10 Things We Learned From Chris Jericho's Podcast On Chris Benoit's Death
9. Benoit's Extreme Self-Confidence Issues
Intensity and aloofness are regularly held up as Chris Benoit's defining traits. He treated himself and his craft with the utmost seriousness, and while he was clearly a tremendous wrestler, Meltzer and Jericho spoke of a drive for perfection that ultimately led to an extreme lack of self-confidence.
Meltzer recounted being blown away by a tag match featuring Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Shinjiro Otani and Jushin Liger. He showered Eddie & Chris with praise afterwards, and both were genuinely taken aback, before running through a laundry list of all they felt was wrong with the match. They found flaws that nobody else on the planet could see, such was their perfectionism.
Jericho then disclosed a story regarding a match he and Benoit had wrestled in Japan. Y2J mistimed a spin kick, but Benoit sold it regardless, and disappeared after the bout. Jericho tracked him down in the boiler room after a long hunt, where Benoit was so upset by the botch that he'd punished himself by doing 500 squats in isolation.
As a general point, Jericho also noted that Benoit would constantly ask his colleagues if what he was doing was good enough, and never seemed content with his own work, regardless of any praise.