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Archive for June 26th, 2007

Fox 5 in Atlanta continues to uncover disturbing new details in the double murder-suicide involving WWE wrestlers Chris Benoit; his wife, Nancy Sullivan-Benoit; and their seven-year-old son, Daniel.

One detail is that Benoit had a history of alleged domestic violence with his wife. In a 2003 divorce filing – a complaint that was later dropped – Nancy alleged that their marriage was irrevocably broken and cited “cruel treatment” when asking for a restraining order against him, saying he’d broken furniture and threatened her during a dispute.

Somehow, their marriage survived and the 2003 divorce filing was never pressed forward. Apparently, however, the couple did not put their issues to rest.

According to the Fox 5 report, based on information released by local authorities, police now believe that Benoit killed his wife as early as last Friday night; she was found in an upstairs room with both her feet and hands bound, the victim of an apparent strangling at the hands of her husband. Blood under her head indicated there may have been a struggle prior to death.

Authorities place son Daniel’s death as occurring late Saturday or early Sunday. He was found smothered to death, on his bed.

Authorities then place Benoit’s suicide as taking place no earlier than late Sunday, perhaps even Monday morning. The long intervals between the two murders and his own suicide will be one of the unanswered mysteries of the case.

Benoit was scheduled to wrestle C.M. Punk at Sunday’s PPV event, Vengeance: A Night of Champions, and was scheduled to win the ECW title that night; Benoit’s in-ring character had been drafted from SmackDown to ECW two weeks prior to the event, setting up the clash. When Benoit canceled his appearance at a WWE Live event on Saturday, as well as his PPV appearance on Sunday, the company promoted wrestler Johnny Nitro into Benoit’s spot and gave Nitro the ECW title in his place. WWE.com reports that Benoit had contacted the company on Saturday to explain his absence, and that he told WWE staff that his wife and child were “not feeling well,” and that he couldn’t make the trip.

While Benoit was reported to be paid roughly $500,000 per year in the 2003 divorce filing, the family’s financial health is not clear at this hour; whether there is insurance coverage for either parent or children insurance on Daniel is unclear, although in cases of murder, insurance companies do not always pay a death benefit to surviving family members. Hopefully, some arrangements can be made for both Nancy and son Daniel.

Credit goes out to Fox 5 in Atlanta for reporting a detail Pro Wrestling Views missed; on Monday Night’s RAW broadcast, Vince McMahon did appear in a pre-show address, admitted the “Who Murdered Vince?” storyline was made up, and said that the storyline had been dropped in light of the Benoit tragedy, which at that point was still not known by WWE officials to be a double murder-suicide.

Props to WWE for dropping the tacky, too-close-to-reality storyline promptly.

In light of media speculation that WWE knew about the nature of wrestler Chris Benoit’s crimes over the weekend that preceded his suicide, the company has posted a timeline of events as they came to light from a company perspective.

The decision to cancel the live show in Corpus Christie, TX, was made at 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., according to the company’s statement, and when the nature of Benoit’s pre-suicide murders came to light through local authorities, they reversed their decision to air a Benoit memorial.

According to the WWE press release, “In keeping with company policy, and with limited knowledge regarding facts of the case, WWE choose to air a memorial dedicated to the career of Chris Benoit. As facts emerged surrounding the case, all tributes to Chris Benoit were removed both on-air and on WWE.com.”

Despite this, several photos of Benoit remain on WWE.com in relation to the timeline. Pro Wrestling Views urges WWE.com to remove all images of Chris Benoit from the main WWE.com page and all affiliate sites. Given the nature of events, all Benoit material should be removed from the market. It doesn’t take 20GB of IBM memory to figure that out; it’s common sense.

Casting aside the “storyline murder” of Mr. McMahon, WWE owner Vince McMahon appeared on ECW on SciFi tonight, delivering a solemn address prior to the beginning of the show. His comments were as follows:

“Last night on Monday Night Raw, the WWE presented a special tribute show, recognizing the career of Chris Benoit. However, now some 26 hours later, the facts of this horrific tragedy are now apparent. Therefore, other than my comments, there will be no mention of Mr. Benoit tonight. On the contrary, tonight’s show will be dedicated to everyone who has been affected by this terrible incident. This evening marks the first step of the healing process. Tonight, the WWE performers will do what they do better than anyone else in the world – entertain you.”

As promised, there was no mention made of Benoit on the Tuesday show; it was the first WWE event held after the tragic events of the weekend and Monday came to light. What was not apparent in the broadcast was whether the WWE had also decided to cast aside the “Vince is murdered” storyline, which seems to be a no-brainer, even without conducting any market research on the topic.

As an apparent double-murderer prior to his suicide on Monday, Benoit deserves no tearful goodbyes or heartfelt retrospectives. Pro Wrestling Views will give WWE the benefit of doubt and assume they aired the Raw tribute before the company knew the complete nature of Benoit’s acts.

Now, if they can only confirm that the “Who Murdered Vince?” storyline is dead, perhaps the healing can begin; if they choose to continue it, the storyline will only serve as a painful reminder to the families affected by this tragedy.