Chris Benoit
I'm... kind of in shock right now. At least some of the people who read this will know that I've been a wrestling fan for a long time, and even though my interest has waned from time to time, I still generally follow it and do care about it. An hour or two ago I went looking for results on what happened on the WWE's PPV on Sunday and was met with the news that Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and his 7-year-old son had been found dead in their home.
I was crushed. Chris Benoit has been one of my heroes since I was first introduced to his work when he signed with the then-WWF, and I've since had the pleasure of catching up on some of his work in WCW, ECW and Japan prior to that. He was one of the best technical wrestlers ever and busted his ass every single night. Through his perseverance he overcame a non-"Superstar" look and size and won the WWE's World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania XX in one of the most emotional moments I've ever witnessed in a wrestling ring. As a wrestler, as a Canadian, and as a person, he was an inspiration and hero to me, and I couldn't believe that he had died.
Now the investigator's are saying with reasonable certainty that it was a murder-suicide. The current statement is that Benoit killed his wife and son during the weekend, and himself sometime Monday. Now all the sentiment I felt towards him, every great moment I remembered and cherished, and every tribute spoken of him on tonight's episode of WWE Raw which was made into a tribute show for him in the last moment, it has all been cheapened. How can I idolize a man who killed his wife and son? I can't even rationalize this. I can't even believe that he would do it, and I could hope against hope that they discover something that convinces investigators otherwise - but I fear it would all be for naught.
I don't know how I'll ever reconcile this in my head. In the past I have tried to separate musicians from their ideologies for example, and novelists from their beliefs, with varying degrees of success. This is the worst of all, though. Wow. This is... too much.
It's not even the most emotional moment I've had to be a part of this evening. What a tremendously bad night.
I was crushed. Chris Benoit has been one of my heroes since I was first introduced to his work when he signed with the then-WWF, and I've since had the pleasure of catching up on some of his work in WCW, ECW and Japan prior to that. He was one of the best technical wrestlers ever and busted his ass every single night. Through his perseverance he overcame a non-"Superstar" look and size and won the WWE's World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania XX in one of the most emotional moments I've ever witnessed in a wrestling ring. As a wrestler, as a Canadian, and as a person, he was an inspiration and hero to me, and I couldn't believe that he had died.
Now the investigator's are saying with reasonable certainty that it was a murder-suicide. The current statement is that Benoit killed his wife and son during the weekend, and himself sometime Monday. Now all the sentiment I felt towards him, every great moment I remembered and cherished, and every tribute spoken of him on tonight's episode of WWE Raw which was made into a tribute show for him in the last moment, it has all been cheapened. How can I idolize a man who killed his wife and son? I can't even rationalize this. I can't even believe that he would do it, and I could hope against hope that they discover something that convinces investigators otherwise - but I fear it would all be for naught.
I don't know how I'll ever reconcile this in my head. In the past I have tried to separate musicians from their ideologies for example, and novelists from their beliefs, with varying degrees of success. This is the worst of all, though. Wow. This is... too much.
It's not even the most emotional moment I've had to be a part of this evening. What a tremendously bad night.