I don’t have a link to a list, but just Wiki any of the names in Banquet Bear’s post from page 2:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8717662&postcount=63
It’s a weird trend that no one seems to be able to explain.
OK, here’s a cite with a list of wrestlers who died since 1985, with their ages:
For those who want to know what McMahon was thinking, he’ll address the tribute on tonight’s ECW broadcast: WWE’s McMahon to Address Benoit Tribute
I will add that half of whatever McMahon says usually is not to be believed, and the other half to be taken with a great degree of speculation. WWE is also, in what will be a losing effort, combating the 'roid rage allegations, noting that this was likely premeditated act, and that Benoit was last tested in April with negative results. I will side with WWE, as I found out around 10:30p, and when I looked on the web at that time, there was nothing saying murder/suicide. Sure, I suspected, as most probably did, but WWE had to do something with that 3 hour slot, and they tried to do right by the man they remembered in the locker room, not the monster he turned out to be.
ESPN is reporting that the son’s arms contained needle marks, and the DA speculates that the boy was being given HGH as ‘they’ (presumably Chris, maybe Chris and Nancy) believed him to be ‘too small’ (a knock which may have prevented Benoit from making his mark earlier in his chosen field).
I side with Rucksinator’s statement. Also, these people probably knew Benoit much better than I know many of my own co-workers whom I regard well, because of the time spent on the road together.
I follow wrestling (with interest which waxes and wanes) outside of the official statements and packaged products. I’ve read/heard many candid interviews where wrestlers will trash anyone and anything. Never have I read a disparaging remark about Benoit, except by Kevin Sullivan (Nancy Benoit’s former husband).
Each can look at this through their own personal lens and leap to whatever factless conclusions they may. All I know is that a man who entertained me for more than a decade, sacrificing his body for my entertainment night after night, turned into a demon overnight. It’s not sitting well.
You might find the thoughts expressed here an interesting read. I also, think he’s a family anihillating scumbag.
Dan Abrams on MSNBC just gave the number as 65 deaths in the last 10 years, but I can’t find anything online to confirm that.
Interesting- thanks. Now after looking up several of these in Wikipedia, it is obvious drugs played a part in many/most, but it doesn’t seem to indicate the level of “roid rage” I was expecting. In other words, I don’t doubt this exists, but it doesn’t seem that any except for Benoit have seriously harmed/killed others, only themselves.
Not 'roid rage so much as health related problems caused by the steroid use/abuse. The site I linked details more than one wrestler recently who died of heart problems at a young age, for example.
It’s still early. Could it be the only people “around him” the reporters are able to get statements from are those who in fact, didn’t know him well? From Forbes: “He was like a family member to me, and everyone in my family is taking it real hard,” said fellow Canadian Bret Hart, a five-time champion. Well, somebody still alive appears to have known him well, if he was “like family.”
Maybe you’re basing your opinion on this:
Hm, a neighbor across the street said he wasn’t outwardly warm. God, I hope no one asks my neighbors across the street what they think of me.
I just googled up the latest Forbes & Bloomberg articles. Forbes says:
She withdrew the complaint and didn’t divorce him. Has he ever been arrested for, or charged with, or convicted of domestic violence?
They found bibles next to the wife & son’s bodies, and friends were alarmed by strange text messages he was sending. Sounds like he was mentally unhinged to me. I’m just wondering if it wasn’t a sudden and unexpected unhinging.
Holy frakkin’ smokes, that some list!
Isn’t this sort of unhinging so rare that it is practically apocryphal? Whitman and the other few well known instances being the exceptions to the rule?
So what? That’s SOP for DV victims.
His wife was granted a restraining order for it. He didn’t deny her allegations.
I have. My grandfather did a lot of charity work for the SPCA and Humane Society. A woman who worked there spoke at his funeral. I found out that when they met, he called her “Jugs” until she asked him not to.
And she knew him well enough to talk about him.
Even if it was 'roid rage (or psychosis related to steroid withdrawal), he still chose to put that crap in his body, so I’m not going to give him a pass on a double murder.
The weird thing is that this type of domestic murder-suicide doesn’t seem freakish. It happened this week in Toronto too and last year one of my friend’s neighbours did the same thing.
Just the fact that someone has a family to kill proves that they were liked, cared about and trusted by people. I can’t imagine how anyone could simultaneously suspect someone capable of murdering his family, and work with that person. If anyone had been able to hear the initial report and say, “well I’m not going to say anything because I think it was probably that he killed them all–he was that kind of guy though I did enjoy chatting with him.” It’s the perfect picture of cognitive dissonance.
No one will say they “knew” a murderer “well”. Otherwise it makes them culpable for not seeing it coming.
No one is asking you to. No one here seems to be giving him one (although I read in the comments to an article some CTs wondering if Benoit was murdered and staged to look like a suicide, including one person suggesting they investigate Kevin Sullivan - guess 9/11 is played out).
As for the statement “(h)e didn’t deny her allegations” of domestic abuse, he also did not confirm them. As a matter of fact, there is no statement that I’ve ever heard of by Chris Benoit regarding the charge.
Rather than painting him as a saint who snapped, or as a wife-beating asshole who finally went too far, why not just admit we have no fucking clue what happened here.
WWE has also posted a timeline. They don’t name the co-workers the messages were sent to, but it is believed one is Chavo Guerrero, possibly the last co-worker to see the family alive, and likely Dean Malenko is the other.
Maybe it was plain old rage. You can only hear “hey, Benoit! Didja bring your balls?” so many times before you become necessarily homicidal.
In my opinion, it’s also SOP for women who’ve divorced one wrestler so they can hook up with another wrestler to make shit up when it comes time to divorce wrestler number two.
I don’t see in the articles I read anything about being granted anything. She dropped the request for a restraining order, and in the request “she charged that the 5-foot-10, 220-pound Benoit had threatened her and had broken furniture in their home.” Supposedly he threatened her and broke furniture. Nowhere does it say he ever laid a hand on her.
Let’s not forgot Nancy was a long time wrestler herself at one time going by the moniker “Fallen Angel” and sporting a satanist style. There are two people with big personalities and I can well imagine their arguments got equally big.
Not that that justifies killing your family or anything. I’m sure not saying that. I see no evidence she was ever a victim of domestic violence. Well, except for this latest thing. But it still strikes me as the actions of someone who’s just recently lost their mind, as opposed to the truly evil smile-for-the-camera-I-got-away-with-it OJ type killer.
Man. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the paper this morning, because everything I had ever heard from everyone who worked with him said that he was a genuinely good guy. Hell, Bret Hart called him family, and Bret doesn’t like anyone at this point.
I really haven’t watched wrestling seriously in a few years, but I was a huge fan during the height of WCW’s run on top, and Chris Benoit was one of my favorites, alongside Jericho, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero.
That last name, I would imagine, probably has more to do with this than anyone will ever admit. Benoit and Guerrero were incredibly close, and I have a sneaking suspicion that his unexpected death was what pushed Benoit down this path.
Do I have any respect for him as a man now that we know the details of how his family died? Absolutely not. Does that mean I’m going to deny that he was one hell of an entertainer in the ring? Nope. I can separate Chris Benoit the entertainer from Chris Benoit the man, and still acknowledge the work of the entertainer while deploring the senseless acts of the man.
I just meant that another person who seemed decent and hardworking turned out to have a nasty side. For further information, see: Kobe Bryant, Pete Rose, Bob Crane, O.J., etc.