10 Things We Learned From VICE's Dark Side Of The Ring: Chris Benoit

6. William Regal's Tribute Promo Spooked Jericho

Chris Benoit William Regal
VICE

WWE leapt into tribute mode as soon as the first details were announced, and that's something they'd come to regret. Their knee-jerk response to Benoit's death was to rally the troops and promote an episode of Raw in his honour. Some wrestlers, like Chris Jericho, declined the offer to appear.

Jericho watched the show at home with a bottle of vodka instead.

After endless promos that heaped praise on Benoit as an in-ring performer, William Regal gave a deceptively chilling speech about his recently-deceased friend. It was probably innocuous to most watching, but Jericho noticed that Regal's words were different and didn't carry the same obvious heartache as everyone else.

That spooked him, and he couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously off. Regal lived in the same town as Benoit, so he likely knew him better than most of the other names speaking (John Cena, for example), and might've known that Benoit wasn't in a great place.

Even so, he can't have possibly known what was to come.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.