At the time, the final moments of WrestleMania XX -- in which Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit (the WWE Champion and new World Heavyweight Champion, respectively) celebrated their wins amidst tears and confetti -- looked like they represented a sea change for WWE. It was no longer about who was the biggest or the strongest -- all that mattered was which men captivated the crowd, which men worked the hardest at mastering their craft -- which men were truly the best. WrestleMania XX was both a celebration and the dawn of a new era. Instead, the picture stands as a reminder of the absolute worst horrors of pro wrestling. Forty months from the celebration, both champions would be dead -- Guerrero from drug-abuse-related cardiac arrest and Benoit in a murder-suicide that saw him take the lives of his wife and son. Suddenly the sacrifices didn't seem worth it. The devotion wasn't so pure and admirable. The details that followed the deaths -- drug histories, brain damage -- were a wake-up call to the industry, one that's been partially heeded in the ensuing years. We'll never forget Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, but not for the reasons we'd hoped.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
