Benoit Tragedy-10 Years Later

[Beets by Schrute]

Two days from now will mark the day that a decade ago, Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel were found dead in their home. Throughout that day, no one knew what could of happened. Co-workers and friends in WWE mourned the loss of an icon in the industry. He was to be a future Hall of Famer because of what he could do in the ring. He had that respect.

Then as a tribute aired for him on RAW, this man that was mourned was strongly considered to be the chief reason for this horrific event. The words "Murder-Suicide" flashed across newscreens around the country. The legacy of this "icon" would soon be tarnished and his actions led to major changes in the industry which still can be felt so many years later.

At the time of the tragedy, I casually watched WWE and did not consider myself a fan. However, the attention the media was giving WWE throughout the summer got me interested in watching more of the shows.

As I reflect on my experiences with this tragedy, I want to know the experiences of other people on here. How did you first hear about it? What was your thoughtprocess when the authorities made the facts point to that horrific conclusion? Do you still feel the effects of this tragedy as you watch WWE today?

[The Yes Man]

I was eight, and Chris Benoit was my favorite wrestler. I remember my parents were watching CNN and it came up. I was probably playing with my Jakks figures or something by the tv, but I looked up and saw Benoits face and started paying attention to the TV. They explained how he and his family were all dead, but didn't really know what happened yet. I instantly pretty much burst into tears. Then sometime over that week I figured out what happened and my childhood was pretty much ruined.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

What a crazy day it was. I remember waking up and checking the computer, seeing the RIP graphic. I think I went to camp? I don't remember exactly what I did that day. RAW was sad. Then the next day everything basically started to come out, I think.

Edit: I was 15, so I either had a job already or was between my first and second job.

[Nikki Heyman]

I had just come home from work and settled in on the message boards to see what was going on. When I saw the headline, I honestly thought at first that it was a work because we were only a couple of weeks removed from Vince's "fiery death" in the limo.

Read through all the speculation and had a hard time believing it until Raw started. The opening graphic gutted me.

Listening to the honest testimonials of those who were close to Chris was crushing, but somewhere during the show the testimonials stopped....

[Chiral]

I honestly think the whole ordeal messed me up. In a way, wrestling as I knew it as a child died that week.

[J. Hova]

I remember this vividly. This was during my "Freedom Summer." I had saved up enough money for a 22 year old to not have to work for a while (I was tending bar and living at home at the time). I took the freedom to finish my degree and look for a job in my field that I found in July and started in August and have been with the company ever since.

My best friend and I were huge Chris Benoit fans and I, as the more experienced wrestling fan, was a fan of his since I saw his work in WCW. This was before smartphones really took off so when we tuned into RAW that fateful Monday night, it was the first we heard of it. My first thought was carbon monoxide poisoning which was probably because there was a similar accident in the news locally recently. As the night wore on, my mind started to wander and by the end, my buddy and I were opening speculating that it was a murder-suicide. It was still up in the air in our heads on whether it was a kill the kid, then the wife, then yourself or kill the kid, kill your husband, kill yourself scenario. When I got home after RAW went off the air, I got on my laptop and my worst fears were being confirmed. The wrestler who I loved to watch do his thing for the better part of a decade had savagely and brutally murdered his own child and wife.

I can't believe it has been 10 years. I can still watch Benoit matches and not be affected. I think a lot of that has to do with me being able to compartmentalize my life in general. The only times it really makes me cringe was a few weeks back I was binge watching some Clash of Champions and Benoit was valeted by Miss Elizabeth and Woman or when I watch the swandive headbutt. They stopped and posed for the cameras and I just kept thinking all three are dead so far before their times.

I don't blame Chris Benoit for his sickness considering the tests that have shown his brain was that of an 80 year old with Alzheimer's. I'm not trying to be an apologist or make a saint out of a sinner but I can't hold someone responsible who is in that mental state when I have seen what mental illness can do to someone. He was a very sick man and while I despise his actions, I can't help but feel sorry for the hell he was enduring in his own head. It also scares the hell out of me considering I've had 4 concussions in my life (thanks football!) and I hope the research is right that you are relatively fine as long as they are spread out.

[Hit Girl]

When I first heard that Benoit and his family had all died, I thought it must have been some sort of carbon monoxide poisoning freak accident.

[Deleted]

Nothing can ever make it make sense, but knowing what we now know about CTE it helps me to understand it a little better. That said there were about a million other things that contributed and ultimately no one and nothing except Benoit is responsible. It was just the perfect storm of things that all came together in a tragic way.

I was on FAN that day and there was all sorts of speculation. In retrospect when the E cancelled Raw it should have been a giveaway that something was up. I feel like they at least had an idea of what it might be and like everyone else they were hoping that it wasn't what it turned out to be.

[Mozenrath]

I remember saying if anyone needed to talk, they could PM me, and some took me up on it. It's been ages, but feels so recent.

[Bub (BLM)]

Jun 23, 2017 23:30:03 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

When I first heard that Benoit and his family had all died, I thought it must have been some sort of carbon monoxide poisoning freak accident.

That's exactly what I thought as well. Then as more news came out, my stomach turned.

[Stu]

Things were so bad here, Madison locked WWE Current for a few days. He sent a mass PM to every single member explaining things. It was surreal.

[Perfect Timing]

I remember reading about it in the day and being shocked as I loved his work. It was surreal seeing it covered on FOX News for most of the day. I got really drunk that night while watching RAW and shed a few tears while hammered.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Jun 23, 2017 22:51:52 GMT -5 Nikki Heyman said:

Listening to the honest testimonials of those who were close to Chris was crushing, but somewhere during the show the testimonials stopped....

IIRC the testimonials were the same kind of tone we'd come to expect at that point up until Regal's. I certainly remember his being markedly different from everybody else's up to that point, much more guarded and perhaps even a little impersonal. Even at that point I thought to myself maybe there was something that they knew then that maybe they didn't know just a few minutes before, which of course turned out to be exactly that.

[arrogantmodel]

I was dating a girl and we had gone out that Sunday that Benoit no showed the ppv. So I wasn't online or anything to see or read what was going on. Then we hung out again that Monday, so I missed Raw and the tribute show.

Then Tuesday morning, I wake up and see WWE star and family dead, murder/suicide suspected. And I managed to somehow say, "Holy shit!", while simultaneously dropping my jaw.

I feel like the Benoit murders are wrestling fan's Pearl Harbor/JFK assassination/9-11, in that you'll always know where you were when you saw or heard about it.

[ayumidah]

It was SUCH a weird period of time. I thought I'd been through the ringer already with Eddie Guerrero's death, and then this happened. I remember watching the ECW PPV and I always liked Johnny Nitro/Morrison whatever name he was going by, so I was supporting him that night while my father was always anti-heel, so he was supporting Benoit in the feud... and then when Johnny won it that night, Dad looked over at me and said "You know he only won because Benoit no-showed." He didn't SAY anything like that after the family was found dead, thankfully, he probably didn't even remember it once we learned what happened, but it always stuck with me and made me think about how weird/bad John must have felt about it, if it left me with such a sinking feeling. What a way to bring in your first somewhat big title win.

I don't remember exactly how I learned the news as vividly as I remember what I was doing when I learned Eddie died, but I imagine it was the same way-- read it online and then rushed to tell my dad. I do remember us sitting around watching news reports on it until everything became so ugly and disheartening there.

[MiLB Fan]

Ten years ... damn.

I started the day by checking PWInsider for Vengeance news/results, and there was a small note that Benoit missed the show because of a "family emergency." At that point I didn't think much of it, other than "gee, hope it's nothing serious."

The next time I accessed the Internet was about 15 minutes before the start of Raw. As this was supposed to be the Mr. McMahon memorial show, I was all set to kick off my night of posting with a joke about which of these would dominate the show: Vengeance recaps or McMahon tribute segments. For no real reason, I decided to visit WWE's website. And that's when I saw this:

"BENOIT FAMILY DEAD."

Now without reading the article--and remember that we didn't know everything yet--my first reaction was that there had been an accident, or a house fire, or even that someone had broken into the home and killed the family. I immediately raced over here and things were very tense, as you might expect. My dad called me during the tribute show to ask if I had heard what happened, and that's when I learned that authorities were treating it as a murder-suicide. Madison actually shut down the WWE Current board for a day or so afterward because emotions were running so high; that was surreal.

I can watch Benoit's matches on the Network, but I don't intentionally seek them out. When WWE announced that WCW PPVs would be available on its new service, I decided that the first thing I would watch after signing up would be SuperBrawl 3, because that was my first WCW PPV. This show included a match between Benoit and Too Cold Scorpio. And I watched WrestleMania 20 on its 10-year anniversary. Not for Benoit, but more for historical purposes--"this show is 10 years old already?!"

WWE usually does an "On This Day" feature on its social-media pages. Even if they can find something else that happened on June 24, the company would probably be wise not to do it today. Because you know some smartass is going to bring this up.

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

Don't know if I can call it a spooky coincidence but I brought the Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story DVD the day before it happened.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Jun 24, 2017 1:02:48 GMT -5 MiLB Fan said:

WWE usually does an "On This Day" feature on its social-media pages. Even if they can find something else that happened on June 24, the company would probably be wise not to do it today. Because you know some smartass is going to bring this up.

On the other hand, the Benoit tragedy wasn't exactly confined to one day, so if they are going to do that, they might as well take the week off.

[willywonka666]

I had pretty much stopped watching Raw a year earlier, but my cousin, who is also a huge wrestling fan called and told me to turn on the tv, after the initial shock, I called a friend and went to his house and while I was there, my mom called me and told me my cousin had called and word was coming out that Chris did it-i didn't believe it-i thought she got the facts mixed up or something. I don't recall anything being weird about Regal's comments-maybe I was just in shock and only paying attention halfway.

I don't think, and I hope, that nothing ever comes close to that shock in wrestling again

[Evil Homer]

I absolutely loved Benoit, he was my favorite wrestler ever . It was an absolute honor for me to be live at WM 20 , I literally was in tears as Hunter tapped out the crossface. I have not seen any of his matches since then.