WWE: Chris Benoit – A tarnished legacy

In the world of professional wrestling, very few are respected by all the fans and their peers. The wrestling industry isn’t as clean as it seems to the naked eye, and is often described as the most cut-throat business in sports entertainment. No friends are made, as people try to step on each other to take the top spot, and in the end, they’re left with bitterness and anger. We’ve seen many such cases where people come out and bash the top stars, and tell stories about how they weaseled their way to the top, and that is almost a norm in professional wrestling. In the end, fans decide who should be respected and who shouldn’t, and there are very few names who have earned the respect of the fans through their dedication and hard work.

Couple of days ago, a certain former ‘superstar’ celebrated his birthday.  More than being a superstar, he took pride in being a wrestler. In a business which is now filled with ‘performers’ and ‘entertainers’, he was one of the very few wrestlers who honed his craft, and through hard work, made it to the top of the industry. Although till the very end, he was heralded as one of the most respected individuals in the history of professional wrestling, the way things ended completely changed the landscape of the business. This certain ‘wrestler’ passed away nearly 6 years ago, and along with him, his wife and his son were found dead. He is none other than Chris Benoit.

 

 

Known to the fans as ‘The Rabid Wolverine’, Chris Benoit was one of the very few in professional wrestling who travelled all around the world to hone his skills, to perfect his technique and to become the absolute best. He was known for being an old school wrestler, making his in-ring work seem real to the fans, and was the epitome of a true wrestler. He exemplified what this business was all about, and as years passed by, he became one of the most popular wrestlers on the globe. Soon, Chris Benoit was hailed as the greatest technical wrestler in the history of professional wrestling, something Chris always dreamed of.

Ever since he was a kid, Benoit idolized The Dynamite Kid, another legendary British wrestler who at his prime was considered to be the best pure wrestler in the world. Benoit adopted his moves, and he modelled himself along the lines of The Dynamite Kid. Benoit started out in the Canadian Stampede, and after that like most of the old school performers, went to Japan to hone his craft. It was there that he became an idol to the wrestling fans, as he put on some of the greatest technical wrestling matches the fans could ever witness. He took on the name of ‘The Pegasus Kid’, and put on some technical clinics and achieved great success, winning many titles as well as the Super J Cup. It was here that Paul Heyman witnessed Chris Benoit’s enormous potential, and brought him down to Extreme Championship Wrestling, along with the likes of Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko. This brought the trio to the United States, and they were famously known as the ‘Three Amigos’, because of them being best friends.

 

 

After Benoit, Eddie and Malenko reached ECW, they revolutionized the way the fans witnessed the product, as they were never ‘violent’, but put on some of the best technical wrestling matches, and the fans expressed their gratitude for that. But before long, Eric Bischoff, who was taking the industry by storm with his innovative ideas, laid his sights on the three and signed them up. While in WCW, Benoit and Eddie achieved success, while Malenko was stuck in the mid card. But as time passed, WCW started to lose the Monday Night Wars to the WWF, and the three amigos along with Perry Saturn decided to jump ship to the WWF. Although the WCW management tried to stop Benoit by putting the WCW World title on him, he left anyway.

The group, now named ‘The Radicalz’, debuted in the WWF in 2000, and immediately created shock waves in the company. Benoit then went on to win the WWF Intercontinental title while putting on some great matches against the likes of Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle. After his initial main event push, Benoit was used to improve the tag team division, where he teamed up with his former rivals Jericho and Angle to win the tag team gold. But Benoit suffered a major blow in his career when he had to undergo a major neck surgery, and after he returned, he immediately continued where he left off, and put on some more classics. But perhaps the greatest journey in Benoit’s career began at Royal Rumble in 2004, when he entered as the number 1 participant, and lasted for an hour to win the Rumble match! At WrestleMania 20, he defeated Triple H and HBK to win the World Heavyweight title, in a scene which brought tears in the eyes of every die-hard wrestling fan. As the night ended, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero embraced in the ring with the World title and the WWE championship on their respective shoulders.

 

 

Things went downhill for Benoit from 2005. After the tragic death of his best friend Eddie Guerrero, Benoit took a sabbatical, and even after he returned, he was never the same again. Benoit won almost all the titles in the WWE except for the WWE title, and the fans wanted Benoit to have one more run before he called it quits. But all of that came crashing down on the fateful night in 2007, when it was informed that Benoit was found dead in his home along with his wife and his son. This is seen as the darkest day in the history of professional wrestling, and since then, the fans have stopped mentioning Benoit along with the WWE. The legacy of Chris Benoit was forever tainted on that night, and since then, Chris Benoit has been forgotten, or at least, erased from the annals of wrestling history. As the biggest Benoit fan, even after 6 years, it’s hard to digest what had happened. It was later proven that Benoit’s brain was damaged beyond repair, and even though people will never accept his 20-odd years of sacrifice for the fans, very few still remain who hold Benoit the performer in the highest regard.