ITS SO SAD WHEN OUR STARS FALL FROM THE SKY TO ONLY SEE THEM AS WHAT THEY REALY ARE
"so this is WCW, where the big boys play?"
This is the line that was said in the wcw saturday night promo that first introduced chris benoit on wcw television, as he emerged from a stretch limo that had parked itself in front of the world championship wrestling offices in Atlanta,GA.
For a lot of people, the news about pro wrestler Chris Benoit reportedly murdering his wife, 7-year-old son and then killing himself, is shocking but in a detached way like so many of the terrible, unthinkable crimes that we hear about.
For me and the millions of pro wrestling fans out there, though, it hits differently. For a lot of us, Benoit was "the guy“ arguably the most talented of the in-ring performers out there. Growing up watching wrestling (well, WCW to be exact, because i already was a wwf/e fan growing up), he was always in my top two or three favorites guys to watch wrestle, and I probably saw him wrestle live at least a couple of times, with all my lungs becoming exhausted because of how much force i put into them as i cheered him on.
We, as fans, admired him. I am not too old but not too clever it seems to really look at him but the way a little kid might see people on TV as his "heroes", because he was someone i really looked up to. There are stories that a lot of wrestlers are shady guys in an already shady business. But Benoit seemed different. Very simply, he was great at what he did, which is admirable for anyone in any profession. He worked hard and seemed to earn everything he got.
I have Chris Benoit DVD set with a retrospective of his career and his best matches. I've played as him in countless video games. When he won the world championship at Wrestlemania 20 in spring 2004, it was an incredibly happy moment that someone I had watched for so long and never got that kind of opportunities before was able to achieve essentially the highest distinction in his field. Screaming so loud that my mother was trying to quiet me in hopes that i would'nt disrupt the landlord or even nearby neighbors.
"tap! tap you motherfucker, tap"
and his opponent did (tripple H) and with that benoit became the new world heavyweight champ.
Sure, it was pre-planned, scripted, what have you, but us fans know what it took to get him there.
So when I received a phonetext message from one of my friends Tuesday afternoon that he was dead, along with his wife and child, I was devestated. It didn't seem right ,like maybe someone had hacked onto the WWE.com Web site and planted the story as a practical joke. When it became clear that it was real, it was hard to concentrate on the rest of my day. Sure, this wasn't someone I knew in person at all, but I had watched him weekly on TV for about 11-12 years straight ,attachment is bound to develop.
That night was one of the most surreal TV watching experiences of my life. The WWE regularly has a live Monday night show, but obviously couldn't continue as planned given the circumstances. So they did what they thought was right at the time, a tribute show with his best matches and taped words from his co-workers on what Benoit meant to them. Nothing but kind words from his colleagues were aired before and after each commercial break, who were doing their best to pay tribute to the man they knew, seemingly with no idea of what he apparently was ultimately capable of doing.
Given the mysterious circumstances, you fear for the worst but still, until the news planted the idea in my head that Benoit did this, I couldn't accept it. Yeah, we don't know these guys very well or even at all but from everything we had ever heard about Benoit, both on TV, in that DVD retrospective of his life, and from backstage reports ,this was a good guy, in a business where a lot of people are not.
As the details trickle in, we realize that we really didn't know this guy, no one did. And although it's a lesson that's surely been learned many times before, we really don't know any of these people on TV or in the movies or on the radio whose work we appreciate. It's reassuring to tell yourself that they're good people. Especially in pro wrestling, where so many people seem like they might not be. We wanted Benoit to be a good guy. We needed it.
Being a wrestling fan, you're used to a lot of let downs. You're used to seeing your favorite perfomers die at a young age. In November 2005, Eddie Guerrero, another guy I had loved watching for years, died of heart failure at the age of 38. It was incredibly sad, it took a toll on me that i never knew i would feel. The industry is seemingly designed to break your heart. Owen Hart even died in the ring on a live pay-per-view event. But these were tragic accidents or the result of unfortunate dependence on chemical substances not violent crime. Not murder. To hear that one of your favorite performers ,in any genre, really is not only dead, but a murderer , it's hard to process. Hard to reconcile that with the guy that you thought fondly of for so many years.
Weve all had people whose work we admired meet tragic ends, but not many like this. Yeah, it's not about us ,it's incredibly callous to take a tragedy like this and try to make it about bystanders. But Benoit was a public figure. People are affected by this, whether they really should be or not.
Like all hobbies and distractions like this, professional wrestling is supposed to be fun. Something you turn on for a few hours a week to forget about whatever else might be going on. Escapism. At this point being a fan carries a heavy burden , it's going to be incredibly hard to have fun with it going forward. But like anything, the show must go on.
Most folks probably won't be surprised to hear that a professional wrestler was capable of such a crime. As a wrestling fan, you always have to sort of apologize for it , say that there really are good athletes involved, that the fans know it's fake, that it's often entertaining and funny and exciting to watch due to the skill of the performers. Sometimes I feel that maybe most wrestling fans and I are too smart to like wrestling as much as we do, but ultimately I've always decided that we just are able to appreciate it on a level that the vast majority of people will never understand. Still, you hear so many people say that it's barbaric, violent, sexist, bad for society and promotes violence in its fans.
That it breeds unhealthy behavior and tragic ends are almost inevitable for many involved, and is simply vapid entertainment at best and televised mayhem and raunch at worst.
But then again the same could be said about these reality TV shows that seem to run rampant these days. All trying to get your attention and doing all they can with whatever off the wall content or topics they have to offer to get their ratings.
maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong.
are you one or the other?
At this point, the press conference is over. It appears that there was a history of domestic violence. That there was a good deal of time between the killings. That his wife was found bound at the feet, possibly the hands. There's no idea of motive, and people are trying to say that maybe the steroids caused a mental illness.
This was supposed to be one of the good guys, and to paraphrase my what everyone seems to be saying, it's turned out that he's probably the worst guy. And that's devestating.
it's sad when we learn that who we looked up to, the heroes that we had, are probably the worst people in the entire planet.
This is the line that was said in the wcw saturday night promo that first introduced chris benoit on wcw television, as he emerged from a stretch limo that had parked itself in front of the world championship wrestling offices in Atlanta,GA.
For a lot of people, the news about pro wrestler Chris Benoit reportedly murdering his wife, 7-year-old son and then killing himself, is shocking but in a detached way like so many of the terrible, unthinkable crimes that we hear about.
For me and the millions of pro wrestling fans out there, though, it hits differently. For a lot of us, Benoit was "the guy“ arguably the most talented of the in-ring performers out there. Growing up watching wrestling (well, WCW to be exact, because i already was a wwf/e fan growing up), he was always in my top two or three favorites guys to watch wrestle, and I probably saw him wrestle live at least a couple of times, with all my lungs becoming exhausted because of how much force i put into them as i cheered him on.
We, as fans, admired him. I am not too old but not too clever it seems to really look at him but the way a little kid might see people on TV as his "heroes", because he was someone i really looked up to. There are stories that a lot of wrestlers are shady guys in an already shady business. But Benoit seemed different. Very simply, he was great at what he did, which is admirable for anyone in any profession. He worked hard and seemed to earn everything he got.
I have Chris Benoit DVD set with a retrospective of his career and his best matches. I've played as him in countless video games. When he won the world championship at Wrestlemania 20 in spring 2004, it was an incredibly happy moment that someone I had watched for so long and never got that kind of opportunities before was able to achieve essentially the highest distinction in his field. Screaming so loud that my mother was trying to quiet me in hopes that i would'nt disrupt the landlord or even nearby neighbors.
"tap! tap you motherfucker, tap"
and his opponent did (tripple H) and with that benoit became the new world heavyweight champ.
Sure, it was pre-planned, scripted, what have you, but us fans know what it took to get him there.
So when I received a phonetext message from one of my friends Tuesday afternoon that he was dead, along with his wife and child, I was devestated. It didn't seem right ,like maybe someone had hacked onto the WWE.com Web site and planted the story as a practical joke. When it became clear that it was real, it was hard to concentrate on the rest of my day. Sure, this wasn't someone I knew in person at all, but I had watched him weekly on TV for about 11-12 years straight ,attachment is bound to develop.
That night was one of the most surreal TV watching experiences of my life. The WWE regularly has a live Monday night show, but obviously couldn't continue as planned given the circumstances. So they did what they thought was right at the time, a tribute show with his best matches and taped words from his co-workers on what Benoit meant to them. Nothing but kind words from his colleagues were aired before and after each commercial break, who were doing their best to pay tribute to the man they knew, seemingly with no idea of what he apparently was ultimately capable of doing.
Given the mysterious circumstances, you fear for the worst but still, until the news planted the idea in my head that Benoit did this, I couldn't accept it. Yeah, we don't know these guys very well or even at all but from everything we had ever heard about Benoit, both on TV, in that DVD retrospective of his life, and from backstage reports ,this was a good guy, in a business where a lot of people are not.
As the details trickle in, we realize that we really didn't know this guy, no one did. And although it's a lesson that's surely been learned many times before, we really don't know any of these people on TV or in the movies or on the radio whose work we appreciate. It's reassuring to tell yourself that they're good people. Especially in pro wrestling, where so many people seem like they might not be. We wanted Benoit to be a good guy. We needed it.
Being a wrestling fan, you're used to a lot of let downs. You're used to seeing your favorite perfomers die at a young age. In November 2005, Eddie Guerrero, another guy I had loved watching for years, died of heart failure at the age of 38. It was incredibly sad, it took a toll on me that i never knew i would feel. The industry is seemingly designed to break your heart. Owen Hart even died in the ring on a live pay-per-view event. But these were tragic accidents or the result of unfortunate dependence on chemical substances not violent crime. Not murder. To hear that one of your favorite performers ,in any genre, really is not only dead, but a murderer , it's hard to process. Hard to reconcile that with the guy that you thought fondly of for so many years.
Weve all had people whose work we admired meet tragic ends, but not many like this. Yeah, it's not about us ,it's incredibly callous to take a tragedy like this and try to make it about bystanders. But Benoit was a public figure. People are affected by this, whether they really should be or not.
Like all hobbies and distractions like this, professional wrestling is supposed to be fun. Something you turn on for a few hours a week to forget about whatever else might be going on. Escapism. At this point being a fan carries a heavy burden , it's going to be incredibly hard to have fun with it going forward. But like anything, the show must go on.
Most folks probably won't be surprised to hear that a professional wrestler was capable of such a crime. As a wrestling fan, you always have to sort of apologize for it , say that there really are good athletes involved, that the fans know it's fake, that it's often entertaining and funny and exciting to watch due to the skill of the performers. Sometimes I feel that maybe most wrestling fans and I are too smart to like wrestling as much as we do, but ultimately I've always decided that we just are able to appreciate it on a level that the vast majority of people will never understand. Still, you hear so many people say that it's barbaric, violent, sexist, bad for society and promotes violence in its fans.
That it breeds unhealthy behavior and tragic ends are almost inevitable for many involved, and is simply vapid entertainment at best and televised mayhem and raunch at worst.
But then again the same could be said about these reality TV shows that seem to run rampant these days. All trying to get your attention and doing all they can with whatever off the wall content or topics they have to offer to get their ratings.
maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong.
are you one or the other?
At this point, the press conference is over. It appears that there was a history of domestic violence. That there was a good deal of time between the killings. That his wife was found bound at the feet, possibly the hands. There's no idea of motive, and people are trying to say that maybe the steroids caused a mental illness.
This was supposed to be one of the good guys, and to paraphrase my what everyone seems to be saying, it's turned out that he's probably the worst guy. And that's devestating.
it's sad when we learn that who we looked up to, the heroes that we had, are probably the worst people in the entire planet.