2. Chris Benoit (1967-2007)
Chris Benoit had a rich and varied wrestling career - working his way through Stampede Wrestling, WCW and ECW before making an entrance in the WWE in 2000. He won the intercontinental belt several times, he defeated Triple H and Steve Austin along with his partner Chris Jericho to claim the tag team titles. He inched his way towards being a challenger for the World title. Benoit wrestled Kurt Angle at the 2003 Royal Rumble. He lost, but his effort was widely lauded. In 2004 at Wrestlemania XX, Benoit won the world championship from Triple H. This signalled Benoit's growth in the WWE and the major role he would play in the organisation for the next couple of years. Over a period of three days in June 2007, Benoit asphyxiated his wife Nancy and strangled their son Daniel. He later hanged himself. Various theories have been postulated to explain this terrible tragedy. Benoit was obviously suffering a mental illness of some kind, was it steroids? Drugs? A failing marriage? Brain damage? Benoit likely took all the reasons and motives for the heinous acts he perpetrated to the grave. The WWE, upon learning of Benoit's death and that of his wife and child, replaced Raw with a glowing tribute to Benoit featuring past matches and comments from wrestlers. When they learned that Benoit was behind the carnage, the WWE had major egg on their faces. They went into a flurry of activity trying to erase every trace they could that Benoit ever existed. The WWE also went on a moral clampdown in the months and years since Benoit's crimes. First of all, chair shots to the head were cut, followed by blood, swearing and adult oriented situations. WWE shows were reduced from a TV-14 rating to TV-PG. WWE wrestling had its balls effectively snipped off. A biopic of Chris Benoit is allegedly in the works. The whole affair is a defining tragedy in the history of Pro Wrestling.