The story of Chris Benoit

Christopher Michael Benoit was a Canadian professional wrestler, throughout his 22-year career he worked for a variety of pro-wrestling promotions most notably World Wrestling Federation (WWF/WWE), World Champion Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan pro-wrestling (NJPW).

Benoit was born on May 21st, 1967 in Montreal, Quebec. Benoit grew up in Edmonton, the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta - from which Benoit was billed throughout the bulk of his Career. During Benoit’s early years he grew an interest in wrestling and had said to idolise the likes of Bret Hart and “The Dynamite Kid”, this lead to Benoit attending a local wrestling event.

His love of wrestling and dedication to learning the art earned him a spot at the Hart family and received an education from family patriarch Stu Hart. In-ring Benoit was fond of emulating Bret Hart’s move set and was cultivated to a high-risk and physical appearance, later in his career Benoit would even adopt Hart’s “Sharpshooter” hold as his own finishing move.

From the age of 12 Benoit was driven to success in his beloved sport, his father commented “Chris lifts weights every day. he was 13 years old… he was breaking records in high school in our basement”.

At the age of 18, Benoit started his wrestling career - he dreamed of making it big and become a champion, ultimately he was driven to achieve his goal. Benoit quickly ascended from Stampede Wrestling Circuit to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) before steadily up to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) which is known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Personal life

Benoit wasn’t only gifted in pro-wrestling but also spoke English and French fluently. He had married twice and had two children with his first wife, Martina, unfortunately by 1997 the marriage came to an end. During this time he lived with Nancy Sullivan, the wife of the WCW booker Kevin Sullivan. February 25th, 2000, Benoit and Sullivan welcomed their Son Daniel into the world and by November 23rd, 2000, they married. This was Nancy’s third Marta.

In 2003, Nancy filed for divorce claiming allegations of ‘cruel treatment’ and cited the marriage as ‘irrevocably damaging’, she then claimed he would break and throw furniture around their home. Although Nancy later dropped the divorce and restraining order she had filed. During this time Benoit became good friends with fellow wrestler Eddie Guerrero following a match in Japan when Benoit kicked Guerrero in the head which cause him to become unconscious, there was also a debate on Benoits lost tooth during this time. He had lost his top-right lateral incisor, this has been commonly misattributed to training, earlier matches in his career and even a series of rumours from outside of ring fighting to misdemeanour against his wife. The tooth was actually a result from playing with his Rottweiler, the Rottweilers skull struck Benoit’s chin and his tooth came out.

Achievements

Whilst this article is more related to his final days, I do want to mention some achievements of Benoit’s as I do truly believe in my final verdict which I will present at the end of this article.

Throughout Benoit’s Career he had held 22 championships between WWE, WCW, NJPW and ECW. He was also a two-time world champion, one- time WCW world heavyweight champion and a one-time world heavyweight champion in WWE. Benoit also became the WWE Royal Rumble winner in 2004, joining Shawn Michaels and Edge as one of the three men to win a rumble match as a number one entrant.

Benoit was also booked to win a third world championship at an WWE event on the night of his death.

The Death of the Benoit family

On June 25th, 2007, police entered the Benoit family home in Fayetteville, Georgia. WWE had requested a “welfare check” after it was reported Benoit had missed weekend events with any notice, this lead to concerns as it was very uncharacteristic for Benoit. The officers discovered the bodies of Benoit, his wife and their 7-year-old son Daniel at around 2:30pm. Through investigation, it was deemed no additional suspects and no false entry into the home was made. They had determined that Benoit had committed two counts of murder.

Benoit killed his wife in an upstairs bedroom of their house, Nancy’s limbs were bound and injuries showed that Benoit had pressed his knee into her back whilst pulling at a cord around her neck. Strangling her to death. The next morning, Benoit drugged his son Daniel with. Xanax registering him unconscious before suffocating him. Benoit then placed a copy of the bible by each of their bodies, despite the fact the family were not known to be religious.

The next day, Benoit spoke to a good friend, Chaco Guerrero, and had told him Nancy and Daniel had been suffering from food poisoning. guerrero mentioned on an episode of “Talk is Jericho” that Benoit did not seem like himself especially when he said goodbye claiming Benoit said "Chavo, I love you” before hanging up.

On June 24th 2007, Benoit was died by suicide, Benoit had created a noose and used a weight machine in his home gym to hang himself. Police found Benoit hanging from the pulley cable he used to create the noose. It was later found Benoit had been searching on the internet on how to quickly and easily break a neck, Benoit had left a handwritten suicide note saying, “I’m preparing to leave this earth.”

Aftermath

WWE cancelled RAW the night of hearing about the Benoit’s death and aired a tribute show to him, Vince McMahon speak to an empty stadium about Benoit’s achievement in pro-wrestling and Superstars of WWE taking about what Benoit meant to them. As this was airing, the media had found the truth. That folllowing Tuesday, before airing ECW, McMahon spoke in a brief taped segment of the show. He stated now the truth on what happened to Benoit being out, WWE would not make any more statements about the tragic events and chose to focus on in-ring products. WWE had not mentioned Benoit since although have recognised his name, continuing to keep his segments he was a part of on the WWE network however they will not talk about him on TV nor will they celebrate his achievements. So far WWE has never commented on his name being in the Hall of fame however he will likely never be named.

Motives

There have been many theories as to why Benoit had committed such a crime, whether he was full aware of what he had done or whether or not it was a mental breakdown or drugs causing him to black out and he snapped. A Neuroscientist Christopher Nowinski argued Benoit may have been suffering from brain damage as a result of untreated concussions which lead to an unstable mental state, the WVU (West Virgina University)conducted tests on Benoit’s brain. They concluded Benoit’s brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of a 85-year-old dementia patient” and other tests concluded revealed Benoit may have had CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and damage to all four lobes of the brain and brain stem. It was concluded that repeated concussions can lead to early dementia which can contribute to behavioural changes.

There is also a theory that Nancy suspected Benoit to be having an affair with a female WWE wrestler and they may have also argued over a life insurance policy leading up to the events.

A statement made by Benoit’s sister-in-law claimed during an examination of Benoit’s body the doctor discovered Benoit’s heart was so enlarged that he would not have lasted more than ten months before passing away, however she then stated she did not believe this was a contribute to the events nor did she believe his brain injuries supported a contribution to the events claiming she believed it was the drugs and he blacked out.

Autopsies and medical reports

The medical examiner had found multiple finding whilst performing the autopsy of Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit and Daniel Benoit.

They found Nancy had three different drugs in her system at the time of her death; Hydrocodone were found at 120 micrograms per litre. Hydromorphone, directly from the breakdown of the Hydrocodone was also found her her system. Finally, Xanex was found to be present at 23 micrograms per litre.

It was determined all three drugs were found at a therapeutic level and not a toxic level, they also found her blood alcohol level at a 0.184 at the time of death.

7 year-old Daniel autopsy shows a positive test for an elevated dose of Xanex in his blood stream at 100 micrograms per litre. That was interesting to examiners as Xanex is not usually prescribed to children due to adverse effects and Daniel did not have a prescription. Examiners believed Daniel was sedated at the time of his death, a popular theory and speculation Benoit used a version of the Crippler Crossface hold on his son which ultimately killed him due to marks on his body found during his autopsy. Another theory is that whilst Benoit was suffocating Daniel he became conscious and they had a struggle resulting in the markings on Daniel’s body.

Chris Benoit tested positive for Xanex at 50 micrograms per lilter. He also tested positive for Hydrocodone at 45 micrograms per Litre. Both of these drugs were within a therapeutic range and not in a toxic range. Benoit’ Urine tested positive for steroids, mainly testosterone at a very elevated level of 207 micrograms per litre. however the examiner concluded that there was no way of telling whether or not Benoit’s elevated testosterone was a recent use of steroids prior to his death. There was speculation Benoit may have been treated for a testosterone deficiency prior to his death, it was also notice the drug GHB was not found in all 3 individuals.

My personal verdict and theory

My personal verdict doesn’t not eliminate Benoit from his achievements and recognition for his accomplishments in WWE and wrestling despite his unthinkable acts, I believe you can appreciate an art despite disliking the person behind the art. I truly believe his medical history, substance abuse and mental health issues played a key factor leading up to the events on that weekend, I believe he had a lot of inner demons and needed professional guidance. I do also believe there is more too the story and he didn’t he just up and murdered his wife and son despite claims for others that he loved his son dearly, I do believe Sullivan and Benoit had arguments within days leading up to their deaths which could have triggered a response from Benoit, unfortunately we will never truly no the truth behind the tragic deaths of the Benoit family.