Benoit

It's taken me two days to actually write this, and I'm still not sure I'm going to have a lot to say besides the glaringly obvious.

Chris Benoit, the wrestler, was fantastic, and I still maintain that there will be few better. Will I watch his matches ever again? Definitely. Will I think less of him each time I watch said matches? I have no idea.

As much as it saddens me that Chris Benoit is no longer with us, what's more maddening is what he did in his final hours. It's beyond my comprehension to understand what would lead someone to kill people, let alone your wife and child.

Hearing how he smothered to his son Daniel really hurt, in part because it is just such a fucked-up concept and in part because my own son is almost the same age. I saw my son last night, gave him a big hug, and just thanked my lucky stars that I have such a wonderful child. Not that the two events are in any way inter-related, I'm just saying this is what I've been going through.

And this is not to say Nancy's death isn't just as dreadful; it is. As "Woman", she was one of my first wrestling "crushes" way back when, along with Miss Elizabeth (how sad is that that both of them died so young?) and certainly she was a great manager and performer. Again, I have no idea how someone can do something like this.

Wrestling is no doubt going to be the target of this tragedy and its drug policies. Is that fair? I'm certainly not the one to say that it is or isn't, but in my opinion, I can't see how this situation should be on Vince McMahon's hands.

Even if their drug policy is a sham (debatable), how many other steroid junkies and abusive personalities are there/were there in WWE that never did anything this horrible? Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, The British Bulldogs -- all of these people have admitted to steroid use, and yet, I've never heard murder among any terrible things their "roid rage" may have triggered. I'm not saying their drug policies shouldn't be closely examined (there's no downside in giving it more scrutiny); I just wonder how you can blame steroids or pain pills on what is allegedly pre-meditated murder.

And to me, it all comes back to the wrestlers. They've lost yet another friend, another leader and, in the ring at least, champion. How many more tragedies are they going to have to endure?

R.I.P. Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit. Regardless of what I think of Chris, I still pray and hope they have peace in their lives.


(By the way, I wrote a separate piece on whether the media is sensationalizing this tragedy over the WWI message boards. Another reason to join up if you haven't already! And yes, I realize the irony in that last statement.)