Making Sense of a Tragedy

Sigh... this is going to be a rough post to write, but I guess I'll tough it out.

If you know me or have been reading this blog for the last few years, you probably know that I'm a fan of professional wrestling. I have been since I was eleven years old. And in the fourteen years I've been watching pro wrestling, I've seen a lot of people that I respected and enjoyed watching die. A couple have gone on due to natural causes, and a handful died thanks to freak accidents beyond their control, but way too many have been taken from this mortal coil due to the repercussions of heavy drug use. Whether it be due to painkillers or the more illicit stuff, wrestlers dying due to overdoses or their bodies just giving out is something that we fans have unfortunately become accustomed to.

But then, there was the story that broke yesterday afternoon. Chris Benoit, one of the greatest technical wrestlers of this generation and a certified Hall of Famer in the making, was dead. And to make matters worse, his wife Nancy (who old-school fans of WCW and ECW will remember as "Woman") and their seven-year-old son Daniel were both found dead too, the victims of an apparent murder-suicide. Now as far as I know right now, the coroner hasn't come out and said that's what officially happened for a fact yet, but I think that's the story they're sticking to right now. But if it really is true and Benoit murdered his wife and young son before taking his own life, I'd go out on a limb and call that the biggest tragedy in a business full of them. I mean, short of somebody bombing Orlando during WrestleMania next year, I think this is going to take the cake.

And as someone who enjoyed watching Benoit's matches, I think this really throws a wrench into what would have been a great legacy to leave behind. If he'd retired or died due to using too many painkillers or something like that, then he would have been remembered as a guy that shed blood, sweat, and tears for pro wrestling and earned the respect of his peers and his fans. But now that this has happened, will he end up being remembered as the guy who wigged out and killed his wife, his child, and himself? Does one weekend of insanity erase twenty years of in-ring brilliance and turn him into pro wrestling's version of O.J. Simpson? I really don't know. Call me in a year or two, and I might have a good idea.

But the idea that Benoit could do something like this is unfathomable. He's supposed to be one of the good guys. He's supposed to be one of the few that you never heard anything negative about. I'd almost expect to hear something like this was done by a wrestler everybody already knew was crazy, like Lex Luger or the Ultimate Warrior. And if Benoit had died thanks to drugs like every other wrestler, then I'd have accepted it and eventually gotten over it. But this?

I didn't know Chris Benoit personally. And unless one of you readers worked for any of the promotions he did, I doubt any of you did either. So I can only wonder what would have possessed him to do something this terrible, and I can only imagine how those closest to him, Nancy, and Daniel feel. What I do know, however, that if it's proven for a fact that what we're hearing is true, then I don't know if I'll be able to think about Benoit with the same warm feelings I did before yesterday.

And after all this, watching pro wrestling seems a little less fun.