Obsessed With Film

Posted by Matt Holmes

At around 11pm U.K. time last night I heard about the shocking news that WWE wrestler Chris Benoit and his family had all been found dead in his home in Atlanta. As a great admirer of Benoit this hit me quite hard last night and I couldn’t bring myself to watch the Raw show tribute that was given to him.

Now I know this is a movie site but I felt like I had to report on this today. I’ve been a wrestling fan for over 14 years and although in the last three or four years I haven’t been watching it as regularly as I use too, I still watch it now and again and for such a long time Chris Benoit has been one of my favourite wrestlers.

The best compliment I can ever give about Benoit was that he would be the wrestler that wouldn’t make me embarrassed to be a fan of the sport. There’s so much nonsense and childish things that go on in professional wrestling but if my parents or girlfriend were in the room with me and I was watching wrestling… he would be the guy I would always show as being the reason why I’m a fan.

He had intensity, a work ethic like no other. A technical marvel in the ring and my family soon acknowledged the hard work and dedication he put it to be the athlete he was. I admired Benoit and I always tried to match his work ethic whether at home or at school and I would look up to him as a great role model.

He made wrestling feel “real” and every time I put on a 2 hour show, I would sit through the boring bits because I would know that seeing the Canadian master would make it all worthwhile.

Like all great artists who don’t go the “conventional or marketable” way, Chris Benoit was forever under-rated and under-utilised by the promoters he worked for. He never quite managed to make it to the top of the company and sustain his place that surely his talent deserved. One of the best wrestlers of the last twenty years, and although highly praised by his peers, he was never given treated with the respect by the people he worked for.

From Dave Meltzer at The Wrestling Observer…

Sources in the Fayette County Police Department are now working under the theory that Chris Benoit killed Nancy on Saturday, son Daniel on Sunday, and then killed himself earlier today.

Benoit was found dead in his weight room. Nancy was found dead in the living room. Daniel was found dead in his bedroom, according to an unnamed source in the department.

Lt. Tommy Pope told ABC News “the instruments of death were located on the scene,” but didn’t specify what those were or where they were found. Pope said the department was not actively searching for any suspects outside the house.

This is really tragic. Benoit was always known to be a great family man and a great person. He never seemed to complain about the way he was treated by wrestling organisations and like the well oiled machine he was… he just kept motoring on and always giving his best to his home life and career.

Of course, you can’t look at Benoit’s murder-suicide without factoring in the facts of his great friends Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero’s tragic deaths over the last ten years, along with the many other deaths in the “cursed” sport. The Guerrero death, especially was one that hit him very hard indeed.

Benoit was said to be in an awful lot of pain over the weekend from various injuries and he was likely very drugged up when all this happened.

Even with all this though, he was the last person in the company you would have thought could have done this.

To murder your young son and your innocent wife in such a despicable act is inexcusable and despite my admiration for Benoit before yesterday not just for him personally and professionally, I feel I no longer know who the guy was.

This is surely a warning to all about the dangers of drugs, pain and suffering and surely should be a wake-up call to the industry who should help their workers more through the hard times.

Getting hit and dropped on the head as many times as these guys do can only lead to these kind of results. A sad, sad day.

categories - Movie News, Obits

Further Reading

• Chris O’Donnell in MAX PAYNE

• SUNDANCE POSTER: BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER*

• Chris Tucker & Jackie Chan together again!

• Chris Weitz

• DAY OF THE DEAD straight to DVD

4 Comments »

1. I agree that this is really tragic. I’m not a big wrestling fan but have watched my share of WWE and The Crippler was always one of my favourites. He’ll be missed.

   Comment by Marina | June 26, 2007

2. are you guys kidding me??

   If its true and the guy killed his own kid he should burn in fuckin hell!

   Comment by Anonymous | June 26, 2007

3. These guys are fighting all kinds of demons, Anonymous. A lot of them come from terrible backgrounds (Jake the Snake’s childhood is horrifying, to say the least).

   And Vince McMahon couldn’t give a two-bit damn about them. They’re just audience-fodder to him. THAT’S the sad part.

   Comment by JaySmack | June 26, 2007

4. JaySmack: makes no difference, tell me would you feel sorry for Ian huntley or the guy whos taken madelaine in portugal?

   Comment by Ryan (Anonymous) | June 27, 2007

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