Chris Jericho interview about Benoit

Fox News Channel also interviewed Chris Jericho about Chris Benoit, click here to view it.

Marco Mero: "Pressure Cooker"

Fox News Channel interviewed Marc Mero; Mero was really good but the interviewer was an idiot who said "steroid" or "roid rage" about 100 times during the piece. Click here for the video.

Fans' Complicity

Interesting opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun: Benoit's shocking death raises question of fans' complicity

We don't know that wrestling led Benoit to the terrible events of last weekend. We will never know what ran through his mind.

Some people dismiss wrestling all too easily because of its carnival roots and ridiculous plots. But really, what's so rational about dressing up in colored armor and beating your fellow man as half-naked women cheer you on at the coliseum? I've just described the nation's most popular sport, professional football.

And we know that football shatters the bodies of its greatest heroes. Johnny Unitas' scarred knees and gnarled hands told us so.

We know that tens of thousands of punches to the head slow the steps and slur the words of courageous boxers. We're reminded every time Muhammad Ali appears in public.

We know that a car traveling 200 mph can spin out of control even when guided by the most skilled hand. Dale Earnhardt's demise at Daytona attested to that.

No, it won't do to dismiss the implications of Benoit's death simply because he was a wrestler.

As a culture, we've decided that consenting adults are allowed to push themselves past safe limits for our entertainment. Drug testing and better medical care and safety precautions can lessen many of these risks but cannot stamp them out.

I don't know about you, but when a boxer loses his life in the ring, or a football player is crippled, or a wrestler turns up dead in his hotel room, I feel complicit.

If I know these acts are so destructive, why do I watch? Do I lack the moral fortitude to look past my desire to be entertained? I fear the answer is yes.

In the past few days, scores of wrestling fans have said on message boards that Benoit's death will kill their love of the spectacle. Many more have said that one man's deranged acts shouldn't end an art loved by so many. I agree with the latter, and yet I wonder.

"Perils of Pro Wrestling"

Good column by Jack Encarnacao about the Perils of Pro Wrestling

Make no mistake: If professional wrestler Chris Benoit hadn’t strangled his wife and son and then hanged himself from his weight machine, no one would care whether or not he was on steroids.

And no one would care whether there was a steroid problem in professional wrestling. The track record makes this case.

As media questions took shape this past week around the idea that Benoit murdered his family in a fit of ‘‘roid rage,’’ wrestling fans couldn’t help but wonder where similar scrutiny has been over the past 15 years while wrestler after wrestler died before the age of 50 from the lethal combination of steroids, hard drugs, painkillers and a relentless lifestyle.

World Wrestling Entertainment headliner Eddie Guerrero died at 38 in November 2005 because an enlarged heart, traced to steroid and drug abuse, constricted his arteries and eventually caused a failure.

‘‘It’s just so hard to go through this again,’’ said Chavo Guerrero, Eddie’s nephew and one of Benoit’s few close friends in the WWE, on a Benoit retrospective that aired Monday night on the USA Network.

Media paid a week’s worth of attention to Guerrero’s death, but didn’t seem to catch on to the fact that it clearly illustrated the perils of the wrestling business.

In case they did catch on, WWE was ready. The company implemented a Talent Wellness Program three months after Guerrero’s death. Since then, WWE wrestlers have been subject to random drug testing by an independent agency and penalized if illegal drugs are found in their system. The company meant business: One wrestler got a 30-day suspension for getting caught with pot during a traffic stop.

Fast forward to this past week, as Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly discussed the Benoit situation on his television show.

O’Reilly lamented that wrestling is unregulated (true) and that there’s ‘‘no drug testing of any kind’’ (not true). O’Reilly was corrected on the latter point by a pro wrestling promoter he was interviewing, and had no idea what to say in response.

Here are two pieces of info O’Reilly could have used: Wrestlers are always injured so they can easily be legally prescribed steroids that facilitate healing, and the only reason WWE is testing is that one of its performers, Guerrero, died of an overdose while working for WWE.

The list of WWE alumni who were no longer with the company when they died of drug overdoes is long. To name a few: Scott ‘‘Bam Bam’’ Bigelow, Ray ‘‘The Big Bossman’’ Traylor, Mike Awesome, ‘‘Sensational’’ Sherri Martel, Curt ‘‘Mr. Perfect’’ Hennig, Elizabeth ‘‘Miss Elizabeth’’ Hulette, Mike ‘‘Road Warrior Hawk’’ Hegstrand, Mike ‘‘Crash Holly’’ Lockwood, ‘‘The British Bulldog’’ Davey Boy Smith, Louis ‘‘Spicolli’’ Mucciollo.

If NFL football players died at anywhere near this rate, at anywhere near the ages of these wrestlers, a congressional investigation would have been launched a long time ago.

But apparently a wrestler has to slaughter his family before anyone cares.

Wrestling fans vs Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace is an idiot.

The wrestling forums are lighting up with wrestling fans that are outraged at Nancy Grace for her coverage of the Chris Benoit murder/suicide story. Wrestling fans are saying she did not have her facts straight before reporting the story.

Her angle of attack on the story was that anabolic steroids had to have played a part in the actions of Chris Benoit. Nancy Grace quoted the WWE in the statement that anabolic steroids did not play a part in the murders. She attempted to make a statement that the WWE would "of course deny the possibility."

The fans of wrestling became angered because of the fact that the police have announced that they are looking into the possibility that Chris Benoit had been giving the steroids to his child in an attempt to make him grow to average size for his age. Being a former lawyer, the WWE fans would have thought that Nancy Grace would have argued this case after researching it.

The fans were also outraged when she made the statement that Chris Benoit may have become upset when he was demoted from the Four Horsemen to Raw. The Four Horsemen was an organization that was disbanded years ago. Raw has been considered to be the premier brand for years.

In actuality, Chris Benoit had been sent to ECW, which was the training ground for the WWE. He was sent there to help train the new wrestlers to the company, and was reported to be very happy about this change.

Many of the forums are filled with people who stated that they tried to call in to the Nancy Grace show to point out the fact that there are many credible reports that point out that Chris Benoit may have planned this murder for a long time before. This was information that she did not have when her show aired.

The other issue that is lighting up the forums is the fact that anabolic steroids will cause an instant rage. Chris Benoit bound his wife before killing her. For the most part, this would rule out the chance for an instant rage.

Also, Chris Benoit killed his son many hours after killing his wife. This second murder pretty much rules out instant rage.

This is not the first time that Nancy Grace has come under fire for not having the full story. There are many people that will point to the Duke Rape Case as being Nancy Grace's major downfall. She spent many hours trying to accuse the students and prosecute them in the media. They were found not guilty on all of the charges.

This has been a very emotional case for many wrestling fans. They did not think that it was proper for Nancy Grace to make accusations and assumptions without having all of the information that was available.

last photo of a murderer

Eerie photo of Benoit from his doctors office.

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.

Federal drug agents and sheriff's officials raided that office Wednesday night in search of records and other items in a warrant.

The fan who took the picture described Benoit as soft-spoken and "nice." He signed an autograph for the woman.

Agent Chuvalo Truesdell, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Atlanta, said Thursday that the raid at Astin's office in Carrollton began Wednesday night and concluded early Thursday morning.

Truesdell said a search warrant obtained by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department in connection with the Benoit investigation was executed there.

He said records and other items were being sought, but he said he could not immediately be more specific. Truesdell also was unable to say what was seized. No arrests were made.

Benoit had been under the care of Astin, a longtime friend, for treatment of low testosterone levels. Astin said Wednesday the condition likely originated from previous steroid use.

Astin prescribed testosterone for Benoit in the past but would not say what, if any, medications he prescribed when Benoit visited his office on Friday.

link between Sherri Martel and the Benoits?

Fox News really reaches by trying to make a link between Sherri and the Benoits in that they all knew Kevin Sullivan.

A week to the day before pro wrestling wife Nancy Benoit was found murdered in her suburban Atlanta home, the body of former pro wrestler and manager Sherri Martel was discovered in her mother's Alabama home, the cause of death unknown.

Martel, a pro wrestler in the WWE Hall of Fame who went by the ring name "Sensational Sherri," and who later managed the likes of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Ric Flair and "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was found dead by her husband Robert Schrull at her mother's home in McCalla, Ala., on June 15, according to the Tuscaloosa News newspaper.

Linking Martel to the deaths of Nancy and husband Chris Benoit and their son Daniel is former pro wrestler Kevin Sullivan, a man once married to Nancy Benoit and who also was Martel's friend and booker.

Following World Wrestling Entertainment's announcement of Martel's death, wrestling Web sites quickly began speculating about case.

Dave Metzler of Wrestling Observer Live told his audience that she did not die of natural causes, saying "this was not a typical wrestler's death," according to reports. But Capt. Loyd Baker of the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit told the Tuscaloosa News that foul play was not suspected in her death.

"The cause of death is pending her autopsy and toxicology report," he said June 19. An officer in the homicide unit told FOXNews.com that those results could take months to be finished.

Martel began her career in the early 1980s and later went on to manage more than 15 wrestlers including Ric Flair and Jake "The Snake" Roberts.

“Everyone respected her," said Bruce Mitchell, a columnist for the Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter and Web site, told the Tuscaloosa News. "She was an attractive lady, but she wasn’t just eye-candy.

"She was really a pioneer and a trailblazer."

One popular wrestling site, PWTorch.com, reports that Kevin Sullivan, then married to Nancy, tried to pair Martel with wrestler Ric Flair as part of a scripted Nicole Brown/O.J. Simpson ring drama, but that "work" was abandoned.

PWTorch.com writes that in early 1996, Martel became involved in a strange "work" — or scripted — feud between Sullivan and wrestler Brian Pillman. The match reportedly got out of hand, and spilled into a backstage confrontation involving Martel and the then-Nancy Sullivan. Reports of the incident say that the argument escalated with Martel spitting on Nancy Sullivan.

Martel reportedly was later fired.

Several wrestling blogs reported that Martel had a drug problem and had entered a 21-day rehab program, but investigating police would not comment.

PWTorch.com quoted her in 2005 saying, "I slip back every now and again, but I am trying my best."

Kevin Sullivan, meanwhile, spoke earlier this week FOXNews.com, and expressed shock and sadness over the death of his former wife in her suburban Atlanta home.

Sullivan married the former Nancy Daus in 1985. The couple was still married in the 1990s when a scripted rivalry between Benoit and Sullivan in the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW) resulted in Benoit as the victor on the mat. However, a real romance blossomed between Benoit and Nancy, who eventually split with Sullivan and married Benoit in 2000.

From his home in Tavernier, Fla., in the Florida Keys, where he owns and runs a gym called Froggy’s Fitness with his wife, Linda, Sullivan said he had not spoken to his ex-wife since their split. He told FOXNews.com he learned of the grisly crime, which reportedly took place over several days, from television news on Monday evening.

“It’s surreal,” said Sullivan, who did not have children with Nancy Benoit. “She was a nice person. We just went our separate ways. She was nice and very loving and I’m sure she was a good mother.”

Sullivan said he did not know Benoit well outside the ring. “I never associated with him, so I really don’t know his personality,” he said. … “[But] I’m sad for all three, especially the child.”