Strange Case

In a mystery that would certainly have Sherlock Holmes pacing his study furiously while Watson sat offering up his thoughts on the matter, the people interested continue to wait for more information. The case in question is that of wrestler Chris Benoit who was found dead in his home this past weekend. What makes the case unusual to begin with is the fact that Benoit's wife was found dead in one room, their son was found smothered to death in another and Benoit himself was found hanging in his bedroom, the final victim of an apparent murder-suicide. Immediately the media and critics began claiming that this was a result of Benoit's being on drugs to enhance his physique and that he was fueled by an excess of 'roid-rage' which is a medical condition in which users of steroids are prone to fits of rage.

Now an apparent murder-suicide is the most obvious reason for the findings but it isn't what makes this case unusual. Benoit was scheduled to wrestle on Monday night this past week but his match was cancelled for apparent personal problems. Over the weekend, several of his friends had received strange and cryptic messages from his cell phone that indicated his exact address and the fact that his dogs were locked up in the pool area and that the side door to the house was open. His friends became suspcious so they called police and police came to the house to investigate and discovered the bodies of Benoit and his family. The media immediately stepped in and soon he was being lambasted in public.

Benoit was a wrestler in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) company and had held several champoinship titles in his time. He met his wife through one of the story lines that was developed during the course of his time there and they married and had a son. Their son, diagnosed with Fragile X Syndrome, had been under their care at their Georgia home for some time. In making the announcement, the WWE's move to cancel Monday's show and air a three-hour tribute to Benoit was something of a surprise to many becuase the exact details of the crime had yet to be released. What is becoming even more of a curiousity to the police now is the fact that Benoit's biography on Wikipedia had been altered to include mention of the death of his wife.

Okay. So some fan put up the notice right? Not exactly. Apparently the post was made 14 hours before the bodies were discovered. The point of origin was discovered somewhere near the corporate headquarters of the WWE and so many are beginning to speculate whether or not management or someone within the WWE organization knew about what was happening in the Benoit house before it came to the public's attention. All over, fans of Benoit and the WWE are quick to jump to the defense of both stating that the messages that Benoit sent could be indicative of a burglary or someone entering the house without authorization. Whatever the case may be, it is unusual enough to have people jumping to both condemn him and defend him at the same time before all the details are out.

Now I'm not as big a fan of WWE as I used to be. I used to watch it when it was still the WWF (and before the World Wildlife Fund raised as stink about using the same abbreviation) and in the interim, it has changed into more of a Ricky Lake - Jerry Springer type show where rather than merely wrestling in a studio, they do it in an actual arena. The quips, the jibes and the violence are all just as bad as a Jerry Springer episode only thing is that there is less talk. In recent years more and more information has been coming to light about the organization that has prospered on men (and sometimes women) fighting one another for the entertainment of others. There has been some speculation that the organization itself forces wrestlers to go to extremes for their fans and these can lead to disasterous and deadly results. Now I'm not speculating that WWE had anything to do with Benoit's death, but it's worth looking into isn't it?