Yes it was a shock to say the least. Benoit was my favorite almost from the beginning of me watching wrestling. The guy could put on fantastic matches against almost anybody.

I’ll admit that I teared up a bit when I found out. Not only was it him, but his wife and 7-year old son, which is just harsh.

It’ll suck never being able to see him work again. I’m pretty much done with wrestling now. With Benoit and Eddie gone and Jericho all but retired, it just isn’t the same.

Yikes. I don’t follow wrestling much anymore (not that I did), but Benoit was an excellent ‘heel’ (to use the industry term) and knew how to project it.

His whole family? Man, that’s hosed up.

--TR

Benoit was the best of the performers to come from WCW to the WWE in the merger. Hard working, always a solid wrestler, and never ever boring. A real life Wolverine.

I gave up on wrestling a couple of years ago, and tried to watch the ECW and TNN, but it just doesn’t resonate with me like it did in the era of Stone Cold vs. The Rock.

Such a shame.  My brothers and I were fans of him during the WCW days.  Benoit, along with Guerrero, Jericho, Booker T, DDP, Mysterio, and a few others were the only guys wrestling during the height of NWO.  It’s a dame shame.

I am still having a hard time processing this. When you hear about these things, it is normally someone who has a history of being fucked up. Benoit just DOESN’T fit that to me.

I am just shocked, and saddened. I want to remeber the benoit who worked his ass off, was a class act in the WWE, not the one who killed his wife and son and himself. I just can’t picture him doing this. It hurts…

I’ve heard reports that they did find steroids at the house.

I can’t wrap my brain around it. I just can’t. Its almost to horrible to imagine.

I have no idea how in the world I am going to explain this to Damian and Braedon. They watch it with me, they know the wrestlers names. How do I tell my 9 and 6 year old boys that a man they cheered for killed his wife, his son who was around thier age and himself? What do I tell them?

I am just really struggling trying to process this. I can picture this from like Stone Cold or someone else who has had domestic issues in the past but Benoit was one I never heard that about. He seemed such a family man...I just don’t get it. I don’t know if I ever will. My memories are tarnished and I don’t even want to look at the pictures I have taken of him at various events.

I just...I can’t process this. It’s so hard.

Janna - I feel exactly like that.

As for what to tell the boys?  God...I don’t know.  Part of me says “tell the truth” but my god, the truth is so horrible.

I wish I could help you figure this out...feel free to keep talking about it here, maybe someone else out there can weigh in and give you an idea.

Ok, seriously. This doesn’t surprise me at all. What does surprise me is that this doesn’t happen every fucking day (well, it probably does, but not with actual murder). C’mon. These people are paid to beat the crap out of each other. I don’t care if it’s real (boxing, unless Don King’s involved) or scripted (wrestling), it takes a certain degree of sociopathy to do that sort of thing - no exceptions. And, no, I’m not one of those “videogames make t3h killer kidz!!!!11!” nutjobs - there’s a difference between living in a fantasy world and actually physically doing harm to somebody (at least, in reasonably well adjusted people).

Apparently this “great guy” had some previous domestic abuse issues. No shit. I’m not surprised when Mike Tyson goes all cannibal or punches some old dude in the beanbag. I am surprised that guys like Oscar de la Hoya and Evander Hollyfield seems to be class acts. But there’s so much money floating around there to buy people off - and let’s face it, in that business it’s pretty easy to find someone to beat the living fuck out of someone who gets too noisy as well - that you can never really know. So sorry all you wrestling fans, you get a guy to beat up on people and pump him full of steriods and he snaps… and you’re surprised? Bitch, please.

And in just to prove my point, look at what comes up…

Pro Wrestling Wife Claims Drug Abuse, Domestic Violence ‘Out of Hand in the WWE’

he former wife of pro wrestling superstar “Stone Cold” Steve Austin broke what had been a court-imposed silence and charged that “domestic and drug abuse is out of hand in the WWE and something needs to be done about it.”

Debra Williams’ stunning charge, reported Wednesday by MyFoxColorado.com, comes in the wake of the grisly discovery of the bodies of Chris Benoit and his wife, Nancy-Daus Benoit, and 7-year-old son, Daniel.

Police in Fayetteville, Ga., say Benoit strangled his wife Friday, then suffocated his son on Saturday before hanging himself on Sunday. Their bodies were discovered Monday morning after Benoit canceled pay-per-view and personal appearances that weekend in Texas. Investigators said anabolic steroids and other drugs were found in the Benoit house.

Williams, meanwhile, is one of the more visible wrestling wives and had been scripted into many televised bouts and appearances. She was married to Steve McMichaels, a former Chicago Bears football player, when she first began working with the Atlanta-base World Championship Wrestling organization. When that group was acquired by WWF — now WWE — she divorced McMichaels and married Austin.

Williams told MyFoxColorado.com that Nancy-Daus Benoit’s history of domestic violence and being married to a steroid user was similar to her own.

Both sought help from law enforcement because of domestic abuse, she said.

In 2003, Benoit sought a divorce from Chris Benoit saying he physically abused her, and asked the courts for a restraining order. Williams did the same thing on the third occasion when she says she was attacked by “Stone Cold.”

“He did them, I saw him do them!” Williams said about her ex-husband’s use of steroids.

Williams says, like Benoit, Austin all but forced her to write a letter to authorities saying her complaint was a mistake. But in Williams’ case, the courts put Austin on probation for a year. In return, Williams says she was placed under a gag order, forcing her to remain silent about the “dark side” of professional wrestling, filled with drugs, booze and domestic abuse.

“If only I had spoken up sooner, maybe Nancy and her little boy would be alive today… that’s why I’m going public now, something has to change!”

Click here to read the complete MyFoxColorado.com story and view their video report.

I know how you feel Jana, Just hang in there and I will try to explain if the boys ask.  I can just say he took some medicine that was “bad” for him and it made him do things that wasn’t right.  Boy, you have to feel for the parents and friends who are left behind.  And yes, the WWE has to take stock of what they are doing because this is 2 major black marks against them. Hang McMahon up by his @#$%!!!

Thanks Mom. Luckily they haven’t asked yet and I have kind of kept it from them. We will have to see if they ask about it later. I’m kinda hoping that they don’t really find out until they are much older and I can better explain it.

If they keep it off the TV then we should be OK, and as I understand by the WWE, they are not mentioning him at all on the shows.

Now it looks like Benoit’s wikipedia page was updated to include his absence from the recent PPV event was due to the “death of his wife”.  And the updater’s IP address came from the same spot in Connecticut where WWE headquarters were located.

As for the steroids found at his residence, it was testosterone prescribed to replenish the testosterone loss brought about by steroid abuse.  Ironic, to say the least.

Someone at WWE knew Benoit offed his autistic kid and wife before Benoit killed himself.  This stinks from the top down.  And my theory that the “tribute” RAW on Monday was in the works a little earlier than that Monday may have some credibility after all.

eh,

An anonymous user with the same IP address as the person who made the edits confessed early Friday on an online discussion page attached to the Web site, saying the changes were based on rumors and speculation, not hard evidence.

Just further proof to not use wikipedia as an information source.