The WWEs Vengeance pay-per-view show took place on June 24th, 2007. One of the scheduled matches, halfway down the card, was to see Chris Benoit take on CM Punk for the vacant ECW World Heavyweight Championship, after WWE had revived the brand on its own shows. However, Benoit was announced as being absent from the show due to a family emergency. While unusual for a wrestler to miss a major show like this, a one-off emergency seemed plausible and people speculated as to what that could be. Benoit had missed the weekends house shows due to this same emergency but that was all that was publicly known. Then, the next day, word began to filter out that Chris Benoit had been found dead, which was shocking in itself. Then, further news came out that Benoit, his wife and his son Daniel had all been found dead in the family home. Suddenly, this was no longer just your standard wrestling death. Something terrible had clearly happened. Bit by bit, news filtered out, although it took a good 24-48 hours. Benoit had murdered his wife and son, and then taken his own life. This made the mainstream news worldwide. This transcended wrestling. This was real-life crime on the biggest scale imaginable. On the Monday night, the scheduled Raw show was cancelled and instead, a tribute to Chris Benoit aired, in the style of previous tributes to Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero. While WWE producers may have been unaware of the situation unfolding around them, not everyone was as oblivious. William Regals tribute was the most telling: he praised Benoits work ethic in wrestling, and then abruptly ended his tribute by saying, And thats all Ive really got to say at the moment. It was clear, with hindsight, that Regal knew that something didnt add up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp3OQAL22T8 By the next night, it had become apparent that Benoit himself had committed the crimes, killing his wife and son one day apart, before hanging himself from his weights machine on the Sunday. While he had called the WWE office to say that Nancy was coughing up blood, in reality, she was lying dead in the family home. A pale looking Vince McMahon stated on Smackdown that Benoits name would never again be mentioned on WWE programming, and seven years later, it hasnt been, save for vintage footage on the WWE Network, which itself is preceded with a warning about how the characters are fictitious and do not represent the actors portraying them. But how had this happened? Many theories floated around, but the only person who really knows why is Benoit himself. Benoit was known for taking high-impact hits in his matches. He took chair shots to both the front AND back of his head. His matches with Regal were famed for the headbutt contests that the two would have: they would legitimately headbutt each other until one man bled. He was the loser of their little private battle. Combine the damage of these headbutts and chair shots with a torrid home life at times (Nancy had filed for divorce and a restraining order in 2003 but later withdrew this), and a huge consumption of steroids over a long period of time and you had a recipe for disaster. An examination of Benoits brain after his death revealed that all four lobes were damaged. He was said to have a form of dementia caused by multiple undiagnosed and untreated concussions. He was known to be suffering from mental illness at the time leading up to his death, often taking different routes to and from his house because he was convinced that somebody was following him. The death of his close friends Eddie Guerrero and Johnny Grunge had hit him hard too. His emotional tribute to Guerrero on Raw, and very public breakdown, bore testament to this. Benoits mental state was very, very fragile. The repercussions of Benoits death within the WWE were enormous. Chair shots to the head were banned and have never been seen in the WWE since. Any chair shots nowadays connect with the back or arms or shoulders. More importantly, concussions were finally taken seriously. Any WWE wrestler who suffers a concussion is now pulled from active duty and is not allowed back until they can pass an ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) test, which is also used in American Football and other sports. It tests a wrestlers visual and verbal memory, as well as their reaction times, all of which are dulled by concussions. In addition to this, I remember being told by my own doctor once that, after receiving three concussions in a lifetime, the brain starts to become permanently damaged. The Benoit murder/suicide was far and away the most shocking event in the history of wrestling. We can only hope that it is never repeated, and that the lessons that have already been learned continue to be listened to in decades to come.
Dean Ayass is a well known name to British wrestling fans. A commentator, manager, booker and ring announcer who has been involved in the business since 1993, Dean's insight into the business is second to none.
