I am in complete disarray and discombobulation after hearing such distrubing news just like everyone else in here. How could someone so selfless, classy, and exemplary inside and outside the ring be possibly pushed into killing the two most important people in his life? As we all can imagine, Chris Benoit did not evince some raging dipsomaniac and dopehead that went around taking steriods and OTC prescriptions like they are candy. If this happened to 90% of the other wrestlers in this business, I would not be shocked, but the fact that this shocking event transpired with the most virtuous individual in the business is reprehensible. Now, I know I sound like I am repeating what other people in this board have asserted in the first 14 pages of this thread.
I want to ask everyone in here a question: is there any way that Chris Benoit could have been coerced, threatened, or even framed through this bizarre chain of events? The supposed time frame of his wife and child's death makes it seem impossible that an outsider could have been holding Benoit's family hostage because I doubt Benoit would just allow his son and wife to die and wait one day later to allow himself to get killed. I want to believe that someone framed Benoit and blackmailed him through his family, but I am having a tough time coming to grips with this possibility.
Here is some factors that I felt could have contributed to his alleged suicidal/homicidal behavior.
1) Death of Eddie Guerrero- I doubt Chris Benoit was closer to many people in his life than Eddie Guerrero considering they trained in Japan together, worked in WCW together, fled WCW together, came into WWE together, and worked several matches together spanning across continents and companies all encompassing around 18 years of his existence. Maybe the death of Eddie Guerrero evinced such a heart shattering trauma for Benoit that he could have contracted post traumatic stress disorder in the process.
According to medicine net.com, post-traumatic stress disorder is defined in terms of the trauma itself and the person's response to the trauma. Trauma occurs when a person has experienced, witnessed, or been confronted with a terrible event that is an actual occurrence. Then, the person's response to the event or to the threat involves intense fear, helplessness, and/or horror.
We can apply all three of the characteristics concerning responses to traumatic events of the latter sentence above to Chris Benoit and the effect Eddie Guerrero's death entailed on him. Benoit definitely did possess fear considering the fact that he practically lived with him for 18 years and he died suddenly. This event might have provoked Benoit to contemplate whether his passion of an elongated wrestling career is worth all of the accompanying trauma that could fester his own family and his own body. Benoit definitely felt helplessness considering he could not help Eddie in the final moments of his life when he was able to help Eddie fight other ferocious battles through the years like drug and alcohol abuse. Deep inside, Benoit probably blamed himself for Eddie's death and this blame might have consumed him to a profound end. Most of all, how could Benoit not feel horror for himself after seeing his close comrade die so abruptly of natural causes? I also forgot to mention that people with PTSD are at a significantly increased risk of suicide according to the National Alliance on Medical Illness. Since we can all agree that Benoit was not a druggy, PTSD could probably construe his alleged actions most consummately since it is not caused by excessive drug use or anything of that sort.
2) 5 month "sabbatical"- For someone who oozes such superabundant zeal, passion, and committment for wrestling like Benoit, it seems kind of fishy that he would voluntarily take a 5 month break from wrestling as he did from MAY to October of 2006. I know he needed to recuperate some injuries and spend more time with his family, but I think there is some other rationale beyond just health and family that the WWE refused to divulge to save their image. It would make sense to take 2-3 months off for these basic issues, but 5 months is an excessive layoff for someone who breathes the fervor for the wrestling business that Benoit does. It is not like he suffered a neck injury or tore a quadriceps. Benoit clearly had some extenqating personal issues to attend to and maybe his wife's deteriorating health rehashed the memories of Eddie's death to the point that he may have become despondent.
3) Disatisfaction with his role within WWE- Chris Benoit was a stellar technical wrestler-probably the best in the business- yet, he has been pulled down to the midcard just a few years after his World Heavyweight Title run. If you are Chris Benoit(regardless of how unselfish you really are), it must be depressing to see marginally talented workers like Batista, Mysterio,JBL, and Lashley continuously getting main event matches while you are always pushed to the middle of the PPV because you have been told your mic skills are insufficient. Benoit deserved to be in a main event position gunning for the WHC or the WWE title, yet he continued dangling around with a hapless second tier belt like the U.S. Title that he knew he was excessively skilled for. I doubt he minded putting over MVP at Judgment Day considering he worked long hours to train MVP and improve his in ring work. A few weeks apart from jobbing to MVP, he gets sent to the third tier brand ECW instead of the initial plan of getting sent over to RAW and possibly work a program for the WWE title. The stern glass ceiling that hovered over Benoit amidst the WWE workplace must have driven him to a breaking point eventually. How many times will he continue getting backstabbed just because he is not an adept backstage politician or a remarkable demagogue on the mic? Benoit would not just skip his wrestling committments on a Saturday and PPV on Sunday unless he felt disillusioned or indifferent towards his work-kind of how he felt late in his tenure at WCW. If Benoit is thwarting his wrestling committments, it shows he has lost interest in his life's work, signalling severe depression that could further lead to suicidal behavior. If any of you could put yourself in Benoit's shoes, imagine yourself hypothetically losing interest in an activity that has become your life and sole means of income and having no other place to go, would you contemplate suicide?
4) All wrestlers/celebrities live secret lives- Superficially, Chris Benoit might have been a happy go lucky, caring, sensitive, and passionate family guy, but how do we really know this for sure? Can we be certain that he was not an abusive husband or father and that his wife and son might have been too scared to report it. This is the same Chris Benoit that backstabbed his first wife by engaging in an affair with Deborah. The fact that he committed adultery puts him far away from being a cherubic human being by any standards. How many people in the 1990's knew that Michael Jordan was a compulsive gambler and cheated on his wife? How many people in the 1960's knew that Elvis Prescley was a drunkard and a wife beater? How many people actually know the truth of legitimate American heroes such as JFK, Babe Ruth, Mickie Mantle, and various others. The bottom line is that most of we know about Benoit is merely perception, but it may be far from reality. His possible secret life may have pushed him over the edge. I think the content of the "weird" text messages should clear all this up.
Please do not view this as a tirade against Chris Benoit, but rather as a means of elucidating the situation.
