Chris Benoit: 1967-2007
EDIT: Wednesday 27th June 2007: Following the various press releases and police statements, I have removed the banner. If i'd been thinking clearly, I'd have done it last night. The below post is a celebration of his career. As for what happened this past weekend. I'm angry, and upset. I'm upset at the loss of a genuinely talented guy, who was loved by his peers and fans alike. And I'm angry, just incredibly fucking angry at him for what he did. Having seen the RAW from monday, and seen his peers remember him, his love for family, etc... Its difficult to put the two together (as I stated last night). I will continue to remember his memory, and his achievements, I can't forget them. His sudden downfall and the fact he felt the need to take his family with him... I'd rather not remember that, but it will also be forever in a part of my brain. We will never know the reason why what happened, happened. It will never be excusable or forgiven. He singlehandedly destroyed the lives of himself, his family and the aftershocks will continue to go out through his extended family and friends for many months to come. Especially given the media circus that is rising up around this. He will never be remembered simply as a legendary entertainer. He will be remembered as a murderer, his legacy forever tarnished.
Others have posted about this, and its of interest to relatively few of my f-list, so all will be below cut-tag. Its a rather long ramble.
I wrote all this whilst sat in the server room watching *workstuff*. Brief use of google and wiki to check dates and facts, but it is far from perfect. I just needed to info dump. Please excuse spelling/typos:
To read that Chris Benoit had been found dead would be sad enough for anyone thats been a wrestling fan in the past 15 years or so. He was well respected, and well liked. He idolized former British Bulldog Tom "The Dynamite Kid" Billington, and when he started wrestling, it was as 'Dynamite' Chris Benoit. He trained at The Hart Dungeon in Calgary, which in addition to making wrestlers of the Hart kids, also produced Greg Valentine, Roddy Piper, Chris Jericho, Edge and Lance Storm to name but a few. His first break came wrestling for Stu Harts Stampede Wrestling, and following the closure of that group he travelled to Japan, and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He trained for a further year before making his debut, wearing a hood (mask) and working as the Pegasus Kid. He had a good run there, including a series with the Black Tiger, who under the hood was better known as Eddie Guerrero. They established a firm friendship, both professionally and personally that would continue until Eddies untimely death in 2005.
After 4 years in Japan (with time spent in WCW back in America during that period) and following a change of name and gimmick from Kid Pegasus to Wild Pegasus, he left to tour Europe and Mexico, which resulted in some regional titles being held. In 1994 he signed to the recently renamed ECW (Who had gone from Eastern to Extreme Championship Wrestling), and soon became The Crippler, due in part to his stiff brutal working style and an incident that happened in the ring. Shortly after taking up this gimmick another in ring incident would cement the gimmick and the reputation that would follow him for the rest of his life. During a match with Sabu, Benoit threw Sabu with the intention that he take a face-first bump. However Sabu decided to turn mid-air and try and make it a backdrop. The turn was never complete and as a result he landed squarely on his neck, resulting in it breaking. Whilst Benoit was not to blame for this accident, it made him seem like a legitmate threat in a world of cartoonish characters that ECW was trying to break away from. Whilst in ECW he held the Tag Team titles with Dean Malenko and in late 1995 following the loss of the titles, he returned on a more permanent basis to WCW.
He quickly impressed the higher-ups, and became part of the long-running stable the Four Horsemen. He became embroiled in a feud with then booker Kevin Sullivan. In the storyline Benoit was having an affair with Sullivans wife Nancy. Due to the (at that time still) closely guarded nature of the way wrestling 'worked', Benoit and Nancy spent a lot of time together off screen... sharing rooms at hotels, being seen together. The angle worked well. Too well. Soon the affair was real and the divorce from Sullivan soon followed. Chris and Nancy were then together, and in 1997 shortly after the divorce, they became engaged. He had long feuds with Booker T, and once again held tag titles with Dean Malenko. In the beginning of 2000 Benoit left WCW along with Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Geurrero. By doing this he lost the Heavyweight title the company had put on him the night before. The reason for leaving was that both in Kayfabe and real life, a number of younger wrestlers in the company felt they were being kept down due to the political games played by older wrestlers in the company (for example, Hulk Hogan).
The Foursome soon found a new home in the WWF/E. They became a top heel faction and Benoit quickly won a title, taking the intercontinental title at Wrestlemania 2000 in a triple threat match with Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. Jericho and Benoit continued to feud over the title, trading it and meeting at numerous PPVs. The Feud ended in January of 2001 when he lost a ladder match to Jericho. During this time he continued to enjoy success elsewhere in the company, including numerous headline matches with 'The Rock', who was one of the top talents in the company at the time. He separated from his stablemates Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Geurrero, became a face and feuded with first them, and then Kurt Angle. This culminated in a loss to Angle due to outside interference from then Tag champions Edge and Christian. Teaming with former rival Chris Jericho they soon unseated the pair to become champions. Sadly during a 4-way match he suffered a legit neck injury that would require surgery and sidelined him for the best part of a year. He returned in 2002, turned heel with Eddie Geurrero and feuded with Steven Austin. He enjoyed an Intercontinental title reign, and after turning his back on Eddie, became one of the tag team champions with former rival Kurt Angle. He continued to work hard and consistently, in 2003 he feuded with Eddie over the recently resurrected US Title. His popularity continued to rise, and a championship shot was on the cards, despite the best efforts (in storyline) of the general manager and various associates.
In January 2004, he won a shot at the title when he outlasted all other competitors in the Royal Rumble, surviving from the Number 1 spot right until the end. He faced Shawn Michaels and Triple H at Wrestlemania 20 for RAW's WWE World Heavyweight title, and against the odds he won. He celebrated that night in the ring with Eddie, who had recently won the other heavyweight title. He defended the title at the following PPV, and the night after that became a double champion as he joined Edge to take the tag titles. He held the title for 5 months, losing it to Randy Orton at Summerslam. He appeared at the ECW One Night Stand show, wrestling Eddie, and feuded with Edge, Booker T and others over the next year. He appeared on the tribute to Eddie in 2005. The death of his friend showed a side of Benoit that had rarely been seen, as he broke down whilst remembering his friend. In the next year he held the US title one more time, defeating Mr Kennedy following some time off to let some nagging injuries heal. He defended the title a number of times against Chavo Guerrero. A series of matches began at Wrestlemania this year against MVP. After suffering a number of defeats at Benoits hands, MVP lifted the title at Judgement Day. On the June 11th edition of RAW he was drafted to ECW. The changes made that night and particularly the addition of Benoit to the brand brought hope to many fans that maybe the ECW revival had hope. As the then ECW champion was drafted to RAW, the title was vacated, and a series of matches began to decide who would take the vacant title, his final match was as part of this storyline. The question was due to be answered this last sunday, as Chris Benoit was due to face CM Punk. In his absence Johnny Nitro stood in as his replacement and took the title. This sort of result indicates that eventually Benoit was still destined for the title.
Chris Benoit travelled home last friday due to a family emergency. He missed the house show on Saturday, and the PPV on Sunday as detailed above. Following a number of odd messages other WWE talent recieved, Georgia Police carried out a 'welfare check' on Monday. Upon entering the house they found Chris, his wife and his son dead. Early indications are that his wife and don died earlier in the weekend and Chris himself died monday. As much as I hate to repeat these words, it is being treated as a double homicide and a suicide, and noone outside of the house is being treated as a suspect, as the instruments of death were found on the property.
To lose another relatively young wrestler is always a shock, especially as his actions in ECW and NJPW were part of what made me interested in a form of entertainment that had gotten far too cartoonish for me in the early 90s. Bootleg tapes of Japanese PPVs and really dodgy conversions of ECW shows were often playing in the background. Being a wrestling fan was my dirty little secret in my later teenage years. Heck, it still is. There is every chance we will never know why this happened, or what caused him to snap like this. The event has left the WWE in a state of shock. All wrestlers have been sent home, tv shows and un-broadcast house shows have been cancelled. Last nights RAW was a best-of with interview clips about Benoit. The Audience was sent home. It was a rare moment when all storylines and gimmicks were removed, and the head of the company actually stood in the ring in an empty arena and referred to them as such. It was also a credit to the company to be able to pull things together with less than 4 hours notice.
Autopsy reports are due today. Toxicology reports next month.
Deaths are common in wrestling. Too common. This year Bam Bam Bigelow, Bad News Brown and Sensational Sherri Martel have all passed away. But none of the recent deaths have been as shocking as that of Benoit and his family.
Ok, i'm burnt out on this now. If you read this, thanks for listening to my somewhat incoherent ramblings about the life and career of Chris Benoit.
EDIT: Since this is being linked to, i've tidied it up a bit and done some spelling/typo correction... Still not perfect, will probably revisit this evening.
Hm. I burnt up my lunch break finishing this and forgot to eat my sandwich... oops.
Others have posted about this, and its of interest to relatively few of my f-list, so all will be below cut-tag. Its a rather long ramble.
I wrote all this whilst sat in the server room watching *workstuff*. Brief use of google and wiki to check dates and facts, but it is far from perfect. I just needed to info dump. Please excuse spelling/typos:
To read that Chris Benoit had been found dead would be sad enough for anyone thats been a wrestling fan in the past 15 years or so. He was well respected, and well liked. He idolized former British Bulldog Tom "The Dynamite Kid" Billington, and when he started wrestling, it was as 'Dynamite' Chris Benoit. He trained at The Hart Dungeon in Calgary, which in addition to making wrestlers of the Hart kids, also produced Greg Valentine, Roddy Piper, Chris Jericho, Edge and Lance Storm to name but a few. His first break came wrestling for Stu Harts Stampede Wrestling, and following the closure of that group he travelled to Japan, and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He trained for a further year before making his debut, wearing a hood (mask) and working as the Pegasus Kid. He had a good run there, including a series with the Black Tiger, who under the hood was better known as Eddie Guerrero. They established a firm friendship, both professionally and personally that would continue until Eddies untimely death in 2005.
After 4 years in Japan (with time spent in WCW back in America during that period) and following a change of name and gimmick from Kid Pegasus to Wild Pegasus, he left to tour Europe and Mexico, which resulted in some regional titles being held. In 1994 he signed to the recently renamed ECW (Who had gone from Eastern to Extreme Championship Wrestling), and soon became The Crippler, due in part to his stiff brutal working style and an incident that happened in the ring. Shortly after taking up this gimmick another in ring incident would cement the gimmick and the reputation that would follow him for the rest of his life. During a match with Sabu, Benoit threw Sabu with the intention that he take a face-first bump. However Sabu decided to turn mid-air and try and make it a backdrop. The turn was never complete and as a result he landed squarely on his neck, resulting in it breaking. Whilst Benoit was not to blame for this accident, it made him seem like a legitmate threat in a world of cartoonish characters that ECW was trying to break away from. Whilst in ECW he held the Tag Team titles with Dean Malenko and in late 1995 following the loss of the titles, he returned on a more permanent basis to WCW.
He quickly impressed the higher-ups, and became part of the long-running stable the Four Horsemen. He became embroiled in a feud with then booker Kevin Sullivan. In the storyline Benoit was having an affair with Sullivans wife Nancy. Due to the (at that time still) closely guarded nature of the way wrestling 'worked', Benoit and Nancy spent a lot of time together off screen... sharing rooms at hotels, being seen together. The angle worked well. Too well. Soon the affair was real and the divorce from Sullivan soon followed. Chris and Nancy were then together, and in 1997 shortly after the divorce, they became engaged. He had long feuds with Booker T, and once again held tag titles with Dean Malenko. In the beginning of 2000 Benoit left WCW along with Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Geurrero. By doing this he lost the Heavyweight title the company had put on him the night before. The reason for leaving was that both in Kayfabe and real life, a number of younger wrestlers in the company felt they were being kept down due to the political games played by older wrestlers in the company (for example, Hulk Hogan).
The Foursome soon found a new home in the WWF/E. They became a top heel faction and Benoit quickly won a title, taking the intercontinental title at Wrestlemania 2000 in a triple threat match with Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. Jericho and Benoit continued to feud over the title, trading it and meeting at numerous PPVs. The Feud ended in January of 2001 when he lost a ladder match to Jericho. During this time he continued to enjoy success elsewhere in the company, including numerous headline matches with 'The Rock', who was one of the top talents in the company at the time. He separated from his stablemates Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Geurrero, became a face and feuded with first them, and then Kurt Angle. This culminated in a loss to Angle due to outside interference from then Tag champions Edge and Christian. Teaming with former rival Chris Jericho they soon unseated the pair to become champions. Sadly during a 4-way match he suffered a legit neck injury that would require surgery and sidelined him for the best part of a year. He returned in 2002, turned heel with Eddie Geurrero and feuded with Steven Austin. He enjoyed an Intercontinental title reign, and after turning his back on Eddie, became one of the tag team champions with former rival Kurt Angle. He continued to work hard and consistently, in 2003 he feuded with Eddie over the recently resurrected US Title. His popularity continued to rise, and a championship shot was on the cards, despite the best efforts (in storyline) of the general manager and various associates.
In January 2004, he won a shot at the title when he outlasted all other competitors in the Royal Rumble, surviving from the Number 1 spot right until the end. He faced Shawn Michaels and Triple H at Wrestlemania 20 for RAW's WWE World Heavyweight title, and against the odds he won. He celebrated that night in the ring with Eddie, who had recently won the other heavyweight title. He defended the title at the following PPV, and the night after that became a double champion as he joined Edge to take the tag titles. He held the title for 5 months, losing it to Randy Orton at Summerslam. He appeared at the ECW One Night Stand show, wrestling Eddie, and feuded with Edge, Booker T and others over the next year. He appeared on the tribute to Eddie in 2005. The death of his friend showed a side of Benoit that had rarely been seen, as he broke down whilst remembering his friend. In the next year he held the US title one more time, defeating Mr Kennedy following some time off to let some nagging injuries heal. He defended the title a number of times against Chavo Guerrero. A series of matches began at Wrestlemania this year against MVP. After suffering a number of defeats at Benoits hands, MVP lifted the title at Judgement Day. On the June 11th edition of RAW he was drafted to ECW. The changes made that night and particularly the addition of Benoit to the brand brought hope to many fans that maybe the ECW revival had hope. As the then ECW champion was drafted to RAW, the title was vacated, and a series of matches began to decide who would take the vacant title, his final match was as part of this storyline. The question was due to be answered this last sunday, as Chris Benoit was due to face CM Punk. In his absence Johnny Nitro stood in as his replacement and took the title. This sort of result indicates that eventually Benoit was still destined for the title.
Chris Benoit travelled home last friday due to a family emergency. He missed the house show on Saturday, and the PPV on Sunday as detailed above. Following a number of odd messages other WWE talent recieved, Georgia Police carried out a 'welfare check' on Monday. Upon entering the house they found Chris, his wife and his son dead. Early indications are that his wife and don died earlier in the weekend and Chris himself died monday. As much as I hate to repeat these words, it is being treated as a double homicide and a suicide, and noone outside of the house is being treated as a suspect, as the instruments of death were found on the property.
To lose another relatively young wrestler is always a shock, especially as his actions in ECW and NJPW were part of what made me interested in a form of entertainment that had gotten far too cartoonish for me in the early 90s. Bootleg tapes of Japanese PPVs and really dodgy conversions of ECW shows were often playing in the background. Being a wrestling fan was my dirty little secret in my later teenage years. Heck, it still is. There is every chance we will never know why this happened, or what caused him to snap like this. The event has left the WWE in a state of shock. All wrestlers have been sent home, tv shows and un-broadcast house shows have been cancelled. Last nights RAW was a best-of with interview clips about Benoit. The Audience was sent home. It was a rare moment when all storylines and gimmicks were removed, and the head of the company actually stood in the ring in an empty arena and referred to them as such. It was also a credit to the company to be able to pull things together with less than 4 hours notice.
Autopsy reports are due today. Toxicology reports next month.
Deaths are common in wrestling. Too common. This year Bam Bam Bigelow, Bad News Brown and Sensational Sherri Martel have all passed away. But none of the recent deaths have been as shocking as that of Benoit and his family.
Ok, i'm burnt out on this now. If you read this, thanks for listening to my somewhat incoherent ramblings about the life and career of Chris Benoit.
EDIT: Since this is being linked to, i've tidied it up a bit and done some spelling/typo correction... Still not perfect, will probably revisit this evening.
Hm. I burnt up my lunch break finishing this and forgot to eat my sandwich... oops.