Chris Benoit found dead

[KROW]

Originally Posted by X

He obviously cared more for the sport, or money, then his family and his health.

No, it's more of a matter of trying to juggle everything together and making it fit properly; a too much of a good thing type of situation.

[Anarky]

Nobody likes to listen anymore? Awww... no more thread about a dead wrestler for anyone until at least tomorrow.

[Krang]

Now that this thread has had some downtime to allow things to settle down, I think it's safe to reopen it. Like Anarky said earlier, let's please avoid personal attacks, or this thread will need to be locked again. And until more information is revealed, there's no point in speculating any further, so let's stick to discussing the facts until then.

[Spitfire]

I read this on Comcast and was pretty surprised. I don't know him as a person or anything I just read him and his wife had issues. Hardly means he'd do that to her and his kid let alone.

Maybe I saw to much Millennium but I suspect something a little different went down in the residence then we originally thought.

[GK Punk]

I'm wondering that now. Since his ex wife is swearing up and down there's no way he would have done this. I'm not saying that he didn't just that there has to be more than anyone knows.

[KROW]

Also, the DEA raided Benoit's physician's office as well as his home. Now he's under investigation, too. They wouldn't say what drugs they found there, just that they had a warrant and confiscated some things.

On The Today Show, Vince McMahon was interviewed and basically said that nobody would know anything until the toxicology reports come back. He also was forced to defend his company on steroids and explain the Wellness Program that's in effect. NBC attributed steroids to the deaths of Guerrero, Hennig, Bulldog, and even Owen.

Linda McMahon was on Good Morning America saying the same things, but one thing she did say was that if Benoit needed time off, all he had to do was ask. What she did NOT say, however, was that there was a process wrestlers had to take to get that time off: fake an injury, follow a storyline, etc.

Jim Ross commented on the tragedy on his website, saying he was repulsed how the media are blowing things out of proportion and wishing that everyone would keep the facts in mind as they come about instead of jumping to conclusions and making accusations.

Now there's a brouhaha about Wikipedia starting.

[Lady Venus]

Man, I'm gunna miss him so much.

[ZariusTwo]

From Figure Four Weekly's message board:

-Dave confirmed he used a form of the Crippler Crossface on Daniel. This is interesting since Bryan was adamant that the story was ********. Apparently investigators found marks on the boys arm and face that they didn't understand and upon watching a tape of a Benoit match and seeing the move it made sense. They just said it was a "choke" as to not further sensationalize an already sensationalized story.

-Dave said Bryan was closer to Benoit (he found his writing hilarious) then he was and that Dave hardly ever talked to Chris (while Bryan [in the new F4W newsletter] seemed to indicate semi regular contact). Thought that was interesting as we rib Bryan about getting all his sources through Dave but I never thought he'd have more access to someone like Benoit then Dave.

-Benoit got a prescription for the anti-depressant Zoloft (not Xanax) at the doctor's visit on Friday.

-Benoit started going downhill after Eddy died because he lost the one guy who he could confide in and shared his problems with. Apparently close friends always knew Benoit had the same problems as Eddy (pills, etc.) and suggested Benoit seriously needed to see a therapist but no one suggested it since he wasn't the type to be open to that sort of thing.

-Apparently the death of Johnny Grunge hit Benoit even harder then Eddy since they were neighbors and him and Nancy fighting was somewhat common and he'd be the one to come over and defuse situations and make Chris laugh. After he died, Chris didn't have that buffer when things got out of control.

-Chris and Nancy had recently separated for a period of time, and Dave received a change of address form for an apartment different then their house (I believe Bryan mentioned he got a different address too).

-Chris recently opened up a new life insurance claim naming his ex-wife and his older 2 kids as the beneficiaries and refused to include Nancy or Daniel.

-When there were rumors of him leaving for TNA, Dave asked him about it and Chris was paranoid thinking Dave had inside info that WWE was going to release him. He apparently may have thought ECW was a demotion and the next step would be out the door. He was reportedly obsessed with establishing himself at the HHH/HBK level. He had grown increasingly paranoid that someone was out to get him and didn't let Nancy leave the house at night or Daniel to play outside and would take different routes from the airport home each time in case he was being followed.

-Nancy confided to a friend in wrestling days before the murders that she feared for her life and the friend told her to go take Daniel to her parents place in Florida (as she had done before when Chris became violent) but she didn't this time. Apparently she had a lockbox at the bank with notes indicating if something happened to her, it was Chris.

-Theory is that she told him she was leaving him for good and taking Daniel and that's when he snapped on her. Loved his son and when she filed for divorce all he wanted was joint custody. Theory is he killed Daniel because in his mind he couldn't bare to let him be alone without his parents and in his condition so it was a "mercy killing".

-Someone in WWE informed Dave before the RAW show that Chris had killed them, but others in the company were unaware but at least someone high up knew before the tribute show was put on the air.

-Dave says he can't write a proper obit/career retrospect and doesn't know if he ever will.

That's all I can think of for now. Pretty heavy stuff. Sounds like Chris always had a violent side, and that all the deaths of close friends combined with heavier drug use really caused him to lose his mind. Sad, sad end to such a fabulous career."

...Creepier stuff

[VaughnMichael]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

...Creepier stuff

oh my.

[KROW]

I highly doubt that Benoit used his finishing move on his son. The marks on his arm were established as needle marks from his Fragile X treatments. The ones on his face are obviously of some other asphyxiating design.

[Katie]

It's no excuse for what he did...but man. stress upon stress upon strees. That makes your mind play tricks on you.


And on a semi-related side note....I was treated with Zoloft after all the crap I went through last year.....they pulled me off it (after about a month) when I began to contemplate suicide. Coming off that stuff was the lowest low I have ever felt in my entire life. I wonder if they changed his perscription for the anit-depressants (Zoloft is also an anti anxiety med) and his system got out of whack?

Also PTSD comest to mind. When life changing thing after thing after thing hits you....One of the symptoms of PTSD is paranoia.

[Shredder]

Man, this has been very upsetting to me since I first was shocked by this story on Monday. Chris Benoit has always been one of my favorite wrestlers and I am still having a hard time with the reality of this horrible situation sinking in. At first I felt a mix of emotions, but now, the whole thing just makes me feel very sad. It's such a huge waste- of three lives, first and foremost, but also of what he could have accomplished with the rest of his wrestling career. It also bothers me that we'll probably never entirely know why this happened, but maybe the toxicology reports will shed some light on this.

What I don't buy is the overly sensational crap like him using the crossface on his son. That article is suspicious to me and isn't consistent with what we've heard about the case so far. I do hope that more news comes out since I do agree that there's more to the story than what we know. At any rate, I wish so badly that this never happened and things could just be normal again. RIP Benoit family.

[jeff the cheff]

That seems strange that he took his son and wife off his life insurance. I don't believe in the roid rage thing, the murders seem very pre meditated, just like Vince said.

[Katie]

anything to do with life insurance, while providing a interesting look at his state of mind, wasn't a very effective thing for him to do. if you commit suicide, your policy is voided (just like if it is found that you murdered someone whose policy names you as a beneficiary you won't get proceeds.)

Actually, him changing his policy to his ex and older kids kind of makes me think he didn't intend to hurt anyone but himself at first. not everyone knows that suicide voids a policy....(I found out the hard way) and if current wife and kid were dead...why would it matter? you have to name secondary and terciary beneficiaries which in all liklihood were his older kids / family. Changing the policy to "leave them out of the will" so to speak would have been a slap from the grave.

this is very mysterious to me. the whole thing. the Wikipedia thing, the insurance....the more i hear the odder it is. And I don't really follow wrestling, this would have intrigued me if it had been any sensationalized case.

[X]

Someone I know told me some news about Benoits death being known before it happened, and something about a traced IP address back to the WWE headquarters.

This comes from a friend whos a news bookworm, always has his face plastered to the news so he can find new excuses to hate the government.

Is any of it true though, or are they still investigating that situation?

-X-

[Krang]

Although it was reported in the news, the whole Wikipedia thing was revealed to be just a strange coincidence: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Chris_Be...coincidence%22

[X]

Ahh I see... Good to know no conspiracy is at play.

-X-

[KROW]

There's more garbage floating around about drug use concerning this tragedy thanks to the media, even more so due to comments from Bruce Hart. He claims that from his experience in the wrestling business, he's known guys whose bodies have begun to break down after steroid use around age 40. Liver and kidney failure were some of the side effects, he says. He also claims that Benoit couldn't separate his wrestler persona from his real life -- kind of a thin claim since the man used his real name and personality in his career.

Things got worse because of the media's involvement. Recently I saw a piece on Hannity & Colmes interviewing Debra Marshall (Steve Austin's ex) and Bill DeMott (pro wrestler). Basically, the only thing Hannity and Colmes were interested in talking about were steroids and degrading the wrestling business. Debra only wanted to get noticed on TV after being lost in obscurity so long from what I've seen. She barked that she wanted to help the industry. Bull. If that were true, then she wouldn't have fought with DeMott on the air and she also wouldn't have degraded her ex-husband Austin. She, plain and simple, is still sore about her life with Austin, claiming that he couldn't differentiate wrestler from man, either. DeMott pointed out why she didn't come out with that statement 5 years earlier, as well as why no one brought drug use to light 5 years ago. He went on saying that the only person who knew the mind of Chris Benoit was Chris Benoit and pointing fingers isn't going to get anyone anywhere.

Of course, no one listened to him.

And as proof that Hannity & Colmes only cared about steroids in this story, after these "interviews," they promoted the next topic, which was a look at human growth hormones.

[Wingnut]

I am scared that the image of the industry (pro wrestling) will be "The business that produced Chris Benoit...The wrestler that killed his family." It also scares me that out of 15 years of really keeping up with wrestling I don't think I can remember a wrestling related story that was talked about more by the public. Owen Hart, maybe. But from my experiences most people that didn't follow wrestling were more interested in finding footage of his demise than the career of Owen Hart.

People can bat an eye at the most of bad things that happen in pro wrestling, the botched moves that ruin lives, the steroid related deaths of multiple superstars, and hell even the struggle that is being a pro wrestler. Most people can and have brushed these things off mostly because someone who doesn't follow wrestling doesn't care. They expect death,injury and struggle to come to people who make a living throwing themselves off ladders and diving from turnbuckles . But when a wrestler kills his family, we're in a whole new ballpark so to speak. People CAN relate to the death of a family member, that effects everyone.

[KROW]

More garbage is being thrown around on this tragedy. Instead of posting all of it, I'll just post this link and have people read through it for themselves.

I'll just say that I applaud Bill DeMott and Kevin Nash and highly respect them more now.