Chris Benoit WWE Superstar and Family found dead this morning.

[Tripe]

Call me crazy... but the "bad taste" I have is due to the double-murder followed by suicide. Observing that the guy, like many wrestlers, appears like a modern day equivelent of the old carnival 'freak' strong man... that doesn't even register.

I know that. I was talking about  Hank thinking the description is bad taste, well if it is it because there's something unsavory about the whole bis. If he's only noticing it due to the current events that still doesn't make an accurate description any more unsavory than the murder suicide itself.

[Hank_Peters]

In my oppinion, the discription just made it seem like Benoit was a loose cannon that was going to break sooner or later. I don't think a loose cannon would've had the sense to put Bibles next to the people he just killed.

[Tripe]

Theistic tinged paranoia, nah that never happens. Funnily enough dedication to the bible and use of it in horrible acts of violence are not the signs of a rational mind.

Also in context the article was referring to the group of dead wrestlers as a whole to which the Benoit family have now been added.

[Steve-O]

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/6964262?MSNHPHMA

The above link is FoxSport's take on the whole thing.

Compairing Benoit to a carnaval attraction? That's just bad taste in my opinion.

Agreed.  I don't follow wrestling, but even as an impartial observer it seems a little too early for the knives to come out.  And I agree with the WWE statement above that until some concrete evidence has been released, speculation as to Benoit's state of mind, and the cause of that state, is just speculation.  Has it always been this way, or did the media used to have some small amount of respect for death?  There'll be plenty of time to call the dead man's grieving friends "carnival attractions" in a week or so.

Beyond that, that piece seems a bit disingenuous to me.  The author includes, as evidence of his thesis that wrestling kills guys dead, a man who shot himself after being released from his contract.  Given that losing one's career tends to depress a man, I don't think you can rightly blame his death on steroids or on wrestling.  Likewise, he mentions Yokozuna's death of a heart attack at 34.  That's not at all surprising, considering how massively overweight the guy was.  It's not an indictment of wrestling, but the author includes it just to bulk up his list.

I do think the guy has a point, but he also apparently has a bone to pick with wrestling.  The fact that he chooses to pick it so soon after Benoit's death just makes him look petty and vindictive.

[Hank_Peters]

Also in context the article was referring to the group of dead wrestlers as a whole to which the Benoit family have now been added.

I have no problem with the article itself, except that none of the the guys on the list murdered anybody.

All this mixed thinking is making my brain hurt.

[J-Proof]

I do think the guy has a point, but he also apparently has a bone to pick with wrestling.  The fact that he chooses to pick it so soon after Benoit's death just makes him look petty and vindictive.

I used to wrestler in the California freestyle circuit (olympic-style, not "pro"), and I learned that there are two kinds of sportsmen when it comes to "pro" wrestling.

Firstly there's the kind who love pro wrestling that enjoy it as entertainment and often use the addage: "Pro wrestling is fake? Tell me what on tv isn't fake and I'll stop watching it...." That was pretty much the category I fell into. I loved watching pro wrestling, and found it to be somewhat inspirational when I became a wrestler (sort of like boxers who watch Rocky movies to feel a little uplifted).

The other kind of sportsmen hated pro wrestling, and found it to be a disgrace to real athletics (though I question the accusation that these guys aren't "real" athletes...) The guy that wrote this article sounds like one of these guys....

Still - I think he makes some valid points in his article about how rasslin' sort of has the tendancy to attracted tragedy.....

[jasimon1]

I'll post stuff later chronicalling Benoit's history with mental problem (I can't log into the websites I get my wrestling news from her at work). Apparently though there have been a bunch of things in the past that while they weren't over looked, much more could have been done to help his mental state before it went as far as it did.

One wrestler was on the radio yesterday talking about how wwe really priovides no mental support to these people that make a living out of an aggressive act. There have been so many wrestlers that have come to an untimely demise that could have been prevented had though been given to their actions. I look at the text messages that Benoit was sending people and I can't understand how someone could ignore how odd they were. I know that if I texted messaged any of my friends or coworkers with "My physical address is..." they would immediatly think something is wrong and get someone to check on me if they weren't able to do it themselves especially if I didn't answer the phone after I sent it.

[J-Proof]

Yeah - the fact that he was telling his friends where to find his body..... that's frickin' scary. Here's the worst part though - his family had already been murdered by the time he sent those messages...

[Raven]

Still - I think he makes some valid points in his article about how rasslin' sort of has the tendancy to attracted tragedy.....

I think that there are a lot of contributing factors that lead to the deaths of so many of these preformers.  The ammount of physical injuries that they sustain is way higher than any pro athelete in any "real" sport,   They work hurt out of love for what they do.  Second they live the rockstar lifestyle, touring around the world away from their families and are huge celebrities wherever they go.  Wrestling is way more mainstream than it has been in the past and the attention is bound to go to your head.  Check out  the documentary "Beyond the Mat" and watch the Jake "The Snake" Roberts section to see what I'm talking about.  (an awesome documentary by the way)  And third there is no off season.   These guys live the life year round.  The tour never ends and although the WWE has done a lot to spread out the work among several touring groups over the last few years, this has to be hard on all of them.  

[eclipt1c]

The ammount of physical injuries that they sustain is way higher than any pro athelete in any "real" sport

While I agree with your point, that wrestling should be taken seriously, you should only get injured when you do it wrong.  Yes, wrestling should be considered a real sport, they don't come anywhere near the number of injuries that something like Football does.

[J-Proof]

Yeah - having played football I can concur on that point. We had guys getting seriously injured almost every game....

Wrestling was worse tho - as in - surgery and metal pins kind of injuries.... I sprained every ligament in my right elbow just sparring with a guy - put me out for four weeks and my arm looked like a prop from night of the living dead.... Not to mention the nasty ring worm lol.

There's also boxing -- boxing is pretty much injury-centric.

Anyway - I guess what Raven was saying is that these guys are /constantly/, week after week, travelling around the USA doing this stuff, with no medical coverage at all (and no retirement plan) and the risk of injury and fatigue is incredibly high. There's no off-season, ya know? Shaq can easily go and relax with his millions of dollars and sexy wife for a good couple quarters before entering the court again. Pro wrestlers travel non-stop doing what they do non-stop (which is sort of how they can be compared to a carnival act I suppose).

[bettertomorrowamy]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Wrestlin's Fake!

[Hank_Peters]

They don't call it entertainment for nothing.

[J-Proof]

What was everyone's favorite wrestling storyline, btw?

Mine was undoubtedly and unquestionably the Crow-Sting storyline...

[J-Proof]

Here's Sting taking on the nWo

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xKZSqmRYUYQ" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/xKZSqmRYUYQ</a>