Tag: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

With the toxicology report being released, the biggest mainstream media news story in the history of U.S. pro wrestling, with nearly a month straight of daily national coverage, is likely coming to a close, although its repercussions and ancillary news stories could be felt for a long time, particularly on the small chance it actually leads to a Congressional hearing on the pro wrestling industry.

The story of the murders of Nancy and Daniel Benoit, and the suicide of Chris Benoit left with them a slew of questions that will likely forever go unanswered.

The most likely conclusion is that Chris killed Nancy in a domestic dispute, most likely over either her threatening to leave him, or over money. Whether or not Daniel had Fragile X syndrome will never be known, but there is not any concrete evidence to believe that he did, and no friends, family or teachers knew. The only person who would have talked with Chris about it allegedly was a Canadian man who is now deceased.

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As expected, the final toxicology report on Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit provided nothing close to what could be called answers.

About the only significant piece of information was that Daniel Benoit at enough Alprazolam (Xanax) in his system that would have put him unconscious, and would have been very close to a level that could have been a lethal overdose. The theory is now that Chris gave Benoit the drugs, which are not designed for a seven-year-old child, with the idea he’d be out cold and wouldn’t feel any pain when Chris killed him with essentially a modified version of his crippler crossface finisher.

Chris Benoit tested positive for high quantities of testosterone, which has in almost hilarious fashion attempted to have been twisted by WWE as him being steroid free. Benoit had a 59-1 testosterone/epitestosterone ratio (1-1 is considered normal and 4-1 would fail drug tests in most sports; to my knowledge, in all of the athletic commission drug testing here in California and with all the steroid positives of fighters and boxers, there is only one test, that of Johnnie Morton, that came in with a higher t/e ratio.

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Okay. Let’s get some things out of the way first. They’ve been said before, but to preface all this, they have to be said again. Vince McMahon is not to blame for Chris Benoit killing his wife and son. The WWE is not to blame. Anabolic steroids are almost surely not the main reason, whether they show up in his toxicology reports at the time of his death. However, they may be a part of the equation, perhaps small, because no matter how much of this can’t be understood by anyone, the closest thing to an explanation is that drugs ruined Benoit’s mind.

While we will never understand why things happened, there was a history of marital issues that at some point did get violent in the past. While you hear people say if you lined up 1,000 people in wrestling and asked them who would commit such a crime, he’d be right at the bottom of the list, that’s because those people didn’t know him at home.

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The shocking double murder-suicide involving Chris Benoit, including the death of wife Nancy and son Daniel, took numerous twists and turns over the past week including the arrest of Dr. Phil Astin, heat put on World Wrestling Entertainment, and an unprecedented amount of mainstream media coverage of the industry and the ridiculous human toll it has taken over the past decade.

There is only one thing certain. There will never be an answer, or any kind of explanation of what caused Chris to do what he’s believed to do. If the two were arguing, which is still the prevailing theory, only they know what it was about. Nancy did reach out to one of her best friends the prior day and give her a list of things she was concerned about, did offer a premonition of her fate, but she was still home the next day. But whatever was discussed, only two people knew. Perhaps Nancy didn’t even know what caused Chris to snap. Plus, the nature of all three deaths were bizarre to say the least.

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The murders of Nancy and Daniel Benoit and the suicide death of Chris Benoit continued to be major news, particularly on the U.S. and Canada television news channels, all week.

There were many different facets of the story. There has never been any story having to do with pro wrestling in its history that has garnered this degree of mainstream coverage. I never expected anything would approach the death of Owen Hart in 1999, and the election of Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota in 1998 for national mainstream coverage of pro wrestling, but who could have ever expected anything of this nature? For those in wrestling it was even more shocking because of the person perpetrating the crimes.

It would be easy to decry all the coverage, but the truth is, most has been fair. It’s just that the highest profile coverage that most people have seen, on the television news channels, where the death of the Benoit family was used as ratings fodder just underneath Paris Hilton’s latest escapades of coming out of jail and her performance on Larry King.

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