Chris Benoit: A Year Later

Blitzkrieg

I still remember quite well turning on the television and shocked to hear the news that he was dead.. and then of course, just days later, learning that he killed himself after murdering his family.

Looking back.. his matches that once appeared as a guy who was going all out because of love for the sport, could be considered warning signs.. the things he did in the ring on a nightly basis and how much intensity he brought with him are scary. But of course.. if the man didn't end his life the way he did, I'd probably still be thinking that he was only obsessed with it and not batshit crazy.

How do you feel about the situation a year later? Has your opinion changed on the man after finding out how insane he was before ever appearing in WWE? Or.. do you feel some sympathy because of how fucked up his childhood was and how his brain was severely damaged prior to the murders?

I tell you one thing.. I find it extremely difficult to watch one of his matches and not think "There goes that murderer".. It's completely ruined the feeling I get from Royal Rumble 2004 and Wrestlemania 20.. the biggest night of his career.. the hug with Eddie.. maybe the greatest Mania match of all time.. all ruined.

Yes, I can look at these matches and think.. "wow.. what a performance" .. but I can never look back on them and think "that's a great moment"

Rebekah

I'm pretty much the same. I remember putting wwe.com on and seeing the news there, and then watching the tribute show. Then it obviously emerged that he had indeed murdered Nancy and Daniel, and it just made people sick that he could even do that, i mean yeah the guy may have been depressed, but thats no excuse for murder. Also yeah i guess when you look at stuff like the hug at WM20, its a different feeling now that you get.

"Always appreciate what you have today because it may not be here tomorrow"

16-0

I watched the Benoit DVD a while ago & it is not the same.

Danny Diamond

Founder/Admin

I still can't watch any of his shit, but I really dont blame him so much anymore. I chalk it up to his brain flat out went south on him after all the damage from concussions and steroid abuse.

So in a nutshell its not so much "Fuck that prick murdering dickhead!!" and more so "Man, its too bad his brain was so damaged and I wish he could have gotten some help years before"

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Swamps

You know I haven't watched a match involving Chris Benoit in a really long time but, I can't sit here and say its because of total disgust for what he done. I actually don't look at him the same way I used to but to be perfectly honest I was never really a big fan of his but I was a fan to an extent.

Number Nine

I'm a little choked up right now.

Don't even front
You'd shit your pants if I licked your cunt

Zar

I remember going out of my way to watch the tribute show, as benoit was one of the few guys I would make time to watch. Then finding out the full story, then the info on his brain's condition, then Vince denying that to avoid liability suits. Crazy times.

Jackie Pies on Jackie Pies:
"Did I ever mention that I'm not really made of pie? Nor have I ever baked myself into a pie."

aaron

I still consider Benoit one of the best WRESTLERS ever, and as a WRESTLING fan I still appreciate and enjoy his matches. However, I feel sorry for Benoit in that all his hard work will never go recognised because of what he did to his family. The ironic thing is that it is because he worked so hard, he will never be recognised as a result of his damaged brain tissue.

It's still no excuse for what he did, and to this day i HOPE that there is a better explanation

Tyler Durden

If I had to list the best wrestlers ever, I'd still have to put him in it, right up near the top. I wouldn't want to, but I would.

The guy himself was clearly deranged. He had the brain of an 85 year old alzheimers victim when he was done, so lord knows how he just got through ordinary day to day living. Let alone everything else.

For that reason, I try and feel a little sorry for the guy (even though he bought the countless concussions etc on himself with unprotected chair shots, I guess I can undestand on some level that he was trying to entertain us).

But my personal belief is that, even with brain that shot, you still recognise the basic difference between right and wrong. The way I look at that is that, if his brain was so addled that he couldn't "understand" what he was doing, then he would have slapped a choke hold on his kid whilst walking down the shopping mall with him as he would not have had any control. The fact that he planned this in advance and did it so privately tells me that he was in control and had an understanding that what he was doing was wrong. So I can't take the brain condition into full guilt for his actions.

I'm also heavily down on the complete f***tards that, at the Hall of Fame, cheered loudly when his name was mentioned. Seriously, these guys should be choked out and see if they wanna cheer the guy doing it!

Lastly, WWE please stop putting at least one or two choke hold finishes into every show now. They've become obsessed with them in the last few months after initially curbing back. I don't know why they have, but it's like they're trying to prove some point and it really is lame.

Meldrew

Choke holds have been used in wrestling for years, I'm glad they're breaking the taboo and saying 'it's time to move on'. They're far less inappropriate than the crossface which is synonymous with Benoit

When I watch his stuff now my usual feeling is one of 'what a shame.' I can differentiate the wrestler from the guy who went crazy and have zero issue apprecitaing how great he was in the ring