Sam Mcabee
5MTL.COM

Can steroids alone be blamed for the bizarre and terribly tragic end to the life of Chris Benoit, his son Daniel and wife Nancy (better known to wrestling fans as Fallen Angel in FCW and Woman in WCW & ECW)? This tragic story has become an increasingly disturbing and telling example of the way the media (and audiences) allow preconceived ideas to dominate their thinking even in the face of a lack of real facts. Talking head media hosts like Nancy Grace & Geraldo Rivera jumped on the story with little to no real knowledge of Benoit beyond the grizzly acts that took place between 6/22 and 6/24, immediately turning the tragedy into a circus of speculation about “roid rage”. There has been little to no speculation about any other possible motives, causes or reasons for the tragedy, which in itself is a tragedy and an injustice to the three people lost in this event. But the media's immediacy to damn Benoit and pro wrestling as a whole is really no surprise. The facts are that professional wrestling has always been viewed by many as some kind of carney scam developed to rob the ill informed of their money by creating a sport that is presented as real while being entirely scripted and preplanned behind the scenes. The reality is that most pro wrestling fans have been in on the joke for decades, viewing wrestling as a kind of proletariat theatre to be enjoyed. Only in the last eight or nine years has wrestling truly changed in order to make it clear to “outsiders” that the “sport” is entertainment and nothing more. The irony to this is that wrestlers now endure far more danger, injury and health risks. Chris Benoit was a man who came of age in the wrestling business during this marked change, since wrestling decided to change its formula to a more “hint hint, wink wink” format.

Benoit was a life long wrestler, never held a “real” job before starting his career at the age of 18 for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. From there he went on to become a star for New Japan Wrestling, ECW, WCW and finally WWF/WWE. He was always regarded as one of the finest technical wrestlers of his era, a performer you could count on to put on one the best matches regardless of his placement on the card that night or the quality of his opponent. At the time of his death he was viewed as one of the greatest wrestlers in the world by just about anyone who followed the “sport”. He was also a man who faced many obstacles in his climb to great success. He was 5ft 10in in a sport dominated by 6ft 5in men so in order to compete on a professional level, he needed to be a powerhouse, and what he lacked in power he made up for with sheer ferociousness in the ring. Benoit had typically been candid about steroid use in wrestling even going as far as comparing its use by wrestlers to that of cigarette smoking in the 1950’s, and looking at him as a purely physical specimen it is hard to deny the facts that he used steroids through out his career to keep up with “jones’”. It is a known medical theory that the use of steroids can cause severe depression, anxiety, paranoia and psychosis. It is also a medical theory that severe concussions can cause the same effects in people. Benoit was a man who used steroids and experienced his fare share of concussions, so either fact could have factored into his apparent mental snap that lead to the horribly tragic events surrounding his strange death. But the fact that the media is turning him into a steroid raging monster before the facts are even in is a terrible injustice and a disgusting representation of our knee jerk society as a whole.

When you look at the way the events unfolded, the situation becomes all the more painful. Benoit’s wife Nancy was found dead in their upstairs home office, her hands and feet bound, bruises on her back and chest which would indicate that Benoit placed a knee in her back while strangling her with an electric cord. This does not seem like something a person would do in the midst of a steroid rage. Would he need to tie her up to kill her? He could have easily overpowered her in a rage, why all of the preparation? Could it be that he did kill her in a rage, then panicked and decided to try and make it look like something else? Could it then have been the guilt from what he had done that drove him to decide to end his own life? And in coming to that realization did he decide the best thing for his seven-year-old son, who suffered from a rare genetic disease called “Fragile X Syndrome”, was to end his life as well? According to people close to Benoit the biggest factor for his marital strife was his wife’s urging him to be home more to help out with caring for Daniel, a fact that no doubt made the toll of the pro wrestling schedule all the more difficult to deal with. If both he and his wife had trouble dealing with their son's health problems, did he see no hope for his son after the irrational murder of Daniels mother? Maybe I am wrong to try and put this into a rational perspective, but I just find the whole thing so hard to accept when I look at it through the irrational package the media has put this story into. Why would someone take three days to kill their wife, their son and then themselves? Why would that person send cryptic messages to friends about their home address and how to get into the house? Why would he rearrange his travel plans with the WWE in the middle of all of this so he could attend a Sunday pay-per-view? It looks as though Benoit killed his wife and then spent almost two days dealing with the guilt and fear of what he had done. And in his irrational state decided to kill himself and his son. But why? A few days after the deaths, the website 1wrestling.com spoke to some people close to Benoit who wished to remain anonymous. One was quoted as saying “This wasn't roid rage, this was insanity. Roid rage doesn't last for 48 hours. There were signs that something was wrong. Stories have emerged that a year ago he became paranoid and believed he was being followed. He wouldn't let Nancy leave the house because he believed someone was out to get them.” And a story from the Toronto Sun quoted Bruce Hart, the man who introduced Benoit to pro wrestling as saying “The last time I saw him he was in pretty rough shape mentally, I didn't know all the details but I knew it wasn't good. I was not at all shocked by what happened. If I could see and determine that in a few visits, how the hell could they (World Wrestling Entertainment) not have known something was wrong? (In my opinion) I think the WWE needs to re-evaluate what it is doing here." The truth behind it all is something that will forever be left up to speculation, what is strange is how people saw real changes in Benoit, they saw him become overly paranoid and mentally unstable, and nothing was done about it. If Bruce Hart could see these distressing changes, why didn’t he say something to someone? If fellow wrestlers and friends knew about his growing irrational paranoia, why wasn’t something said to upper management? Another strange facet of the whole thing, and a possible reason for Benoit’s increasing instability, was the death of Benoit’s best friend, pro wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Guerrero died 19 months ago and naturally Benoit was crushed upon hearing the news. Here was a guy that Benoit had known for 15 years, a guy who Benoit considered his best friend and one of the only people he could confide in on the road. On the RAW tribute show that was done for Guerrero, Benoit was an emotional wreck and said that whenever he had problems he would always go to Eddie and Eddie would talk him out of it. Out of what? This is something I have wondered about since seeing it and now I have to think that the “it” that Eddie would talk him out of was suicide. One has to wonder if Eddie Guerrero’s death had a lot more to do with this tragedy than steroids. It is wrong to treat this whole event as something that was brought on by “roid rage”, especially when we are some months away from a final toxicology report on Benoit and there are so many other factors to think about. If these TV journalists truly did their job and researched a story instead of picking at tragedy, like vultures, just to fill an hour a night, we might not be so quick to pass judgment on anything and everything that comes down the pike.

The one potentially positive thing to come from this is the light being shined on the undeniable dangers of pro wrestling: from the unforgiving schedules; the apparent need for pain pills, steroids and downers; to the emotional toll life on the road and removal from family takes on many of the performers. Maybe it's time pro wrestlers got a little more respect from the “legit” sports community.

It's shocking to see the ages of pro wrestlers who have died prematurely. Keep in mind that a majority of these deaths occurred within the last 10 years. If this was a list of pro football players, imagine the public outrage! If you notice anyone missing from the list please email us and we will add their name.