Update (6/29): This story took a strange strange turn Thursday evening when investigators in the Chris Benoit murder/suicide reported that his Wikipedia entry had been edited to include his wife’s death 14 hours before her body was discovered. At 12:01 a.m. Monday, an anonymous user added the following information to Benoit’s page: “Chris Benoit was replaced by Johnny Nitro for the ECW Championship match at Vengeance, as Benoit was not there due to personal issues, stemming from the death of his wife Nancy.” Eerily, Nancy’s body was not found until later that evening. An employee from Wikipedia told authorities that the entry was edited from an IP address in Stamford, Connecticut, where the WWE, Benoit’s employer, is based. Investigators are examining the possibility that Benoit called someone between killing his wife and killing himself to inform him or her that his wife was dead and he wouldn’t be making it in to work. Or perhaps, like any good open-sourcer, Benoit edited his own Wikipedia page on Monday morning. After all, his killing his wife and son seems like relevant information for any Wikipedia bio.
•ESPN: Eerie Web Posting Foretold Death
Original Post (6/27): I didn’t know of Chris Benoit. My love affair with professional wrestling took place between 1987 and 1993 before he was ever big. But everyone should now be familiar with Benoit, not for his prowess inside the squared circle, but rather for strangling his wife and smothering his son over the weekend before hanging himself Monday in his Georgia home. Benoit was 40 years old, his wife 43 years old, and his son 7 years old. As someone who fell for the theatrics and absurdity of professional wrestling at an early age, I, like many, grew attached to the characters who fought one another, acted out strange racial and political subplots and launched into these steroid-driven monologues targeting their future opponents. Most everyone who I remember from my days of WWF fandom, what I consider to be the heyday of professional wrestling, is dead. Why are they all dead? Well, the main reason is the copious amounts of steroids and human growth hormones that accompanied the career of every pro wrestler in the 80s and 90s. Chris Benoit became the 53rd pro wrestler since 1985 to die at 45 years old or younger. This is a list that includes three Von Erich brothers, Owen Hart, the British Bulldog, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, Big Boss Man, Dino Bravo, Mr. Perfect, Bam Bam Bigelow and the Junkyard Dog. Even the woman of wrestling are dying. Last week, the death of Sensational Sherri means that all 3 women managers from my wrestling days– Sherri, Miss Elizabeth (2003 overdose) and Sweet Sapphire (1996 heart attack)– have all gone to wrestling heaven. Other than Owen Hart who fell from a suspension wire while being lowered into the ring, Junkyard Dog’s fatal car accident and Dino Bravo’s murder, the rest of the deaths, whether a heart attack, overdose or depression-induced suicide, can all be traced to the drug culture that has plagued professional wrestling for decades. Besides the anabolic steroids, that are about as essential to professional wrestlers’ bodies as oxygen, wrestlers consume an inordinate amount of pain killers to numb the post-match pain and injury and then rely on uppers to counteract the lethargy brought on by the pain killers. In order to be a professional wrestler, despite what any of them would admit, you have to be a drug addict. And this is why they are dropping like flies. While the WWF (I refuse to call it by its new stupid name WWE) airs tributes to its fallen wrestlers like the 3-hour Benoit special on the USA Network Monday, it still will never own up to its most shameful secret– that without the drugs, wrestling is nothing. Likewise, without the drugs, an entire generation of wrestlers may have made it past their 45th birthday.
•AP: Benoit Strangled Wife, Smothered Son
•About.com: Wrestling’s Dirty Secret