I meant if anyone could dedicate themself to the training and and have the desire to become a success it was him.
Oh and u do know that Bam Bam v Kimo was a work. Was never supposed to be until Bam Bam turned up at the arena and was then told how it was to go down.
Let me get this straight…you’re “paying respect” to a guy who killed his own wife and son?
If you’re directing that at me, a) re-read the full post again and b) read the comments.
I don’t see how you can’t appreciate someone in the context of their profession even if they’re a POS human being. For example, Muhammad Ali is arguably the greatest HW Boxer of all time, yet he was an adulterer who shamelessly cheated on pretty much all his ex-wives. Carlos Monzon was arguably the greatest MW Boxer of all time, and he was a wife beater who went to prison for throwing his wife off the balcony of their apartment. ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson is arguably the greatest Boxer P4P ever, yet he was a wife beating drug abuser that even his son called an asshole after he was dead.
The list goes on and on. My point? You can seperate the achievements of someone and their greatness in a profession while knowing they weren’t good or even decent human beings.
Chris Benoit is not a murderer — he would not murder intentionally. Something beyond his control made him snap. He is still however accountable if he did kill — which so far looks as if he did.
Chris benoit has wounded the psyche of a whole generation of people who looked upto him. Women will look at guys with more hidden fears now. More feminism and more gender war is what I predict.
Zach, I understand where you’re coming from as a fan, but as a relative outsider to the pro-wrestling, I’m having trouble with the fact that people are celebrating the career successes of an alleged murderer.
You may not agree with me, but I hope you can see why I’d find it a bit disconcerting.
The post was written before details regarding the entire circumstances of the deaths was revealed in the media.
I wrote the post right after hearing word that he had died.
Rather than modify the post, what I did was amend it (see the ‘update’ amendment) to reflective further thoughts and coverage on the story.
In this case, you have to separate the person’s accomplishments from the person’s behavior. It also doesn’t change what a horrible story it is.
I agree 100% (as I discussed in my last post). I don’t see how it’s impossible to respect a fighter/wrestler/businessman for their achievements yet be disgusted by their actions as a person.
I know everyone on the Internet ins a genius, and you’re all infallible. But maybe, in this ONE instance, there is an off-chance you might not know everything about this particular situation.
Instead of finger-pointing, maybe we should let a week or two pass and find out all the details before passing judgment.
I agree entirely.
I read on Meltzer’s site that the DA said that “the details, when they come out, are going to prove a little bizarre.”
That kind of scares me. For a DA to come out and say that now, before they release the information of how they died, seems like almost a way of preparing the public for something that is going to be beyond horrifying. I don’t even want to speculate how they died, but my guess is that it is going to be something to make peoples mouths hang open in shock..
So far the comments being made by those close to him do not reflect that there was anything strange in his behavior until this weekend when he called in and said he would not be working.
Ric Flair and the Hart Family (Harry Smith was apparently training with Benoit and lives near him) are people that saw him regularly on an almost daily basis. None of them have commented about strange behavior on Chris’ part…at least yet. Benoit was apparently functioning on a high level and not acting out of the ordinary for him.
The arguement of comparing Benoit to Andre Waters or other NFL players being linked to concussion effects does not hold up until new evidence is presented. The players mentioned above, all suffered long degenerative periods that lead to depression, dementia, or senility.
No athlete linked to concusssion/head trauma injuries, to my knowledge, has been accused of such an act like Benoit’s. I would surmise, this was more likely a roid rage/temper issue that a repetitive concussion issue where there is no conclusive research on long term effects on pro athletes, and no evidence it could lead to an immediate psychoatic episode.
I don’t have a problem paying tribute to Chris Benoit whether he ended his life as a murderer or not. He had good times in his life; he married the woman he loved, had children, had a spectacular wrestling career, got to live his dream. That’s what I pay tribute to. Murderers can have families and friends who don’t condone what they’ve done, but they still love them unconditionally. I don’t see any problem in fans doing the same, especially when focusing on a career.
I started watching wrestling in 1998, and I was pretty obsessive about it. Last summer, I started paying close attention to MMA and kickboxing, while wrestling slowly lost my interest. Last week, I was going through all my wrestling DVDs, separating the few I wanted to keep from the ones I could get rid of. One of the ones I decided to keep was “HARD KNOCKS: THE CHRIS BENOIT STORY.” His wrestling style was one of the more realistic I’ve seen, and his matches can still keep my interest. Now that I’m more of a fan of specific wrestlers, rather than wrestling in general, Benoit’s still one of the ones I enjoy watching.
His wife, Nancy “Woman” Benoit, also had some moments I remember, though I didn’t actually watch wrestling while she was still involved. I remember tapes of ECW shows where she managed the Sandman against Cactus Jack and Tommy Dreamer. She could swing a mean Singapore cane.
Billy Papke supposedly was extremely erratic the last few years of his life after his Boxing career ended and he ended up killing his wife and then himself.
“I agree 100% (as I discussed in my last post). I don’t see how it’s impossible to respect a fighter/wrestler/businessman for their achievements yet be disgusted by their actions as a person.”
Of course, you can separate professional achievements from personal shortcomings.
But, it can be very, very difficult at times. For example (and even another alleged murderer): OJ Simpson.
I don’t think anyone says O.J. Simpson sucked as a running back because of his alleged murder of Ron Goldman & Nicole Brown, though. You may question whether or not Simpson is a monster for his alleged actions and for the recent book that he said “If I did do it…”, but you can’t take away the fact that he was one of the great running backs in the NFL’s history.
The same is true for Ali, Monzon, Robinson, LaMotta, etc. They may have been bad human beings, but it’s not factored into the achievement equation.