ProWrestlingViews.com

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.

A couple unfortunate weeks ago, WWE decided to spice up its storyline with a murder mystery. In out-of-character fashion, Vince McMahon acted a bit goofy after losing the ECW title, and at the end of a Raw broadcast, walked out into the parking lot and got into his limo, which immediately blew up.

The storyline, intended to call to mind the “Who Shot JR?” cliffhanger of the classic TV show Dallas, started out with a bang, but soon grew disturbing and tacky as the WWE played out the concept, because rather than playing it for humor, the company played the storyline straight, airing clips of somber, apparently-grieving wrestlers spilling tears over an owner who, within the storylines, never made any friends.

Pro Wrestling Views was among the first to call for the storyline tone to change or be dumped because it cheapened how the WWE had treated real deaths, like those of Eddie Guerrero and Owen Hart. That call seemed further justified as last week it was learned that classic WWE Diva Sensational Sherri Martel, who died at age 49; Martel passed away in her sleep, with circumstances still under investigation. No foul play is suspected in Martel’s death, though toxicology tests are being run as part of the autopsy to determine if drugs or alcohol were involved.

Now, with a current WWE superstar involved in a possible double murder-suicide, there can be no further justification for continuing the “Who Killed Vince?” storyline. It’s simply too disturbing and too close to real life events. Forget the marketing, forget the T-shirts, forget the engraved pens. The storyline must be dropped immediately to make room for wrestlers and fans to deal with their mixture of grief and anger on a deserving target: a real-life tragedy.

Let’s hope the WWE didn’t know the whole story when they decided to replace a live Raw broadcast with a tribute to Chris Benoit’s 22-year wrestling career on Monday. No doubt if the evidence proves, as local police allege, that Chris Benoit took the lives of his wife and son, then took his own life 24- to 48-hours later, the company is certain to come under fire for celebrating the life of an alleged double-murderer.

Whatever dark thoughts and demonic influences possibly drove Benoit to such evil actions, no amount of “this was about his wrestling career, the good parts of his life” excuse-making can justify the miscalculation it would be if the WWE knew he was possibly a murderer and ran the tribute show anyway. Talk about getting your network cables crossed? It would be bad taste in the extreme.

Fox 5 out of Atlanta is reporting that wrestler Chris Benoit is the main suspect in the death of his wife, his son, making his death an apparent suicide. What seemed like a tragedy until moments ago, when this story broke, is now looking somewhat darker and more sinister.

Although final determinations won’t be made until Tuesday, when autopsy results are expected in, “Detective Bo Turner told television station WAGA that the case was being treated as a murder-suicide, but said that couldn’t be confirmed until evidence was examined by a crime lab,” according to the Fox 5 report.

Earlier today, rumors of the nature of the deaths were flying around the Web, alleging everything from a gas leak that took Benoit and his family as they slept overnight, even to the extreme of some sources suggesting Benoit’s wife, Nancy Sullivan-Benoit, had been responsible for the double murder-suicide.

Yet the local police paint a starker picture of Benoit taking the lives of his wife and 7-year-old son sometime over the weekend, canceling his appearance on a WWE PPV, Vengeance: A Night of Champions, in which he was expected to compete against wrestler C.M. Punk for the ECW World Championship title, and finally taking his own life sometime on Monday.

The news, even before the nature of the deaths was known publicly, sent shockwaves through WWE, and caused the company to cancel Monday Night’s live RAW event, replacing it with a three-hour tribute show to Chris Benoit’s 22-year wrestling career. It was nearly a case of power supply repair, as the company sought a way to “keep the lights on” even as they struggled with the tragic news.