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nauticalstar420 · Jul 13, 2007, 02:44 PM

If you are a WWE fan, or if you just watch the news, you probably heard about what happened with Chris Benoit. This was a terrible tragedy.

I'm interested in the opinions of all WWE fans on what your view is on the situation. If you don't know anything about it, let me give you an overview so you can answer as well.

WWE wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and son, then himself. He killed his wife and son over a period of 2 days, his wife one day, his son the next, then finally the day after his son's death, he took his own life. The news is saying he was in a "steriod induced rage" when he killed his family, and when he snapped out of it and realized what he had done, that is most likely the reason why he killed himself. Now they are trying to bring charges against the doctor that prescribed him the steroids.

What I want to know is, do you think this doctor is at fault and deserves to have charges brought against him?

Also, they are saying because of this parents should not let their children watch wrestling anymore. Put aside the fact that it is violent and can cause children to act out what they see on TV. That aside, do you think this particular event is a reason for children to not watch this sporting event anymore? Someone on Fox News said that if a parent allows their child to watch the sport after this, they are a bad parent. Does anyone else have that same opinion?

My son loves to watch wrestling with his dad and I let him. Personally I don't see this as a reason to not let him watch it.

RickJ · Jul 13, 2007, 03:25 PM

WWE? Bah, humbug! UFC rules! :)

As for the issue, there are drug abusers in every sport. A parent who says the kids cannot watch due to a drug abuser are wasting their breath... and being less mature than the child probably is.

nauticalstar420 · Jul 13, 2007, 03:27 PM

I've never seen UFC but I hear its pretty good. I'll have to actually sit down and watch it someday, but I LOVE WWE :)

RickJ · Jul 13, 2007, 04:01 PM

You can catch good UFC stuff on SpikeTV if you get that in your area. Otherwise you can order fight videos from the UFC site for just a couple bucks apiece to see if you'd like it.

talaniman · Jul 13, 2007, 04:12 PM

Love 'em both wrestling, boxing and the UFC on spike. What more can you ask for. The Benoit thing was a shocking tragedy for sure, but Monday and Friday are reserved for WWE action. In 45 minutes its showtime.

nauticalstar420 · Jul 13, 2007, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by talaniman

Love 'em both wrestling, boxing and the UFC on spike. What more can you ask for. The Benoit thing was a shocking tragedy for sure, but Moday and Friday are reserved for WWE action. As a matter of fact in 45 minutes its showtime.

Ahhh thanks for reminding me! Oh, don't forget ECW Tuesdays! Even though they aren't usually as interesting. :)

shygrneyzs · Jul 13, 2007, 04:36 PM

Yes, it is a tragedy and sadly, not the first tragedy linked to steroid usage by sports stars. But to ban wrestling does not address the inner issue. If no one used these steroids, no one would want to be in business. Also, if no one made them, no one would take them. That sounds simple enough. But there is so much money to be made out there.

I used to watch wrestling with my Dad, back in the black and white TV days, when it was live from Minneapolis, MN. Loved watching Vern Gagne and Black Jack Lanza and The Crusher and all those greats. Did not make me want to become a wrestler, although I wanted to learn the "sleeper hold" and use it on my brothers more than once. Lol. A parent can allow their child to watch wrestling and use that as a tool for education - those performers are trained to take those falls, they work out many hours a day, and the average person cannot safely repeat what is shown. It is entertainment and should be viewed as such.

I still watch Smackdown and just shake my head at the characters that seemingly crawl out of the woodwork and call themselves a wrestler.

To place all the blame on the doctor? He does share responsibility but I cannot say he is the only fault here. But someone will be sacrificed here for what happened. Throw McMahon in that equation too - if he did not condone the usage, would there be any?

nauticalstar420 · Jul 13, 2007, 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by shygrneyzs

Yes, it is a tragedy and sadly, not the first tragedy linked to steroid usage by sports stars. But to ban wrestling does not address the inner issue. If no one used these steroids, no one would want to be in business. Also, if no one made them, no one would take them. That sounds simple enough. But there is so much money to be made out there.

I used to watch wrestling with my Dad, back in the black and white tv days, when it was live from Minneapolis, MN. Loved watching Vern Gagne and Black Jack Lanza and The Crusher and all those greats. Did not make me want to become a wrestler, although I wanted to learn the "sleeper hold" and use it on my brothers more than once. lol. A parent can allow their child to watch wrestling and use that as a tool for education - those performers are trained to take those falls, they work out many hours a day, and the average person cannot safely repeat what is shown. It is entertainment and should be viewed as such.

I still watch Smackdown and just shake my head at the characters that seemingly crawl out of the woodwork and call themselves a wrestler.

To place all the blame on the doctor? He does share responsibility but I cannot say he is the only fault here. But someone will be sacrificed here for what happened. Throw McMahon in that equation too - if he did not condone the usage, would there be any?

Good point! And I have not seen McMahon since that happened now that I think about it. I wonder what's up with that!

I also thought it was ironic that McMahon had apparently "died in a car bombing", and then someone actually did die. I bet he feels like crap for faking death!

shygrneyzs · Jul 13, 2007, 04:43 PM

McMahon is such a loser, loser, loser. He makes up stories to get attention, he comes on like a bully, and looks like he has been pumping more than one steroid too. That car bombing was so clearly a fake, that is sick.

nauticalstar420 · Jul 13, 2007, 04:45 PM

Oh yeah I could tell that was fake from the beginning. A friend of mine said in his opinion McMahon was going on vacation and just wanted to go out with a bang, so to speak. My friend said they'd make up some reason for him to come back from the dead.

It was kind of funny at Wrestlemania when his head got shaved though.

Skell · Jul 15, 2007, 05:31 PM

Of course it was a fake. The whole thing is a fake. It is good entertainement though.

It is partly the doctors fault, partly WWE and McMahons fault and a big part of it is Benoit himself fault.

Many factors as work here. Banning the entertainment won't solve a thing. The kids will just tune into baseball. And we all know what a clean sport that is!

shygrneyzs · Jul 15, 2007, 08:27 PM

Agrees with Skell, just look at Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire.

wizzkid89 · Jul 17, 2007, 02:48 PM

Wrestling has always been a hot topic in relation to sports. It's either been criticized by non-fans calling it fake, or by other sports for it's very apparent steroid use. But what we must remember first and foremost, is that this business refers to itself as sports-entertainment. Which means it's not purely a sport, as we all know, but what most people don't understand is that it is purely for entertainment. The only real question mark in that business is whether pills, steroids, pain, anxiety etc, deserve to be a part of it. As of right now, it is apart of it, I'm sure a good 80% take some kind of pill, if not more.

I know for me that wrestling has been something that my family loves, my grandparents watched, my parents watched it, and I watch it. We had a trampoline when I was growing up, and yes we tried to recreate what we saw on TV. I do understand that was probably very risky and dangerous, but kids will always find something like that to do, that's what's fun about being a kid. Luckily we found a very large doll to perform moves on instead of one another lol.

Like I said though it's entertainment, and we should all enjoy it as such. I can't honestly from my position know whether these pills are necessary to the business. What I do know, is that WWE's drug testing program is absolute crap. From what I have heard, if WWE does see that someone tested positive for steroids, all that person has to do is go to their primary care physcian who likely gave them the pills and get a note saying it's okay. Another said part is that wrestlers have no labor unions, or any retirement plans. Basically vince mcmahon milks these wrestlers for everything they are worth, breaks them down, and yes he does give them the opportunity to be stars, but once that ride is over, they are totally forgotten about, and it's not fair that they must pay for all of the medical when everything they did to themselves was for the so called business. Wrestlers get treated like crap, and something needs to happen about that. I believe Jesse Ventura tried to do something but he couldn't get enough supporters. Eitherway, what chris benoit did was horrible but it just basically shows us that all is not good in paradise. And if someone doesn't address this, then yes it could happen again. But sadly mcmahon doesn't want anything to do with it, if that is actually surprising.

Skell · Jul 17, 2007, 04:04 PM

Yes McMahon is like most other owners of multi billion dollar empires. He doesn't much care for his employees. Once he has used them up he leaves them on the scrap heap with no help.

I think the documentary called Beyond the Mat is a perfect example of this.

jillianleab · Jul 17, 2007, 05:07 PM

I used to watch wrestling with a bunch of my guy friends, but lost interest after a while. I remember watching Benoit perform though, so when the story hit I paid attention (a little, lol).

It's sad that this happened, and what makes it worse is that it was probably totally preventable (unless it wasn't roid-rage). I think as long as the Dr. prescribing him the pills was doing it legally and didn't know of his abusing them (which yeah, is debatable, look at the guy), then he's not responsible. I'm a big believer in PERSONAL responsibility and Benoit made the personal choice to take the pills.

Banning wrestling isn't the answer, teaching your kids not to do steroids is. Lots of parents are always looking for something to ban, citing, "Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children???" (you Simpson fans got that one!), but really a lot of the tragedy in this world can be chalked up to personal responsibility, and the other things those parents whine about have to do with personal preference. I saw a blog a few weeks ago where someone was complaining about bikinis for babies, and there were all these people saying "if you dress your toddler in a bikini you are a bad parent!" To those parents and the ones who want to ban wrestling, I just have to say - I hope your child grows up to be smarter than you! :)

talaniman · Jul 18, 2007, 03:43 AM

I think that the Benoit case shows us what really goes on behind the scenes and don't think its limited just to pro wrestling. The Texas legislature is working on drug/steroid testing for all its 735,000 school age athletes right now, so the cat is out of the bag, and its recognized that all athletes need to be monitored.