http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/benoitdead

Fuck - this is just plain bad news.  Like wrestling or not, Chris Benoit was a connsummate professional, and this is a huge tragedy.  Its not a work - McMahon ended his "I'm dead" angle to dedicate the show tonight to his memory.

I'm stunned - I haven't watched wrestling in eons, but Benoit was one I truely respected and admired.

Holy crap. I haven't followed wrestling in a while, but he was one of my favorites. That's really sad.

This is some pretty freaky stuff. Daki posted it over at Animal Ball earlier.

Damn.

I can recall (with some chagrin) the whole "Booker-T/Chris Benoit" thing on WCW waaaay back when and being thrilled by each and every match he appeared in; they honestly never failed to bring it home.

Just...damn.

Pretty weird story. Any more details yet?

Damn.  He was one of my favorite all time wrestlers.  Hell back when I played the WWF CCG he was the one guy who I tracked down all the specials for.  Loved seeing his matches and everybody in our old group that used to gather to watch wrestling thought he was one of the best ever.

Man that really sucks.

Official police reports, on WWE.com, list it as a possible murder-suicide, with Benoit killing his family over the weekend, and himself on monday.

Theres a whole lot of crazy in this.  An unofficial source I read has it pegged as Benoit returning home to find his sick son dead, snapping and killing his wife, who was "Woman" in WCW, and then killing himself.

I can't believe a man who was so respected and loved is going out like this.  It is just shattering - I mean, we don't know what kind of mental illness/depression he may have been going through, but killing your family?  Thats the LAST thing I think anyone would expect Benoit to go out like...

Quote from: HackmastergeneralI mean, we don't know what kind of mental illness/depression he may have been going through...

And anabolic steroids.  Not knowing thing-one about his out-of-the-ring personality, but having seen the tell-tale signs of steroid use on him over time, that was the first thing I thought of.  It's a sad, sick story.

!i!

This Benoit thing is just bumming me out.  I didn't think the relationship would end well, but I had no idea.  Benoit was one of my alltime favorites.  And the kid being caught up in it is just like a knife in my heart.

WWE has a really bad culture issue that they need to work on.

There is so much steroid, perscription drug, suicide and street drug use in "pro" wrestling that it can only be traced back to the culture of the organization.

They really need to work harder at getting rid of drug use of any type, right now they just seem to turn a blind eye.

Yup.  I mean, its understandable - these guys wrestle routinely with injuries that professional athletes in major sport leagues RETIRE from.  These guys live in CONSTANT pain.

I don't know how you can get rid of that - the injuries, the pain these guys go through - without watering down the product so bad it becomes unwatchable.  Its virtually unwatchable now, through Vince's idiotic story lines, and hiring practices, but at least, when they get around to the wrestling, its pretty good for the most part.  Not as good as it was, oh, even 5-6 years ago.  The old E&C/Hardy Boyz TLC matches and feuds - that era was some of the best wrestling ever, in my opinion.  Good characters - GREAT stories, and Mankind, Undertaker, The Rock, Stone Cold, Kurt Angle, HHH - all in their prime and at the top of their game.  And the stable below them was almost uniformly top-to-bottom solid. Even Crash Holly (R.I.P. too you goofy bastard) and his "I don't want to be Hardcore champ but I keep winning" angle was great

But, if its true he offed his old lady and worse yet, his son, then that man can go to hell.  Period.

I've got my own baggage to carry around and get rid of, so I can understand anger.  I can understand a killing kind of anger too, believe me.

But, not in one single moment have I wanted to harm my kids.  The Mrs., well (ahem)... but kids don't deserve that kind of anger. Ever.

Gonna defend the guy a bit here. Some major (not TMZ) site mentioned David has Fragile X. There's a good chance Benoit fought with Woman about the kid, and killed her, then did the same for him as a "mercy".

In all probability, he had a nice smattering of emotial/mental illnesses and disorders, likely from drug/steroid use.  Depression is not out of the question.

Noone deserves mental illness, and its not like you have control over yourself if you have mental illness.

really sad