Chris, Nancy, & Daniel Benoit found dead

[Bix]

As an aside, I know it was a different time in terms of media coverage (no TMZ watching everything and paying attention to wrestling), but it's still pretty weird that nobody knew about stuff like Chris's DUI arrest (apparently after a fight with Nancy) in 1998 and Nancy's divorce filing in 2003 (alleging domestic abuse) until reporters started digging after the murders.

[Johnny Sorrow]

See, I didn't watch the PPV the night before or read anything about it. I just got home from work, and got a text from a pal telling me Benoit was dead. I went online, saw that the family was dead and my first thought honestly was Carbon Dioxide based on the fact that I'd been deluged with radio ads about it at the time and the idea of a sick family annihilation didn't enter my mind. I then sat down and watched the show. I went online after and the truth was pretty much out. Freaked me the fuck out.

[Slasher]

Now that people are mentioning it/refreshing my memory, yeah the whole no-showing the PPV due to a family emergency set off alarm bells. Still didn't put it together that this guy would kill everyone and then off himself. I guess I had more faith in the human race than I should.

[MJH]

I don't see how no-showing the PPV had people all suspicious... I'd rather that be more common and Cena be expected to fly-back from a show if his dad had a stroke or something, rather than him feel the need to work it. And it being a B-PPV, a not-terribly-high-profile match, Benoit's "lifer" position in the company at the time, and him hopefully feeling "I don't need to do this date or I'll be fired...", my reaction was more "well, that's strange, something serious must've happened to them, I hope they're OK", but nothing beyond, say, a car crash, or one of them taking seriously ill... nothing like that.

 

But with Benoit being "sacrosanct", once murder-suicide became the likeliest cause, I did/do find it a tad odd that I can't recall anyone having Nancy as the perpetrator... if you're "Not Chris...", that'd be the most obvious option, surely?

[Slasher]

Kevin Sullivan got more play as a suspect than Nancy did. Weird thing to ask though, don't think Nancy has it in her to overpower Chris, nor to murder Daniel as well.

[Bix]

I don't see how no-showing the PPV had people all suspicious... I'd rather that be more common and Cena be expected to fly-back from a show if his dad had a stroke or something, rather than him feel the need to work it. And it being a B-PPV, a not-terribly-high-profile match, Benoit's "lifer" position in the company at the time, and him hopefully feeling "I don't need to do this date or I'll be fired...", my reaction was more "well, that's strange, something serious must've happened to them, I hope they're OK", but nothing beyond, say, a car crash, or one of them taking seriously ill... nothing like that.

 

But with Benoit being "sacrosanct", once murder-suicide became the likeliest cause, I did/do find it a tad odd that I can't recall anyone having Nancy as the perpetrator... if you're "Not Chris...", that'd be the most obvious option, surely?

There was very little time between the first news story that said it was a murder suicide and the the first one that said it was Chris.

[MJH]

Kevin Sullivan got more play as a suspect than Nancy did. Weird thing to ask though, don't think Nancy has it in her to overpower Chris, nor to murder Daniel as well.

Well I don't remember how quick it came out that they were strangled, but hypothetically she could've shot/stabbed, etc... I dunno, two of my best friends are uber-feminists; at this point 'if the guy can do it why can't the girl?' is just whipped into me, y'know...?

[El-P]

I remember quite a bit of totally disgusting misogynic comments about Nancy back then, from people would just couldn't fathom the idea that their wrestling hero Chris Benoit could have done this. Just horrendous stuff. Not to mention the ever coming up "She must have done something to provoque him" argument so to in a way "excuse" the perpetrator. There was some really terrible shit popping up at the time. The Sullivan theory was just out of this world insane.

[PeteF3]

I don't see how no-showing the PPV had people all suspicious...

It wasn't skipping out, specifically--it was the knowledge that he skipped out and that the whole family was dead. If something had happened to Nancy & Daniel that required Benoit to either stay home or fly home, it wouldn't have taken him out, too.

[MJH]

I remember quite a bit of totally disgusting misogynic comments about Nancy back then, from people would just couldn't fathom the idea that their wrestling hero Chris Benoit could have done this. Just horrendous stuff. Not to mention the ever coming up "She must have done something to provoke him" argument so to in a way "excuse" the perpetrator. There was some really terrible shit popping up at the time. The Sullivan theory was just out of this world insane.

100% agreed. W/R/T to the first point... the flip was always far more likely anyway, surely?... he was a cunt, she did him in... (Just the fact of him being on the road so much, beaten up, tired, he's more likely to be temperamental/foul-tempered even before you factor the clear steroid abuse into it...)

 

It wasn't skipping out, specifically--it was the knowledge that he skipped out and that the whole family was dead. If something had happened to Nancy & Daniel that required Benoit to either stay home or fly home, it wouldn't have taken him out, too.

Yeah... but the more natural hypothesis is "the emergency" causes them to die, and he can't live with it and kills himself, right? In essence, what did happen, but without him having caused their death. There's nothing "denialist" about that - a lover's/family member's death leading to a suicide isn't uncommon at all.

[Bix]

How common is it that it would lead to an IMMEDIATE suicide, though?

[jackwebb]

I don't know the answer to that question. I will say though that the amount of grief that Benoit showed during Guerrero's death seemed unusual to me. After seeing that I probably would have been open to the idea of him breaking immediately if I hadn't immediately thought it was murder/suicide.

 

Years ago my cousin had a diabetic seizure. He wasn't aware he was diabetic at the time. When it happened he was on the floor playing with his 6 month old child. He passed out on the baby and suffocated it to death. That is the only other time I have seen the kind of emotion Benoit had when Guerrero passed.

[flyonthewall2983]

I wonder what would happen if Chris didn't kill himself, and turned himself in, or worse, evading capture and becoming a fugitive. I'd imagine WWE would have found themselves in a more dire PR nightmare than what ultimately happened. I can imagine the response from the IWC would be equally as disgusting, if not more so. I watched something about the day of the OJ Bronco chase, featuring the news coverage of it as it happened. People at that time were equally in denial about that as some of the examples cited already.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Ok, now I'm picturing Benoit in the back of a white Bronco and I'm laughing my ass off. Who's driving, Malenko?

[Guest Nell Santucci]

I wonder what would happen if Chris didn't kill himself, and turned himself in, or worse, evading capture and becoming a fugitive. I'd imagine WWE would have found themselves in a more dire PR nightmare than what ultimately happened. I can imagine the response from the IWC would be equally as disgusting, if not more so. I watched something about the day of the OJ Bronco chase, featuring the news coverage of it as it happened. People at that time were equally in denial about that as some of the examples cited already.

Or worse, he showed up to Night of Champions and beat Punk for the belt.

[Al]

WWE would've found themselves in an equally dire PR nightmare if Benoit lived, of course. But I think the extent of Benoit's mental illness would become more apparent 15-20 years down the road.

[Dooley]

Ok, now I'm picturing Benoit in the back of a white Bronco and I'm laughing my ass off. Who's driving, Malenko?

"Tell the cops to stay back. This is Dean Malenko. No...MALENKO! You know who I am, dammit!"

[Guest Nell Santucci]

What I always wondered was whether Benoit himself felt that PEDs contributed to his decline. It is a fact that Nancy urged him to get off of PEDs. Chris was absolutely opposed to that and even picked up his latest supply before the murders. Something happens (maybe Nancy tells him to get off), Chris flips out and kills her in a nasty, violent blow. He doesn't know what to do, so he stages it as a "murder" by tying her up. He thinks about those actions over the next day and feels, guilt-stricken, that she was right all along. So he decides instead to leave behind all his PEDs to implicate WWE. Why this hypothesis? Because Chris Benoit knew the code that wrestlers never leave behind their own drugs. Had he thought about the drugs that would be found, he knew it would get WWE in a world of trouble.

[flyonthewall2983]

WWE would've found themselves in an equally dire PR nightmare if Benoit lived, of course. But I think the extent of Benoit's mental illness would become more apparent 15-20 years down the road.

That's being optimistic that there would even be a WWE 15-20 years from that point.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

WWE would've found themselves in an equally dire PR nightmare if Benoit lived, of course. But I think the extent of Benoit's mental illness would become more apparent 15-20 years down the road.

That's being optimistic that there would even be a WWE 15-20 years from that point.

 

Are you thinking that advertisers would have dumped WWE en masse?

[Bix]

Chris flips out and kills her in a nasty, violent blow. He doesn't know what to do, so he stages it as a "murder" by tying her up.

No, she died of strangulation while tied up. IIRC the bruising showed she was tied up pre-mortem.

[MJH]

Which is weird in itself in that you figure he hardly needed to restrain her first to be able to strangle her.

[flyonthewall2983]

WWE would've found themselves in an equally dire PR nightmare if Benoit lived, of course. But I think the extent of Benoit's mental illness would become more apparent 15-20 years down the road.

That's being optimistic that there would even be a WWE 15-20 years from that point.

 

Are you thinking that advertisers would have dumped WWE en masse?

 

Possibly. And if Benoit had shown up to the PPV that night as just speculated, and it would have been revealed later on that he went on to perform after murdering his family? Most certainly.

[MJH]

But how much of it can you really pin on WWE? I'm not saying the sponsors wouldn't have left, but we knew even less about concussions/etc then (it's one of the reasons we know as much now), there were few, if any, discernible signs in his ring work, and it's not like anyone in power will have been travelling with him constantly and around him all the time, with the possible exception of maybe Fit Finley and he's not "in power" anymore than he was a tad higher on the chain, etc. And short of showing up at the PPV with blood on his hands (and would he have been allowed on the flight in the first place?), they'll've been none-the-wiser before sending him out there or until the stories broke.

 

Really, there's no reason to think the exact same thing wouldn't have happened had he never gone to WWE. He'd've still met Nancy, he was abusing steroids for years before he got there (the only time he toned down was around 1993, early 1994 when the trial was at it's height... look at his body from 8/92, through the J-Cup, and then again by the Jr. Tag League), he'd've been working probably an even more hard-hitting and reckless style... and there's no reason to presume he would've cut down on the steroids... I mean, realistically, one could feasibly argue that they (the WWE) actually prolonged his life, depending on how much you want to pin on the schedule as opposed to steroids/concussions...

[El-P]

Really, there's no reason to think the exact same thing wouldn't have happened had he never gone to WWE. He'd've still met Nancy, he was abusing steroids for years before he got there (the only time he toned down was around 1993, early 1994 when the trial was at it's height... look at his body from 8/92, through the J-Cup, and then again by the Jr. Tag League), he'd've been working probably an even more hard-hitting and reckless style... and there's no reason to presume he would've cut down on the steroids... I mean, realistically, one could feasibly argue that they (the WWE) actually prolonged his life, depending on how much you want to pin on the schedule as opposed to steroids/concussions...

I'd have a hard time believing that it prolonged his life. Benoit in WWE looked insanely roided compared to his late WCW days. Not saying he was pressured to take them, but still, the environement and being pushed harder against much bigger guys surely didn't help. Both he and Eddie looked badly bloated in their later WWE days, although Eddie looked almost as bad in 1995 in NJ. Both didn't need WWE to take steroid and to abuse them, but to say argue going to WWE actually prolongued his life. I don't buy it. WCW was more money with less insane travel and less pression (even if it was implicite) to take roids (especially, in a way, since they wouldn't have been put under that much pression since they were undercarders 4 Life). The personnal and psychological issue played a major role anyway, so it's not to say things would have been different in the end. Eddie and Grunge dying fucked up his brain probably as much as concussions did.

 

In his shoot interview, Rene Dupree actually has an interesting theory about what could have happened, base don his on experience with drugs + alcohol + roids. He says he can totally picture Benoit getting in a blind drunken/drugged up rage and kill Nancy then black out, and not remmeber anything when he emerges. Leading to him snapping and we know the rest. Makes sense, well, as much as you can make sense out of such a tragedy.