Chris Benoit: One Year Later - Part 3

By: Jerome Cusson

read part one here
read part two here

The Books

Mere months after the Benoit tragedy, a collection of articles were put together for form a book entitled Benoit:Wrestling with the Horror That Destroyed a Family and Crippled a Sport. One of the authors is Irv Muchnick, who’s also working on a book called Chris and Nancy. He has written a number of books about the industry including Wrestling Babylon. Muchnick was not available to be interviewed for this story, but his blog is one of the best resources for information about the Benoit case.

Scott Keith also has a new book coming out.

“The book is called Dungeon of Death: Chris Benoit and the Hart Family Curse, and overall it’s an examination of why Benoit’s death came to pass and how no one in the sport ever learns from the mistakes of the past, especially the mistakes that kill people.”

When asked why he wrote the book, Keith said, “It was a ‘lucky’ coincidence in that I was looking for subject matter to do a fifth book on, but my growing apathy towards the wrestling world left me without anything I wanted to write about in the current product. But then Benoit died and my publisher was wanting to do a book on him, and it worked out well for everyone.”

While Keith’s book is more of a fan’s perspective on the Benoit tragedy, author Matthew Randazzo is taking a more investigative look at the case in Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry. Randazzo is both a journalist and historian who became interested in the case when people in and out of the wrestling industry were not asking what he felt were the obvious questions about Benoit’s lifestyle.

“I realized that this case was an especially ripe subject for a truth-telling expose,” Randazzo said,.”With Ring of Hell, I felt I had a unique opportunity to write the type of book about pro wrestling that I always wanted to read: an unflinching, uncensored investigative expose that revealed what the business was really like behind-the-scenes at every level, with no punches pulled and no compromises made.”

Randazzo believes that the wrestlers who appeared on television were lying about being surprised at what Benoit had done. He says that Benoit had shown signs of being mentally disturbed for some ten years. Randazzo summarized his book this way.

“I show in meticulous detail how Benoit’s obsessive drive to succeed in the pro wrestling business lead him to voluntarily adopt a lifestyle that slowly destroyed his mental, physical and emotional health. I ultimately place responsibility for Benoit’s homicidal meltdown on both Benoit for pursuing such a destructive lifestyle and on his employers in the pro wrestling business who made it impossible for Benoit to fulfill his dream without exhibiting such self-mutilating behavior.”

What should be learned

Wrestling fans, sports fans and even people who would never watch either have a lot to gain from this tragedy.

Scott Keith discussed what wrestling fans should learn.

“I think the main thing is that all the painful-looking “fake” moves and weapons come with a price, and no one, even someone who was the best in the world at the time, can escape that price forever.”
Qumar Zaman has this to say about sports fans.

“I think that sports fans need to realize that the use of steroids and drugs, both legal and illegal, do have a major effect on those who use them. There’s a reason that the media overwhelms its audience with news on drug use and steroid use in sports: because it’s a problem, an epidemic. There are very serious risks to such use and athletes need to make sure that some of the problems that have happened to wrestlers and other performers don’t happen to them.

Finally Jonathon Hood explains what the average person, who neither enjoys wrestling or sports, could take away from what happened just one year ago.

“Because the deaths of these athletes could affect their kids. If their heroes die because of drugs, then they have a big decision to make. Take drugs and take a short cut or compete and attempt to be successful the right way.”

Conclusion

There is ultimately no way to possibly combine all aspects of this story into such a short amount of space. In order to understand what happened, knowing about Benoit’s life and about how the world of professional wrestling is key to understanding the entire situation.

For more information:

Check out this excellent half-hour documentary about Chris Benoit and Stampede Wrestling.

Take a look at what “The Sports Legacy Insitute” is working on. Even if you’re not a wrestling fan, this is the type of research that could save lives down the road.

There are currently two books out now about Benoit, with two more to come out later this year. As part of a follow-up, you can expect NSR to include reviews of Ring of Hell by Matthew Randazzo, Chris and Nancy by Irv Muchnick, and Dungeon of Death by Scott Keith.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jerome Cusson is a proud graduate of Columbia College Chicago. Currently, he is a freelance writer and a contributer to such websites as The Cool Kids' Table and giveawaytheending.com. Check out his NSR blog as well.

Share This Article

3 Comments

  1. [...] read part two here read part three here [...]

    Pingback by Chris Benoit: One Year Later - Part 1 | NationalSportsReview.com on June 29, 2008

  2. [...] read part one here read part three here [...]

    Pingback by Chris Benoit: One Year Later - Part 2 | NationalSportsReview.com on June 29, 2008

  3. uftcqb ytpfcklh lfiv plzydfv aboz xjop jycidxzv

    Comment by thejmz krxn on November 7, 2008

Comment On This Article