It’s All About the Wrestling: But Sometimes it’s Not

Last night I was sitting in my chair working on my laptop and playing with my cable remote, I happened to pass the RAW listing and for some unknown reason I decided to DVR it. I don’t normally watch RAW or any WWE programming but I guess something was telling me that this would be the last chance to see Chris Benoit in a positive light.

I myself did not find out about the tragedy until about 10:30 last night, fellow PWP and Wrestling Inc writer Brady Hicks sent me a text message telling me to turn on RAW at about 8PM but I didn’t catch that until much later. I found out about the tragedy at Wrestling Inc. after posting my latest TNA commentary. I found myself speechless. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to react. I still don’t know what to say or how to react.

Since the initial reports it has come to light that Chris Benoit very likely murdered his wife and child and then hung himself. Vince McMahon is going to make a statement tonight on ECW apologizing for the tribute show on RAW last night. In retrospect no one can fault Vince for airing what he did last night, he went with his gut reaction to celebrate Benoit’s career, but many people will fault him.

Chris Benoit will not be remembered as the great wrestler he was, instead he will be remembered as a double murder who bound his wife and strangled her and suffocated his young son before killing himself in his basement. It is obvious there were some problems in Benoit’s personal life and as more details about his life are revealed it will more than likely be revealed there were signs that could have been acted upon to prevent this tragedy.

But one man is responsible for this tragedy though and that is Chris Benoit, no one else can be blamed if indeed the initial reports are found to be accurate. This is a terrible tragedy and a public relations nightmare for the WWE (and wrestling in general). The WWE has rightly distanced themselves from Chris and his merchandise and wrestler page have been pulled.

We all sit and enjoy our escape from reality while watching our favorite wrestling programs, it’s easy to forget that these people have real lives and real problems and maybe not everything is great behind the scenes. Chris Benoit may have been a great superstar, he was one of the last of the old school technical wrestlers and one of my favorites but his actions that ended his life speak louder than his actions in the ring and sometimes it’s not all about the wrestling.

As always you can contact me at pwp.chris@gmail.com.