Chris Benoit double-murder suicide: Ten year anniversary.

[Brian Fowler]

Matt touched on it a bit, but if I were too list my ten favorite moments as a wrestling fan in the moment they happened, Benoit probably makes the list three times (Rumble 03 standing ovation, winning Rumble '04, celebrating with Eddy) with the last of those three being either #1 or 2 (Eddy over Brock being the other)

I remember when we used to call Benoit, Eddy and Dean the holy Trinity, calling him Christ Benoit, etc. So many truly great memories are tied up in him, like finally going to see my first ever live show because Eddy and Chris were on it (granted, Eddy was the bigger deal to me, but not by a ton), crying when he finally got the belt...

And it's just all so tainted. It's tainted in his suicide. It's tainted in the murder of Woman, who I was always a fan of long before I knew a damn thing about who she was married to or sleeping with. And, of course, most of all, it's tainted in the body of a small child who deserved so much more out of life.

I think in a lot of ways, Chris Benoit was, for me, the end of hero worship.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

On 6/29/2017 at 6:48 AM, Brian Fowler said:

Matt touched on it a bit, but if I were too list my ten favorite moments as a wrestling fan in the moment they happened, Benoit probably makes the list three times (Rumble 03 standing ovation, winning Rumble '04, celebrating with Eddy) with the last of those three being either #1 or 2 (Eddy over Brock being the other)

I remember when we used to call Benoit, Eddy and Dean the holy Trinity, calling him Christ Benoit, etc. So many truly great memories are tied up in him, like finally going to see my first ever live show because Eddy and Chris were on it (granted, Eddy was the bigger deal to me, but not by a ton), crying when he finally got the belt...

And it's just all so tainted. It's tainted in his suicide. It's tainted in the murder of Woman, who I was always a fan of long before I knew a damn thing about who she was married to or sleeping with. And, of course, most of all, it's tainted in the body of a small child who deserved so much more out of life.

I think in a lot of ways, Chris Benoit was, for me, the end of hero worship.

I like the last line so much because Benoit was the end of hero worship for me as well. We're all just people, all with our own flaws.

[Victator]

I remember watching him on ECW after his match with Elijah Burke and thinking he was looking disturbed, I could not point out what it was, but he was glaring at the ECW belt and it was unsettling. 

Hearing what happened is horrifying. On one level you have the tragic loss of life, in particular the loss of a child who never truly got to live. Then you have the element of a person you admired or at least respected and seeing them do something monstrous. Without much detail, I come from a very messed up family. So from an early age I had to make compromises to get by. My uncle (actually in 07) was charged with something. It was hard to deal with because he was always good to me. Honestly I don't know if he was guilty, I heard the evidence and it pointed toward not guilty. 

But you still feel sick and betrayed knowing someone you let into your heart could do something like this. 

Benoit was never my favorite but I enjoyed his work. I liked him and liked seeing him advance. It feels weird how much it affected me, It felt like a death in the family and then the details of him murdering Woman and that poor boy. 

I know I started looking at stuff related to him in the past. In particular parts of the Hard Knocks dvd. Things that seemed really strange about his childhood. Drugs and concussions did play a role. But there is an X factor and his parents seem unwilling to go into details. . Which is understandable, its easier to think it was all wrestling. 

I don't know if things really changed. You get lip service about chair shots to the head. But you see guys falling off ladders and taking dangerous bumps that can cause concussions. People keep their heads in the ground and don't care. 

[Captain Kronos]

I have a slightly different perspective than many of you (Matt's post is fantastic, btw, as usual). I came late to rasslin fandom, over age 30. In 2007, I had only been a fan for a little over a year. But I dove in strong. I was buying DVDs, reading memoirs, renting from netflix. I had discovered ROH, and so I had come to appreciate the workrate styles that were inspired by Benoit. He was at the end when I started, but I went back and watched a lot of WWE stuff. I was just starting to explore puro, and of course his name came up there. 

I didn't have a decade of Benoit fandom. But I liked his work, and I appreciated  that he was well-loved in fandom. I wasn't even into the IWC yet, except for the ROH boards. (I didn't discover and join DVDVR, PWO, CMax, etc until early '08)

I was only an "out" fan for a short time when this happened. (I had been too embarrassed to tell anyone of my new hobby, thinking about how I had insulted it over the years.) But at least one guy in my office knew I was a fan, and he came to me that morning to say that some wrestler and his family were dead. I looked it up, and I couldn't believe it. It was my first real-time wrestling tragedy, and it was a guy that I liked. I didn't know all the stories about what a dick he was (I bought and read RING OF HELL in 2008, just like everyone else). All I knew was that I liked his work, and my world shattered a little - especially as the truth came out over the next few days. I didn't have cable at the time, and I have never gone back to watch the tribute RAW. Sounds like a wise decision.

I didn't stop watching rasslin, of course. But to this day, I can't watch Benoit matches. When I am watching a WCW show or something and he comes on, I will sometimes tell myself to get over my hangups and just watch. But I will get angrier and angrier and turn it off after a few minutes. And any time I see Nancy, even pre-Chris, I get sad. 

Edited July 23, 2017 by Kronos
I couldn't have learned about the murder from the news on Monday morning

[Captain Kronos]

One additional thought: "Supergirl" Melissa Benoist has mentioned on interviews that her last name is pronounced like "Benoit" traditionally, but her family say it differently. 

I sometimes wonder if they changed their pronunciation in 2007. . .

[RRR]

Matt D your post really takes someone back to the days of websites being loaded up with "columns" done by Scott Keith mini-me's on why Benoit is the best ever and should be champion but evil Triple H was holding him back. 

People who thought Taker was too old and should retire like 10 years before his WM classics even happened. 

Salad days?! I wonder sometimes. 

[Spritenaut 32]

43 minutes ago, Zartan said:

People who thought Taker was too old and should retire like 10 years before his WM classics even happened.  

Those people's heads probably all exploded after watching 2016-2017 Taker.

[Technico Support]

22 hours ago, Kronos said:

I bought and read RING OF HELL in 2008, just like everyone else

That book is the second worst thing to come out of the murder-suicide outside of the deaths of two innocent people.  Seriously, it's:

Benoit tragedy horrible shit rankings:

1. Nancy/David (tie)

2. Ring of Hell

Just a poorly-written, 300 plus page message board troll post designed to cash in on the controversy.  I've seen better writing with more conviction in Penthouse Forum.

[Captain Kronos]

1 minute ago, Technico Support said:

That book is the second worst thing to come out of the murder-suicide outside of the deaths of two innocent people.  Seriously, it's:

Benoit tragedy horrible shit rankings:

1. Nancy/David (tie)

2. Ring of Hell

Just a poorly-written, 300 plus page message board troll post designed to cash in on the controversy.  I've seen better writing with more conviction in Penthouse Forum.

If I still owned the book and read it now, I would likely agree with you. At the time, I ate it up. I was such a noob. 

[Curt McGirt]

Not to keep this thread running, but I just want to note that it's clear that Jericho was a major contributor to that book because what he writes about in his second book and some of what's in Ring of Hell completely overlap. 

[odessasteps]

It does stink for Jericho that a good portion of his WWE career has been redacted. 

[Victator]

23 hours ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

Those people's heads probably all exploded after watching 2016-2017 Taker.

I find they tend to deny they ever hated Undertaker.