Harvard Chris talks about concussions

Tyler Durden

From f4wonline.com

Notes from a Nowinski interview on Off the Record with Michael Landsberg.

It should be noted that while Nowinski is still under contract with WWE, well, when this one ends that'll be the end of him. He's been doing Smackdown Your Vote stuff.

Landsberg asked if concussions played a factor in the end of Benoit's life, and Nowinski said yes, without question, and he was annoyed at WWE for trying to say it was premature to make that assessment. He said he'd talked to Benoit about all of his concussions and said it was pretty clear where all of this impacts would have come from. He said he was backstage at WrestleMania XXIII and a bunch of wrestlers came up to him and asked him for more info on concussions, and Benoit was the most interested of anyone.

Nowinski said he'd gotten six concussions and worked through all of them until his career ended. He said WWE had doctors backstage, but not neurologists or concussion experts, and whoever they were they allowed him to always get back in the ring. He said it was probably best for WWE to get a neurologist back there full time.

He said WWE was trying to claim that they had no medical records showing Benoit had any concussions, and he said that wasn't surprising because he (Nowinski) didn't have any records either. He said nobody ever told athletes that temporary injuries could lead to brain damage, and he wanted to get that message out there, particularly to kids coming up today. He said near the end Benoit started to realize that he needed to handle his concussions differently, as in, not just rush back into the ring and continue getting his bell rung. He suggested perhaps eliminating chairshots and ladder matches.