10 Most Infamous WWE Ruthless Aggression Era Controversies

It feels tasteless to conflate the very real and profoundly tragic double murder suicide of Daniel, Nancy and Chris Benoit with what ultimately is a lot of appalling but insignificant television elsewhere, but it would be cowardly not to cover the ultimate controversy of the Ruthless Aggression era.

And it was a controversy that divided public opinion, primarily over the motivating factor behind Benoit's unconscionable decision.

Initially, steroids were presented by a media in search of a quick, sordid angle with which to sell the rolling coverage before it was pointed out that the murders, a protracted process, were unlikely to have resulted from a burst of "'roid rage". As the inquest raged on, in the months and years since, no answers were forthcoming.

Did Benoit emotionally collapse following the death of his best friend Eddie Guerrero?

Did his marriage with Nancy fall apart and end, like far too many, in murder? Did Benoit's celebrity status make more sordid and newsworthy a horrifically mundane cycle in the United States so frequent that it barely makes the national news?

Was Benoit really the nice, quiet unsuspecting "person you'd least suspect", or was he always predisposed to sadism?

Nothing justified Benoit's reprehensible and evil actions, but does anything begin to explain them?

Irvin Muchnick's book 'Chris & Nancy' casts aspersions over the now widely-accepted CTE theory; he points out that depression is a byproduct of excessive steroid use, meaning a sudden burst of rage isn't the only effect that may drive a user to murder, and also casts aspersions on leading CTE researcher Bennet Omalu, who claimed in his revolutionary work 'Play Hard, Die Young' that a removed brain he transported to his home was a poltergeist which turned the dishwasher off and on in his family home.

Nobody will ever know what drove Benoit to this unthinkable evil - but the story is so fascinating that a generation of wrestling fans will always ponder it.