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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Jun 25, 2019 14:40:22 GMT -5
I definitely remember the tribute show feeling.....eerie, even before the news came out. Something was off, and you could tell that even if the people working and speaking didn't KNOW exactly what was up, that there was a feeling that something was wrong.
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Post by I'm Team Bayley and Indi on Jun 25, 2019 16:21:54 GMT -5
Some company booked David a couple of years ago I believe, I think Jericho stepped in
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Post by thetower52 on Jun 25, 2019 16:55:36 GMT -5
Some company booked David a couple of years ago I believe, I think Jericho stepped in That would be one of stampede wrestling’s many attempts at coming back.
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Post by arrogantmodel on Jun 25, 2019 18:30:02 GMT -5
Or a very long and specific ring introduction. Coming to the ring, hailing from Canada, Andrea "I have absolutely nothing to do with you-know-who" Benoit!
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Venti
Unicron
Posts: 2,942
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Post by Venti on Jun 25, 2019 19:56:31 GMT -5
Now I have some time to gather my thoughts:
The gravity of this situation didn't hit me until I was a couple years older. Then it truly hit me how crazy and tragic this was.
I've never talked about this before, but as a kid when his memorial graphic popped up on the TV, for some reason I had this weird inkling in my little head that I shouldn't feel bad for this guy. Like, he's gone, and I should be sad, but instead I just felt.. weird. I've always been pretty intuitive, but I was like 11 and had no concept of a double murder suicide.
Another thing that sticks with me after doing research, is that while initially most of his fellow wrestlers were of the idea that "Chris would never do this, Chris loved his family," I've read lots of things about him that may not have been "warning signs" but were still pretty off about the guy.
The way Jericho talks about him in his book makes him sound like he was a troubled man, even if that isn't what Jericho was trying to portray. Hardcore Holly said on his last conversation with Chris, that he said Nancy was "acting like Hitler" And then of course, theres the fact that she tried filing for divorce and allegedly kept records of abuse, and once said "if anything happens to me, it was Chris."
So I don't know if necessarily buy the idea that he was perfectly normal and suddenly snapped. I believe it was a lethal mixture of drugs, alcohol, brain trauma, a strained marriage, possible mental illness that already existed, and the constant grief and depression of losing all of his friends, and wondering if he was next. Just drove the guy to the brink, in my opinion.
That's about as far as I want to go into this, I really don't want to dwell on it too much because it's just so sad.
If anyone wants to research and know more, whether out of morbid curiosity(lots of us have been there) or just trying to search for answers, I highly recommend Jericho's podcast with Nancy's sister, the Lapsed Fan 10 year dive(super long, but I learned alot) and plus there's a couple books written on the subject.
As for me, now that I got my thoughts out I'm going to spend the rest of the year trying not to think on it, other then use it as a reminder to always take care of yourself, which is something I don't think Chris knew how to do.
Also, can I just say how much I appreciate the fact that no one has argued or anything in this thread? This board really is top notch compared to most places I've been on the internet where people debate and it turns into flame-wars. Thanks FAN.
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 20,871
Member is Online
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Post by agent817 on Jun 25, 2019 20:14:19 GMT -5
I wasn't a member here yet, but I did go on the Raw board on IMDB, which was IMDB's unofficial wrestling board. I also lurked on the message board of a wrestling group on MySpace (Yes, this does show how long it has been). Here is what I remember.
On the day of the show, I went with my mom to my grandma's house. My younger cousin had the DVD of Vengeance 2006. Because it was the same day as Vengeance, he thought why not put on the DVD of the previous year's show. We were there to visit and then I went home and check the Raw board on IMDB and then there was a report of Chris Benoit not showing up to the event because of "a family emergency." I wondered what the deal was. Then came the report the following day of the deaths. I was shocked and blown when I heard that. I kept on looking online for the reports. Then came when they aired Raw that night. Right after the show, there had been threads on the Raw board of Benoit murdering his wife and son. Then I was blown away even more. I didn't want to believe it, but there had been talk of it.
As for the MySpace wrestling board, there had been numerous threads about the Benoit murders. At some point, the moderators had said that they won't allow any further discussions about the murders.
Also, I think you guys should listen to Jericho's podcast with Chavo Guerrero. He gave a lot of insight about the whole ordeal.
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Post by Cela on Jun 25, 2019 20:29:47 GMT -5
My mom absolutely hates wrestling. Her grandma made her watch it. She always found it was dumb. And forbade it whenever I tried to watch. Often she'd call it gay, or make gorilla noises to point out how stupid it was.
When Benoit happened, I like to give props to my mom for not leaping onto an obviously downed opponent. And she was actually pretty supportive about it. Still a little annoying with some light barbs, but that and Eddie were the nicest my mom has ever been about wrestling.
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Post by tartsonawire on Jun 25, 2019 21:53:55 GMT -5
I had forgotten Raw was 3 hrs that night (back when it was 2 hrs) and tuned in at the 2nd hr to see the "In Memory of..." graphic and Vince talking in the middle of the ring in an empty arena. I started freaking out and crying and combing the net for info. Then, the additional shock when, right before Raw went off the air, the truth started coming out. Sadness and anger at watching an ignorant and biased media rip wrestling apart for the next week, and some pride when guys like Jericho went on shows and gave good, intelligent, and eloquent interviews. Horrible tragedy.
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Post by XaviersSS2015hair on Jun 26, 2019 5:20:21 GMT -5
My dad, brother and sister have only come to California once to visit me and of course that would be the week they came out. The only reason I didn't order the Night of Champions ppv was because they were in town and I didn't want to waste a day of their vacation sitting at home watching wrestling. I was completely sold on that ppv simply for Punk vs Benoit. I even told my girlfriend I was going to order it at her house and she said okay. Fast forward to Monday and we had been at Great America (amusment park) all day and were on our way back to my house when I got a phone call. The same friend that broke the news to me about Eddie dying called to tell me the news about Benoit. I wondered how the hell the whole family died and assumed it was a car accident. In the back of my mind I was thinking murder-suicide could be a possibility but I was really hoping for the car accident scenario as terrible as that sounds. I drove home really fast the rest of the way so I could get home and watch Raw to see what they were going to do that night. As we sat and watched the 3 hour broadcast together at one point I remember my sister who at the time was only 10 years old, asking me, are you going to cry? I was totally about to when she asked me that and the only reason I didn't was because she asked and I had to pull myself together. For the rest of their stay which was another 4 or 5 days I remember my dad flipping through the channels and saying, damn this wrestler is on every channel! So unfortunately every time one of us brings up what a great vacation that was that incident instantly pops up in the back of my mind.
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Jun 26, 2019 6:19:31 GMT -5
I had watched Vengeance and remember being totally crushed that Benoit/Punk wasn't happening, but at the same time, didn't put much thought into it because, well, real life happens sometimes, and it must've been serious if Benoit was missing a show. I worked the following day and got home probably around 4. I got online, got on MSN Messenger, and started browsing some of my usual websites...and froze when I saw the front page of WWE.com: "WWE is sad to report that Chris Benoit and his family have been found dead in their home. Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Tonight's Raw will be a tribute to Chris and his family." I immediately contacted a wrestling friend of mine and we just sat there and talked most of the night as speculation ran wild online. Watching the tribute Raw just felt surreal. Seeing Vince break character on-screen amidst an angle they had clearly invested a lot of time and resources in erased any hope we had of it just being some sick, tasteless work. Looking online for updates actually led me to this place, and I just remember this whole board being in such total chaos that staff had to shut down WWE Current for the night: officialfan.proboards.com/thread/116221I literally couldn't sleep at all that night. New information was coming out every minute, and it was looking more and more like what we eventually discovered to be true. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't reconcile the whys or the hows, much like everyone else. Between the actual events and the media's lynching of everything pro wrestling, it's something that took everyone a very long time to come down from. Plain and simple, 2007 was not a fun time to be a wrestling fan.
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Post by thetower52 on Jun 26, 2019 10:22:42 GMT -5
I had watched Vengeance and remember being totally crushed that Benoit/Punk wasn't happening, but at the same time, didn't put much thought into it because, well, real life happens sometimes, and it must've been serious if Benoit was missing a show. I worked the following day and got home probably around 4. I got online, got on MSN Messenger, and started browsing some of my usual websites...and froze when I saw the front page of WWE.com: "WWE is sad to report that Chris Benoit and his family have been found dead in their home. Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Tonight's Raw will be a tribute to Chris and his family." I immediately contacted a wrestling friend of mine and we just sat there and talked most of the night as speculation ran wild online. Watching the tribute Raw just felt surreal. Seeing Vince break character on-screen amidst an angle they had clearly invested a lot of time and resources in erased any hope we had of it just being some sick, tasteless work. Looking online for updates actually led me to this place, and I just remember this whole board being in such total chaos that staff had to shut down WWE Current for the night: officialfan.proboards.com/thread/116221I literally couldn't sleep at all that night. New information was coming out every minute, and it was looking more and more like what we eventually discovered to be true. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't reconcile the whys or the hows, much like everyone else. Between the actual events and the media's lynching of everything pro wrestling, it's something that took everyone a very long time to come down from. Plain and simple, 2007 was not a fun time to be a wrestling fan. I’m re reading that thread now. f*** it’s something that’s for sure Christ there where people saying Kevin Sullivan did it before it was even announced that Benoit did it
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Post by I'm Team Bayley and Indi on Jun 26, 2019 11:23:12 GMT -5
Reading the thread from 2007, brings back a lot of memories, I was already signed up to the forum (more a lurker most of the time), crazy how many people think it's a work related to the Vince storyline, that was probably just wishful thinking, hoping it's a sick joke
Murder/suicide does come up a couple of times in the first few pages too, just surreal to be reading the thread again after so many years
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Post by Macho Pichu on Jun 26, 2019 11:45:45 GMT -5
I remember reading about it on the Wii News channel of all places. Turns out that, yes, there was at least one instance of someone actually using it.
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Post by paulbearer on Jun 28, 2019 16:57:23 GMT -5
I remember Vince and other wrestlers were on CNN talking about this tragedy , you could tell Vince was seriously worried this could damage WWE big time
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ayumidah
Wade Wilson
The ace-iest bi you'll ever meet
Posts: 25,501
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Post by ayumidah on Jun 28, 2019 17:22:06 GMT -5
I was online when the news broke, and I had to go tell my dad. It happened on my mother's bday, no less. Then we spent days watching news media coverage of it. It was a bizarre, horrible time as a WWE fan, and so soon after losing Eddie too.
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