The Five-Year Anniversary of Chris Benoit is RAW

Five Years Later: How Chris Benoit Killed the Wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment

That man was Chris Benoit. In a 22-year career, Chris Benoit became one of the most respected in-ring competitors and one of the honored in-ring competitors of all-time. Benoit was a two-time world champion (one-time WCW Champion and one-time World Heavyweight Champion in WWE), a five-time United States Champion, a four-time Intercontinental Champion, a seven-time Tag Team Champion (once in ECW, twice in WCW, and four times in WWE), and a one-time Television Champion in WCW. In 1994, Benoit won the prestigious Super J Cup tournament in New Japan Pro Wrestling. A decade late, Benoit won the WWE Royal Rumble match by entering first and lasting a then-record 1:01:30. Chris Benoit had a highly decorated career and was destined for immortality as one of the all-time greats in the sport of professional wrestling.

The weekend of June 22nd-24th, 2007 changed that.

On June 25th, 2005, authorities went to the Benoit home in Fayetteville, Georgia on a “welfare check” after several missed appointments led to concerns. Inside the home, police discovered the bodies of Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their 7-year-old son Daniel at around 2:30PM. On Friday, June 22nd, Chris murdered his wife, Nancy, in an upstairs office. She was found with her limbs bound to a chair. She was straggled with a cord. Authorities found a Bible by her body. The following day, Chris murdered his son, Daniel, in the child’s bedroom. Drugged and likely unconscious before the murder, Daniel was suffocated in his bed. Alongside his body, a Bible laid. Chris Benoit committed suicide a day later by using a cord from a weight machine to create a noose for himself. Benoit then released approximately 240 pounds, six pounds more than his own weight, to cause his strangulation. No suicide not was discovered at the scene o the crime but one was later found in a box of Chris’ belongings at the home of his first wife, Martina Benoit. The note, found in a Bible, simply read, “I’m preparing to leave this Earth.”

World Wrestling Entertainment initially canceled a three-hour RAW scheduled that night to honor and pay tribute to Benoit. By the end of the broadcast, the news came that Benoit committed the murders and committed suicide. Vince McMahon opened ECW the following night with this statement:

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Last night on Monday Night Raw, the WWE presented a special tribute show, recognizing the career of Chris Benoit. However, now some 26 hours later, the facts of this horrific tragedy are now apparent. Therefore, other than my comments, there will be no mention of Mr. Benoit’s name tonight. On the contrary, tonight’s show will be dedicated to everyone who has been affected by this terrible incident. This evening marks the first step of the healing process. Tonight, WWE performers will do what they do better than anyone else in the world: entertain you.”

From that moment forward, World Wrestling Entertainment never mentioned Chris Benoit again on WWE television again. Outside of a mention in a couple of publications, WWE erased Chris Benoit from the record books completely. It is as if the man never existed. I can understand WWE distancing itself from a man who murdered his family and committed suicide in such a heinous manner. Society no longer celebrates many athletes and entertainers because of acts committed later in life. With that said, their accomplishments are still respected and honored.  The National Football League still respects the on-field contributions of OJ Simpson despite Simpson allegedly killing his ex-wife and her lover. The acting accomplishments of Robert Blake still exist despite Blake’s trial and acquittal over the death of his second wife. In short, many have committed actions that ended the celebration of their lives. However, they were not erased from the face of the earth. That is what Vince McMahon and WWE have tried to do with the 22-year career of Chris Benoit.

I still respect Chris Benoit, the professional wrestler, because he brought an in-ring ability and a quiet intensity to the ring that few matched before him and fewer have had since him. I do not condone the actions of Chris Benoit, the man. However, I will not say steroids caused Benoit to snap that weekend and I will not use this tragedy as evidence on the evils of professional wrestling. Evidence concerning the mental capabilities of Benoit after 20+ years of concussions from athletic endeavors leads me to believe that Chris Benoit was not in his right mind when he murdered his family and committed suicide. While this does not justify his actions, I do believe that it paints him in a light much different from the portrayals of a steroid-raging monster as the media have tried to describe Benoit in the five years since the tragedy. Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son that weekend before committing suicide. Little did Chris Benoit know that he did something else that weekend. He killed the wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment.

The golden days of World Wrestling Entertainment were already in the rearview mirror before the Chris Benoit tragedy occurred. John Cena was the face of the company and in the midst of a year-plus long WWE Championship reign. The company was stuck in a rut with every main event revolving around Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Batista, Edge, or The Undertaker. While the fans yearned for fresh faces in the main event picture, the “same old six” were firmly in control of the company with regards to management’s favor. (Side note: it is funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.) While the in-ring action was solid a majority of the time, the focus of WWE programming stayed on the worst possible storylines. The three-hour RAW canceled the night news of the Benoit tragedy broke was originally a memorial for Vince McMahon as, two weeks earlier, he was “killed” in a limousine explosion. With that stupid and tasteless angle mercifully aborted, Vince McMahon’s first step in the healing process was not to focus on professional wrestling inside the ring. Instead, McMahon became the focal point of a storyline where it was revealed that the midget leprechaun Hornswoggle was his illegitimate son after months of horrible promos.

In the five years since the Benoit tragedy, we have witnessed World Wrestling Entertainment fall to new lows never imagined. WWE openly pandered to the children in the audience and became a company more concerned with keeping children in the audience than keeping wrestling fans in the audience. Corny, unfunny attempts at comedy replaced raw emotion and intensity. D-list celebrity hosts replaced A-list celebrities watching from the stands. Feuds started for no reason and ended with no culmination because logic became irrelevant since the target audience could not remember from one week to the new. Talking for 20 minutes without saying a word replaced five minutes of powerful language that got a point across. Sock-covered “cobras,” water bottles, and BBQ sauce baths replaced kendo sticks, chair shots, and blood baths. For every CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Zack Ryder, Alberto Del Rio, or Cody Rhodes to breathe life into the professional wrestling fans, there has been a John Cena or Randy Orton still in their way preventing them from truly achieving greatness. Being an in-ring specialist has become akin to wearing a scarlet letter in the WWE since the Chris Benoit tragedy as only in rare instances have the professional wrestling truly gotten to shine over the sport entertainers/children entertainers that Vince McMahon pushes today. Pay-per-view buyrates, television ratings, stock market prices, arena attendance, and fan interest are all at all-time lows with no hope on the horizon for this once-proud professional wrestling company. Of course, also in the wake of the Benoit tragedy, Vince McMahon himself ordered the term “wrestling” banned from his company because the WWE is a sports entertainment company. Chris Benoit, ultimately, killed wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Five years is a long time. Yet, for those hurt by Chris Benoit’s actions over the weekend of June 22nd-24th, 2007, I am sure five years feels like a few minutes. I can never imagine the pain, suffering, and ultimately disappointment they experienced or continue to experience in the aftermath of this tragedy. The wrestling world can move on. The wrestling business can continue and thrive. However, the biggest promotion in the world allowed this incident to change it and change it in a way not easily reversible. Truthfully, it may never be reversed. Chris Benoit did more than kill his wife and son before committing suicide. He killed the lifeblood behind a multi-billion dollar company when he killed the wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment.