Benoit's death - UPDATED

Now the news is out. I don't care to wait long enough for toxicology reports to know that something went wrong in Chris Benoit's life.

I credit the Associated Press for its handling of this story. They've come out with some good coverage - not the sort of thing you see when a pro "sports" athlete is in the news. Mostly it's the nature of the story that automatically called for a reverence you didn't see when Anna Nicole Smith died, but should have. I get it - I do this stuff every day. This is bigger than the way wrestling is always covered - like it's a niche hobby appealing to the NASCAR crowd. A quaint obsession, if there's such a thing. This time everybody said, "Whoa." and I think they're still trying to catch up with the strangeness of it.

My friend Greg framed this whole thing very well. He said, in essence, things will forever be changed in wrestling. Congress is going to be involved now. For those who may not remember, WWF (as it was) went before Congress in the 90s because of its rampant use of anabolic streroids. It was then that Hulk Hogan sold out Vince Mcmahon and blew in his whole operation. Things had cooled between them over the years, and Hulk was allowed back to wrestle.

But grievances and grudges aside, I think Greg's right. I think this will change things. No, I take that back. I hope things will be changed. Honestly, I could care less how a wrestler looks if he can perform. I think most fans would feel that way too, because despite physique, the human talents on which pro wrestling is based will never change. It will always take a specific personality type, with an intelligence behind the hype, to pull of the kind of entertainment fans want to see.

I think, and this is just me, that many will feel alienated the way I do. It's different than when Mark McGuire was before the government testifying about steroids, or talking about Barry Bonds' records with asterisks next to them. It's not just a case of having your hero crumble before you, when you're made to realize that he was just, after all the hype, human.

This was a man who took a tumble far, far, from his station in life. The Associated Press, and again I give them credit, included a quote from Benoit of long ago in which he said his one vice in life was his family.

Let me define family. Wrestling, sometimes, is weird like this because there's more of a connection between fans and athletes. Perrhaps it's the preponderance of House Shows, the equivalent of which is if the Yankees came to central Virginia to play the hometown AA team with no cameras, no body guards, and just were there to put on a show for the fans and sign a whole bunch of baseballs afterwards.

In this way wrestling fans feel a sense of ownership over "their" guys, and they become protective. They fiercely defend their favorites, and just as vehemently seethe at the enemy. But at the end of the day they respect all of them who go beyond what any pro athletes go through, that is, they travel not for one season out of the year, but the WHOLE year. Guys leave relationships, families, whole lives behind to be pro wrestlers. All they have left are their fans. And they're welcomed with open arms, because the fans know they're the most constant family these guys have got.

I've read three wrestlers' autobiographies. No, they're not representaive of the entire industry. But the guys at the top of their respective games are a lonely lot. They're often sad, and crave stability though they know they can never have it as long as they do the thing they love.

It's a paradox I think contributes to, but does not excuse, eventual self-destruction. No act of Congress can chage that, unless the fundamentals of the industry change first.

That, unfortunately, is the paradox the fans face.

ORIGINAL POST, TUESDAY, JUNE 19:

WWE.com is reporting that pro wrestler Chris Benoit is dead. The site quotes an Atlanta Fox affiliate that he killed his wife and son over the weekend, then himself.

Benoit was cut from the same mold as Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero. In fact, the three all jumped ship to WWE when WCW folded in 2000 I think (I'll have to check that.) They were all able technical wrestlers, indeed some of the best, and in recent years Benoit's role really shifted to WWE's development office, helping other wrestlers "tell the story" more with their in-ring performances.

I know Eddie's death in 2005 hit Benoit pretty hard, though I haven't seen any stories detailing reasons. In cases like this, often there aren't any.

More later.