Shining a Spotlight 6.28.07: Benoit’s Death and Disgrace

I was about 95% through my promised 20th anniversary look at War Games when the news came down about Chris Benoit. I briefly considered posting what I had on the War Games anyway but decided that it just wouldn’t fit, not this week. Instead, I’ll do what everyone else is probably doing which is talking about Benoit. Forgive me if this isn’t as long or as in-depth as some of my stuff but I am in shock right now as this was one I simply did not see coming at all. Especially the way it happened.

What I’m going to say is probably not going to make some people happy. The basic thing is…I was never that huge into him.

I’m sorry but I wasn’t at first. My first sight of him was in 1988 when the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Year-End issue came out, noting him at about third on the list of “Rookies of the Year.” Stampede wasn’t really big in my area so I didn’t hear much else of him or of his Japan run. He did catch my eye a bit in the brief bits of ECW I was able to get and struck me as a good worker but nothing too flashy.

It was in WCW that I got to notice him and was impressed by his great skill. He seemed a bit bland on the mike but he more than made up for it in the ring. At the time, the technical stuff was what made WCW stand out from WWF and made “Nitro” a bit more entertaining. Still, there were a few guys who could do that like Malenko, Guerrero and the cruiserweights.

But when Benoit was recruited into the Four Horsemen, I had to take notice. With the exceptions of Paul Roma and Sid, being chosen to be in that group meant Ric Flair and Arn Anderson thought you were the best. And Benoit really did fit with his tight attitude, dark edge and mic work. In fact, one long-standing idea of Benoit I have to argue with is the idea his promos sucked. I thought they were good, not ranting or wild but just like him: cool, methodical and to the point. He didn’t talk much on the mic because it was in the ring that he did his work.

Of course, he was lost in the shuffle of WCW, never really given the chance to prove what he could bring to the table. I remember his feud with Kevin Sullivan that led to the entrance of Woman in his life. Indeed, I’m hoping that in the massive outpouring of grief for Benoit, people don’t forget Nancy. I still remember how she first appeared in 1989 as a seemingly innocent young woman, shorts, caps, pigtails and glasses, the biggest fan of simple-minded Rick Steiner. When Rick agreed to take her out for a date, she transformed into a buxom sexpot with a selfish side, using him to get gifts. Scott eventually made his brother see the truth at which point, Woman brought out a pair of beefy masked men named Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) to attack them. The Steiners had little trouble with Doom, who dumped Woman, took on Teddy Long as their manager and soon were world tag team champions.

In ECW, Nancy really clicked as the Sandman’s valet. She may not have the fame of Sheri Martel but she was in the same vein, rough and tumble, willing to fight it out with the men and take her lumps too, both verbal and physical. She just fit so well with him, opening his beer, attacking his opponents and more. Of course, in WCW, she and real-life husband Kevin Sullivan would be an on-screen pair leading to the now infamous bit of Sullivan having her go to Benoit only for them to fall in love for real. She was good hanging with the Four Horsemen, coming out in nice gowns and coats, more physical than Miss Elizabeth or Debra McMichael. Of course, with Sullivan booking WCW, she didn’t really get a fair shake and decided to leave the spotlight totally after he wanted her to go topless on a PPV.

Benoit would be pushed down the card despite his skills but again, I just didn’t know if he was right to carry the whole promotion. When he debuted with the Radicals in WWF, I did take notice and thought he’d fit in well with his attitude. Unlike others, I don’t see it wrong that he lost to HHH going in as pushing him to main event wasn’t quite what the majority of fans of the time wanted to see. Over the last few years, I’ve watched him continue to put in one great match after another and even a run at the main event title scene. But…and again, I know I’m probably going to hear it from his many fans and workrate freaks…I just never deified him like so many in the IWC did.

Don’t get me wrong, I was impressed by his in-ring skills. I also loved how he was one of the absolute best sellers I’ve ever seen, able to work a fake injury beautifully for an entire match without missing a step. But…I don’t know, I just couldn’t get why so many IWC guys believed he was the guy who belonged on top. It’s not just skills that make a wrestling star, it’s also charisma and personality and mic skills. Hogan is proof of that along with Cena, Flair, Jeff Jarrett and even HHH. I love AJ Styles’ ring work but the guy’s mic skills are pretty poor. He is, of course, a hero in Canada (or at least he was until now) but the States has a different audience and while they did respect Benoit, I never go the massive following that could make him a main event star. Face it, his reign as World champion in 2004 just wasn’t that good and don’t give me the “HHH never let him” excuse either. It’s sort of like Mysterio’s run: It was great to see him with the belt but when it came time for him to defend it as a regular champions, the fans just didn’t seem to catch on. By “fans,” I mean the majority of the fanbase, not the IWC freaks. So I just didn’t have the same love of Benoit at the top as others did. But I respected his in-ring work immensely and his personality out of it and I respected him.

That respect is now gone.

I know it’s still early and all but the police department does not issue such certain statements unless they’re pretty sure they can back it up. And thus it seems pretty clear that Chris Benoit went home over the weekend, strangled his wife on Saturday, waited an entire day, then smothered his 7-year old son and after another day, hung himself. This is not a wild crime of passion. He waited a whole day between the murders and another before taking his own life. Maybe he did snap but it wasn’t a sudden one, it was a cold and calculated one. Which, in a twisted way, fits right in with his ring style.

I wasn’t with 411mania when Eddie Guerrero died but I did see the massive outpouring of grief for it. And at first, it seemed an eerie repeat with the memorials, the testimonies, the photos of Benoit at various sites. When we thought it was a home invasion or something like that, a horrible tragedy that struck by chance, that seemed so terrible but still something we could handle. But then the news came in of what apparently truly happened and the photos went down, WWE removing all the videos of wrestlers talking on Benoit and the reaction becoming even more shocked. Frankly, I can’t remember anything like this happening to a wrestler in our time, if ever. But it’s the one involved that makes it all the more jarring to the entire IWC.

Let’s face it, if this was Austin, we wouldn’t be that surprised as he’s had a record of spousal abuse and police run-ins. If this was someone like RVD or Orton or someone known for backstage trouble, it wouldn’t be a shock. But this was the man often referred to as Chris F’n Benoit. This was a man hugely praised and loved by people on the IWC, a man never known for getting in trouble and seemed devoted to his family. This is the man who said on his DVD that “I’d rather get hurt than hurt someone else.” There was absolutely no sign this was coming, no hints of temperament or blow-ups at fellow workers or bosses, no drug issues, nothing. Quite frankly, he was the last person in the business we’d have expected this from. But then, as so often happens, it’s the quiet, unassuming ones who end up being the most dangerous.

I don’t want to speak ill of the dead this soon, I really don’t. I especially don’t want to for a man I respected like this. I know people will be clinging to the idea of “seperate the person from the performer” but it’s just about impossible here. Because unlike so many, Chris Benoit didn’t seem a character on screen. Hell, his name really is Chris Benoit. He didn’t do costumes (least not in the States), he didn’t take part in that many stupid angles or acting stuff. He put himself out there all the time, he was so real, he basically was his character. Thus, I just can’t put any seperation between the two and that’s what makes it so hard.

Like I said, I don’t want to speak ill of the dead. But it has to be said. He killed his son. He killed his seven-year old son. He smothered him in his bed a day after strangling the boy’s mother. Compared to that, Randy Orton is a total saint. I know he must have had some sort of problems. Maybe it was the 20 years of pain of working. Maybe it was losing his friend Biff Wellington. Maybe it was something we just didn’t know about. But the man killed his family and took his own life and as my Catholic upbringing taught me, that’s pretty much a one-way ticket to Hell. I can’t forgive him for that. I’m sorry, I just can’t. I don’t care about his problems or what he was going through, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can justify what he did.

I’m not the only one to hold that attitude. 411mania is going to have a few guys saying the same I’m sure. Hell, Scott Keith, a man who openly worshipped Benoit for years, actually put on his blog the comment that “it saddens me we know what kind of person he really was on his way out of life” and that he’s glad Benoit killed himself rather than let himself and the business get dragged through the mud with a trial. When your number one fan turns on you, you have done something horrible and Benoit has. He’s tarnished his legacy forever and the business is going to be hurt by it. Just check out the headlines of “pro wrestler kills family and self” and people instantly start thinking the worst of the business on a whole. That this was one of the more put-together guys just makes it even worse.

The question now is where do we go from here? First off, Vince McMahon must be complimented at being wise enough to cancel the RAW show (a move that cost him quite a bit in ticket sales and advertising I’m sure) to do the tribute to Benoit. Even Vince realized that his “memorial service” would be in poor taste now. Of course, it now appears they spent three hours honoring a murderer who took his life, which actually makes Vince’s “death” look less distasteful. Yes, yes, they didn’t know that at the time but that will still linger. It’s early to tell the overall effects for WWE, especially with SmackDown as fans may not be ready to jump into business as usual after this.

My first reaction was to hope that the entire “Death of McMahon” storyline would be called off and I’m sure many hope for that still. But there are other things to consider. In the first place, this was a major storyline for WWE, something planned to carry through the summer and ending it now throws off so many plans. But I think, and this is sad but true, that the circumstances of the death are going to play a part in making sure it continues. If Benoit had died in an accident or overdose, it’d be different, people mourning him so much and deriding a death storyline. But given what has happened, WWE is going to want to distance themselves from it as fast as possible. They’ve already honored a killer, pushing this so much just brings up more problems. I know, people will be “honor his life, not his death” but in a case like this, it’s really hard to differentiate between the two. And frankly, I think a lot of fans would be more than willing to put it behind as well so I expect things to be back to semi-normal in a few weeks. I’m also sure that at this moment, the DVD department is quickly going to work removing as much as they can of Benoit from upcoming releases (like the Rey Mysterio set that I’m sure he would be shown in).

The fanbase is going to be another problem. I’ve seen so many posts with the line “I think I’m done with wrestling now,” so many willing to jump out because of the death and its circumstances. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we lose a few writers here at 411 as well. As I said, Benoit was held so highly, many can’t accept this and won’t be able to handle writing about wrestling afterward. Me, I’m not going. Yes, it hurts but I’ve been a wrestling fan through thick and thin over twenty years amid various deaths and scandals and I don’t see this shaking my feelings. The fact is that no one, not even Vince McMahon, is bigger than this business. Wrestling has survived so much, it’ll survive this. It’ll be marred however as the media will just love to paint all wrestlers with the same brush to make things sound worse.

That will be a longer effect for many fans and workers. From now on, almost bad behavior by wrestlers will be scrutinized carefully by fans fearing they may suddenly do this. After all, if Chris Benoit could suddenly snap and kill his family, how can you trust anyone? It’ll effect workers as management will be far too easy to panic and let go perfectly good men just because they act a bit suspicious, fearful of being associated in case they snap too. WWE will be tops but I highly suspect TNA (with the likes of Scott Steiner, Tomko and Angle) will be effected too. Once again, the fear will lead to lumping wrestlers together and not willing to give as many chances as they deserve. It’s bad but that’s the nature of the business.

On that, don’t start using that “seedy underbelly of wrestling” line either. You can’t blame this on Vince or WWE or anything like that. Benoit was still a star, still being pushed, he seemed about to be given the ECW title which would have led to more life on the upper tiers of the card. This is not a man known for being an addict or ignored, this was a man who loved wrestling dearly and was loved and respected by the locker room to a huge degree. Whatever led to him doing this, it was all Chris Benoit, not his job.

And the media….oh, Lord, the media are having a field day, especially the anti-wrestling crowd. To them, this is proof of the horrors of wrestling and they’ll push the massive steroid use they all believe is so prevelant. Right now, the question is whether Law & Order or CSI will do an episode based around this first. They’re going to ignore the man and focus on the end. And those who do focus on Benoit’s past will reveal that he was so respected and personable and make this sound even worse. I don’t think this will break the business…but I do think it’s going to make a lot of would-be wrestlers less sure about getting into it which can lead to a darker future for everyone.

I know some people will be mad about this but I’m writing how I feel. I feel angry. Angry that a man who seemed to be one of the few truly respectable men in wrestling, in and out of the ring, suddenly ruined not only his life but his family and his legacy. As horrible as it sounds, it might have been better had he simply taken his own life. It would have been hard to deal with but it has happened, ala the Von Erichs. But killing his wife and son first has cast a shadow on Chris Benoit that will never truly dissipate. It’ll be there whenever you watch a DVD with a match of him on it. It’ll be there in books and video histories of Wrestlemania and the titles. It’ll be there whenever you watch RAW and see someone doing a move he would perform like a German suplex or flying headbutt. It’ll be there when you see stuff of Eddie Guerrero and the close friendship they had. When Chris Benoit is now mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind won’t be his ring skills or his nicknames. It won’t be the terrific matches or the way he could sell. It won’t be him and Eddie hugging at Wrestlemania XX, both champions on top of the world. It’ll be the image of him in his home over a long weekend, killing his wife and son and then hanging himself like a coward.

Chris Benoit is dead and that is a tragedy. His wife and son are dead and that is a greater tragedy. But the legacy of an amazing worker has been forever tarnished. Chris Benoit has, in effect, become the OJ Simpson of pro wrestling, a label that will carry on for years to come. He has stained his legacy. He has broken the hearts of his millions of fans who have to deal with their hero ending up a monster. He has created an aura of distrust of wrestlers in the minds of fans and management that may very well hurt many careers. And he has dealt an immeasurable blow to the business he professed to love and respect so much, a blow that will reverberate for years and may never truly go away. That may be the true tragedy.

I can’t say that I wish he rests in peace, not now. All I can hope for is that he finds some sort of forgiveness in the next world. Because this one isn’t quite as ready to do so just yet.

Normally, I’d tell you what else is around 411mania but seeing as how Benoit’s sure to dominate all conversations, might as well leave it off. Next week comes my look at War Games’ 20th anniversary. For now, the spotlight is off.