10 Things We Learned From Chris Jericho's Podcast On Chris Benoit's Death
Y2J and Dave Meltzer navigate Benoit's career with tact and insight.
It has now been over 10 years since the last few days of Chris Benoit's life, and the horrific series of events that rocked the wrestling business. The reverberations of the double murder suicide are still felt in 2017, and it brought two of wrestling media's most prominent voices together for an in-depth breakdown earlier today.
The Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer was Chris Jericho's guest on Talk Is Jericho this morning, with 'Benoit: 10 Years Later' the topic of discussion. Rather than focusing on the tragedy itself (which Y2J has done in great detail in the past), they discuss Benoit as a performer, from his early days in Calgary, all the way through to his run on WWE's ECW brand.
Benoit's monstrous acts have obviously eclipsed his wrestling legacy. Meltzer and Jericho acknowledge this several times, and at no point does it feel like they're tastelessly throwing praise at a murderer. Instead, they cover such heavy and potentially problematic subject matter tactfully, with Jericho, one of Benoit's closest friends, bringing a number of previously unheard backstage stories to the table.
A lengthy listen at just under two hours, it provided fresh perspective on an overdone subject, and brought a host of new details to light...
10. The Guilt
Watching Chris Benoit matches after the tragedy comes with a tough moral quandary. Some are able to momentarily put the terrible things he's done aside, separate the artist from the art, and appreciate the bouts on their own value, while still acknowledging Benoit's horrors. For others, the atrocities make it impossible to even think about watching his work, and many would prefer if he were erased from existence entirely.
The dilemma extends beyond fans, and stretches to those close to Benoit, such as Jericho and Meltzer. On the podcast, Dave revealed that he hadn't watched a full Benoit match in over 10 years prior to catching a Wild Pegasus vs. Jushin Liger clip aired during a recent NJPW show, and both men spoke at great length about their guilt at watching (and covering) his work.
Meltzer said that he feels terrible every time he has to write about Benoit, while Jericho, one of his greatest opponents, expressed regret that he can't even look back on some of the tremendous bouts he had with his countryman anymore. Clearly, this is a situation that no passage of time will ever ease, and understandably so.