We are still awaiting further details, but PWInsider.com is extremely saddened to report that former WWE and WCW World champion Chris Benoit and his wife, former WCW and ECW personality Nancy "Woman" Benoit were both found dead today in Atlanta, Georgia. Obviously this will be a huge developing story in the days to come but at this point, we'd like to express our deepest condolences to the Benoits' family, friends, and fans at this time.

A meeting is currently ongoing at WWE TV and it is expected that tonight's three hour Raw will now be dedicated to Benoit's memory.

6:09 Update: WWE.com issued the following statement this afternoon: "WWE is sad to report that Chris Benoit and his family have been found dead in their home. Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Tonight's Raw will be a tribute to Chris and his family."

I am praying to god that this is not a damn storyline they are trying to do. Everyone within the company felt like it was a bad idea to do a Vince McMahon "death" angle 3 weeks ago. A few days later, legendary female wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer Sheri Martel died. Yet they continued the angle. This week's 3 hour RAW was do be in "memorial" for Vince, however with the passing of Benoit and family, they are not supposed to be doing a tribute to him.

Everyone within the company (i.e. those with damn sense) did not want to continue the angle after the passing of Martel, but if they were to continue it now, it would be in EXTREMELY poor taste. People wondered what would happen if Vince really died during this story, well now something has really happened to his top wrestler. The entire company should be ashamed of themselves for mocking such a real life tragedy when they did. Now something horrible has really happened.

So the boy being mentally handicapped may explain why he never got help before his father came home from TX.

I must be crazy because I never saw any article that said he actually made it to TX........

I must be crazy because I never saw any article that said he actually made it to TX........

You're not crazy. Benoit never made it to Texas. He left the WWE under the pemise his wife and child were sick. They tried to rearrange a new flight for him, but he never showed. Now we know why.

I thought Vince and Linda dod a good job on the respective morning shows. They've got every right to defend their organization. Wrestling may have its faults, but Benoit was the monster. He killed two people, one of which was his disabled child. It's no one's fault but his own and i hope he's burning in hell.

In the esteemed words of Chris Jericho, Nancy Grace needs to "Shut the hell up!" She doesn't even have her facts straight and wants to offer up her slanted opinions. The four horseman was a group in WCW. Raw is a brand by the WWE. It's hardly a demotion when the group hasn't existed in years!

I hope the victim's rights groups go after O'Reilly and everyone else blaming Nancy for her own death.

Sorry I must of misread something cause I thought he went to TX after killing Nancy. My apologies.

Edited June 28, 200718 yr by JinkiesP

This [!@#$%^&*] keeps getting stranger & stranger. Maybe it will come out that Benoit is being framed. If not, he sure was not operating under his proper facilities if he had the time to make a Wikipedia entry. But why would he? Then again, why off your family and then yourself?

Did Chris Benoit Post Message On Wikipedia?, Vince, More

The Fox News Channel is reporting that an investigation has been launched regarding an entry made on Wikipedia that apparently noted the death of Nancy Benoit fourteen hours before the Benoit family was discovered deceased in their Fayetteville, GA home. Investigators want to know who made that entry, and there is speculation that it could have been Chris Benoit himself. Benoit sent strange text messages to friends and John Laurinaitis prior to the wrestler taking his own life.

The head of World Wrestling Entertainment says he's worried about a "rush to judgment" on whether steroids played a role in a double-murder and suicide involving pro wrestler Chris Benoit (ben-WAH'). Steroids were found in Benoit's Georgia home but Vince McMahon tells N-B-C's "Today" show that a number of other prescription drugs were also found. He says it's all speculation until toxicology tests are in. That could take weeks. And McMahon says "other pressures" could have been a factor. A W-W-E lawyer says Benoit (ben-WAH') had argued with his wife over the care of their mentally retarded son in the days before the family was found dead. McMahon says what happened is a "horrific tragedy" but he says "there was no way of telling this man was monster."

Suspicious Wikipedia Entry

Drug Agents raid doctor's office

Sherri Martel connection

Edited June 28, 200718 yr by Q Steph

WSB-TV Channel 2 has obtained a photograph of a a smiling Chris Benoit at his doctor's office Friday afternoon just hours before he went home and killed his wife and son and then committed suicide.

The picture was snapped by a wrestling fan at Dr. Phil Astin's office in Carrollton.

Did Kevin Sullivan Murder Chris Benoit and His Family?

By Johnny Angel

(Former Pro Wrestling Champion)

Now known as Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

World-Wide Evangelist

The tragic deaths of Chris Benoit and his wife Nancy and son Daniel have shocked the wrestling world. The police are calling it a double-murder-suicide, but is it really? Let’s look at some facts. It has been 10 years exactly since Nancy divorced Kevin Sullivan to marry Chris Benoit. In the 1980’s Sullivan, along with his then-wife Nancy, were running a gimmick in wrestling of how they were Satanists, and Nancy was known as “The Fallen Angel.” She later became known as “Woman.” The trouble with the Satanists gimmick was it was for real, and was not a work, or fake. In the 1990’s Kevin Sullivan was the booker for WCW, and he scripted his wife Nancy into having an affair with Chris Benoit who was a member of the Four Horsemen. This made for a good angle, except, the acting became reality as Chris and Nancy actually fell in love and Nancy divorced Sullivan to marry Benoit.

Benoit left the WCW to go to work for the WWE which was then known as the WWF. It is a fact that Sullivan threatened Benoit and told him he would kill him. Yes, that was 10 years ago, but Kevin Sullivan is no dummy. He is known for being a calculating, cold-hearted individual. Today, according to a source close to me, Kevin Sullivan is a high ranking member of the Satanic Church. The police need to consider the possibility that Sullivan carried out these gruesome murders in order to have his revenge, which is what Satanists live for. He could have entered the home, with an accomplice or accomplices and held the Benoit’s at gunpoint, Sullivan could have then bound up Nancy, and made Benoit and his son watch as he strangled the life out of her. Then the next day after making Benoit and his son spend the day in agony, murdered Benoit’s little boy because of his hatred for the offspring of Benoit and Nancy. Then he could have made Benoit wait an entire day before killing him to by hanging him in the basement.

By doing this, not only would Kevin Sullivan have lived out his Satanic Church creed with his lust for revenge, but he would have destroyed Chris Benoit’s reputation which is what has happened now as the wrestling world is attacking the memory of Chris Benoit remembering him as an insane baby killer and wife killer instead of the great World Champion wrestler and friend that he was.

Satanists hate the Bible and the police have stated that a Bible was found next to the bodies of Benoit’s wife and son. This would serve as a bizarre calling card as if to either say “What good did your Bible do you?” or to throw off investigators to keep them from suspecting Sullivan and his Satanists would have been involved.

Another thing to note is the fact that Kevin Sullivan was also associated with Sherri Martel, who died just a few days before the bodies of Chris Benoit, and his family was found, and the full details of Martell’s death have not been made known as of the time of this writing.

I wonder why the police have not even considered investigating the possibility the Kevin Sullivan killed Benoit, Nancy, and their child. It is certainly a possibility worth looking in to.

Also, Benoit was going to be crowned ECW World Champion on Sunday night. Why would he murder his family and kill himself when he was going to be on top again and make lots more money?

Why would he tie his wife up before killing her? He would have no reason to, but Kevin Sullivan sure would!

Sure he had some problems with Nancy, but that was 4 years ago and what married couple doesn’t have problems? Remember also that they reconciled and as far as everyone knows there has been no other incidents reported.

One also needs to consider the fact that Benoit loved his kids and was so proud of his son that was killed. His kids wore suits and ties to his wrestling events and was proud of their dad. He was loved and respected by all those who knew him.

In my opinion, there is no way he would have murdered his family. This whole murder case has Satanists written all over it and Sullivan is a Satanist and has the motive to murder them.

I am encouraging anyone who reads this to send this to police authorities and circulate it on the internet, so these facts can be investigated, before the case is closed and Benoit is written off in history a murderer. If Sullivan is the real killer, justice should be served!

As a former Pro Wrestler myself, now a born again Christian and world wide evangelist, I am hoping and praying for justice no matter who is responsible.

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

www.johnnyleeclary.com

Edited June 28, 200718 yr by Q Steph

I don't know about what's above, I'm sure Benoit did it, I mean, there's no reason to suspect otherwise. But, I have to say, there's still a lot of holes and missing pieces in this whole thing. And everytime I read about Nancy and Daniel, there's a different day/time of death. Did Nancy die Friday or Saturday? Was Daniel still alive on Sunday, or do we know now that he died on Saturday?

Source: Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Dave confirmed he used a form of the Crippler Crossface on Daniel. This is interesting since Bryan Alvarez was adamant that the story was bull****. Apparently investigators found marks on the boys arm and neck that they didn't understand and upon watching a tape of a Benoit match and seeing the move it made sense. They just said it was a "choke" as to not further sensationalize an already sensationalized story.

-Dave said Bryan Alvarez was closer to Benoit (he found his writing hilarious) then he was and that Dave hardly ever talked to Chris (while Bryan seemed to indicate semi regular contact).

-Benoit got a prescription for the anti-depressant Xanax at the doctor's visit on Friday.

-Benoit started going downhill after Eddy died because he lost the one guy who he could confide in and shared his problems with. Apparently close friends always knew Benoit had the same problems as Eddy (pills, etc.) and suggested Benoit seriously needed to see a therapist but no one suggested it since he wasn't the type to be open to that sort of thing.

-Apparently the death of Johnny Grunge hit Benoit even harder then Eddy since they were neighbors and him and Nancy fighting was somewhat common and he'd be the one to come over and defuse situations and make Chris laugh. After he died, Chris didn't have that buffer when things got out of control.

-Chris and Nancy had recently separated for a period of time, and Dave received a change of address form for an apartment different then their house (I believe Bryan mentioned he got a different address too).

-Chris recently opened up a new life insurance claim naming his ex-wife and his older 2 kids as the beneficiaries and refused to include Nancy or Daniel.

-When there were rumors of him leaving for TNA, Dave asked him about it and Chris was paranoid thinking Dave had inside info that WWE was going to release him. He apparently may have thought ECW was a demotion and the next step would be out the door. He was reportedly obsessed with establishing himself at the HHH/HBK level. He had grown increasingly paranoid that someone was out to get him and didn't let Nancy leave the house at night or Daniel to play outside and would take different routes from the airport home each time in case he was being followed.

-Nancy confided to a friend in wrestling days before the murders that she feared for her life and the friend told her to go take Daniel to her parents place in Florida (as she had done before when Chris became violent) but she didn't this time. Apparently she had a lockbox at the bank with notes indicating if something happened to her, it was Chris.

-Theory is that she told him she was leaving him for good and taking Daniel and that's when he snapped on her. Loved his son and when she filed for divorce all he wanted was joint custody. Theory is he killed Daniel because in his mind he couldn't bare to let him be alone without his parents and in his condition so it was a "mercy killing".

-Someone in WWE informed Dave before the RAW show that Chris had killed them, but others in the company were unaware but at least someone high up knew before the tribute show was put on the air.

Nancy visited Dr. Astin on Thursday asking questions about how she could raise Daniel on her own.

-Dave gave a description of the common profile of men who kill their whole families and it was eerily similar to Benoit (hard working, driven, experienced a loss, a few friends but no real support system, anxiety, etc."

-Said Chris was constantly anxious about something. When he was at home he was worried about wrestling, when wrestling he was worried about his family.

-How's this for eerie. When Vince called all the guys in the ring before RAW to give the news, the stage had been decorated with a casket, reefs, candles with Vince's picture, etc. like a funeral. Talent was told to bring dark suits like a funeral to the taping. I'm sure that was a blast. Vince apparently handled it really well, told anyone who wanted to go home would not be disciplined but guys were basket cases and trying to think of some rationalization (carbon monoxide, etc.)

-Regal was a neighbor of Benoit's and Grunge and would have know about the home troubles so that sheds some light on his "tribute".

-Dave says he can't write a proper obit/career retrospect and doesn't know if he ever will.

Chris became extremely paranoid after Johnny Grunge died. Johnny was a friend to both Nancy and Chris, and would often help diffuse situations between the two. Privately, he had a hard time dealing with working for the WWE during the Eddie [!@#$%^&*], but at the same time he had no intention of leaving. Dave asked him at the time if he was going to TNA, and Chris became very paranoid, thinking that Dave had some kind of info.

-Chris took deaths harder than most.

-Benoit absoutely refused to go to Grunge's funeral. This is when he said he hated religion and would never enter a church again. He became increasingly paranoid, believing him and his family were being stalked. He would not let Nancy leave after 6 Pm, and wouldn't let Daniel or his other kids play outside.

-Around the same time, Nancy put a note in a safebox. The note said that if anything happened to her, it was Chris. The two had apparently separated recently. Dave had received a change of address label from Benoit recently. The reason given on the Observer site today, however, is that Chris had become paranoid enough to pay for an apartment just to have his mail go there.

-The marriage was so volitaile that few who knew them at home were not nearly so shocked it ended in tragedy, calling it a "tragedy waiting to happen." The one thing that no one could fathom was Chris killing Daniel.

-According to sources, including the DA and investigators in the Sheriffs office, the theory is that Nancy told Chris she was leaving for good and taking Daniel with her.

-Shane Helms said that Benoit called him on Thursday, as he had every week since Helms was injured, to check on him. Other wrestlers state that they did the same. Another WWE employee noted that they had been in contact with Nancy on Thursday, and she was distraught over the passing of Sherri, who was a close friend to Nancy.

-On thursday, Nancy called a friend, who also knew Chris well, and said she was scared to death, and also reiterated that if anything happened to her, look at Chris.

-The friend told Nancy to get out of the house immediately and hide out in an apartment, which the friend claims she has done in the past. The friend confided in another former wrestler and close friend who told her to tell Nancy to take Daniel to Nancy's parents in Florida. But for whatever reason, as scared as the friend says she was on the phone, she didn't leave.

-Nancy told her friend in what was one of her last conversations that Chris' drug usage, which she claimed escalated after Eddie's death, was awful lately and he was even more paranoid. Chris and Nancy had problems lately, and Chris had set up a bank account in Canada in the name of his ex-wife, and had taken out a new insurance policy that named his ex-wife and the kids they had together has the beneficiaries. When Nancy found out, she demanded that her and Daniel be added, and he refused. He was also paranoid about money. While it was assumed he had a WWE job for life, he told Nancy he felt as though he had been in the same territory for too long, but there was no place to go. He was also paranoid that moving to ECW meant a paycut.

-Nancy claimed that the paranoia about losing his job led to Chris raising the amount of drugs he had been taken and mixing, claiming that he had increased his steroid use, pain killer, anti depressants and high blood pressure drugs.

-Also Thursday, Nancy went to see Dr. Astin to ask how she would be able to raise Daniel on her own. She also had her own issue from a neck surgery that didn't go too well.

There is then some stuff about Benoit and wrestling, being a serious individual in the business and everything.

-Benoit saw the Dr. on Friday, and got a prescription for zoloft, another anti-depressant. The Dr said that he didn't notice anything strange about Benoit.

-Police believe that Benoit killed Nancy on Friday after an argument. There were signs of a physical struggle.

Here is where it is going to get hard to read. The descriptions here are awful to say the least.

-They believe Benoit overpowered her, bound her hands and feet, shoved her on the floor, grabbed a cable TV wire, stuck his knee in her back, wrapped the wire around her neck, and pulled up. Because they found blood under her face, they believe he smashed her face into the floor AFTER she died.

-They believe on Saturday morning, Benoit went into his sons room and strangled him to death. The belief is Benoit put his son in something approximating the crippler crossface, and killed him using his wrestling finishing hold.

-A choke hold was used to strangle the boy rather than hands, because there was no bruising consistent with using the hands.

-The police investigators were perplexed by the nature of the bruising on Daniel, until one of them watched footage of a Benoit match, saw him using the move, and in looking closely, realized the bruising patterns on Daniel matched the application of the hold. Police weren't sure if Benoit waited until his son was asleep to kill him, with the idea in doing so, he wouldn't suffer as much. That is the only explanation in waiting so long.

-There was bruising consistent with the crossface on one arm and his face. There were no bruises on his neck. The police don't believe, because of the sign difference, that the hold was applied exactly has it would be in a wrestling ring. Benoit would have been in more of a kneeling position, sort of straddling Daniel was using one leg to pull back on his arm. The reason they aren't publicizing this is because it is already enough of a circus.

We then get all the info about contacting WWE and the stuff we know about the text messages.

-Benoit used the lat pull down machine in his gym, took off the bar, put a cloth around his neck, and then tied the steel cord around his neck. He stuck a pin in a heavy amount of weight, far more than his body weight, and somehow or other, used his arms and the jumping of his body weight down to pull more than his weight down to where he hooked his legs around a heavy dumbbell. He then likely spread his legs and, without the weight of the dumbbell, the heavy stack of weight flew down, and the bastard died.

Where was this reported?

Dave Meltzer for the Wrestling Observer. He's a legitimate source.