Chris Benoit...

[Gregory Pratt]

Steff,

 

I don't understand why he drugged the boy, but it raises interesting questions. There have been theories that Benoit killed his wife in a domestic dispute, regretted it, wondered what do I do now? and then decided it'd be for the best if he killed his son so his son wouldn't have to live without his parents. I've never liked the Mercy(in-his-eyes) Killing theory, but if he drugged the boy with Xanax, it might make more sense. (My personal theory has been: Domestic dispute, didn't necessarily mean to kill Nancy, lots of drugs and concussion = a man who has lost it, and then he kills his son and himself for reasons I don't know, whether they were to avoid responsibility, "save them" or just because he wanted to die and his son to die. But I've never really bought the "OMG MONSTER PLANNED TO KILL EVERYONE WHAT A BAD MAN!" theory. It's not that simple. This wasn't a case of a man just saying, "f*** it, I'm going to kill them. I hate them." And considering the history of violence between Nancy and others -- not just Benoit abusing her, but her abusing lovers, ie Kevin Sullivan -- I really believe the case starts to clear up a bit more.

 

Domestic dispute. And Benoit loses it. Anything else is implausible, IMO, and him pre-plannign doesn't fit.

 

Who knows?

 

His drug report's interesting. I really do wonder if he was dealing drugs/steroids, though.

[Steff]

Steff,

 

I don't understand why he drugged the boy, but it raises interesting questions. There have been theories that Benoit killed his wife in a domestic dispute, regretted it, wondered what do I do now? and then decided it'd be for the best if he killed his son so his son wouldn't have to live without his parents. I've never liked the Mercy(in-his-eyes) Killing theory, but if he drugged the boy with Xanax, it might make more sense. (My personal theory has been: Domestic dispute, didn't necessarily mean to kill Nancy, lots of drugs and concussion = a man who has lost it, and then he kills his son and himself for reasons I don't know, whether they were to avoid responsibility, "save them" or just because he wanted to die and his son to die. But I've never really bought the "OMG MONSTER PLANNED TO KILL EVERYONE WHAT A BAD MAN!" theory. It's not that simple. This wasn't a case of a man just saying, "f*** it, I'm going to kill them. I hate them." And considering the history of violence between Nancy and others -- not just Benoit abusing her, but her abusing lovers, ie Kevin Sullivan -- I really believe the case starts to clear up a bit more.

 

Domestic dispute. And Benoit loses it. Anything else is implausible, IMO, and him pre-plannign doesn't fit.

 

Who knows?

 

His drug report's interesting. I really do wonder if he was dealing drugs/steroids, though.

 

You raise some very plausable situations.

 

If he ws getting as much as reported from tha doc then that's a very logical possibility.

 

[Gregory Pratt]

This is what I wrote today.

 

Knowing Better

 

Chris Benoit’s toxicology report is out, and with it comes either silence in the media or a renewed wave of nonsense, depending on whether or not the press decides to continue shouting half-truths and lies. Here’s the news, before the commentary, as it should be.

 

Professional wrestler Chris Benoit had an elevated level of testosterone in his system but no other steroids in his body, and his 7-year-old son was sedated at the time of his death, a Georgia medical examiner said Thursday.

 

“This level of testosterone indicates that he had been using testosterone at least within some reasonably short period of time prior to the time that he died,” said Dr. Kris Sperry, chief medical examiner for the state with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, as he released the results of the toxicology report for the wrestler; his wife, Nancy; and son, Daniel. “Although testosterone was found in Christopher Benoit’s urine, there is no evidence of any other of the illegal types of steroids, or the whole laundry list of anabolic steroids that are out there to be used,” Sperry said, adding, “the presence of the testosterone alone even could be an indicator that he was being treated for testicular insufficiency.”

 

Besides steroids, Benoit’s body contained the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the painkiller hydrocodone, according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The GBI said Benoit tested negative for blood alcohol. But Sperry said that they found a drug in the child’s system that surprised them: Xanax. “It is our opinion that Daniel Benoit was sedated by Xanax at the time that he was murdered, so that (means) he was sedated prior to the time that he died,” he said. The GBI said it could not perform tests for steroids or human growth hormones on the son because of a lack of urine.

 

Benoit’s wife, Nancy, tested positive for Xanax, hydrocodone and the painkiller hydromorphone, but the decomposition process hindered the ability to determine the precise levels of the drugs at the time of her death. An elevated alcohol level found in her system could also be due to the decomposition process, Sperry said. “The decomposition will affect the ability to interpret these drug levels reliably,” Sperry said. “Before she died, they may have been higher. They could have been lower. We just don’t know and we’ll never know.” The test results were expected to shed more light on Benoit’s last moments. Authorities said Benoit killed his wife and son in their suburban Atlanta home, placed Bibles next to their bodies and then hanged himself on the cable of a weight machine.

 

Anabolic steroids were found in the home, leading officials to wonder if the drugs played a role in the killings. Some experts believe steroids can cause paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as “roid rage.” “There is no reliable scientific data that conclusively says that elevated levels of administered testosterone lead to excessive rage or behavioral disorders,” Sperry said. “All the testing that’s been done regarding that has been completely inconclusive.” Federal authorities have charged Benoit’s personal physician, Dr. Phil Astin, with improperly prescribing painkillers and other drugs to two patients other than Benoit. He has pleaded not guilty.

 

Investigators have also raided Astin’s office several times since the deaths, seizing prescription records and other documents. Before he was charged, Astin told the AP he prescribed testosterone for Benoit, a longtime friend, in the past. He would not say what, if any, medications he prescribed when Benoit visited his office June 22, the day authorities believe Benoit killed his wife. “It’s a little unclear to know exactly where this leads us, but you take this piece and you compare it with what a witness said or what was found at the scene and suddenly the picture begins to become more in focus,” said Scott Ballard, district attorney for Fayette County. “And that’s what we’re certainly hoping to do.”

 

This is somewhat redeeming for WWE: he was on testosterone, which is in its own way a type of steroid, but he wasn’t on any other steroids, and it’s entirely possible that he was taking it for other reasons, so much so that Ballard won’t out-and-out say, “This is steroids,” because it isn’t.

 

There are two points raised by the toxicology reports that I have comment on: if Nancy was drinking, and Benoit was on drugs, doesn’t that make the likelihood of a big domestic blowup blowing up worse than expected (or wanted) likelier? And if Benoit sedated his son before killing him, does that mean this isn’t what it seems? Like I’ve said for a long time, I believe that there was a domestic dispute, Benoit killed her without meaning to, panicked, and then decided to take his son’s life and his own for reasons I don’t know. (There are a variety of things that could’ve happened. Is it possible that Benoit decided he didn’t want his son to live without his family, or with his father in prison, or in group homes, and decided that he’d take his life as well? It certainly wasn’t a contemptuous murder, if he spared him the pain of asphixiation.)

 

There’s still more to be wondered about, of course. The Bibles are a very disturbing part of the story that nobody talks about and there’s been no explanation for, particularly since Benoit had contempt for organized religion. But now we know, conclusively, that “roid rage” isn’t responsible, and the rest is up in the air. I’d like to think we now know that prescription medicine needs to be reformed. That the media needs to be reformed. That a wrestler’s schedule needs to be reformed. I think those are things we should now know, but I know better than to think we all know that now.

[whitesoxfan101]

The existance of "roid rage" is a HUGE myth, almost beyond a myth at this point. The problem with steroids and the violent crimes people on them sometimes commit and all that is the vast majority of people who use steroids also are on multiple other perscription or non-perscription drugs, both legal and illegal, as well as other things like alcohol. This is a subject I have done a lot of study on, and it seems pretty obvious that the mix of certain drugs WITH steroids can cause an enhancement and more voliatle problem for a person mentally, which would make them more inclined to do something crazy, but the basic idea of generic "roid rage" is absolute myth, right about there with "hide under a bridge during a tornado" on the 'stupid myths that tons of people somehow still believe' scale.

Edited July 19, 2007 by whitesoxfan101

[Gregory Pratt]

Made another Benoit entry. Forgive the HTML.

 

Back to Benoit

 

John Kronus died on July eighteenth. He was a professional wrestler who wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling, Xtreme Pro Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association, as well as a variety of independent federations, but he never made it to WWE. I bring up John Kronus because he died of an enlarged heart (possibly from steroids or drugs, but not for sure), and his death was brought up in the media as another example of a WWE employee dying young.

 

In an equally disturbing story, CW Network runs WWE's Smackdown! wrestling program and their President was asked whether or not Benoit's murder-suicide would affect their ratings. He said, "No," because Benoit has never been on Smackdown! which is obviously false as Benoit had only recently been moved from Smackdown! to ECW. How shameless is that? Either he doesn't have a clue what's on his show or he's lying about it. Either way, you've got to shake your head. There have been so many glaring examples of incompetence and dishonesty in the media that knowing about all of them will make you doubt the non-print press for the rest of your life.

 

Let's take Glen Beck's recent take on the matter. He starts by calling The Great American Bash, which is a WWE Pay-Per-View event every summer, the "All American Bash." He continues with a rant about how wrestling "glorifies" the worst violence of our society, the TVs on his background read, "WWF" despite the fact that the company's been under a different name for a long time now. He trashes the wrestlers as little more than "B-Movie actors" in "Spandex" (wonder what he'd call Reagan), completely discounting the obvious athleticism involved. Says that there's more athleticism in a "Jackass movie" than in wrestling (I say there are more facts in a Jackass movie than on his show) and then he adds that because of that, you can't call your event "The All American Bash" (fortunately they don't call it "All American Bash"). Then he pretends that he gives a damn about Nancy or Daniel Benoit by ranting about how terrible Chris's actions were, which they were, but the truth is that he doesn't care because if he did, he would be talking about doctors and the schedule they worked, not trashing the industry for ratings and kicks.

 

Beck, adding to his disgraceful rant, cited the misleading "62 wrestlers have died young statistics" and then started to babble about the industry. "Many of these sports entertainers come from troubled backgrounds," he said, talking about how wrestlers are generally bad people with bad histories. I say, first: Isn't that a lot of athletes? and then I say, How do you know what their histories are and why should we believe you? You don't even know the name of their PPV, let alone the histories of 'many' wrestlers, and probably not 'any,' either. He then said, "There are far more tragic endings than happy ones [in wrestling]" (how would he know?) and referred to the wrestlers as "trash-talking thugs," all of which conflicts (is he bashing wrestling? wrestlers?). You've got to believe a guy when he talks like that, though, because he's obviously done all of his homework. At least, that's what someone would believe until he started to speak with Mark Mero. First he called Mark "Jack," then he paused and said, "Mark" and then finally called him "Mike," which he repeated over and over.

 

He interviews him about the industry, along with a doctor (and, as I've said, there good points all around, but Mero is an opportunist and he's dishonest as well, as Lance Storm points out). The rest of the show isn't worth talking about.

 

There are other examples of media coverage being off in this whole ordeal, but you know the script by now, and so allow me to explain why I haven't been writing about this situation lately: I've been busy with work, and the news hasn't been particularly newsish with regard to this matter, so there you go. There are a few things that are going on with this situation, though, that I'd like to talk about.

 

First: Benoit was likely on steroids and the fact that he didn't test positive for them means nothing, just like his testing clean for Human Growth Hormone means nothing. It could simply mean that he was on the off-portion of a steroid user's cycle, or that the tests couldn't catch them after death, but it's fairly certain he was juiced up. Not that it has much, if anything, to do with the murder, but that's the consensus.

 

Second: there have been two interesting ideas floating around, and I'll express them as Two A and Two B.

 

Two A: Former Wrestler and Harvard alum Christopher Nowinski has speculated that Benoit's actions may have been influenced by concussions he suffered and knew about (or didn't). It's entirely possible. Concussions happen all the time in wrestling and Benoit was especially prone to them as he used to do a move called the Kamikaze Headbutt off the turnbuckles. It is a move that should be banned as it is unsafe for anyone to do, much like WWE has banned select moves that affect the cranium. I'm not sure I believe the concussions are a leading or even minimal cause, but it's definitely interesting and it certainly doesn't do him, or anyone, any good to live your life concussed.

 

Two B: The theory that Benoit killed himself to expose the wrestling business has been floated around by Bryan Alvarez and while it sounds ridiculous on the surface, it has some merit, I think. The theory is that Benoit was so disgusted by his best friend Eddie Guerrerro's death and the deaths of several other professional wrestlers that he decided it would be a good idea to kill his family and leave his steroids out in the open for everyone to see. Benoit, as has come out, destroyed a variety of family photos and documents on that fateful weekend but he did nothing to hide his drugs.

 

Isn't that interesting?

 

Not sure how true it is, as Benoit loved wrestling, but perhaps he loved it so much that he suffered through the deaths of so many friends and thought, "Someone has to blow the whistle and shake it up." What makes that theory less plausible to me, though, is that Benoit loved his wife and kid, despite whatever problems he had with Nancy. I still believe that Benoit killed her somewhat on accident and then lost his mind, but that theory, like all the others, has some issues (though I think it has the least amount).

 

Rumors are running that Benoit's diary has yet to be found but will be and if that's true, we might gain more insight into his thoughts.

[The Critic]

I don't buy Alvarez's theory.

If Benoit killed his wife and son to somehow "expose the wrestling business", all that says to me is that he was sicker than I could have ever imagined, even sicker than I already think he was.

He could have shone a light on the business just by killing himself and leaving drugs, notes and journals with people who would get them to the media.

 

The concussion thing seems to have more merit, but I don't know enough about what concussions can do to you to comment on that.

 

I don't think we'll ever know for sure. All we have is pieces of a puzzle, but we don't have all of them, so the picture will never be complete.

[Gregory Pratt]

Yeah. You and I, like I wrote, are in complete agreement except I give it a smidge more plausibility and you give it none at all.

[whitesoxfan101]

As everything has come out, the combination of all the stuff he was on, both legal and illegal, along with the concussions, problems with his wife, alleged problems with his sons health, and the fact he was just a whacko seem to all be factors. It was just a toxic mix of everything that seemed to cause this, the imperfect storm if you will. Such a sad story.

[Kyyle23]

I don't buy Alvarez's theory.

If Benoit killed his wife and son to somehow "expose the wrestling business", all that says to me is that he was sicker than I could have ever imagined, even sicker than I already think he was.

He could have shone a light on the business just by killing himself and leaving drugs, notes and journals with people who would get them to the media.

 

The concussion thing seems to have more merit, but I don't know enough about what concussions can do to you to comment on that.

 

I don't think we'll ever know for sure. All we have is pieces of a puzzle, but we don't have all of them, so the picture will never be complete.

 

 

think about what some of the ex-NFL players are going through now with the health care fight they are in the middle of. Their doctors are saying repeated hits to the head and concussions are causing dementia and rapid deterioration of brain cells. I dont remember the player that recently died, but they said his 44 year old brain looked like the brain of an old man. In the grand scale of this event, I think steroids played a very small part in it. Honestly, his signature move (the flying headbutt) probably did more damage to him than anything. If he missed that spot by an inch, it could have snapped his neck straight back and caused all kinds of brain damage.

Edited July 26, 2007 by kyyle23

[knightni]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3005520

 

 

Brain damage and multiple head traumas.

 

The level of brain damage Benoit had could have caused depression and irrational behavior, said Cantu, who also is chief of neurosurgery service at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass.

[Brian]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3005520

Brain damage and multiple head traumas.

 

NOZ!!!1! It was the ROIDZ!!! Roid rage is rampant!!! Fear!!! Congress needs to crack down!!!!11!