Open Mic: Chris Benoit, the Ultimate Disappointment

Steroids were already a big deal in other sports. Last year, the steroids era of baseball met the squared circle when a member of World Wrestling Entertainment became a tragic victim of the era.

Almost a year later, the name Chris Benoit has become synonymous with coward, disrespecting, and sad but true.

On June 24, 2007, Benoit failed to show up to the WWE Pay Per View "Night of Champions," forcing the WWE to not only find a replacement for him, but also to send members of the local law enforcement to his home to find out what happened to the WWE Superstar. At the time, no one knew what had happened to "The Canadian Crippler."

But when they did find out, no one would be the same afterwards.

To this day, everyone is still unsure of the circumstances...and everyone is still pointing fingers at the wrong people. To this day, no one can talk about sports' biggest disappointments without talking about Chris Benoit.

For over 20 years, Chris Benoit was called "the most technical wrestler in professional wrestling." From his days in WCW, Benoit was a proud member of the legendary Four Horsemen organization, headed by the Nature Boy Ric Flair. He would go on to have one of the most magical matches at "Hog Wild" against his mentor Dean Malenko.

From WCW, he moved forward to ECW (the old Extreme Kingdom), where he earned the moniker "The Crippler" during a match against Sabu. In that very match, Benoit broke Sabu's neck. In his final match with ECW, he was once again pitted against Dean Malenko.

It was a bout that left the fans screaming for the individuals not to leave for their next stage of evolution.

The Land of Extreme was good for Benoit as it prepared him for his biggest stage yet. Following his second stint with WCW, Benoit made his debut with WWE in 2000 alongside Perry Saturn, Malenko, and the late Eddie Guerrero. From there, his career would be filled with enourmous opportunities.

He won his first championship at Wrestlemania 2000 in a Triple Threat Match against Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle for the Intercontinental Championship. The following year, he teamed with Jericho to win the WWE Tag Team Championships from Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

But unfortunately, his tenure was threatened due to a spinal injury that would sideline him for several months.

Upon his return to the WWE, and after several stints as Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion, Benoit knew that he needed one more championship to solidify his place among the legends.

That moment came at the 2004 Royal Rumble, when he survived 29 other superstars, including single-handedly eliminating the 500-pound Big Show, to earn his spot at the main event at Wrestlemania. But after spending the majority of the second half of his career on SmackDown!, Benoit signed with RAW to face Triple H and Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania XX.

Benoit was victorious and captured the World Heavyweight Championship, holding it for several months until he lost it to Randy Orton at Summerslam. Benoit never got a major championship after that moment, but did go on to defeat Orlando Jordan in record time for the United States Championship upon his return to SmackDown!

But with every triumph, there is tragedy. During his stint with WCW, company booker Kevin Sullivan decided that he wanted to start a rivalry with Benoit that involved Sullivan's real life wife, Nancy.

The on screen affair soon turned into an actual off screen affair. Sullivan and Benoit rarely spoke nicely of each other when the affair became reality. Soon after in November 2000, the storybook couple were married. But the tragedy didn't stop there for Benoit as he would suffer one of his biggest tragedies of his career.

In the fall of 2005, the WWE suffered its most tragic death since the passing of Owen Hart in 1999. Chavo Guerrero found his uncle, Eddie, in a hotel room during a tour through Minnesota. Cause of death was believed to be a heart attack, but this loss was more personal to Benoit, having been a part of Guerrero's family for several reasons.

And everything leads us to today. By today, I mean present day. It seems like yesterday that I was breaking this tragic story on the old Bleacher Report. I never fully recovered being an avid wrestling fan. In all honesty, the WWE has tried its best to show that it has moved on, but truthfully, the reality of this tragedy will come to fruition in two weeks.

June 24 will mark the one-year anniversary of the Fayetteville Tragedy. Five days after that, the WWE will present its second annual Night of Champions (formerly known as Vengeance). It would have been at that pay per view that Benoit would have faced CM Punk for the vacated ECW Championship last year.

Why am I saying all this? Because for 20 years, he was admired and respected. All it took was one bad weekend to change all that. Like Michael Vick, people don't know how to approach this situation. Two of Atlanta's beloved treasures turn out to be tainted.

Without question, if you are to include Michael Vick as one of professional sports' biggest disappointments, you have to include Chris Benoit. If it wasn't for Benoit's double homicide-suicide, the seriousness of steroids would have never been brought to the light.

20 years of success. 20 years of tenacity. 20 years of dedication. Losing all the credibility in one weekend: senseless.