Which wrestling promotion will you remember Chris Benoit from the most?

[CM Steel]

Today marks the six year anniversary of the death of wrestling great Chris Benoit when he commited suicide after killing his wife Nancy and youngest son Daniel in their home outside of Atlanta,GA. In Chris Benoit's last days he was under the influence of drugs. But on a more positive note. Which wrestling promotion will you remember Chris Benoit from the most?

Chris Benoit was trained by the legendary Hart family up in western Canada. Soon after working in the indies Benoit traveled to places like Mexico & Japan to wrestle, where he met future friends for life in Dean Maleako, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Jericho. Soon after that all four of these men ended up back in the states working in ECW with other international stars like Perry Saturn and Rey Mysterio Jr. Later the group of friends deflected to WCW where they had some classic matches with and against each other.

But in early 2000 Chris Benoit and company debut in the WWF/E as the faction known as "the Radicalz" with Benoit seen as the figurehead. Off and on the Radicalz broke up & made up and such. But it was Chris Benoit & Eddie Guerrero who went to the top of the mountain in the WWE with winning their world title's. But a couple of years later after all that success, death took it's tow on Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit. Both of their deaths were from two different motives.

R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero
R.I.P. Chris Benoit...?

But all and all in your opinion. Which wrestling promotion will you remember Chris Benoit from the most? And do you still have the respect for the legecy that was Chris Benoit and what he had left behind in the wrestling world?

 

[The Gribbler]

I only ever really saw him in WWE. His championship lead up and run were awesome for me. So yeah, thats where I remember him from.

 

[President Evil]

As a wrestling fan, when I think of Chris Benoit I immediately remember the work he did in WWE.

But right before that, I remember first his time in WCW. You have to agree this is where he made a name for himself and where he got noticed first. He was very over in the 4 Hoursemen. And the Retirement match he had with Kevin Sullivan at Bash at the Beach 1997 was a classic.

But once he came to WWE is when he was able to shine, along with Eddie Guerrero and Rey Misterio.

Benoit put so much hard work and sacrifice in his life and career to get to where he wanted. Nothing was handed to him like some of the guys we have today. So bad it had to end this way. The quality of work he put in the ring was going to be spoken about for a hundred years.

 

[justtxyank]

Anyone who doesn't say WWE is lying.

I was a WCW fan that never watched full time after 2001. So I'll remember him from WCW.

His best work was definitely WCW, although I did like watching him feud with the Rock in the WWF.

I know he had a lot of great matches in the WWF (I've seen a lot on Youtube), but his stuff with Kevin Sullivan, Booker T, Dean Malenko (against and as tag) Jeff Jarrett, Fit Finlay, Bret Hart, etc. in WCW is the best stuff he's done in the United States.

 

[Makaveli31]

When I think of Chris Benoit the wrestler I think of him as a member of the 4 Horsemen. His demeanor always stood in contrast to the other Horsemen past and at the time present. The Horsemen were always brash and cocky, bragging about their Armani suits, custom rolexes, women etc... or they would brag about their ring exploits. Benoit never did that. I remember he would just stand there with that steely look on his face, no emotion and stae into the camera while the others spoke.

His ring work was also exceptional. Powerful and explosive. The resemblance between Benoit and Dynamite Kid was uncanny. In WCW he never found his groove. But I remember his best of seven series with Booker T that was a throwback to old NWA territory days and really put both in the spotlight.

I also stopped watching on a regular basis after 2000 when he reached his greatest individual success in the WWF but for some reason I do remember watching his WM XX World title win over HBK and HHH and celebrating with Eddie Guerrero.

All that being said.....he will ULTIMATELY be remembered for killing his wife and child and that will overshadow ANYTHING he did in the ring. So I don't say R.I.P Chris Benoit. It's one thing to commit suicide. It's a totally different thing to commit murder. I don't mind looking back on his career, but as a man he was a low as you can get.

 

[AmerikanWolves619]

For me it will be WCW, were he and Booker T had there phenominal Best of & series for the WCW TV Championship. It was booked perfectly for their story to be told; and each match was pretty damn epic and suspenseful at the same time cuz you didn't know which one would win their match that night. His time with the Four Horsemen help build him into a wrestler who could perform with the best of the best during that time, and his brawls with Kevin Sullivan were so brutal too. I for one will always remember him for the wrestler and the legecy that he paved during his time in all 3 organizations. Call him a murderer, a low-bag scum, the devil of a human being for what he did in the end of his life and his family (that all together is a completely separate topic), but I will remember and enjoy his matches for a long time.

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

For me it has be WCW. This is where I first noticed Benoit as a member of the 4 Horsemen. He had get feuds with Booker T and Fit Finlay over the TV title, which is where I really noticed him. His best of 7 series with Booker was full of amazing matches. I feel WWE could do a best of 7 between Orton/Bryan that could rival this feud. I really tuned out for a while after that. I did appreciate his work in WWE but I will always remember him in Dubya C Dubya

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Mack Swagger vs dman139356874269 in The War to Settle the Bore!

With special guest poster AmerikanWolves619 with his completely off topic post complaining about dman13956274269's inability to post properly.

Not many wrestler's have killed two people and themselves in any organization and Toothless Aggression was kind of catchy for a week. But I more think of his Horsemen run and best of 7 with Bookah as Benoit's best work. I don't remember his ECW tenure lasting long and have no clue what happened before that.

So in the end I would go with WCW but maybe that is because I enjoyed wrestling more at that point in general and think his win at WMXX was an eyerollingly bad move. Chris Benoit was the guy we all wanted to be given better things until he got those things.

Oh, and a double murderer.

 

[robinkom]

I discovered Benoit in WCW and, even though he didn't get the push or attention he really deserved, I always considered him a "WCW guy." It's something about that era and make up of WCW and the WWF and the talent on both sides that so distinctly differentiated them from each other. Even well into his WWF/E career, I still looked at him as a WCW guy, no matter how many of what championship they line him up for. Same for Mysterio, Guererro, Malenko and anyone else that eventually showed up in WWE from there during the Ratings Wars and after the death of their promotion.

Even Jericho, I always remember his antics in WCW more distinctly than WWF/E. Obviously, they weren't all original stars of WCW but it's where a great many of them first got nationwide exposure to all of us.

 

[Lowdown]

I discovered Benoit in WCW and, even though he didn't get the push or attention he really deserved, I always considered him a "WCW guy." It's something about that era and make up of WCW and the WWF and the talent on both sides that so distinctly differentiated them from each other. Even well into his WWF/E career, I still looked at him as a WCW guy, no matter how many of what championship they line him up for. Same for Mysterio, Guererro, Malenko and anyone else that eventually showed up in WWE from there during the Ratings Wars and after the death of their promotion.

Even Jericho, I always remember his antics in WCW more distinctly than WWF/E. Obviously, they weren't all original stars of WCW but it's where a great many of them first got nationwide exposure to all of us.

Likewise, I got exposed to Benoit around 96/97, and he was phenomenal. I agree he wasn't your typical Horseman as far as talking goes. But he in ring prowess was something to behold. His feud with Kevin Sullivan is what made me a fan.

 

[Aquaman6686]

WWE, not a shadow of a doubt. He had his best matches and best feuds there, as well as his greatest successes. There's no other answer in my book.

 

[New Hot Fed]

I'll always prefer most of the work that Benoit and Jericho did in wrestling in WCW as opposed to WWF. In ECW, it's really where they were fine-tuning their act, WCW was where they got exposures and came into their own. While in WWE it's where they got their reward for being talented but it was really prizes given to them for "job well done" so to speak. They both may have had World titles run in WWE but no one ever felt they were the guy, it never felt like a real thing. Benoit was champ yet RAW was all about HHH and Evolution. People may say WCW did not use them well, but really should these two guys have gotten higher on the totem poll that they were? While ECW was Tryout, WWF was success, WCW was their best stuff. Best of 7 for Benoit, the feud with Dean Malenko in WCW where Dean won the Battle Royale, unmasked and took Y2J's belt.

 

[HBsam31]

When I first saw Benoit on WCW tv as a kid I immediately liked him. It was the no nonsense approach he had, and I loved the off the top rope headbutt. I remember his feud with Kevin Sullivan, and the best of 7 with Booker. Even though he had most of his success in WWE I will always remember him as a member of WCW. Loved him in the Horsemen too. I always just like the stuff he did in WCW better.

 

[Pedigree1]

You know his best work was in WCW just my opinion! I loved when he wrestled Booker T,Kevin Sullivan,Fit Finlay (IMO his best and most physical matches were against that guy).My personal Favorite match of his and it still stands out today was against Bret Hart for the Owen Hart tribute match. That match was very emotional and 14 years later is still a helluva match. His best of 7 series with Booker T some amazing matches out of that series incredible stuff.

 

[Dr.Shades]

the first ECW match I ever saw was Benoit versus sabu where he broke Sabu's neck so I must saw ECW.

 

[GameOver]

for me it's a toss up between WCW and WWE in both he had phenomenal matches and some great fueds, some of which that transferred over from WCW to WWE aka Booker T, Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero could also argue that tho WWE he obviously got the most exposure in WCW he was still a household name around the globe b4 he came to WWE, i knew of him from 1800 wrestling information lines and magazine just never witnessed him b4 the monday night wars started (least not that i can remember).

Can't speak much of b4 1996 as between 1983 and 1996 Australian TV comprised of pretty much only WWF as far as the world of wrestling is concerned, once in a blue moon some NWA, WCCW or WCW tapes were shown and the PPV's were only periodically released here on VHS b4 then. and definately not ECW or Japan.

 

[BigThunder]

WWE, then Stampede where he debuted and made an immediate impact. (I still remember fondly the Stampede storyline where Dynamite Kid retired and gave Benoit his boots to designate him as his successor, then double crossed him.)