The death of wrestler Chris Benoit and his family — and the allegation he killed his wife and 7-year-old son before committing suicide — has left me sad and confused. I just can’t understand it. Any of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Benoit
First I can’t get my head around Chris Benoit killing his family. I’ve been a wrestling fan for years(since around 1960) and Benoit had always seemed to be a classy guy.
He was an old-school wrestler who looked out for younger guys — taking them under his wing and making sure they made it. He loved wrestling, and it showed. He always gave it his all. He always left the fans on their feet chanting his name.
On Monday night on WWE RAW-I watched wrestler after wrestler talking about Benoit. What a great guy he was. How he was always there when they had troubles. His pride in his profession and, most of all, his love for his family.
That is part of what has me baffled. Of all the guys in professional wrestling, he’d be about the last I’d expect this from.
Wrestlers, like other professional athletes and stars, often live in the fast lane. And they’ve gotten in trouble there. Guys have had drug problems, domestic violence issues or other situations. From listening to the wrestlers speak Monday night, Benoit was the guy they turned to to help get their lives and careers righted.
As I watched the telecast, I found myself repeatedly thinking “Something else happened. Maybe there was a carbon monoxide leak. Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe some crazy stalker fan broke in. Maybe his wife flipped out and killed their son and he killed himself out of grief. I don’t know, but Chris Benoit could not have done this.”
I was talking about the deaths with a co-worker Tuesday, and she was telling me her fiance — also a longtime fan — was having the same thoughts as he watched Monday.
Benoit was just one of the guys everyone respected. The best comparison I can come up with is quarterback Brett Favre. Even the most rabid Green Bay Packers haters respect Favre. He’s just one of those class acts everyone can’t help but respect. Benoit was the same way.
How could he kill his family? I just can’t understand ??? ???
But there’s an even bigger question.
Maybe I can understand him killing his wife in a fit of rage. Steroids and “roid rage” could be involved. He snapped and saw red and then next thing he knew, she was dead. I can almost understand that.
I can also understand that if that’s how things played out, making the decision he had to kill himself. He’d just killed his wife, an act he couldn’t take back and for which he couldn’t forgive himself.
But there had to be a moment of clarity in which he decided — a clear-headed, conscious decision — to kill a 7-year-old child. His own son. And that’s what I can’t understand. And I can’t forgive.
OK, she was killed in a fit of rage. OK, he’s decided to kill himself. Why not walk the kid across the street to a neighbor’s house under some pretext — maybe claim there is a gas leak in the home — and leave him there, go home and hang himself?
Maybe the boy will never forgive you. Maybe he’ll hate you and be in therapy for the rest of his life. At least he’d be alive to hate you.
Goodbye Chris Benoit. Your legacy as a wrestler will be as one of the greatest. But your legacy as a husband, father — as a human being? One of the worst
I know this might be off topic on this forum-but life is not always wine and roses and why things like this happens is even beyond me ??? :