5 WWE Superstars whose careers ended tragically

#4 Chris Benoit

Benoit ended it all with his own hands

Chris Benoit made a name for himself in New Japan Pro Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and WWE with his superior technical skills in the ring.

After a career spanning over two decades, Benoit was scheduled to compete against CM Punk at Vengeance: Night of Champions in 2007 after defeating Elijah Burke in a match to progress in the tournament set to crown a new ECW World Champion.

pic.twitter.com/jOTKTekoS3

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) June 24, 2013

After informing WWE officials that his wife and son had food poisoning and skipping a house show before the pay-per-view, Benoit no-showed the event, prompting WWE to replace him with Johnny Nitro for the night.

Officials believed that Benoit had missed the big match due to another family emergency, but it was later revealed that Benoit, his wife Nancy, and son Daniel were all found dead at their home.

WWE decided to remove all mention of Benoit

Even though I was robbed of one of my biggest dream matches EVER..I’m so happy we got this faceoff and hand shake. #CMPunk #ChrisBenoit pic.twitter.com/YuhUtf1z0Q

— TWC - #BigDaddyCiampa (@TheWrestlingCov) March 29, 2020

The tragic news of the former World Heavyweight Champion and his family’s demise broke the WWE Universe down, but the details of how it all happened made things even worse.

WWE and its Superstars paid tribute to The Candian Crippler on the Monday Night RAW that followed, but the company decided to wipe off all mention of him from its website and content after it was made public that Benoit had taken the lives of his wife and son before committing suicide. This prematurely ended the career of one of the best technical wrestlers we have ever seen.