Chris Benoit
Christopher Michael Benoit ( bə-NWAH; May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian professional wrestler who worked for various professional wrestling promotions during his 22-year career. He is more generally known for murdering his wife and youngest son before committing suicide.
Bearing the nicknames The (Canadian) Crippler alongside The Rabid Wolverine throughout his career, Benoit held 30 championships between the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW – all United States), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW – Japan), and Stampede Wrestling (Canada). Benoit was a two-time world champion, having reigned as a one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and a one-time World Heavyweight Champion in WWE; he was booked to win the ECW World Championship at Vengeance: Night of Champions, which was held the night of his death. Benoit was the twelfth WWE Triple Crown Champion and the seventh WCW Triple Crown Champion, and the second of four men in history to achieve both the WWE and the WCW Triple Crown Championships. He was also the 2004 Royal Rumble winner, joining Shawn Michaels and preceding Edge as one of the three men to win the Royal Rumble match as the number one entrant. Benoit headlined multiple pay-per-views for WWF/WWE, including a victory in the World Heavyweight Championship main event of WrestleMania XX in March 2004.
In a three-day double-murder and suicide, Benoit murdered his wife in their residence on June 22, 2007, and his 7-year-old son the next day, before killing himself on June 24. The incident profoundly shocked and changed the professional wrestling industry and drew intense media criticism regarding brain injuries, substance abuse, and the long-term health of athletes in contact sports. Subsequent research undertaken by the Sports Legacy Institute (now the Concussion Legacy Foundation) suggested that depression and advanced chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition of brain damage, from repeated legitimate strikes to the head that Benoit had sustained throughout his pro-wrestling career were likely contributing factors of the crimes.
Due to his murders, Benoit's legacy in the professional wrestling industry is widely controversial and heavily debated. Benoit has been renowned by many for his exceptional technical wrestling ability. Prominent combat sports journalist Dave Meltzer considers Benoit "one of the top 10, maybe even [in] the top five, all-time greats" in professional wrestling history. Benoit was inducted into the Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2003. His WON induction was put to a re-vote in 2008 to determine if Benoit should remain a member of their Hall of Fame. The threshold percentage of votes required to remove Benoit was not met. While arguments have been made by a number of pro-wrestling fans and industry alumni for Benoit to one day enter the WWE Hall of Fame on account of his in-ring work, the overwhelming opinion from the majority of industry veterans is that the nature of Benoit's death disqualifies him from a posthumous induction.
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