Winnipeg Sun: Don't celebrate Benoit ... mourn slain wife, child
http://winnipegsun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2007/06/27/4293418-sun.html
By TIM BAINES
Chris Benoit was a wrestling legend.
He was a champion, a warrior whose tenacity and dedication made him one of wrestling's greatest technicians.
He was also a husband and a father.
And now it looks like he was a killer, too.
Benoit, his wife Nancy and seven-year-old son Daniel were found dead in their Atlanta-area home Monday afternoon.
Nancy was found with her wrists bound. She had been strangled. Daniel was found in his bed, the life smothered out of his tiny lungs. Bibles had been placed beside both bodies.
Benoit was found in his weight room, hanging from a pulley.
To World Wrestling Entertainment's credit, it cancelled the Monday night RAW card. This is the same WWE that went on with its regular show the night Owen Hart was killed when he plummeted to the ring from the rafters.
Instead, WWE aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit.
A tribute to Benoit?
If we are to believe the pieces of the puzzle that investigators have strung together, Benoit killed his wife, then his child. Murdered them.
This isn't another whacked-up WWE storyline. This is real life.
Wrestling websites are full of tributes to Benoit's successes -- the championship belts, his classic matches, the kind of character he was. It all seems kind of hollow now.
Prescription steroids were found in the house. Was it 'roid rage? Most of us will never know the mental and physical anguish that go along with being a professional wrestler. Night after night, Benoit put life and limb on the line, his body run into ring posts, folding metal chairs cracked over his head.
But there can never be an excuse to take the lives of two people who should have been so precious.
Chris Benoit will continue to be hailed as a hero, a legend who wore tights to work every night.
But, really, it looks like all he turned out to be was a killer.
The bell will toll 10 times in tribute to the "great" Chris Benoit.
But it's not Benoit, the troubled soul, we should remember -- it's the helpless wife and especially the child, who never had a chance to be great.
One thing i am so fucking sick of in all of this is when this question is asked -
" a TRIBUTE to Benoit?!"
All that was known when the 3 hour tribute went on air was that Chris, his wife and son were dead, so get over it!
If Chris Benoit is proven to be a killer then his death should (look, im agreeing) be handled differently than other deaths like Owen and Eddie. A murderer should not be hailed as an icon and a hero.
BUT even with that said Benoit had a personal life, and unfortunately in this personal life he may have ended up taking the lives of his family but he had a professional life too. His professional life is what wrestling fans around the world watched on TV several times a week. Alot of those fans then became wrestlers based on the mans work, or used Benoits work to enhance their own career in the business. He was an inspiration and I'm sorry but that wont die. Mike Tyson is surely one more criminal offence away from a massacre but he will be still be appreciated for his work, as he should.
Wrestling fans do need to back off at this point in time, and the celebration of Benoits life can be and is being taken too far but you cant stop them mourning someone they respected. John Cena is adored, Chris Benoit was respected and that is going to make it even harder for wrestling fans to comprehend what has happened.
Posted by
shootwrestling |
1:33 PM