Earlier this evening while attending a minor league ballgame in Williamson County, I received several text messages and IM’s from persons claiming Chris Benoit had died. ESPN Radio confirmed as much a few minutes later, but with no details other than the bodies of Benoit’s seven year old son, Daniel and his wife Nancy (formerly the spouse of Kevin Sullivan) were found as well.
There’s (a lot) more from the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Saeed Ahmed and Kathy Jeffcoats :
Monday night, the largest wrestling organization in the world grappled with a real-life murder mystery: What led to the apparent murder-suicide of superstar wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and child inside their expansive Fayetteville, GA home?
Officials have not disclosed how the family died, other than to say the deaths did not involve a gun.
“The details, when they come out,” said Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard, “are going to prove a little bizarre.”
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer has a bit more to add :
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 lving room. Daniel was found dead in his bedroom, accordig to an unnamed source in the department.
For those who’ve not followed the pro-wrestling-thing, this might seem like a bit much over who-the-fuck-cares, and if you’re amongst those who don’t give a hoot, by all means, please click somewhere else. For everyone else, however, Benoit was a stylistic pioneer who rose to his sport’s pinnacle during an era in which doing so in the USA without being monster huge and/or skilled on the microphone was virtually unheard of.
There are far better places to read about his tenures in ECW, Japan and his pivotal role in the rise and fall of WCW, but suffice to say that while it has been many years since I saw Benoit wrestle in person, calling him a craftsman is a huge understatement. The circumstances surrounding his death are bound to be disturbing, and it might ultimately be impossible to remember Benoit independent of this tragedy. But on a night when he’s arguably more famous in death than he was in life, his level of artistry and superior work ethic are worthy of acknowledgement.
(UPDATE : As it turns out, “disturbing” was a bit of an understatement.)
For my money Benoit was the best wrestler out there. This is a huge story.
I’m usually not one to advocate for government intervention, but I think it’s about time the Feds come in and examine professional wrestling. The amount of pain killers and stuff these guys need to take in order to perform as often as they do, taking the risks and high collisions that they do, is unconscionable. If studies are showing Offensive Lineman who play 16 games a year are showing signs of brain trauma (which leads to depression, other mental illness), then how can the wrestling behavior of Benoit, Jeff Hardy, etc be allowed without further examination and possible regulation.
Knowing what we know, is watching and supporting the WWE any morally better then being in the audience at Michael Vick’s friday night dogfight?
Are the dogs getting paid to be starved, hurt, and killed? More importantly, do they have a choice?
I’m not too keen on government intervention in sports-entertainment land. Agreed, the human toll is off the charts (as my pal Phil Mushnick will no doubt remind us any second now) but Gene Upshaw was just on the phone assuring me everything is on the up and up. Or maybe I am getting my sports entertainment(s) mixed up again.
I guess my point is that I would prefer to see professional wrestlers unionize than watch the goverment get involved. But as long as the upper echelon of the industry is effectively a monopoly, I’m not going to hold my breath. And on that tip, I wonder if Vinnie Mac’s anticompetitive practices over the years aren’t more worthy of investigation than the bumps & drugs stuff. Don’t forget that he’s got a former U.S. Senator (Lowell Weicker) on his board of directors (along with MLB’s Robert Bowman).
pretty agressive response:
http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/benoitpressrelease
interesting. the WWE is pretty savvy at this new media stuff, much more so than say, when Owen Hart died. Fascinating that they’re picking apart the media coverage while they’ve removed their own Benoit tribute from the front page.
I don’t often sympathize with Vinnie Mac Inc., but they’re in a no win situation right now. If they ignored Benoit’s death and skipped the tribute show on RAW, their own fans would’ve gone nuts. But by doing so, they ran the risk of eulogizing a wife-beating double murderer (albeit one of the finest performers of his generation).