Benoit: Wrestling with the Horror That Destroyed a Family and Crippled a Sport

by Steven Johnson, Heath McCoy, Irvin Muchnick

The life and alarming death of acclaimed professional wrestler Chris Benoit are explored in this timely and exhaustive biography. In June 2007 Benoit committed suicide after killing his wife and son, and the media coverage surrounding this event—as well as the facts of the case and its effects on professional wrestling—are all extensively addressed. Benoit’s life prior to and during his pro wrestling career is examined, as is his significant impact on the wrestling world and widespread popularity. This close-up look at one of pro wrestling’s greatest and most lamented figures also presents the place of his tragedy in the darker side of wrestling’s history.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Biography, Sports

180 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Chris Benoit as the person I knew... Loved him. Chris Benoit as a wrestler... Loved him. Chris Benoit, the person who did what he did... Unforgivable."
-- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

If you don't have any substantial knowledge of the Benoit double murder-suicide and are looking for a book providing a detailed breakdown of the case, then this isn't the book for you. A collection of essays/articles written in the aftermath of Chris Benoit's infamous crime, Benoit: Wrestling with the Horror that Destroyed a Family and Crippled a Sport will frustrate the uninitiated but prove to be a stimulating read for readers with background knowledge of Benoit's career and death. Particularly good are the contributions made by Greg Oliver ("Actions Speak Louder than Words: The Tarnished Legacy of Chris Benoit") and Irvin Muchnick ("Day of the Dead"), although the latter will doubtless piss off defensive die-hard wrestling fans. Viewed as the sum of its parts, Benoit is a compelling indictment of a wrestling culture, long lorded over by the pathologically self-centred Vince McMahon, that sidelines the mental and physical well-being of its human workhorses, with devastating consequences.

The book is not perfect, however. Instead of arranging entries that combined form a narrative of Benoit's journey from wrestling superfan to juiced-up family annihilator, the book permits its contributors to write chapters with significant overlap and even some contradictions (one chapter dismisses the scandalous nature of Nancy and Chris Benoit's courtship behind Kevin Sullivan's back as trumped-up gossip, while another uncritically hypes the adulterous nature of their coupling). Another entry is a listing of Benoit's in-ring title reigns, hardly worth memorising now. Also missing is the spectre of CTE, which has been linked to Benoit's bouts of paranoia and final actions. Yet for all its many gaps this collection is still composed of powerful, informative writing, well worth reading once you've gotten a handle on the essential facts of one of wrestling's most shameful tragedies.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will preface this by saying that anyone reading this book is most likely already a very dedicated pro wrestling fan and if you are not, this book is not interesting enough to be picked up and read.

The story of Benoit is obviously always going to focus on his horrid last days and then touch on his glory days on top of the WWE and as a wrestling aficionado favorite. Benoit was really good at wrestling but that can’t cover the horrible things he did to his wife and family. I feel like the true crime aspect of the story is not touched on anymore than in a news report and didn’t add anything to the story that wasn’t on CNN.

I think my issue with the book is that it never really went deep enough into any of the issues nor the subject. The best essay covers Benoit as a student of the game and how he mastered wrestling which totally misses the point of why someone would read about his murder, the worst essay was about the glorification of violence and drugs in modern wrestling which misses the point of WHY wrestling is popular and what it says about humanity/ American culture. There is so much to say on the subject of Benoit and this book didn’t feel well enough written to say much of anything.

I love wrestling (like saying you love rock n roll, I like the entertainment and the feeling it gives me- I don’t idolize the drug or out of the ring violence). I just want to enjoy the oldest story ever told- man versus man, good versus evil.

[Stephen Wellbow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A set of essays from four different authors on the subject of pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his career in the sports-entertainment industry, and the double-murder-suicide with which it ended.

Although more comprehensive works have been written about this subject (even by some of the authors featured within), Heath McCoy's work stands out as particularly strong, including a detailed analysis of Benoit's Stampede Wrestling stint with added commentary from several figures that worked and lived with Benoit at that time. The rest of the essays are better documented/discussed elsewhere, and a couple (Greg Oliver and Irv Muchnick) unfortunately appear to fall victim to biased agendas.

Though I will say I enjoyed Muchnick's description of "Dave Meltzer, a rigorous chap"..

[Wendy Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

First 30 to 50 pages where good. The rest was about the media and its use of the situation for ratings

[coreen anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read

Very good read slot of really interesting insight. I would definitely recommend this book to any wrestling fan new or old.

[Tommas Ethridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting ready not really anything i did not already know

[Sarah Daigen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays on the Benoit Tragedy - where beloved former WWE Champion Chris Benoit murdered his wife, Nancy, and 7-year-old son Daniel before taking his own life - is one that might have struck more of a chord with me when it first came out in 2008/2007, not so long after the double-murder-suicide. There was a lot of emotion at the time - inclination towards both demonization and defense - of the wrestling business, of Chris Benoit himself ... and these were written in the embers of that smouldering cauldron.

Having said that, considering the circumstances under which these essays were written and compiled, I am impressed with the professionalism and cool-headedness behind them. I question some perceptions - Nancy Grace is portrayed as an inquiring voice of reason who did her homework and made only minor factual errors in her reporting by one essay, while Chris Jericho is portrayed as pandering to the WWE, 'working from under to get a job', where I found him (especially considering his closeness to Benoit) to be a reasoned and intelligent voice amidst the hubbub. While I might disagree with a few perceptions of that nature, these essays do a great job of combining insider knowledge of the wrestling industry, with 'how things looked to the outside', and creating a well-thought-out and fairly accurate picture of the Benoits, of the crime, and of the media coverage of it.

But there are times where the raw emotion comes through - the reality of being a wrestling fan, whether one inclined to defend the business, or one feeling bitterly betrayed by it - and while only in a minor sense considering the time, it's sort of jarring now, seven and a half years later, where it feels like a horrible and pivotal but ever-more-distant piece of dark wrestling history. And while that in fact is probably a good thing - this horrible event was - or at least should have been - a watershed moment, and the outrage it inspired should never be forgotten in an industry far too resistant to introspection and change. But within a book that is by-and-large a very even-handed and well-considered reflection on this horrifying crime, those feelings still jangle - both in the writers, and in this reader.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A breezy read, and certainly not worth the ridiculous ECW Press cover price ($15!--message me for the .pdf). The Muchnick essay is interesting but so overwritten as to be almost incomprehensible (though scattered amongst the bizarre syntax are some choice insights), the McCoy piece is a serviceable account of Benoit's Stampede days, and Johnson's analysis of the "media feeding frenzy" in the wake of the Benoit incident is actually quite good (it should've been increased to book length and fleshed out--Johnson, a UVa journalism PhD, is the more intellectual of the Oliver/Johnson "Hall of Fame" books pairing, as evidenced by how much better their collaborations are than Oliver's solo "The Hall of Fame: The Canadians"). As for Oliver's essay...well, it's an okay rehash of material available elsewhere, but my god, the price point here is unbelievable. Seriously, they could've called me and I would've given them 50-60 extra pages for 0 dollars (which would be a challenge, given that I didn't really like Benoit even before all this went down--he was a total zero on the mic, and a Dynamite Kid knockoff inside it).

[Jake]

This was sort of cathartic for me I guess, as I eventually had to come to terms with the fact that someone I admired murdered his wife and son. It's really four very separate essays thrown into a book. Some are better than others.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of essays on the trial and tribulations of the Chris Benoit case. They tell of his career, his humble beginning to the height of his career winning the world title at Wrestlemania to his fall and the aftermath of the murder suicide.

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An uncomfortable examination of a man who murdered his wife and child, and the response from his sport and the media.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a straightforward narrative of the Benoit murder/suicide tragedy but rather a series of essays. Still good but not exactly what I wanted.

[Luce · Rating 4 out of 5]

insightful. more about the media implications and coverage than the tragedy itself. however it's made me want to do some further reading on the subject.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. A set of essays covering different topics related to the Benoit murder/suicide. Some essays were better than others. The essay on the media reaction was especially good.

[Evan Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A revealing set of essays about Benoit. A story that will forever fascinate and sad me.

[Dana]

When the hell did this come out??

[Dkolacinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive biography of a tragedy.