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Chris Benoit allegedly kills wife and son, then himself

Posted: Jun 26th 2007 By: CMBurnham

News broke Monday evening that WWE superstar Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their 7-year old son Daniel, had been found dead at their home outside Atlanta, GA. In the following overnight hours, more and more evidence appeared indicating that their deaths were the result of a possible double murder/suicide allegedly perpetrated by Benoit. While other websites devote themselves to the investigation of the deaths, Oklafan wishes to try and sum up the accomplishments of this great Canadian athlete and his 21-year career.

Christopher Michael Benoit was born May 21, 1967 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at age 12. He began attending local wrestling matches in his teens and made a decision to become a professional wrestler. In 1985, he graduated high school and began to travel 185 miles on weekends to train with Stu Hart. After 6 months of training, Benoit had his first professional match for Stampede Wrestling.

Benoit spent the first 5 years of his career primarily competing in Canada. During that time, he won the International Tag Team Title 4 times with 4 different partners (including Keith Hart and the late Biff Wellington, who passed away only 5 days before Benoit's death) as well as the British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title 4 times, once from Gama Singh and 3 times from Johnny Smith.

Benoit began the 1990s by branching out to international waters. He competed in Mexico, winning the UWA Light Heavyweight Title. He also began appearing regularly in Japan, wrestling under a mask as the Pegasus Kid (later Wild Pegasus). It was during this time that he met 2 men who would become his best friends: Dean Malenko and the late Eddie Guerrero. These men, unofficially dubbed the "Three Amigos", would have their careers intertwined for the next 10 years. In 1994, Benoit would win the Super J Cup with a victory over the Great Sasuke.

In 1992, Benoit made some appearances for WCW. He spent about 9 months there at the lower mid-card level. Then, after another tour of Japan, he caught the eye of ECW promoter Paul Heyman. Heyman brought Benoit into ECW in 1994 and it was there that Benoit earned the nickname "The Crippler" when he broke Sabu's neck in a match. He also earned his first World Title, the ECW World Tag Team Title with Dean Malenko, and would go on to form the original version of the Triple Threat with Malenko and Shane Douglas.

By 1996, Benoit had signed with WCW, after receiving some tryout matches with the WWF (including one that was heavily publicised because he was escorted to the ring by Ted DiBiase.). Here Benoit began to rack up the gold. He traded the WCW Television Title twice with Booker T (and he would win it a 3rd time from Rick Steiner). He reteamed with Dean Malenko to win the WCW World Tag Team Title and also won it twice with Perry Saturn. All 3 title reigns occurred in 1999. He won the WCW United States Title twice. But while he was doing this, he was cementing a legacy that would carry him on to the WWE. He was invited to be a member of the 4 Horsemen, along with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman. He engaged in a "Best of 7" series iwith Booker T over the WCW TV Title. Perhaps most bizarrely of all, when he entered WCW , he began a feud with Kevin Sullivan, who was the head booker of WCW at the time. During this feud, Sullivan's wife Nancy, who had been a wrestling valet under the name Fallen Angel and later Woman, began escorting Benoit to the ring as his valet. She would later divorce Sullivan and marry Benoit. Benoit would go on to defeat Sullivan in a Retirement match in 1996.

By 2000, Benoit was amongst a group of several wrestlers who was completely fed up with the situation in WCW. They perceived a "glass ceiling" that they couldn't shatter and several of them began to have discussions with the WWF. In January 2000, Chris Benoit defeated Sid Vicious for the vacant WCW World Title, his first World Heavyweight Championship. But that wasn't enough to keep him in the company and the next night, Benoit abandoned the title and left for the WWF.

In 2 weeks, Benoit, along with Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero, arrived in the WWF, brought in by Mick Foley. Within a month, Benoit defeated Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho in a Triple Threat Match to win his 1st WWF Intercontinental Title (He would go on to win 3 more, defeating Chris Jericho, Billy Gunn and Rob Van Dam). He would also team with Chris Jericho to take the WWF World Tag Team titles from Steve Austin and Triple H, a match made famous because Helmsley suffered his first torn quadrecep during it.

By mid-2001, Benoit's body was beginning to feel the effects of his high-flying, hard-hitting style. He had suffered a damaged right knee in 1989 as a result of a car crash in Canada, but now his neck was needing reconstruction and Benoit was forced to spend a year out of the business recuperating. But he returned in 2002 as a draftee to the Smackdown Brand and teamed (somewhat reluctantly) with Kurt Angle to become the first ever WWE Smackdown World Tag Team Champions.

Benoit spent 2003 winning match after match, showing the world that he was the greatest wrestler never to win the WWE World Title. Finally that opportunity came to him when he entered the 2004 Royal Rumble at #1 and went through 29 other men, winning the event by eliminating the Big Show. This earned him a shot at the World Championship, but Benoit surprised people by moving from Smackdown to RAW to challenge Triple H for the RAW World Title. On March 14, 2004, Benoit faced Helmsley and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XX in a Triple Threat Match and ended the day by standing victorious in the ring as the new WWE RAW World Champion. He would be joined by Smackdown World Champion Eddie Guerrero, his best friend, and the 2 celebrated together in an iconic moment.

Benoit would reign as RAW World Champion during the summer and would become the 1st person to hold the RAW World and RAW World Tag Team Titles simultaneously when he teamed with Edge and defeated La Resistance. After losing the RAW Title to Randy Orton at Summerslam, Benoit would again recapture the RAW World Tag Team Titles, this time singlehandedly. At the Taboo Tuesday event, Shawn Michaels defeated Benoit & Edge in the voting for who should earn a shot at Triple H and the RAW World Title. Benoit & Edge were given a consolation prize with a shot at the RAW World Tag Team Title. Edge wanted nothing to do with tag team titles at this point, feeling they were beneath him and he walked out on his partner halfway through the match. But Benoit persevered and won the titles on his own.

By 2005, Benoit was back on Smackdown, but out of the World title picture. He did bring home the WWE United States Title 3 times, though. He beat Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds the first time (and would repeat that victory in siliar times for a couple of months) and later defeated Booker T and Mr. Kennedy to recapture the gold. He also competed in another "best of 7 series" againt Booker T, this time for the United States Title. Booker suffered an injury during this series that forced him to choose Randy Orton as a replacement for the latter half. He also took Oklahoma native Brent Albright (then competing as Gunner Scott) under his wing. But 2005 was a bittersweet year for Benoit. He was honoured to be chosen, along with Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Rey Misterio, Jr., to induct his best friend Eddie Guerrero into the WWE Hall of Fame. Sadly, it was a posthumous induction, as Eddie had passed away in November, 2004. Many feel that this is what led to Benoit taking approximately 6 months off in 2006.

Most recently, Benoit had been drafted to ECW and was preparing to face C. M. Punk to fill the vacant ECW World Title at the Vengeance PPV. But the morning of the PPV, Benoit contacted WWE officials and cancelled his appearance, citing "personal reasons".

Chris Benoit made 7 documented appearances in Oklahoma from 1998 to 2006. On February 13, 1998, he defeated Raven in Oklahoma City by DQ. He again appeared in Oklahoma City on April 3, 2001, where he lost to William Regal and Kurt Angle. On December 22, 2002, Benoit main evented a Smackdown TV Taping, defeating the Big Show to become the #1 contender to the WWE Smackdown World Title held by Kurt Angle. It would be 3 years before Benoit again appeared in Oklahoma, but he returned on January 23, 2005 to defeat Edge in a Submission Match. The next night, in Oklahoma City, Benoit competed in 2 6-man tag team events. At the opening of RAW, he teamed with Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels beating Tyson Tomko, Edge and Christian. Then, in the post-show event, Benoit, Jericho & Michaels defeated Evolution. Benoit made his final 2 Oklahoma appearances on March 25 & 26th, defending his United States Title against John Bradshaw Layfield. It was the only time he came to Oklahoma as a champion.

Sadly, it appears that Benoit's legacy as one of the greatest technical wrestlers ever may be permanently tarnished by the supposed actions of his last few days on Earth. While Oklafan in no way condones Benoit's alleged behaviour, it does recognise that a man is the sum of his existence, not merely the last thing he does. Chris Benoit was a tremendous athlete, a world recognised superstar, but like many, he seems to have had his demons. We can only hope that time will eventually bring forgiveness.

Oklafan extends its sympathies to the extended family of Chris & Nancy Benoit.