[ul][li]Asphyxiation for cause of death for all; she died Friday, son died Saturday morning, Benoit died sometime Sunday.[/li][li]Steroids found in house seem to all be from legal prescriptions; toxicology report pending.[/li][li]No suicide note.[/li][li]DA explains his “bizarre” comment from before by saying the timing of the deaths was bizarre, as was the death of a seven-year-old; Bibles were found next to Daniel and Nancy’s bodies.[/li][li]Nancy was bound by the feet, possibly at the hands. Some blood found under her head.[/li][li]Previous 2003 documents of divorce and assault and their dismissals are mentioned.[/li][li]Daniel found in his bedroom, she was in a family room, Benoit found in basement weight room.[/li][li]Benoit hung himself with weighted pulleys.[/li][li]Investigation still pending at home.[/li][/ul]
Just listened to the press conference. Pending autopsy, they believe the wife, who was bound, was killed Friday, the son early Saturday, and the suicide late Saturday. Benoit should have arrived for the PPV on Sunday. When he didn’t show, the WWE just made an excuse (be with his family for personal reasons) explaining why a headliner did not appear on the show. What text messages that were sent and their timing were not revealed.
I read Online Onslaught if I need a small fix of wrestling. This site belongs to a writer named Rick Scaia. His opinion seems to usually mesh with mine. His information on this story is here. The first half is opinion, but the second half is fairly meaty. The site also has a message board with a lengthy thread on the topic. I haven’t read it, but that site is generally a little more mature than most wrestling related sites (not that that’s saying much).
Personally, I have to say that this whole thing bugs me on a level that celebrity deaths seldom do. This was a guy that seemed above the usual wrestling pit falls. I also liked Nancy back when she was with WCW. I find myself hoping that they find some other explanation because I really don’t want to have to dislike this guy.
WWE decided to dedicate a tribute show to Chris Benoit before all the facts regarding the murder/suicide were released. They’ve made a decision to not distribute the show internationally, and I can’t blame them. The WWE does excellent tributes - sadly, they’ve done far too many of them. It was an excellent package that was put together in 3 hours before airtime.
Now, I want to ask a what if? What if the WWE knew the details earlier? Personally, I would have put a crawl on the bottom and done a “Best of” show. I’m more than a little curious how the wrestlers, one day later and with all this breaking news, are going to perform tonight. Someone with whom you’ve probably stood naked in the shower kills his wife and young son - that has to affect a guy on a gut level. Tonight’s show would probably be best served by emphasizing wrestling and de-emphasizing talking. These guys can put their bodies on autopilot for the matches - you won’t get anything spectacular - but I don’t know how well they can compartmentalize this and appear, in character, on camera. It’s been awhile since I specifically set out time to sit and watch, but I’ll be doing it tonight and Friday.
I’m not a wrestling fan, hadn’t even heard this guy’s name when I first saw this thread; but the idea of that tribute kinda bothers me. They present a play-acted sport as entertainment, which I guess is okay as long as they admit it and everyone is in on the joke. But when something unscripted happened, it seems they were in a rush to say all the right things without anybody wondering if they were true or not. As an organization, is their grasp of honesty and integrity really so lacking?
I’m not suggesting a pay-per-view event where they dance on his grave, but it just seems like truth is pretty low on the list of priorities.
My understanding is that they only found out that all 3 were dead a few hours before the show, so they threw something together. Should they have assummed the worst? Or gone with what they knew about him?
I’ll bet that even after the facts are known, others in the wrestling business will be saying things like “I don’t know what could have made him do this.” Not “What a dick.”
They should go with what they know, if they can do it honestly. But other accounts I’ve read said that this guy had only one or two real friends within the wrestling community.
When a famous person dies, it’s common to hear his friends talking about what a great guy the deceased was. And I think those things are usually sincere. (If your friends can’t say good things about you, you’re in a lot of trouble.) But the impression I get here is that when Benoit died, wrestling stepped up to play their part in the well-established, public grieving process, and nobody thought to stop and say “I hardly knew him.”
I’m pretty sure if this was a woman who killed her husband and child the first thing people would ask is, “was it hormones? Mental illness?”
From what I’ve read so far he was well regarded by friends and associates. Unless people start coming out of the woodwork saying he was a real jerk and they’re not surprised this happened, I’m going to assume this was some sudden tragic mental breakdown. Maybe steroids were involved, but lots of athletes take steroids and the vast majority of them don’t commit murder-suicides.
If this were Lance Armstrong, would he be dismissed as nothing more than a 'roid-monkey who rides bikes?
I don’t think it automatically follows that someone who keeps to himself is a “wacko.” Obviously in this case, there was more than met the eye, but in some cases, a person is just not gregarious. So let’s not start the old routine of fisheyeing anyone who’s INTJ, huh?
He did have a history of domestic violence and reportedly few in the WWE were very close to him. Maybe he was just an asshole. No maybe about it, actually. He killed his own 7 year old child.
I don’t think that not knowing somebody “that well” precludes one from being “well regarded”. I’ve had co-workers that I’d consider “well regarded” by myself, but I have no clue who they’re sleeping with or what they eat for dinner when they go home.
O’Reilly (don’t ask) just made some statement that some large amount of wrestlers have died before the age of 45 in the last decade or something- if this wasn’t made up on the fly, does anyone have a good link? I couldn’t find the one Wikipedia must surely have.
I don’t have a cite yet, but it’s a true and noticeable trend. Pro wrestlers have been dropping like flies for the last decade or so, most of them younger than age 50. All kinds of overdoses (that seems to be the main cause of death), and occasionally sadder or seamier circumstances.
