By Tim Baines
So much for the Who Murdered Mr. McMahon storyline.
That went out the window when Vincent Kennedy McMahon, standing alone in the middle of a wrestling ring, somberly announced to a Monday Night RAW TV audience that Chris Benoit was dead, along with his wife Nancy and seven-year-old son Daniel.
Little did we know that one day later police would suggest that Benoit was a murderer, who, for reasons we’ll never fully know, strangled his wife and smothered his child.
Police say Benoit then killed himself.
I interviewed Chris Benoit a couple of years ago. For a guy not given much time on a WWE microphone, he was eloquent and brimming with passion for wrestling.
He seemed like a good and decent man, who put in plenty of hours of charity work and signed autographs until his hand was sore. I admired his in-ring work — he could bring the best out of the worst.
Now, we’re told, he’s a murderer … a murderer who happened to be a mighty fine wrestler.
To many, Chris Benoit was a hero, a guy who persevered and reached the pinnacle of his craft through blood, sweat and tears — toothless aggression they labelled it.
There were Chris Benoit posters, Chris Benoit action figures and Chris Benoit T-shirts.
But there’ll be no tribute here. Not when a seven-year-old boy and his mother lay dead.
