So I'm just going to put it out there...I don't care what Chris Benoit did to his family.
Alright to a degree I do care. Personally it was atrocious what he did. For those of you who forgot, during a scheduled Pay Per View that the WWF held back in 2006, Benoit at his home in Atlanta, seemingly went off the deep end, and murdered his wife Nancy (a former valet name of Woman and Kevin Sullivan's ex-wife) and his young son who suffered from Autism. Daniel had bruises and marks on his neck indicating that Chris choked him to death, not that unsimilar to his finishing maneuver that he used called the Crippler Crossface. It's a disgusting act and a tragedy. I would never wish that upon any family. However, I don't blame Benoit wholly for what happened. I feel he was so far gone mentally that he didn't know what he doing despite reports from the mass media saying that he was roid raging. (This will someday be a separate column)
Film director Roman Polanski date raped a young girl back in the 70's and fled from persecution. I still love the Pianist and Rosemary's Baby.
Michael Jackson...I'm not even going there...I don't feel like having this conversation anymore...
Despite what he did, professionally, proud Canuck (Canadian) Chris Benoit is one the top three in ring wrestlers in the history of the business. Period. He trained in the Hart Dungeon under Stu Hart in Calgary Alberta and wrestled in Japan, Mexico and the United States and almost every major promotion you can think of. Along with Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero, he helped put the wrestling moniker back in ECW where at the time they mostly concentrated on hardcore violence.
I've never seen a bad Chris Benoit match. Ever. In the twenty plus years I've been watching wrestling, I've never seen anyone elevate more superstars and mid carders to higher statuses than Benoit. That includes Ric Flair, Shawn Micheals, Bret Hart, and Kurt Angle who I consider in the top five in terms of in-ring work along with Benoit. Verne Gagne always said of these guys that they could have a match with a broomstick and make it look great. I think the same of Benoit professionally.
Chris Jericho, another fellow Canadian also was trained at the same time as Benoit in the Hart Dungeon along with Lance Storm. He and Benoit wrestled in the same promotions at a lot of the same times, and have had various matches all around the globe for almost ten years. A lot of Canadian wrestlers have the stigma that they lack the charisma that American wrestlers have. Benoit was no exception. He was never great on promos. He never had to be. He let his wrestling do the talking. He was old school. Jericho is the exception to the rule however. Starting in WCW with his "Man of 1004 Holds" gimmick he became an exceptional heel (bad guy) and quickly rose amongst the cult favorites of the WCW era. He was fantastic on the mic, and even better in the ring. You'll see now that one of the reasons to watch the WWF nowadays is because of Jericho and how fantastic he still is.
By the time these wrestlers met each other in early 2001, they had wrestled each other countless times, and knew each others movesets like the back of their hand. (Come to think of it, I don't know the back of my hand very well. Am I screwed?) Some wrestlers just have chemistry together. They click. Most of the time, you have to work at knowing how matches will go. With Benoit and Jericho, you could tell immediately that these guys knew what each other would do, and weren't surprised at anything that came their way.
The stakes were high. Back in the day, the Intercontinental Title actually meant something. (The title is supposed to be the next step on the promotion rung to the World Title. When guys like Benoit and Jericho held the title, it actually meant something. They were always the best match on the card whenever and wherever they wrestled) Benoit and Jericho both had a very long feud for the title dating as far back as March of 2000. They traded the title back and forth over that time span, and now they needed to settle the feud in a ladder match at the Royal Rumble Pay Per View.
The match itself was absolutely brilliant. Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon started the Ladder Match era back in the mid 90's, but these guys perfected the match in 2001. Their were high spots galore, (the chair shot Tope, the diving headbutt from the top of the ladder) fantastic wrestling, and brutal hits on each other. Jericho also perfectly sold an injury that Benoit caused a week before the match also raising the stakes and making the payoff much more satisfying.
They just don't have matches like these anymore.
Here's a link to part of the match: http://www.dailymotion.com/user/LA_Park/video/x2xobn_wwf-royal-rumble-2001-chris-benoit_sport
Enjoy.
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