By Michael Lewis
 On Thursday, June 21, Chris Benoit was making plans for the future. The Fourth of July was only two weeks away, and one of the most popular professional wrestlers in the world was looking forward to spending the holiday with his wife, Nancy, and their seven-year old son, Daniel. In preparation, Benoit made his annual call to James Robison, a good friend in Peachtree City, Georgia. It was a tradition for the Benoit family to spend the evening of the Fourth with Robison, who always reserved an out-of the-way parking spot for the Benoits so they could enjoy the local fireworks show at a distance from fans and autograph seekers. Even on his nights off, people wanted Chris Benoit to be “the Canadian Crippler.”
Benoit asked Robison about his family, his business, his life. It was lassic Chris—always putting himself out for others. In the World Wrestling Entertainment locker room, wrestlers knew Benoit as the guy you went to with a problem: Pissed at management? Not sure how to execute a certain move? Trouble with the wife? Talk to the guy whose whole life had been wrestling.
“It was a typical conversation,” remembers Robison. “There were no signs of trouble. So I was just completely shocked about what happened. There was nothing you could look back on that indicated he wanted to say goodbye.”
64 wrestlers under the age of 50 have died since 1987, including eight that made the world take notice.
Four days later police would find Benoit, his son, and his wife dead inside their million-dollar home on a quiet street in Fayetteville, Georgia—all victims of Benoit himself. He committed the murders during an excruciating journey through darkness that spanned three days, killing first his wife, then his son, and finally himself. Friends, family, and fans would attribute the tragedy to everything from “’roid rage” to severe depression; his employer, the WWE, would brand the spree a freak occurrence, an isolated case of a man who snapped under pressure.
Seen through the prism of Benoit’s career, however, the truth may be that the worst act of violence ever to strike the wrestling world wasn’t random, but the result of over two decades spent in an unregulated industry that pushes its talent to the point of death. Given Benoit’s lifestyle—which was characterized by an enormous intake of performance-enhancing drugs, 300-day-per-year workloads, and blunt force head trauma as a way of life—the main question surrounding the tragedy may not be why it happened, but why it hadn’t happened before.Chris Benoit’s final days, it could be argued, began the moment he first stepped through the ropes and into the ring.
Chris Benoit wanted to be a pro wrestler almost from the time he could walk. He grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and became a fan while watching Stampede Wrestling, a minor-league outfit in Calgary. Never the biggest or strongest kid, Benoit idolized guys like Bret Hart and the Dynamite Kid (Tom Billington), Stampede stars who became major international grapplers.
Desperate to become a wrestler himself, Benoit started weight training at 13. Later he went to Calgary, where he convinced Bret Hart’s father, Stu, to allow him to study at the famous Dungeon—the basement training center beneath Hart’s mansion where legends such as Hart, Brian Pillman, and Lance Storm also learned the craft. There he was schooled in the very real skills that define the uniquely physical faux sport of modern pro wrestling.
The aggressive kid picked up the art quickly, mastering the holds, kicks, leaps, and stunts that lend the fights their brutal authenticity. He debuted as a pro in 1985 at only 18. At that time wrestling was entering a boom era, as stars from small regional circuits like Stampede were being recruited by emerging national brands like the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Much of it was thanks to the promotional wizardry of the WWF’s Vince McMahon Jr., a hulking, gruff-voiced businessman who coined the term “sports entertainment.” McMahon had grown up in the business and organized the first WrestleMania, a pay-per-view event that featured mainstream celebrities like Cyndi Lauper and Muhammad Ali. Wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and André the Giant were becoming world-famous.
|