Chris Benoit, a wrestler who, despite a controversial end to his life, was no doubt a true great in terms of technical wrestling. He's wrestled in Stampede Wrestling, New Japan, ECW, WCW & WWE and had an illustrious career in all of these promotions, but it was his last promotion where he found his greatest success and progress in the WWE.
Where Benoit spent a good 5 years in WCW, he won the available titles to him, but he never made thorough progress because he even dropped being WCW World Champion after winning the title to move to the WWE. Now he may have started again, but this benefitted him better as he was already at full force debuting with the Radicalz in February. Where he spent 3 years just even getting a title shot in WCW, he already got a first Intercontinental Champion reign within 2 months of debuting and won it at Wrestlemania!
Benoit was already out of the starting blocks in his first year and was involved with one of the top feuds of the year with Chris Jericho. Despite not being big on the mic, this feud and his work in the WWE developed him to be a more solid wrestler. Within 6 months he gets 2 WWE title bouts and "wins" them only for the decision to be reversed. Within a year of his debut, he's been in two WWE title bouts, a feud of the year candidate and has won the IC title twice. A great year to get things rolling and to progress under, he's already cementing the grounds of his legacy. A great debut year that provided so much more for Benoit than what WCW did and it didn't even stop there.
Despite suffering a serious injury in 2001, Benoit had an amazing year, he took part in 5 big matches that year. One of the best ever Ladder matches in the Royal Rumble, TLC3 and winning it, an Ultimate Submission match and Cage match with Kurt Angle and the last WWE title match before the Invasion angle kicked in. Despite this big halt in his career, this was quite a huge step for Benoit who took part in big feuds but now in huge gimmick matches, and having some of the most meorable moments in the history of ladder and cage matches.
Despite being out of action, he was one of the first picks to be drafted to Smackdown, of which shortly after he becomes the first ever holder of the new WWE Tag Team Championships and reached the final for the US Title Tournament when it was re-established as a championship, now in the WWE. It was due to this feud over the title against Eddie Guerrero that he reached an all time high in popularity which led to him getting pushed to the World Title scene.
In the year 2004, Benoit reached the ultimate by winning the Royal Rumble from the number one spot, a feat only done by Shawn Michaels before him and at the Main Event of Wrestlemania XX in Madison Square Garden, he beats Triple H and Shawn Michaels in what is THE iconic moment of his career, winning the World Title at Wrestlemania and hugging his long time friend Eddie Guerrero at the end, of which I'll share with you now.
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Benoit would go on from here and take part in a great feud with Edge and feature in the first ever Money in the Bank Ladder match. He wins the US Title in 25 seconds at Summerslam against Orlando Jordan, faces Booker T in a "Best of Sevens" series over the title and continued feuding over the title against Chavo, Kennedy and MVP. He gets drafted to ECW where he was due to win the ECW Championship, but unfortunately met his demise.
After this thorough look through his history in the WWE, it's no secret that he achieved more in terms of championships, highly remembered matches and he cemented his legacy with the World Title win at Wrestlemania. Here's a list of the honours and championships won:
* World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kurt Angle
* WWE United States Championship (3 times)
* WWF/E Intercontinental Championship (4 times)
* WWF/E World Tag Team Championship (3 times)– with Chris Jericho (1) and Edge (2)
* Royal Rumble Winner (2004)
* Twelfth Triple Crown Champion
* PWI Feud of the Year (2004) vs. Triple H
* PWI Match of the Year (2004) vs. Shawn Michaels and Triple H at WrestleMania XX
* PWI Wrestler of the Year (2004)
* PWI ranked him #1 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2004
Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
# Best Brawler (2004)
# Feud of the Year (2004) vs. Triple H and Shawn Michaels
# Best Technical Wrestler (2000, 2003, 2004)
# Most Outstanding Wrestler (2000, 2004)
# Match of the Year (2002) with Kurt Angle vs. Edge and Rey Mysterio
# Readers' Favorite Wrestler (2000)
# Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2003)
Most of the honours outside of the WWE were awarded to him when he part of the promotion, and some were awarded in his first year alone. While he's achieved alot in WCW, his reign in WWE truly gave him the ability and recognition he deserved. He recognised as being under-rated by WCW to the point where he dropped the World Title to go to the WWE and not many remember his first world title run.
If anything Benoit's legacy throughout wrestling reached its peak in the WWE. He took part in some of the greatest matches, feuds, moments. Yes, he did have them in WCW, but how much do we remember? Benoit got to the height that WCW did not offer him and he improved even more as a wrestler. I'll even be honest, when I first saw him in 2000, I hated him (because he was a heel) but I always admired his ability but i truly marked for him later on and if he hadn't been with WWE, I don't think I would be supporting him as much.
He thrived and gained so much in the WWE, if he hadn't joined in 2000, I think his career would have never reached the peaks it could have. While he has successful runs in other companies, he did mark his place in history through WWE.
