A Tragic Look Back at Chris Benoit

I was cruising around Bleacher Report's wrestling section when I came across a great article, "Taking a Beating: The Top Ten Sellers in WWE History" by Rob.

I read through the various superstars who had been posted on the list and made my way to his No. 3 choice.

As you can probably guess by the title of this article, his No. 3 pick was Chris Benoit.

Rob starts this slide with this:

"Please feel free to skip immediately to the next slide if you are offended by this entry."

I feel that he didn't need to put that.  Chris Benoit, good or bad, is a part of wrestling history.  He did something that (as a father and a human) I can't imagine anyone doing, but it doesn't change the impact he once had on the wrestling world.

Just because you recognize his talent and what he accomplished in the ring doesn't mean you condone how he chose to end his life. 

I applaud Rob for having Benoit on the list, and the line that followed his opening.

"I am sorry, but I cannot ignore Benoit's impact when discussing wrestling history."

That, of course, is something you'll never find in a publication or broadcast of the World Wrestling Entertainment.  The WWE has all but erased the existence of "The Crippler."

In any of their, "Best of" DVD's, you won't find one of his matches.  I have even heard that you only get a "gasp" glimpse of him on the new Smackdown DVD.

I'd like to raise the discussion and please feel free to comment and throw your opinion out there.  Is it wrong to praise Benoit as a wrestler in light of the fact that he murdered his wife and young son before killing himself?

As a huge Benoit fan, it pained me to hear the truth about one of favorite wrestlers, just days after his death.

I had done what the WWE had done, and tried to rid myself of the memory. 

However, two years removed from the tragic events of June 25, 2007, I can look back on the wrestler, not the man, Chris Benoit and say "Yes, I was a fan."

His end and his family's end was horrific, but in the end, the Chris Benoit we knew was a character, no different from a movie.  Can we forgive the character in spite of the actor who played him?

I'm still working on that, but to act as if he never existed? I think it does a disservice to wrestling as a whole.