I have an admission to make. I have been a wrestling fan, on and off, since the Bob Backlund/Hulk Hogan days. I was a kid back then and loved the good guy/bad guy drama wrestling entailed and that sort of stayed with me until today. Yes, I know it's fake. So I'm not entirely stupid.
I didn't know anything about the Benoit tragedy before I caught the last few minutes of Raw last night. I'm not a big wrestling watcher these days. My interest grows and wanes with the storylines and the talent they have working. But, as Jen and I flipped around after watching The Soup, we stopped at USA. They were airing the Benoit match at Wrestlemania XX. I immediately turned to my wife and said, Benoit is dead. I just knew.
I liked Chris Benoit as a wrestler and am clinging to all hope that the reports of what happened aren't the way the police are describing them. Everything I have ever heard about the "off-stage" Chris Benoit makes what happened this weekend seem like an gross aberation.
Something has happened to wrestling since the days I first started watching it. Back then, you didn't have to be a Greek adonis to wrestle. And many of those wrestlers are still around today. I was at the Big Apple Com and saw Roddy Piper, Tony Atlas, and Rocky Johnson there. Sure they had a little grey in their hair, but at least they lived long enough to have grey in their hair. Nowadays, we are losing wrestlers way to fast. And what ever reason is causing this should be investigated and eliminated.
When I was a kid, watching wrestling used to be fun. Now, whenever I see a talented wrestler come up, I see the spectre of death above them. How long will they last or will they be one of the few who beat death. And that is just makes me sad and depressed.
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