No Benoit thread? I'm surprised.

[Merusk]

I thought there were a bunch of wrestling fans around here, (I'm not) so I was surprised there was no Beoit thread in progress.

Cops: Death of Benoit, family details 'bizarre' 
Associated Press, Updated 2 hours ago   

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Pro wrestler Chris Benoit canceled a pay-per-view appearance at the "Vengeance" event in Houston because of "personal reasons" a day before he, his wife and their 7-year-old son were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

Details of the deaths "are going to prove a little bizarre" when released to the public, Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Autopsies were scheduled Tuesday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in DeKalb County.
Authorities were investigating the deaths at a secluded Fayette County home as a murder-suicide and were not seeking any suspects.

Investigators believe Benoit, (pronounced ben-WAH) killed his wife and son over the weekend and then himself sometime Monday. The bodies were found Monday afternoon in three different rooms of the house on Green Meadow Lane, in a subdivision off a gravel road about two miles from the Whitewater Country Club.

Ballard told The Associated Press a gun was not used in any of the deaths. But he declined to say how the three died.

"We're pretty sure we know, but we want to confirm it with the crime lab," Ballard said early Tuesday.

Fayette County Coroner C.J. Mowell did not return phone calls. The answering service for his funeral home said he was out of town.
 
Chris Benoit, his wife and son were found dead on Monday in their Georgia home. ( / Associated Press)

World Wrestling Entertainment said on its Web site that it asked authorities to check on Benoit and his family after being alerted by friends who received "several curious text messages sent by Benoit early Sunday morning."

Sheriff's Lt. Tommy Pope told WSB-TV that the three were found about 2:30 p.m., but he wouldn't release other details.

Stamford, Conn.-based WWE also said on its Web site it had been asked by authorities not to release further information on the deaths of Benoit, 40; his wife, Nancy, 43; and son, Daniel.

Benoit was born in Montreal. He was a former world heavyweight champion, Intercontinental champion and held several tag-team titles over his career. He was known by several names including "The Canadian Crippler."

"WWE extends its sincerest thoughts and prayers to the Benoit family's relatives and loved ones in this time of tragedy," the company said in a statement on its Web site.

Benoit had maintained a home in metro Atlanta from the time he wrestled for the defunct World Championship Wrestling.

The WWE canceled its live "Monday Night RAW" card in Corpus Christi, Texas, and USA Network aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit in place of the scheduled wrestling telecast.

Benoit's wife managed several wrestlers and went by the stage name, "Woman," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

They met when her then-husband drew up a script that had them involved in a relationship as part of an ongoing story line on World Championship Wrestling, the newspaper said.

Benoit has two other children from a prior relationship.

Calling their deaths "Bizzare" and with no gun or knife involved makes me kind of queasy about what the details will actually be.   All I can suspect is 'roid rage if it IS a M/S, because no matter how angry I've gotten I've never ever considered touching my kids.  Adults are one thing, but there's something severely broken when you go after your offspring.

[Riggswolfe]

I read about that this morning. The first thing that stuck out to me was that he is survived by two kids by a previous marriage. This is going to be hell on them. Their dad killed their half sibling and step mother? How do you live with something like that?

Yeah, I heard about no knives and no guns and that makes me think he beat them to death. There is also the mysterious text messages. My theory is she cheated on him and he snapped.

I also find myself wondering, sadly, if this isn't some big WWE scam to get attention but I don't think it is.

[Yegolev]

This is why I don't read the news.

[Miasma]

I'm sorry, does that say the USA network ran a three hour "tribute" to a guy believed to have killed his wife and son?

[Signe]

I'm sorry, does that say the USA network ran a three hour "tribute" to a guy believed to have killed his wife and son?

That does seem to be what it says.  Maybe they didn't know at that time that he had done it?  The first story I read didn't give that information.

[CmdrSlack]

I'm sorry, does that say the USA network ran a three hour "tribute" to a guy believed to have killed his wife and son?

USA Network:  Characters Welcome

[Chimpy]

I'm sorry, does that say the USA network ran a three hour "tribute" to a guy believed to have killed his wife and son?

That does seem to be what it says.  Maybe they didn't know at that time that he had done it?  The first story I read didn't give that information.

At the time of the airing, the only story I heard, which is to say I had not even heard he died until flipping channels and saw "Remembering Chris Benoit" in a banner at the bottom of the screen on USA, was the story I looked up that said he and his wife and son were found dead in their home. No mention of foul play or bizzare circumstances.

But then again, I flipped past USA again later and saw some other wrestler talking about how much he will miss him and crying and shit, pumping up him as some saint in the wrestling community. Made me feel that Vince McMahon is using this guys death as a way to drum up publicity.  So chances are the details were not given to the people at USA, if in fact the WWE people knew about them at the time. I guess I read something about McMahon faked his own death on the show to up ratings a couple weeks ago?

I am not a professional wrestling fan, so most of this is second hand stuff I caught on news programs. I do find it hilarious that this is a "sports" story and not a fucking entertainment story like it should be. WWE is a form of entertainment, not a sport. It is more akin to a circus performance than any legitimate sporting event.

[Lantyssa]

I'm sorry, does that say the USA network ran a three hour "tribute" to a guy believed to have killed his wife and son?

That does seem to be what it says.  Maybe they didn't know at that time that he had done it?  The first story I read didn't give that information.

I wondered the same.  In a multiple death situation with unreleased details it's probably good to wait before starting tributes.  If they knew then it's good to know where their priorities are.

[Chimpy]

One must also take into account that the 3 hour block in question was already scheduled for WWE "live" programming, so WWE could have switched their stuff last minute. But who knows. It is a shady business, and the line between where WWE ends and USA begins has always been suspiscious. The network has at times kept afloat solely on the revenue generated by the WWE.

[Paelos]

One must also take into account that the 3 hour block in question was already scheduled for WWE "live" programming, so WWE could have switched their stuff last minute. But who knows. It is a shady business, and the line between where WWE ends and USA begins has always been suspiscious. The network has at times kept afloat solely on the revenue generated by the WWE.

Yeah, Monday Night Raw kicks the shit out of anything else in cable. It took the #1,2, and 6 spots in the ratings for it's hours on TV last week.

[Murgos]

For a cop to say "it's bizarre" you know it's pretty messed up.

[Merusk]

You want to be really disgusted, go read the comments on the news story I linked.  Fans still holding him up as a saint.  I can understand waivering, or saying "I sure hope it isn't true..." but it's none of that.  It's "He was the greatest guy who ever lived. Stop trashing his rep, you assholes."

I guess I read something about McMahon faked his own death on the show to up ratings a couple weeks ago?

From what I heard on the news this morning (with a quote from McMahon) that Story was supposed to run this week, but has been dropped.  WWE does crazy stuff like that and I can accept it.  It's the 3-hour 'tribue to..' that has me a little disturbed.  One can only hope they only knew he was dead, and not a suspect.

[NiX]

Canadian news channels last night only said it was a homicide not a murder-suicide, so I'm assuming they actually didn't know.

[UD_Delt]

Update:

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-87/118286247342020.xml&storylist=national

Pro wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his son before hanging himself in his weight room, a law enforcement official close to the investigation told The Associated Press Tuesday.

Sick fuck

[Rasix]

I thought there were a bunch of wrestling fans around here, (I'm not) so I was surprised there was no Benoit thread in progress.

I was a wrestling fan and Benoit was one of my favorite wrestlers.   Just.. I don't know, just an odd way for him to go out.  My wife told me it happened when she got a CNN email alert on her Crackberry.   My first thought was "drugs".   I wasn't really expecting a murder/suicide.   

Heh, odd "Curb Your Enthusiasm" type observation.  My wife told me it was a "suicide, double homocide" and my response was.. "wait, doesn't one come before the other, shouldn't it be the other way around?"   But that's the way they had worded it in the alert 

And yah, like others, I was a little put off at the tribute for a murderer. It's somewhat standard WWE operating principle to immediately eulogize their dead.  Maybe they thought they could do it now while the details were still hazy instead of sitting on it, mentioning it, and they not being able to once it became apparent just how it went down.

[Riggswolfe]

Yeah. I just read those details. Sounds like he totally flipped. Him killing his own son by smothering him is the worst part for me.

[Bunk]

I guess I'll jump in being one of the resident Wrestling fans. Yes, I've been following this closely. The man was one of the closest things to a "sports" figure that I ever idolized. This fucking hurt. Getting drunk on a work night so that I wouldn't have to think about the idea that a man I admired had killed his family level of hurt.

The WWE was told that Benoit and his family were dead a couple hours before the show. They cancelled the planned event, sent the fans home, and put together a quick tribute show instead, all in a matter of a couple hours.

The show consisted of playing his best matches interspersed with live interviews of his coworkers, who were basically just given the option to sit in front of the camera and to say whatever they wanted to. Most of them cried.

The info from the police regarding it being a murder/suicide didn't come out until later.

As far as it being a publicity stunt by McMahon in regards to what they aired - fuck off. It was a tribute show done in the same format as they did for Owen Hart when he died in the ring ten years ago. It was done professionally and tastefully, in a very short amount of time.

Theres going to be a lot of fallout on this now that we are starting to get the details. What the WWE and USA Network did was perfectly acceptable based on what they knew. We'll wait and see how they follow this up.

If you want to hate and curse the man for murdering his child, if that makes you feel better about all this, then go right ahead.

Personally, I'm going to feel sorry for those they left behind. I'm also going to be shallow and feel sorry for myself at having lost my favorite wrestler. I'm going to feel sorry for everyone that is going get slandered and raked over the coals over this, as people look for someone alive to place blame on. Finally, I'm going to wait for all the facts to come out, and then I'll decide what to think.

[Chimpy]

As far as it being a publicity stunt by McMahon in regards to what they aired - fuck off. It was a tribute show done in the same format as they did for Owen Hart when he died in the ring ten years ago. It was done professionally and tastefully, in a very short amount of time.

To compare this situation to a tribute to Owen Hart actually hurts your case of it being professional and not publicity motivated. Had the company acted responsibly and within safety regulations Hart would never have died. He died because of the negligence of the producers of the event, and of the stagehands who rigged the system they were given by the producers and told "had been used before".

The situations are different, of course. But to say that Vince McMahon is not thinking about keeping the publicity about his company 'positive' and that rushing out a tribute to someone who was found dead along with his family in his home so that they could beat any bad news is being naive.

I don't think it is anyone's intent here to spit on anyone who cared for his family or were followers of his who are dealing with the issue. But McMahon has been tied to a lot of shady dealings in the past, so it is irrational to not expect people to be suspiscious of his motives in the manner which they reacted to this.

[Bunk]

The alternatives were: cancel the show completely, which may not have been a legal option, or go on with the originally planned show (which was based on an angle about a funeral) which would have been totally tasteless. Either way, I won't argue - I thought the show they gave us was appropriate at the time.

Further details have come out. It was murder/suicide plain and simple. WWE and others are distancing themselves. I have no intent to talk about it anymore.

[Margalis]

These guys travel together almost 365 days a year and are directly responsible for keeping each other alive. No matter what he did, he is still going to have some respect in the locker room which was incredibly broken up over it. It's like if your mom or brother kills someone - well it's still your mom or brother. Obviously what he did was incredibly fucked up but that doesn't change how he treated his co-workers and what they saw of him.

[Merusk]

It's like if your mom or brother kills someone - well it's still your mom or brother.

Even on that you can't speak in generalities.  I'd have no problem asking for the needle on a relative who did the same thing.  The closest I'd come to lienancy is for my own kids, and that only extends so far as asking for life rather than death.

I don't pretend to be 'normal' in this, however.

[Paelos]

If I was guessing, it was a "Family Annihilator" type scenario that played out in Benoit's life. My guess is that if you really dug deep into what happened, Benoit hated his wife and ultimately went over the edge.

Dr. Levin has provided a profile of the family annihilator as a middle-aged man, who appears to others (outside the family) to be a good provider, a loving father, and a faithful and loving husband. But he tends to be isolated, with no close friends or support system of his own, aside from his family. He has suffered with feelings of inadequacy and some form of long frustration. Ultimately, he suffers some catastrophic loss which leads to his crime. This trigger may be the loss of his job, or loss of money through a bad investment, but sometimes it is the impending loss of his wife. He doesn't hate his children, although he may hate his wife and blame her for his own problems. He has previously been a controlling man, within the family, but now feels powerless. Dr. Levin's belief is that the family annihilator wants revenge against his wife.

[Signe]

Or maybe it was the steroids.

[Bunk]

Margalis summed up my opinion on the tribute show quite well. At the time they taped it, there were no police reports as of yet on what had happened. WWE did the right thing and chose not to show any replays of the tribute show after the evidence came out.

As for the steroids, enough evidence has come out to pretty clearly indicate that this was not a snap moment of roid rage, but rather a somewhat premeditated murder. Also, Benoit did pass a physical exam and drug screening by the WWE in April. (Yes, they do actually screen them now, and have handed out suspensions for violations) There were reports of steroids in the house, but further evidence seems to be indicating that they may have been giving them to the son, who was reportedly "undersized". I won't get in to the sick fuckedness involved in that.

[UD_Delt]

As for the steroids, enough evidence has come out to pretty clearly indicate that this was not a snap moment of roid rage, but rather a somewhat premeditated murder. Also, Benoit did pass a physical exam and drug screening by the WWE in April. (Yes, they do actually screen them now, and have handed out suspensions for violations)

That made me laugh. Yep, I'm sure they're doing excellent work on their steroid testing policy. Guys like Big Poppa Pump, Triple H, John Cena and others have obviously never touched the stuff. LoL

[Bunk]

Yea, ok, I knew that would get some laughs. They did only actually introduce thier new "Wellness Policy" about 6 months ago I think. I am by no means suggesting that these guys are all suddenly clean now, just pointing out that WWE did actually put Benoit through screening of some sort in April and he did pass.

WWE is going to get hit by a ton of flak on the whole steroid thing again, just like they were in the 90s. McMahon probably deserves it, but as a Wrestling fan, I don't want to see the whole industry destroyed by this.

I would rather they managed to clean it up. Too many pro Wrestlers are dieing too young from the rigors of the sport and the drug abuse. The problem is that there are too many politicians with a hate-on for wrestling that will try to use this as an excuse to get rid of it all together, rather than clean it up.

They don't want Timmy emulating all those bad influence wrestlers. He should be out looking up to real role models like Bonds, Tank Johnson, Pacman, etc, etc...

[Stephen Zepp]

[snip stuff that was appropriate for the thread]

They don't want Timmy emulating all those bad influence wrestlers. He should be out looking up to real role models like Bonds, Tank Johnson, Pacman, etc, etc...

I swear when I first saw the last name in the line above, I got this picture of a kid walking around to all the girls in his high school with his jaw flapping a mile a minute, going "Wocka Wocka Wocka Wocka".

[Righ]

It was probably a reference to popping 'power pills'.

[Paelos]

It was probably a reference to popping 'power pills'.

Nah, this Pacman just goes to strip clubs and shoots people.

Seriously, when is the NFL or coaches going to finally get up and say, "Ok, no more strip clubs." Now, when we hear of a shooting surrounding a sports star, how many times out of 10 is it at a strip club? 8? 9?

[Righ]

That's green text, right? Ten out of ten times when we hear about a shooting, there's a gun and an asshole waving one involved.

[Paelos]

That's green text, right? Ten out of ten times when we hear about a shooting, there's a gun and an asshole waving one involved.

That would be a great solution to have the bodyguards quit brandishing guns around, but I doubt that's gonna happen.

[Bunk]

I would step up to defend strip clubs, as I fully admit to having been a big fan of them when I was younger. I thought about it for a second though, and remembered that there is a big difference between the neighbourhood clubs me and my friends went to, versus the "premier" downtown clubs.

We have a club downtown Vancouver that is famous for all of the celebs that like to hangout there. It's actually a shitty, overpriced hole - but its got a reputation. And its the type of place that shit like this is going to happen.

Really though, I think one of the biggest issues these athletes are facing isn't where they are hanging out, its the people they are hanging out with. Most of the shit that happens seems to be being done by members of the athlete's entourage. It sounds bad, but you've got inner city guys who suddenly make it big, and they are still hanging around with the same pack of gun toting gang bangers that they grew up with, only now they have way more money to get in trouble with.

[UD_Delt]

Speaking of strip clubs....

How great is Cleveland?

http://www.newsnet5.com/money/13495401/detail.html

Our MAYOR wants to build Cleveland a nice red-light district. Maybe we can become the Amsterdam of the States. What a glorious time for us Clevelanders.

[Paelos]

Speaking of strip clubs....

How great is Cleveland?

http://www.newsnet5.com/money/13495401/detail.html

Our MAYOR wants to build Cleveland a nice red-light district. Maybe we can become the Amsterdam of the States. What a glorious time for us Clevelanders.

I wish more cities would do that actually. It's a great way to contain adult entertainment into a zone where it's easily policed and controlled.

[CmdrSlack]

Speaking of strip clubs....

How great is Cleveland?

http://www.newsnet5.com/money/13495401/detail.html

Our MAYOR wants to build Cleveland a nice red-light district. Maybe we can become the Amsterdam of the States. What a glorious time for us Clevelanders.

Mistake on the Lake will take on a whole new meaning...