I just read all 13 pages of the Benoit thread on the OO forums and I was all ready to express my feelings here (I, too, can't, ahem, get on the OO boards).
But I have nothing to say.
I had some personal crap happen to me about 6 years ago and I haven't cried since.
Untill now.
Is it so hard to imagine? Is it so hard to believe? Something so outrageous, something so far-fetched, well how 'bout Adam and Eve?
Post by The Canadian Content on Jun 26, 2007 7:04:41 GMT -5
Everyone holding up okay?
Regardless of the details of the situation, this is shocking and sad. I usually turn RAW on at the beginning to gauge how bad it's going to be. I certainly had no intention of watching last night. I wasn't even really paying attention, I just glanced at the TV as I was passing it, and I saw the 1967-2007 graphic up there. I sat down and didn't move for the next three hours.
A couple of things about WWE: 1. Calling off the Vince angle was the right thing to do. Vince opening the show was a class act from a guy we've come to expect classlessness from. He was visibly shaken. 2. I'm not sure what the timeline was like -- who knew what and when -- but I was surprised that they didn't get the story and the fact that they were running a tribute show out into the media. I watch RAW on a sports channel that has a ticker running 24/7. I frequent that channel. There was absolutely no mention of Benoit's death until immediately after Vince announced it. When I say I was surprised, I mean pleasantly surprised. They had an opportunity to run a show with the highest ratings they've had in years if they'd sensationalized for a couple of hours beforehand. They didn't take that opportunity. I'm glad.
Anyway, sad day for WWE, its fans, and the Benoit family and their friends. And like I said at the beginning, I hope everyone here's holding up okay. Wrestling fandom is very much a closed community. A lot of other people might not get it.
Post by National Champion Chris Cole on Jun 26, 2007 7:53:09 GMT -5
Is anybody else as stunned at "Murder-Suicide" as I am? Everything I ever read or heard about the guy seems to contradict that. How is that even possible?
From WWE.com
WWE.com has further information relating to both the investigation and the cause of death, but the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department has requested that WWE.com not release any additional details at this time.
Hopefully we get to know the whole story soon and shed some light. I'm not sure if I should still be sad or be angry.
Angry. You have a wife. I don't know if you have children, but if you do, it's your job as a father to do everything - up to and including giving up your own life - to protect them. To do the opposite, and to the extreme of taking their lives, is horrible. Someone raised the question on OO about whether one bad act negates a lifetime of good. Well, the short answer is yes. The long answer is: how do you know there was a lifetime of good? Because you liked how the guy wrestled? I did too. That didn't make him a nice man or a good man. We don't know whether he was or not. We can only go from the persona put across on TV. That means nothing. I was a fan, too. I am sad, too. But I was not enough of a fan to allow that to cloud my eyes in light of the emerging facts. If Chris Benoit did in fact murder his wife and murder his child, then he should have cut straight to the chase and just done himself, and let them live. You should be angry.
When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has spent 8 years in the white house, Dick Morris replied, "So has the pastry chef".[My5:]
OO is running like molasses right now, so I can only assume it's getting flooded with wrestling fans and non-fans alike. It was a shitty time for my Internet to go out yesterday. I left the house around 4:30 for a softball game and got home around 7:30. Couldn't get online, so I grabbed a sandwich to eat while I watched RAW. Needless to say, the sandwich didn't get eaten. This is the first episode of RAW my wife has actually watched from beginning to end with me. My Internet came back on around 10:00, so I started on the OO thread (still haven't finished it). I decided I couldn't read anymore once the details started to come out. I'm debating whether I want to tell my wife what really happened.
Post by National Champion Chris Cole on Jun 26, 2007 8:36:18 GMT -5
I'm glad I'm not the only who who feels that way. I don't have any kids yet but I already know they will be the most important aspect of my life when I do.
I still hope the news is wrong. Having one of your heroes do something like this is something that the business may never recover from for this fan. Right now I'm disgusted with the entire system. How can these wrestlers keep dieing so young. And in odd ways. Accidents, ODs, murders, suicides. Something isn't right with wrestling. It just doesn't add up.
This is insane. I can't get on the OO boards either so I figured I'd post my thoughts here.
I turned on Raw at about 8:15 last night to find them showing the end of the '04 Royal Rumble (which, obviously, Benoit won). My heart immediately sank and I knew there was only one reason they'd be showing it, especially after hearing the "family emergency" from Vengeance. Sure enough, the "In Memory of Chris Benoit" graphic came up shortly after.
At first, I thought it was another Guerrero "died (mostly) natural causes before his time" tragedy. Now I've been hearing more and more and it is now just tragic and bizarre.
Having just read the majority of the Benoit thread on OO, I am sick tothink that there are so many people who are so willing to suspend any shred of judgement because they don't want to think that someone they admired could be a bad person. "Maybe it was concussions." - NOT AN EXCUSE "Maybe he was depressed." - NOT AN EXCUSE "Maybe it was drugs". - NOT AN EXCUSE Then there's the wierd and cryptic post by The Rick, which basically just doesn't make any sense to me at all, but he got to write about "Jesus Camp" and make some cynical comments. The more I think about this entire story, and the more reaction to it I read, the angrier and angrier I am getting. If this story is true, and if he really did what he is thought to have done, then fuck him. Fuck him and his "legacy" and his talent and anyone who attempts to justify what he did with any bullshit "maybe's". If this story is true, then he is a murderer, and a murderer of the worst kind - the kind who murders that person who is depending on him for unconditional love and protection. I am so angry with the IWC right now.
When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has spent 8 years in the white house, Dick Morris replied, "So has the pastry chef".[My5:]
Post by The Canadian Content on Jun 26, 2007 8:59:42 GMT -5
Doc, I get your anger. I really do. But you should understand, as a fan yourself, how much emotional investment goes into being a fan. You don't want to believe that someone you care about is capable of what Benoit's being accused of.
This is still fresh for a lot of people, and a lot of the posts on OO were made as the news was breaking and as people were hearing about it for the first time. It took me a long time to get over the shock of his death. I went to bed last night not knowing any details or speculation. It never occurred to me that murder-suicide was an option. That aspect of it is only a couple of hours old for me, and I'm struggling with it. As, I'm sure, are a lot of others.
I agree that if he's guilty it's the most heinous of crimes, but for now I'd like to just be a fan of the man's work and be sad that he and his family are gone. I'm not here to make excuses for him, because I don't know what happened. Even if I did, I wouldn't make excuses. People are responsible for their actions. I'm simply not willing to pass judgment on the man when all of the "evidence" I've seen is speculation.
I'm kind of where doc is. I get that people are going through grief and that people had varying levels of benoit love.
But some of the stuff is just crazy. Hoping nancy killed daniel certainly tops that list.
The other thing I'm having "fun" with today (and sorry to make this a 'me' thing....) Is all the inquiries and the like from the co-workers who know I'm a wrestling fan. "Dude - that wrestler is dead and he killed his family. What's up with that?".
Post by The Jewish Cunthead on Jun 26, 2007 9:18:17 GMT -5
Someone emailed this to me so take this with a grain of salt...
-They say it is being reported he suffocated his wife and son, perhaps a day apart. And then hung himself. Late Sunday night, he sent a strange text message to a person within the WWE. The police broke into the house at 2:30 pm today and found them in separate rooms.
-Vince called all the wrestlers backstage this afternoon for an emergency meeting. Wrestler were already bawling and crying. A longtime WWE wrestler said it was the most emotional state he's ever seen the wrestlers.
-There was a really uneasy feeling Sunday. Everybody felt something was wrong.
-One wrestler said "It was bound to happen". There was a strong suspicion backstage that Benoit did this right away. There was also a suspicion that Nancy had done it. They had a volatile relationship and everyone knew it.
-Hardly anybody backstage really knew Benoit. He had a very small inner circle that one time included Eddy Guerrero and recently included Chavo Guerrero. But even they had a certain psychological distance from Benoit. Everyone could tell that something wasn't right lately with Benoit.
-He said that he was a very nice and pleasant person to be around, but a person close to Benoit said that Chris had "snap potential".
-A lot of steroids were found in the Benoit household, and Benoit has had bouts with "roid rages". WWE may suffer publicly because of their unenforced "Wellness Policy".
"You were part Canadian as soon as your dick took up permanent residence in Moosejaw." - Hoodge
"and 29 Fingers, what the fuck is that shit? Who wrote a song about your anal world record set at the Stuckeys just outside of San Diego?" - Moose
"But yeah, I'd rather stick my dick in a dead guys asshole then watch Anchorman again." - Creeps
is making fun of benoit ok? i know wrestlers usually get special treatment that other celebrities don't get, but if he is in fact a murderer, does it still apply to him?
If he's a murderer, he loses any and all special treatment, in my opinion. He didn't die in a tragic car wreck, or even an accidental OD. Shit, he didn't even just hang hmself, which is fucked up but still sad. If he really did take them with, fuck him. Open season.
When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has spent 8 years in the white house, Dick Morris replied, "So has the pastry chef".[My5:]
i think i'm gonna go to OO and find one of the jokes people made about john ritter when he died, and place benoit's name into it and see who yells at me
Post by National Champion Chris Cole on Jun 26, 2007 9:53:26 GMT -5
I still can't shake the image of his son. HIS SON. That was a cute kid. How you can do that to the son is beyond my ability to comprehend. I'll never be able to look at Benoit the same way. I might never be able to look at wrestling the same way. I've been tinkering with giving it up for months now. Perhaps this will finish it off.
I haven't watched in over a month. Haven't missed it one bit. I heard this on the radio on my way to work. Otherwise I would have had no idea. (Incidentally, I just finished the last two pages of the OO thread, and read Jeb's typical masturbatory bunk, and realized that I haven't missed that one bit, either.)
When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has spent 8 years in the white house, Dick Morris replied, "So has the pastry chef".[My5:]
Post by salmonjunkie on Jun 26, 2007 12:07:59 GMT -5
operationretard said:
is making fun of benoit ok? i know wrestlers usually get special treatment that other celebrities don't get, but if he is in fact a murderer, does it still apply to him?
It's ok with me, but expect verbal prison rape from Jeb.
No shit! I just now got to his posts directed at Rick and RJ (pages 13 and 14). In the four years I have been posting, I've seen Jeb lay into a few people, but never with the venom he spewed over those couple pages.