The tale of Chris Benoit and his murderous and tragic demise have been told so many times that there's nothing much I can add to the story. With time, maybe there will be a way to separate Chris Benoit the Performer from Chris Benoit the Murdering Psychopath. Unfortunately (at least for me), that time has not come yet. As documented, Chris Benoit made professional wrestling his life and tried to imitate his idol, the Dynamite Kid, at every opportunity. Training in the Hart Dungeon, Benoit found success in Stampede Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling, earning a reputation for his workrate and ability to acclimate to almost any opponent's style. A jump to Paul Heyman's ECW gave Benoit something he didn't have before: An actual gimmick. At the November To Remember, Chris Benoit accidentally broke Sabu's neck on a back drop where Sabu did not complete his bump. Benoit broke down in the locker room, demanding that he be allowed to see and apologize to Sabu. Paul Heyman, ever the sympathetic beast, immediately dubbed Benoit "The Crippler", someone who didn't care if he hurt opponents or not. A jump to WCW as a member of the Four Horsemen should have given Benoit the main event push he richly deserved but he became stuck in the midcard. Now, some of these problems were of his own doing since he stole booker Kevin Sullivan's wife (Nancy) and, in doing so, sunk any chance he had of advancing in WCW. He jumped to the WWF alongside Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko as part of the Radicalz and his fans hoped this was the start of a run at the top. Unfortunately, Benoit was shuffled down to the midcard fairly quickly and remained there for almost four years. It wasn't until Paul Heyman became the Smackdown head writer than Chris Benoit received his title push. Benoit entered #1 at the 2004 Royal Rumble and lasted until the very end and then made Triple H tap out to the Crippler Crossface at Wrestlemania XX, finally being on top of the business he had loved since he was a kid. Unfortunately, Chris was never intended to be anything other than a transitional champion to Randy Orton and he was again shuffled down the card. He did really nothing of note until 2007, when the wrestling world would be thrown onto its head and the name "Chris Benoit" would be forever linked with the most terrible crime imaginable. I won't rehash the gory details of Benoit's crime here (they are readily available elsewhere) but did wrestling cause Benoit's death and crime? Benoit was a well known steroid user and had been for many years. He also had various drugs and narcotics in his system at the time of his death. Former WWE wrestler Christopher Nowinski had Benoit's brain examined and the results showed that Benoit's brain was the equivalent of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient. The brain injuries were due to the years of trauma inflicted by chair shots, flying headbutts off the top rope, and German suplex bumps in the wrestling ring. Nowinski's study also suggested that multiple concussions (something Benoit most definitely suffered) may lead to dementia, a disease leading to severe behavioral problems, especially in an elite athlete like Benoit. At the end of the day, Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, and Daniel Benoit are all dead and Chris is the reason why. Wrestling was definitely to blame for Benoit's murder-suicide and some say the death of Eddie Guerrero is what pushed him over the edge. Benoit will always be remembered as a monster, someone who took the life of his own son and wife before cowardly ending his own existence.
