Who do you respect more?

[Phoenix]

I'm going to get this out of the way because all these thread has shown me is simple mindedness about everything, which in some ways has pissed me off.

Firstly fuel, don't think about making a thread like this again, the sheer stupidity of the original question is one that just baffles me that anyone could ask!

Now to the point in hand, if you are true fan of wrestling at its purest form, you respect Chris Benoit's legacy by remembering him as the man who dedicated his life to entertainment and did things that no-one could match in this day and again, not the last three days of his life. Yes, there is no denying what happened and we don't know how or why it happened, nothing can be changed there. But the fact of the matter is, many people just shadow Benoit's life over one act of madness that lead to his demise, he wasn't a serial killer, there was a double murder suicide, his legacy would be heavily affected if he still alive, but he's not. To even compare the scales of his life achievements to that one moment is sometimes unthoughtful, and we're easy to judge when we don't know people very well.

Given that he lost two of his closest friends in the years before the incident, do you realise how much that would affect anyone? Most of us would shutdown completely and yet Benoit still continued on to entertain you. Whenever I watch with Benoit in, I see him as the wrestler, not a murderer, as said, he's achieved too much to be shadowed under the moment that ended his life, he performed in one of my favourite matches of all time and did more in his life than someone like Matt Hardy has done since!

The incident happened and yet I still will have fond memories of Benoit, because it's respect, how does one act even justify a lifetime's worth of sacrifice? It doesn't. Benoit can't do anything more to tarnish his legacy, while Matt Hardy does nothing but tries to make himself matter everyday, yet Benoit didn't even need to try, he was already there!

 

[Coco]

Now to the point in hand, if you are true fan of wrestling at its purest form, you respect Chris Benoit's legacy by remembering him as the man who dedicated his life to entertainment and did things that no-one could match in this day and again, not the last three days of his life.

If we're being brutally honest, he was pretty fucking crazy when he was dedicating himself to the business and doing those things that no-one else could do. So I respect the man who murdered his family and himself about as much as I respect that same man who hazed rookies, beat his wife, and talked some of his peers into fucking waitresses while he watched in secret like the pervert that he was. Even if I'm not to judge him on the last three days of his life, he was a piece of human garbage just like a lot of wrestlers are.

To even compare the scales of his life achievements to that one moment is sometimes unthoughtful, and we're easy to judge when we don't know people very well.

You make it sound like he wasn't a piece of garbage the entire way through or appear as though that moderate skill in canry entertainment means fuck all in the big picture. That's cute.

Given that he lost two of his closest friends in the years before the incident, do you realise how much that would affect anyone?

No excuse.

Most of us would shutdown completely and yet Benoit still continued on to entertain you.

Umm, yeah. Because he was fucking crazy.

Whenever I watch with Benoit in, I see him as the wrestler, not a murderer, as said, he's achieved too much to be shadowed under the moment that ended his life, he performed in one of my favourite matches of all time and did more in his life than someone like Matt Hardy has done since!

Okay, he was fun to watch. That's the only good thing you can say though. To respect his legacy, on the other hand, is absurd. His legacy is taking three lives, causing copious amounts of misery while he was still breathing, and giving the industry you love so dearly perhaps it's biggest black eye ever. I understand being able to watch old wrestling matches and not letting what he did bother you. But to "respect" him shows a serious lack of priorities.

The incident happened and yet I still will have fond memories of Benoit, because it's respect

Probably closer to nostalgia. At least I hope it is.

how does one act even justify a lifetime's worth of sacrifice?

He was compensated for all of that supposed "sacrifice." I owe him no debt of respect.