History Wrestling / ChrisBenoit

[[PaterFamilicide And then we found out why.]]

* ArchEnemy: Wrestling/KevinSullivan, both on-screen and in RealLife. Their never-ending feud in WCW ensured Benoit was never going to move up the card (Sullivan was head booker at the time). In fact, it was Sullivan returning to WCW as head booker that caused Benoit to finally jump ship to the WWF. Oddly, he was still made WCW champion while Sullivan was supposedly holding him back.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Canadian Crippler]]

** Unfortunately, it can be debated that this determination was also what possessed him to wrestle through concussions, abuse painkillers and steroids, and any other destructive behaviors that led to that infamous weekend in Atlanta.

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Chris was never the same after Eddie Guerrero died. It's generally agreed upon that Eddie's death is a big part of why that weekend in Atlanta happened (with Benoit's own journals confirming it), though how much in comparison to the multitude of injuries, drug abuse, and deaths of other friends of his that also played a part is something we'll never really know. ''The Dark Side of the Ring'' also showed that another cause could be the strict agenda he had in WWE these years, where getting a rest (or a retirement as his wife Nancy would wanted) and a proper mourning would avoid the tragedy all we know.

* DownerEnding: To his career. To quote Wrestling/ChrisJericho, Benoit loved wrestling and worked really hard to achieve his elite status. He was meant to appear at [[Wrestling/{{Vengeance}} Vengeance 2007]] and was booked to win the vacant ECW title against CM Punk. Benoit ultimately no-showed the PPV for [[invoked]][[DiedDuringProduction obvious]] [[PaterFamilicide reasons]].

* DownerEnding: To his career and his life. To quote Wrestling/ChrisJericho, Benoit loved wrestling and worked really hard to achieve his elite status. But his MurderSuicide not only nullified all his accomplishments, but it nearly destroyed the business he loved dearly.

* RedeemingReplacement: His son David from his first marriage has expressed a desire to wrestle, possibly even under the name "Chris Benoit Jr." as a way of redeeming his family name in the eyes of the industry. The VICE documentary series ''Dark Side of the Ring'' focused on Benoit while showing the unfair blacklisting David received from the public and the world of wrestling for simply being Benoit's son. So we'll see how that goes. Wrestling/JimCornette is of the opinion that it's probably too much; while David does deserve a shot and that he's also a victim of Chris's actions, the inevitable walking on eggshells that would come with him means that no one is willing to give him that shot. Cornette even admits that this is unfair, but sticks by his opinion. [[note]] It also doesn’t help that even if David were to get a shot, he looks [[UncannyFamilyResemblance so much like Chris]] that people would be reminded of him, even if David chose not to use the Benoit name. [[/note]]

* TournamentArc

Over the next four years, WWE built Benoit up into a main event caliber wrestler. He produced classic matches with the likes of Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, Wrestling/KurtAngle, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, and Wrestling/{{Edge}}. His time in ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown's]]'' tag division during 2002 made him part of a trio of teams fans referred to (then and now) as the "[=SmackDown=] Six": Benoit, teaming with Angle, faced the team of Edge and Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}} at ''Wrestling/NoMercy 2002'' in what was easily a Match of the Year candidate and arguably one of the greatest tag team matches ever. Those two teams eventually feuded the Guerreros (Eddie and his nephew Wrestling/{{Chavo|GuerreroJr}}), which led to several matches between both the teams themselves and their individual members -- matches that ultimately made ''[=SmackDown=]'' a must-watch show. Around this time, he was named the third person to receive Cauliflower Alley Club's Future Legend Award.

** The Best of ''[=SmackDown=]'' DVD set has a video summary for the Fatal 4-Way TLC match from May 2001. Aside from a very short shot at the beginning, Chris Benoit was edited out. He was tag team champs with Wrestling/ChrisJericho at the time. And on top of that, they won the match. The package almost makes you believe that Wrestling/ChrisJericho beat [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys the Dudleys]], [[Wrestling/MattHardy the]] [[Wrestling/JeffHardy Hardys]], and Wrestling/{{Edge}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}} all on his own.

* ActionDad: Benoit was a father of three and was regarded as one of the best technical wrestlers of his generation.

While the debate about how to remember Chris Benoit continues among wrestling fans and pundits to this day, no one denies the truth: June 25th, 2007 was the darkest day in the history of professional wrestling.

* CanonDiscontinuity: As part of his [[UnPerson un-personning]] in WWE, the company actively remove as many of Benoit's accomplishments as they could, most notably his iconic ''Wrestling/RoyalRumble 2004'' victory.

* TakeThisJobAndShoveIt: The day after he won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, he asked for his release alongside Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn. Legend has it that he even went as far as dumping the title in the trash (though by that point its prestige had fallen so far that many considered it little more than a fancy prop) to show how much he wanted out. WCW was going down the drain by that point, a literal hell for anyone who wasn't Hulk Hogan or Kevin Nash. However, what really incited this decision from Benoit was the news that Kevin Sullivan was returning as head booker -- the rest, being his close friends, followed him out of fear of being collateral damage.

* RedeemingReplacement: His son David from his first marriage has expressed a desire to wrestle, possibly even under the name "Chris Benoit Jr." as a way of redeeming his family name in the eyes of the industry. The VICE documentary series ''Dark Side of the Ring'' focused on Benoit while showing the unfair blacklisting David received from the public and the world of wrestling for simply being Benoit's son. So we'll see how that goes. Wrestling/JimCornette is of the opinion that, while David does deserve a shot and that he's also a victim of Chris's actions, the inevitable walking on eggshells that would come with it may be too much. [[note]] It also doesn’t help that even if David were to get a shot, he looks [[UncannyFamilyResemblance so much like Chris]] that people would be reminded of him, even if David chose not to use the Benoit name. [[/note]]

* UnPerson: The nature of Chris Benoit's death has caused WWE itself to essentially erase Benoit from history (except in situations where they cannot avoid having his name come up, such as event results and title histories).

[[PaterFamilicide And then we found out why]].

* BrokenPedestal: A very sad case of this after how his life ended. Prior to [[PaterFamilicide his actions]] in June 2007, Benoit was universally respected by his peers, fans and critics. To say that his reputation is forever tarnished after that is an understatement. This is only reinforced in ''Series/TheDarkSideOfTheRing'', where several of his oldest and closest friends admit to still missing him, but also state they can never forgive him for his actions.

* BigBrotherMentor: According to his book ''Undisputed'', Wrestling/ChrisJericho considered Benoit this. [[Wrestling/LondonAndKendrick Paul London and Bryan Kendrick]] described him like this and a SternTeacher in a shoot interview, and named Jamie Noble as another of Benoit's charges. Wrestling/CMPunk also seemed to consider him this, judging by his memorial message to him on the tribute show.

** Many of Benoit's close friends took a similar approach, such as Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/{{Batista}}, trying to remember him as the friend he was rather than the person he turned into during his last days. While none of them condoned what he did, it still didn't change that Benoit was their friend for varying periods of time, and that they loved him, and because of that, they couldn't deny the part he played in all their lives.
* BrokenPedestal: A very sad case of this after how his life ended. Prior to [[PaterFamilicide his actions]] in June 2007, Benoit was universally respected by his peers, fans and critics. To say that his reputation is forever tarnished after that is an understatement.

* TragicBromance: He and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero are very close friends and have died three years within each other (Eddie in November 2005, Chris in June 2007).

* ToothyIssue: The gap in his front teeth is what led to his "Toothless Aggression" FanNickname.[[invoked]]

Christopher Michael Benoit (May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) spent his youth idolizing fellow Canadian wrestlers such as [[Wrestling/BretHart Bret "The Hitman" Hart]] and [[Wrestling/DynamiteKid the Dynamite Kid]]. In 1985, at the age of eighteen, Benoit made his wrestling debut in Canada's Stampede Wrestling and made his way all the way down to the tip of North America, wrestling in the Mexican-based Lucha Libre Internacional, Wrestling/{{AAA}}, and Wrestling/{{CMLL}}. From there, he traveled to various overseas promotions, mainly to defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title belt of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling as "[[MaskedLuchador Pegasus Kid]]", for a number of years, then made his debut in Wrestling/{{ECW}} in 1994. It was in ECW where Benoit became known as "The Crippler": During a match with Wrestling/{{Sabu}}, Benoit performed a back body drop, but Sabu landed on his head and broke his neck. Despite the act being an accident, the "Crippler" nickname stuck with Benoit for the rest of his career.

In 2004, Benoit had arguably the best year of his career: He won the ''Wrestling/RoyalRumble'' by lasting the entire match (over an hour after having entered #1), he went on to ''Wrestling/WrestleMania XX'' to win the [[Wrestling/BigGoldBelt World Heavyweight Championship]] in Madison Square Garden in another Match of the Year candidate by making Wrestling/TripleH tap clean to [[FinishingMove the Crippler Crossface]], and he retained the title the next month at ''Wrestling/{{Backlash}}'' by making Wrestling/ShawnMichaels tap to the Sharpshooter in Canada (a symbolic apology to the Canadian crowd for the Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob). Benoit lost the title to Wrestling/RandyOrton at ''Wrestling/SummerSlam 2004'', but stayed near the main event level for the rest of the year as he feuded with Orton, Edge, and Triple H and continued to vie for the World Heavyweight Championship.

After 2004, WWE shuffled Benoit back down to the midcard, deciding that his skills could better help push new talent up the card. Benoit won the United States Championship several times and feuded with up-and-coming star Wrestling/MontelVontaviousPorter (MVP) for months. In 2007, WWE placed Benoit on the renewed ECW brand--a move that instantly made him a top contender for that brand's championship. At ''[[Wrestling/{{Vengeance}} Vengeance: Night of Champions 2007]]'', Benoit was scheduled to go up against indy darling Wrestling/{{CM Punk}} for the vacant ECW Championship.

The debate about how to remember Chris Benoit continues among wrestling fans and pundits to this day, but no one denies the truth: June 25th, 2007 was the darkest day in the history of professional wrestling.

!!'''The following tropes are associated with Chris Benoit:'''

Wrestling historians and critics have pointed to the Benoit murder-suicide as the catalyst for the company's "PG era", which was a noticeable period of WWE heavily sanitizing its programming. That and WWE's decision to refrain from ever mentioning Benoit again except for title reign records (and carefully skirting around if someone else gets a callback to a match or scenario with him) remain points of debate and controversy among pro wrestling fans. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Whether it was right to do so or not is a subject with as many different opinions as can be found, and it seems unlikely that a consensus on Benoit will ever truly be reached.]]

** Many of Benoit's close friends took a similar approach, such as Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/{{Batista}}, trying to remember him as the friend he was rather than the person he turned into during his last days. While none of them condoned what he did, it still didn't change the fact that Benoit was their friend for varying periods of time, and that they loved him, and because of that, they couldn't deny the part he played in all their lives.

* {{Curse}}: Some like to point out the fact that in one storyline in one of the ''[[VideoGame/WWEVideoGames Smackdown Vs. Raw]]'' games, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero was involved in a storyline with Wrestling/TheUndertaker that ended in him buried alive. The weekend the game came out... well, Eddie died. A game later, Undertaker said "Your grieving family will have no one but you to blame when the inevitable occurs." to Benoit. The next year, Chris.. [[PaterFamilicide well, you know...]]

* HumiliatingWager: LLI ignored the fact Pegasus Kid had been unmasked by Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger on a New Japan show, albeit only so they could follow through with their own plans to have Villano III unmask him.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Benoit's death, and the circumstances surrounding it, was one of the factors that lead to the death of {{Kayfabe}} as it had been up to that point. It was also one of the factors in the "PG Era" starting to really gain momentum in WWE as a way to distance the company from the tragedy.

Christopher Michael Benoit (May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) spent his youth idolizing fellow Canadian wrestlers such as [[Wrestling/BretHart Bret "The Hitman" Hart]] and [[Wrestling/DynamiteKid the Dynamite Kid]]. In 1985, at the age of eighteen, Benoit made his wrestling debut in Canada's Stampede Wrestling and make his way all the way down to the tip of North America, wrestling in the Mexican based Lucha Libre Internacional, Wrestling/{{AAA}} and Wrestling/{{CMLL}}. From there, he traveled to various overseas promotions, mainly to defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title belt of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling as "[[MaskedLuchador Pegasus Kid]]", for a number of years, then made his debut in Wrestling/{{ECW}} in 1994. It was in ECW where Benoit became known as "The Crippler": During a match with Wrestling/{{Sabu}}, Benoit performed a back body drop, but Sabu landed on his head and broke his neck. Despite the act being an accident, the "Crippler" nickname stuck with Benoit for the rest of his career.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Wasn't a very big man, but could still German-Suplex even guys as big as Viscera [[note]]A ScaryBlackMan whose mass was in the same league as Wrestling/TheBigShow's and Wrestling/{{Yokozuna}}'s.[[/note]].

The debate about how to remember Chris Benoit continues amongst wrestling fans and pundits to this day, but no one denies the truth: June 25th, 2007 was the darkest day in the history of professional wrestling.

Benoit won fans over with his in-ring work over the next few years, but management refused to push him into the main event level until Wrestling/VinceRusso and Ed Ferrara took over booking duties WCW in 1999, near the peak of the Wrestling/MondayNightWars. But when Russo and Ferrara were suspended by WCW management, the higher-ups placed Kevin Sullivan back on the booking team. Benoit, alongside a number of other wrestlers, saw this development as a hazard to their careers, and thus they delivered an ultimatum to management: "He goes, or we go." Management tried to appease the group by booking Benoit to win the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-h.html WCW World Heavyweight Championship]] at ''Souled Out 2000''. But it proved a fruitless endeavour: Benoit -- along with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/PerrySaturn, and Wrestling/DeanMalenko -- asked for, and were given, their releases after the event. (WCW stripped Benoit of the championship the next day.)

* WhamEpisode: Benoit and his family's death in June 2007, as well as the circumstances behind it, shook ProfessionalWrestling to its core and its effects are still felt to this day.

Wrestling historians and critics have pointed to the Benoit murder-suicide as the catalyst for the company's "PG era", which was a noticeable period of WWE heavily sanitizing its programming. That and WWE's decision to refrain from ever mentioning Benoit again except for title reign records (and carefully skirting around if someone else gets a callback to a match or scenario with him) remain points of debate and controversy among pro wrestling fans. Whether it was right to do so or not is a subject with as many different opinions as can be found, and it seems unlikely that a consensus on Benoit will ever truly be reached.

Say the name "Chris Benoit" to a wrestling fan, and you will invoke one of two images, if not both: That of one of the greatest professional wrestlers to ever perform in a ring, or that of a man who spent his last days committing a series of horrendous crimes that would shake the {{professional wrestling}} industry to its core.

* {{Curse}}: Some like to point out the fact that in one storyline in one of the ''[[VideoGame/WWEVideoGames Smackdown Vs. Raw]]'' games, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero was involved in a storyline with Wrestling/TheUndertaker that ended in him buried alive. The weekend the game came out... well, Eddie died. A game later, Undertaker said "Your grieving family will have no one but you to blame when the inevitable occurs." to Benoit. The next year, Chris.. [[PaterFamilicide well, you know...]]]