http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/h...t.asp?aID=20000


There are no words.

From 1Wrestling, and I seriously have no idea at this point whether he was ever in Houston for the PPV:

I don't know what to say about this one. I'm absolutely shocked.

An utter tragedy. This is the most surreal death of them all, just due to the bizarre and mysterious circumstance surrounding it. Awful, awful news.

This is just horrible. I can't even begin to wrap my brain around this one. Their are so many questions here. My condolences go out to the rest of his family and friends.

PWInsider seems to confirm Ryder's report:

Torch is the first of the news sites to go there:

The Raw taping is cancelled.

Presumably, Vince et al will do stuff from backstage in between beaming old clips from Titan Towers.

Personally, this is by far the hardest death to take yet. I can't even begin to imagine how such a tragedy could fall on an entire family.

And Biff Wellington was found dead over the weeked.

http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_20622.shtml

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/faye...0625benoit.html

Fuck you, Wade.

If the next ROH show or ROH PPV is called "A Night Of Tribute II" then count me in for a 'Fuck You, Gabe'

I just want to say this. If anyone starts speculating on the cause of death before anything is known, they will be gone from this board.

I don't think anyone would do that here, but you're already seeing theories in places, and it's sickening.

I am in complete disbelief right now.

Benoit has been, and always will be my favorite wrestler and my hero. I just cannot believe that Chris is gone. 1967-2007 is not long enough.

I'm with Vyce on this, I generally don't get emtional over wrestlers dying, death is the only gurantee in life, but, I shed many tears during the opening of Raw tonight.

Rest in Peace Chris Benoit, I will never forget you, and I love you and hope your journey in life was as marvelous as you were, and I hope the next stage in your existence will be as perfect as your life was. God bless you.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=3315501&page=1


Not good.

EDIT: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286673,00.html


Worse.

Jesus Christ..............

It's hours into the investigation ...

How can anything be "ruled" to have happened, as it states on WWE.com, without as much as an autopsy ...

Based on whatever instruments they have and the lividity of the bodies.

You don't need an autopsy to know such things. Boy placement usually tells you if someone say killed themselves or if a person was murdered. Other things such as bruises, scratches, etc. also provide further evidence of such things.

WWE.com is reporting the double murder-suicide part now.

Meltzer

Horrifying on multiple levels. The nature of the death and the abruptness of it is of course tearjerking. Really I have no clue how to respond.

Hard to respond to as well.

The earlier "theories" were among the obvious ones to draw from the small group of "possibilities". When Cheetah called around 8:30 PT with me having not heard/read about it yet, once she got past the Chris, Nancy and their son are dead part, my first question was "Accident?" When she said no, my reponse was along the line of "Oh god... muder-suicide?"

It's brutal... it's not something any of us really want to face... but it's there.


John

Thank you, Loss.

It would've been hard for any speculation to be more disgusting than what seems to have actually happened.

WWE.com has taken down all the video testimonials from other stars and a video tribute for him.

The uber-cynical part of me wonders if Vince is secretly relieved that we finally have a major wrestling scandal that can't plausibly be blamed on him. Not that it'll stop Mushnick from trying.

I am in no way absolving Chris Benoit of responsiblity if the reports are true (and they sadly almost certainly are), but really I think there is ample reason to suggest that the pro wrestling lifestyle is at least minimally complicit in this.

I have been completely unmoved by nearly all wrestling deaths. This left me absolutely shocked and nearly in tears. I couldn't stop saying 'Oh my God' when I was reading all the further details this morning.

2 years after his best friend Eddie as well. And the timing with the death angle.

Surreal, terrible, shocking, you can't put it into words.

I can't believe it.

Edit: Just to say thank God this forum exists, every other forum has about 40 pages on the subject, probably full of retarded comments I really don't want to read.

This is horrifying news. Absolutely horrifying.

Yeah, probably. Apparently Benoit had some covered-up roid rage problems.


More retarded than Eugene after a talk with Stephanie about how Dinsmore is "being too subtle with the character". It's gotten downright stupid out there at some boards. Well, more stupid than usual, anyway.

This is really f***ed up.

I think nothing could be further from the truth. Alex Marvez, filling in on the Observer website for Dave Meltzer, who is scheduled to appear on Good Morning America today to talk about the deaths, is already reporting that the wrestling industry itself is about to come under some heavy scrutiny. This very well could turn out to be the worst scandal to ever hit WWE, if the reports are true that Benoit murdered his wife and child and then committed suicide.

Yes, absolutely. We still don't have the full story (though some could justifiably argue that we know all we need to know) and we still don't know all the small pieces of the puzzle, so if anything, this story is only going to get more disturbing.

There's no way WWE or Vince McMahon is off the hook on this one. Whether they are complicit or not, the possibility of the wrestling business being complicit is certainly going to be heavily discussed in the days and weeks to come.

From the Observer website:

Depending one what shape Benoit's brain is in (in the literal physical & chemical sense) and how his internal organs look, this could very well be a breaking point Re: concussions & steroids. One of the guy's favorite spots WAS repeated legit headbutts.

I don't know if the Keller report circulating from his audio update of him smothering Nancy and Daniel and then hanging himself are true, but if so, he and Mike Awesome have both hung themselves in 2007.

The autopsy should be taking place in about 10 minutes or so.

If this doesn't get Vince Mcmahon and others in the wrestling Biz in front of Congress for a hearing, I don't know what will. People will blame Vince for this somehow.

Also, just to clarify, I think we have enough facts now and know enough about the situation that speculation is okay. My issue was more with people jumping to conclusions as soon as the whole family was reported dead. Now that we know a little more, I think it's fine.

Chris Nowinski's research into concussions as relating to depression, dementia, and suicide all suddenly looks a lot more relevant, doesn't it?

It does piss me off however that a lot of people just insist that wrestling MUST be at least partly if not fully to blame. Last time I checked, the majority of wrestlers weren't murderers, and the majority of murderers weren't wrestlers.

I can't see how they can tape 3 hours of TV, even if it's just straight wrestling matches, under the circumstances. This is so much more than the usual wrestling tragedy where someone with a history of drug use is found OD'd or dead of some form of chemically induced heart failure. Even with Owen it was just a freak accident and not the result of a murderous rampage. More power to whoever can perform tonight, even JBL seemed pretty shaken up. I guess at least Smackdown can rely on being taped to help move things along.

In the Benoit thread over at DVDVR one poster brought up a very good point, and, honestly, I've actually spent the bulk of my morning running errands with it floating in the back of my mind.

Many wrestling fans have feelings of utter contempt for Invader I for what happened to Brody, and similar feelings for Russo and McMahon over Owen Hart (and yes, I'm well aware of the vast difference in those two situations).

If it's concluded that Nancy and Daniel were in fact killed by Chris, before suicide. Will that change how we, as wrestling fans view Benoit?

It may.

But I can still watch Invader 1 matches and enjoy them knowing what he did to Brody.

I just won't get choked up watching Benoit matches like I do watching some of Eddy's.

I have to say, I watched a Benoit match today, and found I was merely apathetic. I can honestly say though, that it was more due to me boredom at a lot of wrestling than any contempt to the wrestlers, so it probably won't effect the way I watch his matches.

I think WMXX won't be ranked so high anymore by most people, since a lot of what made that match was the happiness they felt for Benoit at finally achieving his goal, which may now be evaporated.

I'm not jumping to conclusions though, I mean, anything is possible. Nancy could have killed the kid, and Benoit killed her in a rage then himself because he was unable to live with them. He may have been suffering dementia from all the neck and head trauma and the steroids. Who can say.

I don't know how I'll react to this long-term. I certainly understand the folks who feel, right now, that they never want to see another Benoit match. I was thrilled to receive Goodhelmet's Finlay comp in the mail yesterday. But as the news started to break, I wondered if I'd want to watch the Benoit matches. I can't imagine enjoying them right now. But at the same time, I thought of his upcoming Guerrero comp and found myself hoping that the Benoit matches would stay on that one because they're such a tribute to Eddy's art.

This is all very trivial compared to the main story, but these are clearly the sorts of things we think about when a public person does the unthinkable. So I guess it's worth discussing in a glimpse of the human mindset kind of way. Sorry, I'm rambling -- just don't have a compass on this one.

http://www.tmz.com/2007/06/26/benoit-murde...tails-revealed/

Following up on Bix's post, and dragging over what I wrote on tOA:

I've seen in several places that Wade Keller's audio update (subscription req) reported several hours prior to TMZ.

I tend to give it credibility. From the comments of the DA, and having seen them fuller in the CNN clip, it's clear from the crime scene that Nancy and Daniel were murdered. The only question was whether it was triple homicide or murder-suicide. While he was specific that they weren't ruling out a triple homicide, the comments about the murder-suicide and that they weren't looking for anyone else... one could tell that they were 99.99% certain what they were seeing.

Fake suicides are hard to successfully stage in the midst of a triple homicide. Given Chris athletisism, there likely would have been a give-away sign - signs of a struggle, or a blow to the head before anyone could try to stage it. Those are things homicide dicks instantly look for. Given the body tempts could give a very clear indication of the times of death, and obviously Chris' being well after Nancy's... if Chris was found in a fashion that reflected suicide (and the Keller/TMZ report is such a fashion), the likelihood of something other than sucide is essentially nil.

This is a brutal story.


John

Addendum...

One wishes the loons around the net who are trying to say Nancy may have killed Daniel and then Chris snapped on her would just shut the fuck up. Bix has pointed out elsewhere - time of death isn't difficult to establish, especially if they are as spread out as the appear to be in this case.

John