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For the Wrestling fans amoungst us, what did you make of this horror of a tragedy? 4 and a half yrs later, and I still can’t get my head around what happened, and i think the Wrestling world itself is still reeling. It made no sense, and for the media to blame it on Roid Rage? I don’t think so. If you know the timeline and the events that occured that weekend then there is no way you can blame it on Roid Rage. Its such a shame that his legacy, and his reputation, was destroyed by one brainsnap. But he chose his path, so those are the consequences
thoughts? -
There were a number of theories floating around on this. I’d stopped following wrestling quite a while before this, but Benoit, along with RVD, were my favourites so this was a shock to me.
I don’t know if you remember a bloke called Christopher Nowinski who wrestled in the WWF for a short while, but along with his degree in Sociology, he studied head injuries and in particular, concussions. He requested that Benoit’s brain be examined and they found that the head trauma he had sustained had severely damaged his brain and that could alone have caused mood swings and irrational thought and onset effects of dimensia, even before the complications of steroid use. They figured that it may not have been steroid use due to the staggered times of death on the bodies, which looks to be a premeditated action, not rage induced.
As I understand it, his home life wasn’t crash hot either. He and his wife had a strained marriage and IIRC their child suffered from a rare form of mental retardation. He made no secret that the death of his best mate in Eddie Guerrero had rocked him to the core.
It was a shocking event to have taken place, but a reflection of the policies of the WWF in relation to talent care. Nowinski even came out later on and said that steroid use was encouraged over natural means.
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One thing I’ll say is that it didn’t feel right the way WWE washed their hands of him, like he never existed. I really don’t believe that Benoit was of a sound mind when he did what he did. It was not as cold blooded as it was made out to be. But I guess we’ll never know the real truth of it.
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It is quite scary what they are now starting to learn about head knocks ,concussions and the human brain
Saw a story recently talking about concussions and effects on the brain and they now think as little as 3 mild concussions can cause irreversible effects to the brain which obviously gradually worsen with age
When you consider our Gladiators of the NRL ,Boxing ,UFC ,NFL,AFL who have ben knocked out repeatedly (Liam Fulton comes to mind) and hoping they are going to be affected in the future
Getting back to topic Chris Benoit (Along with Bret Hart and Kurt Angle) was probably the best Wrestler in the true sense of the word in any of major professional wrestling unions .
Benoit’s death along with Guerrero and Owen Hart were all tragic -
@Cultured Bogan:
There were a number of theories floating around on this. I’d stopped following wrestling quite a while before this, but Benoit, along with RVD, were my favourites so this was a shock to me.
I don’t know if you remember a bloke called Christopher Nowinski who wrestled in the WWF for a short while, but along with his degree in Sociology, he studied head injuries and in particular, concussions. He requested that Benoit’s brain be examined and they found that the head trauma he had sustained had severely damaged his brain and that could alone have caused mood swings and irrational thought and onset effects of dimensia, even before the complications of steroid use. They figured that it may not have been steroid use due to the staggered times of death on the bodies, which looks to be a premeditated action, not rage induced.
As I understand it, his home life wasn’t crash hot either. He and his wife had a strained marriage and IIRC their child suffered from a rare form of mental retardation. He made no secret that the death of his best mate in Eddie Guerrero had rocked him to the core.
It was a shocking event to have taken place, but a reflection of the policies of the WWF in relation to talent care. Nowinski even came out later on and said that steroid use was encouraged over natural means.
I have heard the reports that his brain tissue resembled that of an 80 with dementia, which i have a hard time believing. They keep an insane schedule being on the road for 280-300 days a year. I don’t think an 80 yr old with dementia could do that. There definatley was some brain damage though, caused no doubt by the flying headbutt he used. The dynamite kid used that move too and now he’s a paraplegic. Harley Race, who invented the move said its his biggest regret. Nowinski also said Benoit was 1 of the only guyz in the business who would take a chair shot to the back of the head, which is stupid
He definatley was crushed when Eddie died. It was discovered after Benoit died that he kep a journal and spoke to Eddie as if he were still alive. I have no doubt that if Eddie were still alive, Benoit would most probably be too. I think the day Eddie died was the same day Benoit died
Something that shocks me is the amount of love Benoit still recieves from some wrestling fans. Some see him as a vicrim, and some even think he was murdered and framed for the whole thing. Theres even videos on Youtube blaming Benoit’s wifes ex-husband Kevin Sullivan, who was also a wrestler. Seeing as how there is nothing to proves otherwise, you can only come to the conclusion Benoit himself did it
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One thing I’ll say is that it didn’t feel right the way WWE washed their hands of him, like he never existed. I really don’t believe that Benoit was of a sound mind when he did what he did. It was not as cold blooded as it was made out to be. But I guess we’ll never know the real truth of it.
That was a disgrace. Not condoning what he did at all, but to erase him from everything was pretty low
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I have no doubt he did it GNR. It’s fairly obvious that the WWF were somewhat culpable also by not managing his injuries and his conditioning though. The WWF did everything they could to distance themselves from him soon as the reports of what actually came to light, and that was a disgrace.
What he did was reprehensible, but coupled with all the reports and analysis that has come to light since, it’s hard to come to the conclusion he was of completely sound and/or sane mind as well.
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There is a good doco on this incident I’ll try and think of its name.
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I’ve got buried away on one of my HDD’s somewhere - the WWE RAW episode they did the day after the fact, but BEFORE anyone had known the crimes he had done. It was literally the day after that RAW aired that Vince came out and denounced the name Benoit, and since then he has become an absolute ghost - edited out of existence.
That tribute episode is a fascinating read into the effects he had on his fellow performers, and the professionalism he kept, however also highlighted how much the guy kept to himself, with the exception of a precious few.
Suffice to say, he commanded a lot of respect in the ring, and outside of it, despite what he did.
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I still cannot get my head around it to this day. He was such a gifted and talented wrestler and for him to do such a thing was truly unimaginable. Why he did what he did will never know. It was just a real tragedy.
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Suffice to say, he commanded a lot of respect in the ring, and outside of it, despite what he did.
QFT. He and Rob Van Dam were the reasons why I watched wrestling for as long as I did. They attracted fans for what they did inside the ring, not out of it. For all the entertainment value of The Rock, Stone Cold et al brought the fans, they signalled the decline of wrestling from its dominative form that it was known of the 90’s. Too much out-of-ring shenanigans, smuttiness and crappy repetitive story lines were brought in and they placed less emphasis on the product itself. It has been rubbish for nearly a decade.
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Apparently he used to willingly take chair shots and the like to the back of the head (the WWE have since banned their wrestlers from attacking the head with weapons), and had a lot of concussions over his career (can’t remember the exact number, but it was a lot). As a result of this, plus hitting hundreds of diving headbutts, he had the mind of an 85 year old alzheimers patient. It really did lift a lid on the wrestling world and how they are managed/disciplined, much like the death of Eddie Guerrero.
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@Cultured Bogan:
Suffice to say, he commanded a lot of respect in the ring, and outside of it, despite what he did.
QFT. He and Rob Van Dam were the reasons why I watched wrestling for as long as I did. They attracted fans for what they did inside the ring, not out of it. For all the entertainment value of The Rock, Stone Cold et al brought the fans, they signalled the decline of wrestling from its dominative form that it was known of the 90’s. Too much out-of-ring shenanigans, smuttiness and crappy repetitive story lines were brought in and they placed less emphasis on the product itself. It has been rubbish for nearly a decade.
Pretty much sums it up right there. Ever since the day Vince bought WCW the product has been a joke, starting from the way they botched the invasion angle, and the way they totaly killed Austin’s charachter by turning him heel. Even when he turned face again he lost his edge, hence all the ‘WHAT’ crap. And what the hell happend to Jerry Lawler? he quit being a heel commentator about 7 yrs ago. Unbelievable
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Benoit was also supposedly giving his son human growth hormones. Poor little guy
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The invasion angle was the greatest missed opportunity in the history of Sports Entertainment/Wrestling/Whatever.
For those not in the know - Vince bought his competition which gave the potential for dream wrestling matches virtually unseen before… A wrasslin fans dream come true…
And he messed it up BIG TIME, insisting of running his own personal agenda, and burying the inferior brand big time every opportunity he got.
and to use an NRL analogy - it would be like building a dream team out of the NRL’s Finest, then having that team compete in the NRL competition, then having that team miss the top 8. THATS how bad a cock-up this was…
GNR4LIFE, CB - I hope you are both aware of this - http://botchamania.com/ - arguably the best ongoing series wrassling wise on the interwebz EVER…
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