Ex-WWE writer confirms what Chris Benoit's character was like when working with him backstage (Exclusive)
Chris Benoit primarily fluctuated between the indies, WWE, WCW, and ECW. An ex-WWE writer worked with Benoit for a brief period and confirmed what he was like behind the scenes.
On the latest episode of The Wrestling Outlaws, Vince Russo spoke about Chris Benoit and his time working with him - which wasn't very long as they only crossed paths for about three months in WCW before Benoit exited along with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn for WWE.
Vince Russo stated that he wasn't close to Chris Benoit in any way, but confirmed the talk about him having a quiet, reserved personality:
"We didn't have a chummy-chummy, buddy-buddy relationship. It was pretty much just all business. But yeah, he was really quiet when I worked around there [WCW] ." (2:21-2:32)
You can watch the full video below:
Konnan said an AEW star has the "Chris Benoit mentality" and Tony Khan isn't stopping him
The tragic incident involving Benoit in 2007 changed the course of the wrestling business - especially when it came to the treatment of concussions. WWE, for its part, has serious concussion protocols to this day largely due to the tragedy.
On the Keepin' It 100 podcast, Konnan slammed Tony Khan for allowing Bryan Danielson to go at full speed and utilize risky moves. He compared Danielson's mentality to Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, which isn't necessarily a good thing. In this case, he believes that Tony Khan hasn't stepped in to stop Danielson from performing overly risky moves:
"Tony [Khan] is at fault because this is probably Bryan [Danielson]. You know, he's got that Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit mentality. He's only gonna go a hundred miles an hour, he's not gonna go it all and he has no low speed. He's just always gonna bring it but it's up to Tony [Khan] to save him from himself and go, 'Hey dude, you can't be doing these risky moves anymore' and he's not doing that." [From 03:18 to 03:40]
It's certainly true that Danielson uses the flying headbutt - a move that has been blamed for Benoit's years of accumulated head damage. It's not the same situation, but it doesn't seem unfair to criticize Tony Khan for not restricting Danielson considering his history of concussions and his past retirement.
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