With the events of Chris Benoit's double murder/suicide unfolding throughout this week, the world of pro wrestling has been brought into the news with it. People once again are starting to ask serious questions about the dark side of sports entertainment and a firestorm is beginning to brew that could take down the empire that is the WWE.
Now let's be honest, steroids are a way of life in the world of pro wrestling. On any given night you flip on the television to a wrestling broadcast you will see more than one person you know is using. While the WWE doesn't force their talent to use steroids and they do have a testing policy in place, there are ways to beat the tests and the wrestlers still do the steroids. Steroids aren't the only problem with these athletes. Wrestlers have also dealt with addiction to pain killers and other types of prescription medications. The life of a wrestler is not an easy one. Any given wrestler travels more than 300 days a year and works around 250 shows in that time span. Needless to say, such a schedule taxes the body in ways most humans couldn't comprehend. This is why these wrestlers turn to the steroids, along with building insane amounts of muscle mass, these drugs also speed up recovery time and allow these men to go out there and perform. You can call it evil, but some will tell you its a necessary evil.
Now as a fan of the WWE and pro wrestling for all of my life, it was hard to swallow the events of this past Monday. While to some extent there is quite the culture of death in the wrestling business, it never gets easier when a guy dies in the middle of his prime. Everyone in the wrestling community was in shock that in less than two years we had lost two of our greatest superstars in Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. The WWE cancelled their live show for the evening and we all watched a moving tribute to the life and career of Chris Benoit. Then, less than a half hour after Raw went off the air the report started to break. "Murder-Suicide". None of us wanted to believe that a man who we had watched and respected for years had done such a thing. For those of you who don't know, let me fill you in on who Chris Benoit really was. In an age of over the top presentations and having it be all about yourself in the wrestling world, Benoit was the exception. Chris didn't have a huge pyro display and he didn't sell a ton of merchandise but Chris was what the business should be about. Benoit went out every night with the same intensity and passion and put on a show for the fans and helped anyone out that asked him to.
Now that's all gone.
People won't remember Chris Benoit for the great talent that he was, he'll go down as the man who murdered his family and took his own life. Benoit will be known as one of the biggest monsters in the wrestling business. That's assuming we'll hear about Benoit years from now. You can guarantee that the WWE will do anything to keep this memory a buried one and hope that no one hears of it again. They have already tried to do that to some extent. There is no superstar profile on their website, his merchandise is gone, and there is no mention of him in DVD descriptions. While details of this tragedy continue to come out the same question keeps getting asked; Why? Why would a man that everyone loved and respected for being a consummate family man and beacon for the wrestling business do this? We may never know exactly why Chris did what he did but the media always wants a reason and a fall guy and this time it might be the WWE themselves.
While most major media outlets have covered this story in one way or another, Fox News, the perveyours of misery and human suffering that they are have bludgeoned this story to death. While I have no issue with covering this story, its the way that they've covered this story. With graphics on the bottom of the screen like "Roid Rage?" it plants the idea that Benoit committed these acts in a fury or rage. Anyone who's seen the facts of the case knows that that's not exactly true or even possible. Benoit systematically killed his family of a period of two days in which he bound his wife's arms and legs and strangled her, then he killed his son in what seems to be a chokehold. Benoit also went through the process of laying Bibles next to the bodies, including his own before he hung himself.
Does that sound like the actions of a man who went into a fit of rage and committed these acts? While it might have not been "roid rage" that caused Chris to do this, it might have been due to the lethal cocktail of prolonged dependency on steroids, pain killers and other medications that is prevalent in wrestling circles. While the WWE may not be culpable for Benoit's actions, they need to address this issue of steroid and drug use. The WWE does have a testing program in place, your negative test will not count if you have a prescription for the steroids, which Benoit did. The WWE is doing and saying all of the right things right now and you can be sure that another strict round of testing will go through the ranks of the WWE roster in the coming weeks to show they are committed to the issue.
As I said earlier, there is a culture of death that goes hand in hand with the world of pro wrestling and it shows with all of the people that the wrestling community has lost over the recent years.
- Chris Benoit- 40- suicide
- Yokozuna- 34- heart attack
- Eddie Guerrero- 38- enlarged heart
- "Ravishing" Rick Rude- 41- heart attack (open bottle of pain killers at the bedside)
- Miss Elizabeth- 42- overdose of alcohol and pain killers
- Big Boss Man- 42- heart attack
- Earthquake- 42-bladder cancer
- Curt Hennig a.k.a. Mr. Perfect- 44- acute cocaine intoxication
- Bam Bam Bigelow- 45- drug overdose
- Andre The Giant- 46- heart attack
- Road Warrior Hawk- 46- heart attack
- Sensational Sherri- 49- cause unknown
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