Some time has passed since we all realized what exactly happened in the Benoit home in Fayetteville, Georgia. Admittedly, not enough time has passed for any of us to have a real grasp on what happened or (more importantly) why it happened. And the truth is that there are not enough facts floating around for to make reasoned decisions; but there are still facts going around. So let’s talk about them.
As much as we don’t want to believe it, Chris Benoit killed his wife Nancy “Woman” Benoit. At some short time before this murder, Benoit bound Nancy’s hands and feet. There was blood found underneath her head, so he must have caused some type of trauma to her as he the murder was committed. Furthermore, Chris Benoit killed his son as his in his bed. We do not know if he smothered his son and one report even had him putting his son in some chokehold to end his life. Then Chris Benoit hung himself in his basement weight room. Investigators believe this all took place during a 48 hour period.
These grisly details are what happened. It’s tragic for all involved. Yes, there is a growing backlash against Chris Benoit because of his actions, but his death is tragic, too. I will immediately grant that Chris’ suicide is not as tragic as Nancy or Daniel’s murders, but the loss of a human being is sad nonetheless.
I will also admit a few other things about Chris Benoit. First, I have lost a great deal of respect for him as a person (not a wrestler) for the disgusting, brutal murders he committed and for taking his own life. In my faith, that is inexcusable – in yours it might be different and as I am open to other interpretations of the game of life, I hope you are, too.
That being said – I do not feel WWE was in the wrong to air the Chris Benoit Tribute on Monday Night RAW, regardless of what the major media outlets are saying. Remember that hindsight is 20/20 and for these news organizations to patronize McMahon or WWE for having this tribute is disgusting and dishonest reporting.
From that, we all need to remember that as shocked and angry as we all are right now, we were shocked and awed (to use an overused phrase) on Monday when the word came out about the three deaths. We didn’t know that it was a double murder-suicide; some of us may have thought that and a rare few may have actually known it.
But folks, what really disgusts me is Daniel’s murder and his maltreatment before the murder. Reports are running around the internet that Chris Benoit was disturbed about his son’s Fragile X Syndrome and that track marks were found on the kid’s arm from probably injections of human growth hormone. Good Lord! The kid was a 7-year-old kid! There is no problem with a kid who has an inherited form of mental retardation!
Listen, many of us (myself included) have people in our immediate or extended families with mental disabilities or mental retardation. The fact that Chris Benoit found this to be a detriment to his son’s existence tells me that he was really less of a man than I ever thought.
But before I keep going on about this, let me go back to my first statement in this column…not enough time has passed for any of us to have a real grasp on what happened or (more importantly) why it happened. When the full palate of facts DO come out, I believe that they will be grim.
For those of you that made it down this far in the column – congratulations! This website is so old that ten years ago today I wrote a column on the many tag teams in the World Wrestling Federation. If you’re feeling up to it (and frankly, anything that gets me out looking at the Benoit case is good right now), feel free to head over and take a read.
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