ESPN

by Jonathan Hood
Updated June 27, 2007

After learning, that police in the Atlanta area have discovered that Chris Benoit strangled his wife, smothered his son Daniel and hung himself in their home, the only tragedy is that Chris Benoit took the lives of innocent people.

Benoit was a great wrestler and he will be missed by his peers and fans. However, he's a coward and should never be considered for the WWE Hall of Fame.

Vince McMahon did the right thing by allowing the wrestlers to perform on ECW and not mention Benoit. Turning the page was the right thing to do Tuesday night.

Click here for the latest from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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I usually tape pay-per-view events on Sunday and watch them on Monday before Raw to have a better understanding of the storyline; but not this Monday. As I write this, I didn't see Vengeance (Pay-Per-View in Houston-Sunday), so I didn't know that Johnny Nitro won the ECW Championship over CM Punk in the ECW Title Finals.

After a long day, I finally got home in time to turn on Raw at 7:00 p.m. cdt to watch the three-hour broadcast.

The first thing I see is a picture of Chris Benoit and on the bottom of it said:

"Chris Benoit 1967-2007" That was followed by Vince McMahon bringing clarity to WWE storyline and harsh reality.

Chris Benoit- Former WCW and WWE World Champion

McMahon opened the program and made this statement, in the ring, in an empty American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, TX:

"Good evening. Tonight this arena in Corpus Christi, Texas was to be filled to capacity with enthusiastic WWE fans. Tonight's storyline was to have been the alleged demise of my character Mr. McMahon. However, in reality, WWE superstar Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel are dead. Their bodies were discovered this afternoon (Monday) in their new suburban Atlanta home. The authorities are undergoing an investigation. We here in the WWE can only offer our condolences to the extended family of Chris Benoit and the only other thing we can do at this moment is pay tribute to Chris Benoit.".

Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel are dead. That is stunning.

"We are currently treating this as a double homicide-suicide," Fayette County Sheriff's Department's Lt. Tommy Pope, told People Magazine. "We feel confident that everything is contained within the home."

Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said of the case, "The details, when they come out, are going to prove a little bizarre." Ballard, while declining to say how the fatalities occurred, also told the AP that no gun was used in the deaths.

On Saturday, after informing WWE officials of "a family emergency," Benoit was conspicuous by his absence from that night's house show in Beaumont, Texas  and again at WWE's Vengeance: Night of Champions in Houston 24 hours later.

Friends who received curious text messages from the entertainer on Sunday morning contacted the wrestling organization, which in turn asked the Sheriff's office to run a welfare check on the family at their home on the south side of the Atlanta metro area. Police discovered the Benoit family in separate rooms deceased.

Authorities were investigating the deaths at a secluded Fayette County home as a murder-suicide and were not seeking any suspects.

Investigators believe Benoit, killed his wife and son over the weekend and then himself sometime Monday. The bodies were found Monday afternoon in three different rooms of the house on Green Meadow Lane, in a subdivision off a gravel road about two miles from the Whitewater Country Club.

While watching the 3 hour tribute to Benoit, the only thing I could think was that this happens way to often in our sport. I mean, I know that people die every day. But when you grow an attachment to people your used to watching every Monday, every Tuesday, every Thursday, every Friday, every pay-per-view, you can't help but to feel sympathy for Benoit's extended family and also feel sorrow because we are left without the best technical wrestler in our sport.

Retired wrestler Bret "Hitman" Hart was stunned when he heard the news:

"He was like a family member to me, and everyone in my family is taking it real hard. It's almost like reliving the whole Owen (Hart) death over again. Chris was always one of the good guys - a straight guy and a hard-working guy," Hart said to canoe.ca. When you list off all the qualities of someone like Benoit, he had a lot of integrity and was a good, family man. "He was really respected and really loved by everybody."

"We kind of adopted him when he first broke into the business in 1986," said Ross Hart, brother of Bret,.added Benoit was a huge fan of Stampede Wrestling and idolized the Dynamite Kid.

"He was a quick learner, fast on his feet and had natural strength and agility. We learned right away he'd be a natural talent."

I always new that Benoit had the passion for our sport because he showcased it every time he entered the ring. Benoit lived his dream.

There were numerous testimonials on the three hour broadcast of Raw from John Layfield, Tazz, Jerry Lawler, WWE Champion Edge, Dean Malenko, Stephanie McMahon and others. But the wrestler that really became emotional about Benoit's death was Chavo Guerrero. He revealed a side of Benoit that we never knew. He talked about how difficult Eddie Guerrero's death was on Benoit and how Chavo feels he will have to go through similar mourning with Benoit's death.

Benoit filled the void that Bret Hart left when he retired. Benoit was a technical wrestler who carved a niche for himself in sports entertainment. I believe the WWE didn't believe in his Benoit's character, because he didn't have one. From all reports, Benoit was the same person inside the ring as he was out of it. I thought that it was bad for Benoit to have trunks that say "4-Real" on them. If you are a real fan of wrestling, you knew that Benoit was 4-real and didn't deserve to take a step back for anyone. He didn't have the greatest mic skills, but he didn't have to, his wrestling ability spoke for itself.

Benoit really marveled at the Dynamite Kid in the 80's and I believe Benoit surpassed the Dynamite Kid as far as wrestling ability and popularity.

Even though she retired from wrestling, Benoit's wife Nancy was instrumental in wrestling as well as a valet/manager/booker.

Canoe.ca wrote about her life in and out of the ring:

Nancy Benoit as Fallen Angel with ex-husband Kevin Sullivan

She was part of Kevin Sullivan's "Satanists" which also included Luna Vachon and Sir Oliver Humperdink. Snakes, blood and anti-Christian overtones were seen as controversial for the time. The group drew strange parallels to Charles Manson and Judas Priest.

The two would marry in 1985. She continued to work Florida off and on until Jim Crockett bought the Florida promotion in 1987. Kevin began to work for Crockett (eventually WCW), based out of North Carolina.

In 1989, Kevin brought Nancy into WCW as a geeky Robin Green, a "fan" who had a crush on wrestler Rick Steiner. Green was always shown ringside during Steiner's matches, cheering her hero on, or so he believed. Eventually, Steiner allowed her to stand ringside with him. It was at this point she revealed herself as Woman, backstabbing Steiner during a televised match.

Her glasses and geeky looks were dropped, and she began managing the masked team of Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed). When Doom broke up, she was placed in a short-lived angle with Ric Flair. She was pushing the idea of buying the Horsemen, which Flair turned down on numerous occasions, but the angle hit a dead-end when the Sullivans left WCW in 1990.

The two would show up on independent dates where she was always portrayed as Woman, the persona that she got her biggest name from.

She and Sullivan would team up again in Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling, where Kevin had earned a booking position in 1992. She took on the name Devil Angel, drawing close to her original persona of Fallen Angel. Her time in Smokey Mountain was short and uneventful.

The two would eventually find their way to ECW in 1993. But when Kevin left for a return to WCW in 1994, Nancy stayed behind where she gained fame as the manager of the beer-drinking Sandman. The two were a perfect pair. She would help light the cigarettes and open the beer cans for the Sandman. The ECW style allowed her to get involved in matches like she never had to do before during her career. Kevin was able to get Nancy a position in WCW, and she left ECW where she last managed 2 Cold Scorpio.

Chris and Nancy Benoit.

When Nancy joined her husband in 1995, their marriage was hitting the skids. She was put into the role as a manager for the Four Horsemen, who at the time consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman. When Pillman left the group, he would be replaced by Steve "Mongo" McMichael. She accompanied the Horsemen alongside famed manager Elizabeth and later Debra McMichael, wife of McMichael.

Her role was small and quiet until Kevin, who was booking for WCW, began a feud with Chris Benoit. In an angle that only insiders understood, Benoit was shown dining with Woman, who Benoit would refer as "Nancy." It was to play off the marriage problems that Kevin and Nancy Sullivan were suffering in real life.

In a weird scene of where the show became reality, Nancy asked Kevin for a divorce and would begin dating Benoit, mirroring what was being booked for television. Meanwhile Kevin and Benoit still had to wrestle in the ring. The tension with Kevin as booker always haunted Benoit, who believed Sullivan had it out for him for stealing his wife. It would lead, in part, to Benoit leaving WCW in 2000 for the WWE.

Nancy would be taken off television following Benoit defeating Sullivan in a retirement match in 1997.

Nancy would give birth to Daniel Christopher on February 23, 2000. Nancy would marry the father, Benoit, two days later on February 25. She would take the name Nancy Benoit.

Another tragedy in our sport.

We have lost a Hall of Famer and someone who really loved professional wrestling.

J--

I don't read the dirt sheets or watch every program and pay-per-view as often as I'd like, however, I do enjoy talking wrestling, err, sports entertainment with you!

Jonathan Hood has been a pro wrestling fan since 1977. He hosted Wrestlemaniacs, a pro wrestling radio show, for five years.