JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The wrestling world stopped in June of 2007 when a tragedy beyond anything the industry had ever seen occurred over a three day period in Fayetteville, GA. The industry had dealt with a considerable number of younger wrestlers die from a variety of causes. Drug abuse, suicide and freak accidents had hit the industry hard. But this was something different. One of the top performers in the industry, Chris Benoit, who had been heralded for years and was a former world champion had killed his family. The impact on the industry continues to this day as it still remains a tragedy that is seldom talked about in the industry.
Who Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit were
Chris Benoit started wrestling in Canada in the mid-1980′s. He started in the wrestling promotion that was started by the famed Hart family. Bret and Owen Hart’s father Stu ran that territory in the area around Calgary. Benoit was known to idolize the “Dynamite Kid (real name Thomas Billington) for his style of wrestling which was really ahead of his time. Benoit was shorter in stature than a lot of wrestlers being under six feet tall and learned to do an intense and brutal style of wrestling that made fans notice him even though he was not as large as many other competitors. Steroids were also rampant in the industry during that decade and Benoit did utilize them to build an incredible amount of muscle.
As the years went by Benoit traveled to Japan and eventually wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) but he became nationally known when he joined World Championship Wrestling. Benoit was brought into the legendary “Four Horseman” stable led by Ric Flair primarily due to his abilities as a top level performer in the ring.
Nancy Benoit got into the wrestling business a few years after Chris and started as a valet and manager in WCW in the late 1980′s. She was most well known for playing the villainous manager “Woman”. During this time she was married to wrestler Kevin Sullivan who was several years older than her.
During the mid-90′s when Benoit was married, Sullivan booked a wrestling angle with Benoit where in storyline he started an affair with Nancy. But that on-screed romance developed into a real life romance and the two eventually divorced their respective spouses and got together as a couple. Which is ironic being that Nancy Benoit’s ex-husband Sullivan booked that original wrestling angle.
Nancy Benoit eventually left wrestling but Chris continued to make progress in his career. He eventually won a world title in WCW then left for the WWE (then WWF) in 2000. Around that time Nancy and Chris got married and had their son Daniel.
Chris’ career continue to ascend during his time in WWE as he eventually won the world title in the main event of Wrestlemania XX.
June 2007
It was the weekend going into the Monday Night Raw that was slated for June 25th, 2007 and Benoit was slated to appear. But no one had heard from Benoit in the days leading up to the event and missing performance dates was very out of character for him. Wrestler Chavo Guerrero spoke about cryptic voicemails and text messages he received from Benoit and reported it to WWE management. This was spoken about on the “Dark Side Of The Ring” documentary produced by Vice TV. Eventually police went to the Benoit home at the request from WWE to conduct a welfare check. Investigators in Fayetville, GA found the bodies of Benoit, his wife Nancy and his son Daniel. Nancy Benoit was killed by asphyxiation and her hands and feet were bound. His son appeared to have been sedated and was also killed by asphyxiation. Then Benoit eventually took his own life by hanging himself on a weight machine.
Prior to police determining the cause of death and who was responsible WWE was put in a position on how to deal with the news publicly because Raw was about to go live. The “Dark Side Of The Ring” documentary shows Vince McMahon gathered all the performers together to break the horrific news to them. The show was essentially cancelled and turned into a tribute to Chris Benoit and his family. But as the hours went by later in the evening WWE learned the true horror of what had happened in the Georgia home and responded the next night. The following night WWE had the broadcast of their ECW show and at the beginning of the show McMahon gave a statement:
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Last night on Monday Night Raw, the WWE presented a special tribute show, recognizing the career of Chris Benoit. However, now some 26 hours later, the facts of this horrific tragedy are now apparent. Therefore, other than my comments, there will be no mention of Mr. Benoit’s name tonight. On the contrary, tonight’s show will be dedicated to everyone who has been affected by this terrible incident. This evening marks the first step of the healing process. Tonight, WWE performers will do what they do better than anyone else in the world: entertain you.”
McMahon provided a similar statement later in the week on their episode of Smackdown. That was the last time WWE ever mentioned Chris Benoit. The company went to great lengths to erase him from all WWE material. While there is still Benoit matches in their archives that can be found on Peacock, there has been no content produced by WWE since 2007 where Benoit is included.
Nancy Benoit’s sister Sandra Toffoloni has spoken in depth about her thoughts on the crime and what exactly happened on the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast hosted by wrestling star Chris Jericho who was a longtime friend of Benoit.
The public demands answers
No other scandal in the history of professional wrestling made mainstream headlines like the Benoit tragedy. Cable news networks led a large number of shows for days analyzing the murder-suicide. A lot of that had to do with beliefs that steroids may have played a role in the tragedy. Benoit’s autopsy report showed he had a considerably high testosterone level in his body at the time of death leading many to speculate that “roid rage” may have caused the murders. Further investigation showed that he had been prescribed testosterone by his doctor. Many of those medications along with other prescription drugs were found in the home. It was later determined the testosterone was prescribed to supplement his levels due to years of past steroid use.
Months after this happened Benoit’s doctor who had prescribed the testosterone, Dr. Phil Astin was sentenced to ten years in prison for illegally prescribing drugs.
But drug use wasn’t the only thing that consumed much of the public dialogue on the Benoit case. There was also concerns over Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). One of Benoit’s finishing moves for years was a flying headbutt from the top rope. He would do this move regularly for several years.
Chris Nowinski is a former WWE star who left the industry and became a neuroscientist. He had conducted a lot of studies into CTE and had Benoit’s brain analyzed in conjunction with Benoit’s father Michael.
This was a statement released from the study by the Sports Legacy Institute:
“When the (Sports Legacy Institute) approached Michael Benoit about testing Chris’ brain as part of the Sports Legacy Project, our goal was to determine if there was evidence of CTE caused by repeated trauma to the head sustained during Chris Benoit’s career. We have now confirmed multiple concussions are part of his medical history, along with clinical symptoms associated with CTE. Because my SLI colleagues and I have found evidence of CTE in the brains of four former professional football players, we felt an examination of Chris Benoit’s brain may bring awareness to CTE’s existence outside of boxers and football players. The findings of CTE in Chris Benoit suggest that there may be a common syndrome among athletes who suffer multiple head injuries in contact sports.”
WWE was really in defense mode at this point and released a statement questioning those findings:
“While this is a new emerging science, the WWE is unaware of the veracity of any of these tests, be it for Chris Benoit or Andrew Martin. Dr. Omalu claims that Mr. Benoit had a brain that resembled an 85-year-old with Alzheimer’s, which would lead one to ponder how Mr. Benoit would have found his way to an airport, let alone been able to remember all the moves and information that is required to perform in the ring.”
Following the very public controversy WWE made several changes including Vince McMahon conducting high profile interviews to defend the company. “Everybody in this organization, to my knowledge, is well-adjusted family people,” McMahon told the Today Show. “They go to work like everybody else.”
There were also brief Congressional investigations into the controversy that didn’t produce much in the way of Governmental intrusion. But WWE did enhance its Wellness Policy and soon after the tragedy changed to a TVPG rating with less violent, more family friendly entertainment. There were visible on camera changes like less blood and you almost never see a wrestler hit in the head with a chair anymore.
There was also a lot of criticism from a small group of wrestlers. One of the most outspoken was Marc Mero. Mero spoke recently on the “Going Ringside With The Local Station” podcast about the backlash he received in the industry by being so critical of WWE.
“To this day, I’m kind of blackballed from WWE. I can’t go to any of their events. I’ve never been invited to anything,” he said. “But I stood up for what was right. There was so many guys that was dying. With the steroids, the drugs, the pain medication. It just got to be too much. So I just stood up.”