10 Things We Learned From Chris Jericho's Podcast On Chris Benoit's Death
5. Benoit's WCW Misery
According to Jericho, Benoit's early WCW struggles made him absolutely miserable. He was one of the best wrestlers on the planet, but often booked like an enhancement talent, much like the cruiserweights. At one point, WCW wanted to use Benoit as one of Bill Goldberg's many squash match victims, with Jericho stating Benoit planned on getting in the ring, kneeling over, and just sliding his head under Goldberg's arm so that he could hit the Jackhammer and get it over with as soon as possible.
The match never happened, but the mere idea of it depressed Benoit, who was growing deeply unhappy with a business he'd dedicated his life to. Despite this, Jericho noted that Benoit's respect for the sport never wavered, recalling a story from a time when Benoit noticing him slacking on his professionalism, and gave him a stern, authoritative pep talk.
Benoit apparently felt that no matter how much work he was putting in, he wasn't getting anything in return. Meltzer noted that the his 1996 feud with Kevin Sullivan was the point at which the company finally started taking him seriously, though this angle would cause turmoil when Chris' onscreen relationship with Nancy (Sullivan's wife at the time) turned into a real-life affair.