Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A RIP post that confuses the hell out of me.

The story came out Monday that wrestler Chris Benoit and his family were found dead at their home. When I first saw this, it was towards the end of the RAW tribute show. I turned it on to see the ending of the championship bout when Benoit finally won the title.


(Chris Benoit, left, and Eddie Guerrero. Two of the best gone too soon.)

Afterwards, I began searching news sites and online groups to get details. Most reports had been coming in that it was being treated as a murder-suicide.

Stunned does not begin to describe how I was feeling.

Benoit was a consummate fan favorite. He was the underdog, of sorts. He wasn't the biggest or the most flashy. He was a pure, honest wrestler. He was not a sports entertainer.

Never saw any reports of him being disliked or known to become irrational. That's what makes this so strange.

I can't imagine marital problems had anything to do with it. He and his wife Nancy were the result of an affair on her part. She was married to one of the head bookers, who also wrestled for the organization. He wrote a storyline where he and Benoit fought for months on end because his on-screen character was afraid she was cheating on him with Benoit. Life imitated art, because the longer they played this out, the more Nancy and Chris fell for each other. She divorced her husband, married Chris and Benoit paid for it, for a while.

One report - or speculation, more likely - was that Nancy and their son had been deathly ill over the weekend. Chris skipped a couple of shows to travel back home. When he didn't return to the shows, management called the police to check on him. That's when the bodies were discovered. All three in separate rooms. No signs of gun use at all. No signs of forced entry.

Did the wife and son die from a sickness, leading Chris to suicide? Did she kill their son, try to cover it up, he snaps, then takes his own life? Did he plan this out in advance?

I'm so freaking confused. I don't know what to think. I don't want to think anything other than another talented wrestler was taken away from us way too soon.



RIP Crippler, Woman and Daniel.

4 comments:

vhdawg said...

Well said....hoping that it's innocent, fearing that it's not.

Andy said...

All signs appear to be pointing to 'not'.

Why?

Christy said...

I know...when I read that I was so sad :( My heart just sunk for the entire family which has to endure this tragedy.

Andy said...

There are accounts coming out now that he and his wife had been having problems for years and that their son knew about it. I'm no expert on wrestling, but after scouring wrestling news sites for years, surely this would have surfaced before now.

I still can't wrap my brain around this. It's way too much, way too soon.