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Chris Benoit is a strange figure for the WWE and professional wrestling community to look back on. On one hand, he was an inspiration. The Rabid Wolverine had an old school work ethic and a perfectionist’s edge. He demanded excellence out of himself and his opponents, worked out like a fiend, and honed his skills by travelling world to assimilate key pieces of a variety of styles of wrestling.
It looked as though he might have a glass ceiling overhead as he emerged into the mainstream American wrestling scene. He was too small to be a main eventer, besides which, if there were any weak point in his repertoire, it was his talking game, which WCW and WWE put so much weight on.
Benoit overcame the odds, winning over WWE management through sheer effort and will. He reached the pinnacle of his career in 2004, making Triple H tap out in the main event of WrestleMania 20 to close the show as World Heavyweight Champion.
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Benoit’s story took a stark turn three years later when he murdered his wife and child before committing suicide. Whether the breakdown was linked to steroids as originally theorized, or head injuries as the prevailing theory goes today, Benoit went from one of wrestling’s proudest sons to an absolute disgrace to the business.
Former WWE writer buries Judgment Day HERE
It’s telling that some wrestlers are still able to separate Benoit’s identity from his final days on earth because they respected their friend and colleague so much. Others can only speak of The Crippler with disdain. This article looks at five WWE Superstars who love Benoit, and five who clearly do not.
#10 Love Benoit: Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit were cut from a similar cloth. They’re both Canadians who went onto travel the world, accumulating experience from a variety of mentors and in a variety of styles before making a go of it at the top of the wrestling world. Jericho made it to the top—world champion status in WWE—sooner and with greater longevity.
It’s worth noting, though, that he rose up with Benoit as a key opponent and partner in the ring, and a friend in real life. Indeed, the first hint that each man was headed for the top for real came when they teamed up as an underdog pair to face Triple H and Steve Austin
While it has become difficult to celebrate Chris Benoit’s legacy, Jericho went so far as to dedicate a recent episode of his podcast to The Rabid Wolverine’s legacy as a wrestler. The show featured over an hour-long discussion of Benoit’s greatest matches, moments, and attributes.
#9 Don’t Like Benoit: Triple H
While Triple H got his start on the national wrestling scene as an up and coming heel for WCW, make no mistake about his allegiances. He turned down a big money offer to re-sign with WCW in favor of getting more opportunities to hone his craft, and more room to grow as a star under the WWE banner. It would turn out that he picked the right side, as Helmsley not only became a top shelf star with WWE, but WWE would end up winning out in its competition with WCW, ultimately buying out its rival.
Chris Benoit came to WWE before WCW went out of business. According to Chris Jericho, Helmsley's reaction to Benoit was that he was “OK” as an in-ring talent. Jericho immediately dismissed the comment as biased against anyone from WCW and protective of his spot. Regardless, the read on Benoit bespeaks The Game’s disdain for him. We can only assume that he resents Benoit all the more for the way his life would ultimately go.
The Benoit family tragedy was a black eye for WWE as a company. On top of that, it all but erases some of Helmsley's best performances opposite Benoit—particularly at WrestleMania 20—for WWE’s refusal to acknowledge them now.
#8 Love Benoit: MVP
Chris Benoit was a hard-nosed performer who demanded perfection out of himself and those around them. One of the final men to benefit under Benoit’s learning tree was MVP, who feuded with Benoit leading into and after WrestleMania 23. The two had some very good matches as MVP grew into a performer who could believably hang with, and even defeat Benoit. A main event run was never in the cards for him, but he did enjoy a respectable upper mid-card run.
MVP would ultimately leave WWE and pursue his fortunes elsewhere, with particular ambitions to thrive in Japan. Years after Benoit’s fall from grace, MVP has remained notably positive about his mentor, citing how dedicated Benoit was to his craft, and how much he taught the younger star in their time working together.
Their dynamic just goes to show that sometimes the most heated on-screen rivals achieve success and find chemistry because of their real-life admiration for one another behind the scenes.
#7 Don’t Like Benoit: William Regal
In the immediate aftermath of the Benoit family tragedy, WWE scrapped its original plans for Monday Night Raw. Instead, the company aired a tribute to Benoit. Unlike prior tributes to Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero, this episode dedicated to the memory of a star who died while under WWE contract focused, instead, on rebroadcasting classic Benoit matches. These highlights were interspersed with pre-taped comments from a variety of current WWE performers.
Most of the wrestlers who spoke on the episode expressed profound sorrow at the loss of their friend. The comments from William Regal, however, stood out in contrast. Regal was reserved in his praise for Benoit, focusing on wrestling, and hinting that we’d wait and see about the man himself.
There was a hint that Regal suspected Benoit had not died so innocently. It’s never been substantiated if Regal had any real insider knowledge, but news would break over the days to follow that Benoit was not a victim, but the perpetrator of the horrible incidents that weekend.
#6 Love Benoit: Eddie Guerrero
Chris Benoit travelled the globe, accumulating experience in not only the US and his native Canada, but also Japan and Mexico before he was truly ready to excel as an all-time great in the ring for WCW and WWE. Eddie Guerrero walked a startlingly similar path as his contemporary.
By WrestleMania 20, the two would reach the top of the mountain together. Their celebration at the end of the show, as WWE’s two reigning world champions, felt altogether fitting for a pair of guys who not only had a lot in common, but were very close friends.
Guerrero passed away less than a year before Benoit. While it’s tough to put a finger on any singular factor that led to Benoit’s actions at the end of his life, it seemed that the premature death of a number of his colleagues would contribute to his feelings of despair. Guerrero was one of Benoit’s truest friends in the business, and according to a variety of accounts, they loved one another like brothers.
#5 Don’t Like Benoit: Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon went out on a limb, to say the least, when he booked Chris Benoit to win the 2004 Royal Rumble and go on to defeat not only Triple H, but also Shawn Michaels in the main event of WrestleMania 20.
Benoit didn’t have the charisma or look of a John Cena or Hulk Hogan, nor the infectious personality that helped more similar in-ring talents like HBK and Daniel Bryan get over at the highest level. In the end, McMahon seemed to reward the guy who was honestly the best in-ring performer in the world at that moment.
Benoit didn’t exactly thrive as World Heavyweight Champion, though its debatable whether that was his responsibility, or that of the creative team and Benoit’s opponents. In the three years to follow, Benoit settled into an upper mid-card role as a perennial secondary championship contender and guy who get subbed into the main event picture as needed.
Benoit surely would have wound up a WWE Hall of Famer someday, were it not for the tragic way his life ended. As it stands, Benoit’s tragedy was not just a personally sad one for McMahon, but a move that threatened his business in one of the worst PR disasters that could befall WWE at large.
While an optimist might spin things to suggest Benoit paved the way for changes in how wrestling looks at head injuries and protects athletes, for McMahon, it was more of a condemnation of how WWE had done business up to that point.
#4 Love Benoit: Dean Malenko
Dean Malenko stood alongside Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit in jumping from WCW to WWE as The Radicalz. They went from a crew of particularly undervalued WCW stars, to playing Triple H’s mercenaries, to earning their own distinct spots on the WWE roster.
Of them, Malenko was the eldest and most experienced wrestler. He largely got lumped in with his peers as a top tier up and coming cruiserweight performer who rose to national fame in WCW. He was actually already broaching forty, though, with twenty years of ring experience, when he signed with WWE.
It may be for these reasons that Malenko didn’t ever exceed the mid-card in WWE. Nonetheless, the vantage point of greater experience he could appreciate Benoit’s comparable precision, attention to detail, and similarly diverse range of places where he’d worked to hone his craft. The two worked side by side in WCW’s Four Horsemen and Revolution stables before exploding onto the scene in WWE.
#3 Don’t Like Benoit: Jim Ross
Jim Ross was not only the lead play by play man for much of the 1990s and 2000s, but also worked backstage as the Vice President for Talent Relations. Chris Benoit would have been an especially good fit for Ross’s old school, gritty aesthetic. The Rabid Wolverine was a legitimate athlete who was more steak than sizzle.
Moreover, he’d earned his stripes in wrestling through hard work and experience, unlike WCW alumni Ross rejected on account of ego problems, like Buff Bagwell.
Ross hasn’t had much good to say about Benoit since the family tragedy. There’s reason to believe that he, like so many in WWE management, resented how badly Benoit let them down. When he killed his family, he was not only a talent contracted to WWE, but a bona fide star who had even been celebrated as a WrestleMania main event winner and World Heavyweight Champion.
Though Ross has publicly commented that he doesn’t have any specific grievance against Benoit relative to anyone else, he also seems to have said as little as possible on the late star.
#2 Love Benoit: Bret Hart
Bret Hart is a notoriously tough critic of other wrestlers, who has spawned series of memes based on him awarding quality performances and performers a four out of ten or lower. While some poke fun at The Hitman, there’s little questioning his credibility.
Hart collected world championships in WWE based less on personality than the sheer awesome nature of his in-ring talent. You can add onto that his remarkable track record of never seriously hurting an opponent over his decades in the ring.
That Hart gave Benoit his unreserved praise is no small feat. It seems that the Hitman recognized his fellow Canadian’s talent and work ethic. Hart’s respect for Benoit went so far as hand picking him as an opponent for one of his last great bouts. It was a tribute match to Owen Hart, held in the same arena where Bret’s little brother had fallen to his death.
#1 Don’t Like Benoit: Diamond Dallas Page
Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Benoit rose to prominence in WCW in a similar time frame. While Benoit bumped his head against the glass ceiling, Page became an unlikely top-level star. Despite wrestling in his forties, DDP’s charisma and hard work earned him a spot at the top of the company, eventually winning a world title.
DDP and The Rabid Wolverine did clash in the ring on their way up the card. Page had taken a page from The Macho Man Randy Savage’s book in his tendency to want to plan every match in detail rather than call it in the ring. Benoit rejected this style, in favor of working in a more improvisational style in reaction to the crowd.
According to Chris Jericho’s comments on his podcast, Benoit really rattled Page, and got on his bad side, by consciously hiding from Page in the arena the night of one of their matches. In not interacting, they had no opportunity to pre-plan anything, and thus were forced into working Benoit’s style.
