PRELUDE
----Last Tuesday was the first time I had to cover a major death for this site. It was a very sad and crazy day. The details kept unfolding and the story became harder and harder to cover. I never met Chris Benoit, but as being part of wrestling he was part of the brotherhood. I was a big fan of his and will always consider him one of the greatest wrestlers I ever had the chance to watch.
CHRIS BENOIT : MY THOUGHTS
"You always rooted for him, because he was a good guy and he overcame the odds," said Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer, a weekly news letter. "It's like if you watched 'Rocky,' and in the end it comes out that Rocky killed his wife and his son."
----The quote above I took from one of the various random sites I was looking at over the weekend. It really summed up my feelings about the whole Chris Benoit story. When I first heard about this tragedy I was very sad for whole family, but I was really upset that one of my favorite wrestlers had died. Eddy Guerrero’s death almost took me completely away from wrestling. Have ever watched a TV show and when they kill off a character, then that is it?? That is the way felt like when Eddy died.
----I am not blind to the fact of the lifestyles of all the wrestlers. I have seen most of it first hand. Pain pills are a must in most circles. Smoke a little weed is not frowned upon. I have seen guys drinking anything from diet coke to vodka backstage. If you can perform on that given night and you do not hurt yourself or your opponent, then so be it.
----Are the steroids as bad as they were before Eddy died?? I would say yes. They are tested, but tests are made to have ways of getting around them. That was prevalent yesterday when they discovered that Benoit was taking 10 months supply every 3 to 4 week. When looking at a wrestler that you say would make it in the WWE, what do most of think about?? Their body – if it doesn’t look good, then they are not going to make it. No one gains or cuts without using stuff like testosterone, Windrol, Deca, Anadrol or a variety of different steroids along with meal supplements and such. The guys wanting contracts are encouraged to look good and there are very few ways of doing that.
----Is steroids really the problem here?? I think the general wear and tear on the body, the plan rides and the other drugs help a lot also. Have you ever been on a long trip and come back and you are so tired?? These guys are doing it every week. No other sports group, TV crew, movie crew or rock star has a year around schedule like these guys do.
----Can you blame Vince McMahon for all the abuse and the deaths?? Maybe he could make less days a month on the schedule. That would improve things. But, let me tell you the fans want to see the big muscle guys. They don’t want to watch guys that look like the guy next door. That is one of the big reasons that indys in this area only draw around 100 people. The main point that most people don’t realize is no one forces you to take the roids. No one forces you to take the pain pills. No one forces you to become a wrestler. No forces you to be a drug addict. I have heard many of the guys when I mention they are drug addicts, they say, “It’s just steroids!” This is all on the individual – if they want to make it big – they know what they have to do. If not, then get a decent looking body, a real job during the week and wrestle on the weekends.
----I say all of the above because I know Eddy Guerrero was smart enough to know what he was doing. I never blamed Vince McMahon and I never blamed steroids. Eddy lived his dream and knew he had to take certain paths to do it. Those paths may have shortened his life and I miss seeing him wrestle to this day. It was on him.
----Chris Benoit is a different case. You can say it was the road, the roids and the abuse of his body. It could have been all those factors. If they do some research on his brain and find that he did all of this because of concussions, then I will retract what I am about to say. Benoit was a coward. I have spoke to a few people on this during the week saying, “well if it was only his wife, then maybe I could see why..”, because both my ex-wife and I both wanted to kill each other more times than one. Guess what though?? I didn’t. I didn’t take my angry or whatever out on her. I didn’t kill her, and then kill our kids. This man did.
----Study the timeline and the series of events. He killed his wife. He apparently bonded her feet and hands. Her head was busted in the back. She was there for at least a day before he then went into his son’s bedroom and smothered him. And then he did the most coward act of all – he killed himself. He could not face the world after what he had done.
----I really don’t care how many times I cheered him on. I would watch his PPV matches only because I knew they would be good. The fact is - he had a monster living inside of him. A man that actually could take the life of a child is nothing more than the devil himself. Is there forgiveness for something like this?? Yes there is. But, I will never be able to forget this story every time I watch a Chris Benoit match. Will it make his matches worse?? Is he a horrible worker now because he killed his family?? No his skills will forever live in the matches. His legacy will be killing his family – not what it should have been – one of the greatest wrestlers that ever lived.
THE END
----The match below provided from youtube.com is one of the matches that paved the way of me being a big time Benoit mark. I had seen him wrestle on Calgary tapes, but when he stepped in the ring with my other favorite wrestler at the time – Jushin Liger – I totally marked out. At the time, I was watching Japanese wrestling – All Japan/New Japan – on a monthly basis. It was always a treat to see The Pegasus Kid vs Liger.
