Chris Ben-whaaa?

The front page of last Tuesday's Calgary Sun proclaimed to the universe that Canadian wrestling superstar, Chris Benoit, was dead along with his wife and 7-year old son. Apparently, there was some confusion when it was first released that Chris was dead. According to Wikipedia, the WWE

"canceled the scheduled three hour long live RAW show on June 25, and replaced the broadcast version with a tribute to his life and career, featuring his past matches, segments from the Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story DVD, and comments from wrestlers and announcers."

Seems like the decent thing to do. Back in 1999, when Owen Hart fell 28 meters to his death during a PPV event, the show still continued. It was the night after his death that a tribute show was played instead the of regularly scheduled matches. The WWF apparently got into a little bit of heat for waiting a day.

A weird coincidence: both of these deceased wrestlers were from Canada. Benoit from Montreal and Hart from no where else than Calgary, Alberta. This reminds me of perhaps my only memory watching wrestling on TV (something it seemed everyone on the planet except for me enjoyed). The occasion was that the WWF came to Vancouver. The one match I remember watching had Chris Benoit faced off against... someone else. And Benoit got his ass "beat" probably five or six times. Literally. But each time he kicked out of the hold at the very last minute. I even think they fucked up their choreography a few time, and so even though "3" had been called, he kicked out and the match continued. Lifelike! So, the match is going on and on. Benoit finally pins the guy, and the match ends, and all my fellow Vancouverites are cheering for the victorious Canuck.

Fast-forward a few years to today. Benoit is found dead--found to have committed suicide after murdering his wife and strangling his 7-year old son to death. The WWE found this out after running the tribute show. I must say, it's very bizarre how mixed the emotions in some people are about this. In the newspaper the day after there were pictures of the memorial set up to Benoit. In one photo was a letter written in a child's scribbled writing, saying something about missing Benoit up in heaven. Kinda cute.

Well, I guess it could have been if it weren't for the fact that Benoit murdered his wife and his autistic son! The guy was a fucking maniac! The last place anyone would want this guy is in heaven! So what if he was Canadian? Are people missing out on this detail? As if wrestling wasn't produced by and for nutjobs in the first place.