• Wrestling News & Wrestling Rumors – WWE & TNA

Chris Benoit: May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007

“As I begin to type this page I’m finding it increasingly hard to find the appropriate words to explain this tragic situation, but “The Crippler” Chris Benoit, (Pegasus Kid to his Japanese fans) has been found dead along with his wife, former wrestling manager “Woman” and his seven year old son Daniel. He is survived by his two children from a previous marriage in Canada.”

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the death of Chris Benoit and his family and this page was created to give all the facts and details in some kind of chronological order. I’ve been reporting the story’s development since the bodies were found and hope to pour out all the knowledge I have on the case. I am unhappy with various parts of the article since I wrote them at different stages of mourning and understanding but I hope you can take the facts for what they are and ignore any opinion.

Details of this page have been changed many times and are updated whenever possible.

Benoit failed to appear both at the Saturday June 24 2007, live event in Beaumont, Tx., and WWE’s Vengeance: Night of Champions in Houston the following day, after informing WWE of a family emergency, he told a coworker his wife and son had food poisoning. He was set to win his first ever ECW Heavyweight Championship that night.

After Chris sent several mysterious text messages to close friends within WWE (one rumored to be Chavo, who was also the last person to speak with Benoit and another being William Regal), a concerned recipient contacted management asking to check on him. Richard Hering, VP of Government Relations for WWE in turn, spoke with Fayette County sheriffs Monday, and requested that they respond to the Benoit residence to check on him and his family.

Below are the mysterious message in order of sending. To me they seem to be a cry for help:

Text Message 1 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:53am)- Chris Benoit’s cell phone
“My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane, Fayetteville Georgia. 30215″

Text Message 2 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:53am)- Chris Benoit’s cell phone
“The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open”

Text Message 3 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:54am)- Nancy Benoit’ cell phone
“My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane. Fayetteville Georgia.”

Text Message 4 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:55am)- Nancy Benoit’s cell phone
“My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane. Fayetteville Georgia. 30215″

Text Message 5 to one co-worker (sent 6/24 at 3:58am)- Nancy Benoit’s cell phone
“My address is 130 Green Meadow Lane. Fayetteville Georgia. 30215″

Authorities representing the Sheriff’s Department initially had a difficult time entering Benoit’s Fayetteville home on that Monday afternoon, because it had been guarded by two large German Shepherds roaming freely around the property. Once authorities entered the residence, they quickly located the bodies of Benoit hanging in the weight room on a pulley (suicide), Nancy with bounded hands and feet in a family room upstairs and Daniel in his bed.

Reports state that Daniel and Nancy died of asphyxiation (suffocation) and that Nancy put up a struggle as she was bound and had blood on her head. Some experts believe the initial killing of Nancy may have been attributed to “Roid Rage” a state of aggression brought on by a side effect of steroids. Steroids were found throughout the house and it’s common knowledge that steroids are used in wrestling. Daniel was murdered a good few hours after Nancy with little struggle as he was heavily sedated by Xanax. He was smothered in his bed. Both victims had bibles placed next to them.

An interesting point to make is that after the mainstream media began reporting of major amounts of steroids and drugs throughout the home, WWE released a statement on their website saying there was no way steroids played a part in the tragedy. This is obviously WWE’s attempt to stop a backlash against them for having a poor drug testing policy at the time, if Benoit killed them due to “Roid Rage” or depression associated with drugs.

WWE failed to send representatives of Pro Wrestling to do talk shows and interviews leaving random stars like Brian Christopher to fill those roles, showing maybe WWE were/are trying to cover their bases. In the long run this caused more harm to them.

Earlier in the year Benoit was revealed by Sports Illustrated as one of the many sporting stars in a drugs bust on an online pharmaceutical company selling steroids over the internet. This proves Benoit was on some kind of drug around the time of the murders or at least was coming down from drugs, which can produce side affects in their own right.

Psychiatrists state that homicide suicides that wipe out whole families by the Dad are usually due to big bouts of depression (very common in the lonely world of wrestling) and a poor mental state that makes them believe the family is better off dead.

I may be delving too far in to this but his son Daniel also had special needs (Fragile X, similar to Autism), which Benoit kept to himself. In a twisted way due to the mental state of Benoit at the time he was probably panicking and felt that murdering Daniel was better than him growing up in foster homes knowing his father was a killer. This is very hard to explain but Benoit being so protective of Daniel may have felt that nobody else was worthy of looking after him and his needs. As I say, very hard to explain being 16 upon writing this article but humans need explanation when it comes to a “nice guy” murdering his family and this is how I’ve decided to look at it. Depression mixed with Roid Rage, a volatile marriage, stress and an inability to open up to peers is an easier way to describe this tragedy than calling him a stone cold killer.

Toxicology reports showed that Benoit had elevated levels of Testosterone a natural steroid in the body. He had far too much to be using solely for replacement therapy as many middle age men do.

Xanax was found at a therapeutic level in Chris, Nancy and an elevated level in Daniel implying he was sedated before being smothered.

Immediately following the incident, before most of the hurtful details were revealed WWE scrapped their 3 hour Raw special, which was to focus on the bad tasting storyline, where Vince McMahon blew up in his limo. The angle was dropped in respect and in its place was a very saddening tribute show to Chris Benoit featuring some of his best moments/matches and heartfelt messages from wrestlers and the announcers.

After this show WWE began removing all references to Benoit on their website, pulled his merchandise, adjusted the production of their video game and on the following night’s ECW TV taping Vince stated “this is the last time you’ll hear us mention the name Chris Benoit,” obviously regretting the tribute in light of new evidence.

Without a shadow of a doubt Chris Benoit was one of the most highly regarded, most technically gifted and most respectable Pro Wrestlers in the industry and is yet another example of a good man who fell victim to the pressures of our much loved form of entertainment.

The list of young wrestlers dieing young under mind boggling circumstances is accelerating at an alarming rate and a dark and almost seedy cloud is engulfing peoples conceptions of the sport.

Following the tragedy there was a media uproar with every major outlet covering the story for a number of weeks. Most outlets decided to take the steroid and roid rage route although there are several contributing factors. Figures such as Marc Mero, Steve Austin’s ex-wife Debra Marshall and Konnan have frequented TV and news shows giving their negative view on the industry, whilst WWE stars have been very defensive in their appearances. One branch of the story followed Benoit’s personal Doctor, Dr. Phil Astin who has been indicted for illegally prescribing Benoit drugs as well as other wrestlers Johnny Grunge (also dead) and former WWE employees Mark Jindrack and Orlando Jordan. In all Dr. Phil Astin was indicted on seven counts of “Distributing a Controlled Substance for Other Than a Legitimate Medical Reason” and had his home, office and mothers house raided for documents.

When the dust had settled a legal battle commenced between the families of Benoit and Nacny Benoit over who rightfully owns Chris Benoit’s assets. It’s left entirely up to the order of deaths unless either party can persuade a judge. As of writing the assets would go to Chris’s other children as he was the last to die and they are his next of kin.

Shortly after this incident Congress are planning to launch an investigation in to the drug culture in Pro wrestling, all of this completely reigniting the debate on wrestling’s seedy drug culture and the lists of premature dead wrestlers.