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« | Home | »

Chris Benoit news updates

By Zach Arnold | June 26, 2007

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Mauro Ranallo, John Pollock, and Bryan Alvarez discussed Chris Benoit’s death today on the radio.

TMZ is reporting the following (more here):

  1. Benoit strangled his wife, Nancy, on Saturday.
  2. Benoit smothered his son, Daniel, in his bed on Sunday.
  3. Benoit hung himself on Monday in a weight-room.

WWE.com also has a new report on the situation. Outside of the news report, other references to him on the web site are allegedly missing or not available.

TMZ says it all – World Wrestling DEADeration. The AJC has more local reaction to the Benoit story.

Go to full-page mode to see all of the updates, including notes from the police press conference.

Update: Jonathan Serrie on Fox News Channel is reporting that investigators are looking into what role steroids had in regards to the double murder-suicide. The channel is now running a graphic saying ‘roid rage’ when previewing the story.

The Pro-Wrestling Torch is reporting the following:

PWTorch.com has learned that one major media entity has received an email purporting to be from a friend of the Chris Benoit extended family saying that Benoit accidentally killed his wife in a domestic argument, then panicked and killed his son later so his son could be with his mother rather than grow up without a mom and knowing his father as a murderer.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more details about the rocky marital relationship between Chris and Nancy Benoit.

A press conference is scheduled for 3 PM EST. Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio discusses the murder-suicide story (audio here). Cowherd compares MMA to wrestling and how MMA doesn’t have the scandals that wrestling has because of regulation. (He’s right.) An absolute must-listen segment.

Bill Apter appeared on Fox News Channel (2:20 PM EST) to discuss the murder-suicide story. FNC kept playing clips of Lex Luger and Elizabeth while asking Apter about steroids and ‘roid rage. Apter was very defensive about claims of steroid usage in the wrestling business today (versus its past).

At 2:40 PM EST, CNN did an excellent five-minute segment discussing the Benoit story and what the reaction has been to it online. They addressed the fact that Benoit’s name on WWE Shop Zone items has been taken off. The network also showed reaction from the 411 Mania wrestling forum and talked about all the elements & emotions that fans are going through. It was a good, detailed discussion of issues such as steroids, mental illness, and life on the road. They managed to tie-in the Vince McMahon limousine explosion angle (they showed an image of it) and host Kyra Phillips talked about a two-page list of wrestlers who have died since the 1980s (pointing out that the majority of them are very young). A respectable segment by CNN.

Bryan Alvarez appeared on AM 1500 radio in Minneapolis (start at 22 minute mark – 31 MB file size, hat tip to Capital City Kyle). TMZ has gotten access to the 2003 divorce papers between Chris and Nancy Benoit.

At 3:16 PM EST, the press conference with police and the DA was held outside of Chris Benoit’s home in Fayetteville, GA. At 2:30 PM EST on Monday, a welfare check was done by police based on notification from WWE on the whereabouts of Benoit. Deputies arrived and searched the house. They found three dead bodies – Nancy’s body found in an office area, son Daniel found in his bed, and Chris found hung in the basement weight room. Autopsies have been performed and the initial ruling is a double homicide-suicide. Authorities believe the following: Nancy Benoit was killed by asphyxiation (Fox News Channel anchor Shepherd Smith mentioned bound, tied, killed with a towel) on Friday, son Daniel was killed by asphyxiation on Saturday in his bed, and Chris Benoit hung himself with a wire from a pulley on a weight machine either late Saturday evening or early Sunday morning. According to FNC, Benoit’s message to WWE of missing the Sunday PPV due to family emergency was because his ‘son was coughing up blood.’

Authorities are waiting for further tests from the crime lab to be performed, along with toxicology reports from the coroner. It was announced that Benoit had been arrested for DUI in another county in the past. It was confirmed that Benoit had a lot of prescription medication at the home, including prescriptions for anabolic steroids. Benoit had reportedly sent text messages to a co-worker but the co-worker received them several hours later after they were initially sent. DA Scott Ballard stated that Benoit placed a bible next to each dead body (Nancy and Daniel) before killing himself. He said that the deaths were bizarre because of the amount of time that apparently elapsed between each death. He had no idea about possible motives and there was no initial evidence that Benoit tried to hide or dispose of dead bodies. The DA was not aware of any 911 calls being made.

Topics: Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, WWE, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

23 Responses to “Chris Benoit news updates”

  1. Chuck says:

    Well, hopefully this will shut up the “He is my HERO!!!” nuthugging. I will say that he is one of my all time favorite wrestlers, but he did kill his own family, so he is no hero. I hate to sound like an asshole, but I am glad he killed himself, over just killing his family then running from authorities.

    Let the flaming begin….

  2. Mateo says:

    I find it sad that JBL and HHH both had to bring up instances of Benoit being an asshole as examples of why they respected him.

    And I doubt these details will be what really went down. What is bizarre about that? Those details are more horrific then bizarre. Also, they are making those “leaked” details fit parts of the official story. When those details first emerged, they said that Benoit was found hanging in the living room, not the weight room.

  3. Preach says:

    I don’t think anyone here wrote “He is my Hero”, neither was there any nuthugging (at least in it’s truest form) in the aftermath of this tragedy. And i don’t think it’s the right time or moment, to start running our mouths about Benoit and this tragedy until we really know what happened. I’m not making any excuses for what he allegedly did, but right now we just don’t know all the facts.

  4. chairibofjustice says:

    Anyone listen to Colin Cowherd this morning? He was just going off on Pro Wrestling today.

  5. Zach Arnold says:

    The audio should be available soon of Colin’s ESPN show for today. What did he say in particular (and/or at what time frame) about the business?

  6. David M says:

    Mateo I just saw part of the show last night, what were the examples given that you are talking about?

    When his autopsy comes back and the coroner finds massive amounts of steroids and prescription painkillers in his system, and says that the steroids are responsible for him going crazy, pro wrestling is going to deal with a storm of controversy worse than even when Owen Hart died..

  7. Tim Short says:

    Mateo Says:

    June 26th, 2007 at 9:05 am

    And I doubt these details will be what really went down. What is bizarre about that? Those details are more horrific then bizarre. Also, they are making those “leaked” details fit parts of the official story. When those details first emerged, they said that Benoit was found hanging in the living room, not the weight room.

    Mateo are you trying to say this is a conspiracy against Benoit? If so, you are a sad stupid mark.

    The guy was an alleged wife beater and now a murderer. He was nothing more than a coward that hit his wife and resorted to murdering his 7 year old child and himself because he could not face the consequences of his cowardly actions.

  8. cyphron says:

    From MSNBC

    “The WWE canceled its live “Monday Night RAW” card in Corpus Christi, Texas, and USA Network aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit in place of the scheduled wrestling telecast.”

    Am I missing something here? If the allegations are true, USA Network is airing a three-hour tribute to a double murderer. Regardless of what Simpson’s sports prowess, he’s now considered a leper. What is different here in this case?

  9. Tim Short says:

    Hopefully the WWE did not know the details at that time. I will give them the benefit of the doubt on that.

  10. Royal B. says:

    Sure Dave M. They’ll make a stink for a couple of days, but in the end, it’s just another stupid pro wrestler. Who’s going to care about a bunch of roid heads who couldn’t make it in real sports anyways?

    Stick to legit sports!

    Like Baseball! Or Football!

  11. Chuck says:

    http://www.declarationofindependents.net/doi/pages/ajcbenoit.html

    Some more news!!!!! Yeah, Chris would NEVER do such a horrible thing as kill two people and then himself! But he will beat the shit out of his wife!! Shit, Nancy filed for divorce in 2003.

    And yes Preach, there was a little naive Benoit nuthugging here. Just a little. The guys saying Chris would never do such a thing. These dipshits 1) Didn’t know the man personally and 2) called him by only his first name, like they know him personally. Oh, go on WWE’s website, almost everything Benoit is gone, except for the news stories. His dvd, t-shirts, etc. are all gone. And I guess the description for the Wrestlemania XX dvd said Triple H defended his belt against Shawn Michaels. No mention of Benoit, who WON THE FUCKING THING!! This is a mess that the WWE does NOT want. And people said that Kurt Angle was the next one going to die. PEE-SHAW!!! He’ll probably live to be in his seventies.

  12. Mateo says:

    JBL spoke highly of Christ Benoit kicking somebody out of the locker room and making him dress in the hallway. HHH brought up a story about Chris Benoit making an enhancement talent do 1000 squats for disrespecting Shawn Michaels and then making him do 500 more the next day even though the man could hardly walk as one of the reasons he respected him.

  13. Chuck says:

    The somebody was Matt Striker. The enhancement talent HHH mentioned, I do not know. ANd now there is proof of Benoit being a sado-masochist (masochist part becuase. well, he was a very physical wrestler sfter all). Man, the black eye on wrestling just became a concussion. SMELL THE WIT!!!

  14. chairibofjustice says:

    Looks like you found the segment Zach, pretty serious stuff for sports talk radio.

    Definitely a must listen, thanks for putting it up.

  15. Zach Arnold says:

    Colin was absolutely spot-on with his arguments in that segment.

    The issue of regulation is *the* central issue that the wrestling business faces in the next generation. The people inside the industry either don’t know it or don’t want to know it.

  16. Maximilian says:

    Just listened to Cowherd. Sadly, he’s absolutely right (and I say that as a wrestling fan for 20 years). And still nothing will change, it’s inherent to the business. WWE will try to lay low & weather the storm, then move on as fast as possible. But if one more high-profile guy dies within the next year, say a Kurt Angle with his legit sports hero status, it might be the end of pro wrestling on national TV. I think if somehow steroid/pain killer/drug use is linked to the Benoit incident, we’re at a point where one more incident could break the whole business. Especially with MMA having established itself as a cleaner, more respectable alternative in the last couple of years – in the eyes of much of the public as well as the media & broadcasters.

  17. Maximilian says:

    Come to think of it, it might not even “need” another death. Right now the Benoit story is the leading headline at CNN & Foxnews.com has its own article on “Famous Wrestling Deaths.” This story will not go away for weeks. If they find steroids etc. at the house, this might already be it for wrestling as we have known it, and maybe that would be good thing.

  18. Chuck says:

    I listened to the Cowherd radio show too. he was spot on. I can’t believe I agreed with him. And he gave credit to MMA. Isn’t he the guy who said MMAists are the types who had skidmarks in their underwear and tortured kittens when they were kids?

  19. David M says:

    I’m listening to a live news conference on yahoo news, and the guy answering questions said that there were lots of prescription drugs and steroids in the house. Somehow I’m not surprised.

  20. sdas says:

    how is this MMA news?

  21. Chuck says:

    Oh, and there were bibles near each victim. Jesus Christ! Expect Benoit stuff on rick ross’ website soon.

    http://www.rickross.com

  22. SergioTX says:

    Tim Short, I doubt they did… seeing as how they are purging any mention of his name of likeness from their website.

    This is… odd, to say the least.

    When I first heard, I was shocked. Here was a wrestler who I had been watching for around a decade, who I had seen perform live a handful of times gone before his time. Another wrestling life cut short.

    Then the details started pouring in. Double Murder/Suicide.

    Benoit committed a horrible act, to be sure. There’s no getting around that or trying to justify it by saying, “OMG, SUPR J CUP 94 ROXORS!!!!11”

    I have this weird loyalty, however, to someone who has entertained me for so long and who I was such a huge fan of.

    I don’t know. I really need to stop reading about this.

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