All language subtitles for Dark Side of the Ring s02e02_English

♪

[Narrator] Previously,
on Dark Side of the Ring.

If you're a wrestling fan,
how could you not be

a fan of Chris Benoit's work?

[Announcer] With a headbutt
directly to the heart!

This is my favourite page
because this is the love

that Chris and
Nancy always had.

Chris was always very
much a great father,

very much about his family.

He was my hero, you know.
I looked up to him.

I have never, ever seen
a closer friendship

as I did between
Chris and Eddie.

[match bell chimes]

Eddie Guerrero
has passed away.

My next thought was,
oh, my god, Chris.

I love you, Eddie.

He didn't handle it well.
Let me just say it like that.

Nancy started
getting really worried.

She's like, "I'm really
worried for Chris."

I just had this
really bad feeling.

We have more for you now
on a developing story

in Fayette County.

The deaths of a pro
wrestler and his family.

In the immediate wake
of Chris Benoit's death,

the world is desperately
searching for answers.

What comes to light
goes beyond anything

anyone could imagine.

People just couldn't believe it,
couldn't fathom that

something like that
could happen.

It can't be real.
Like, where's my nephew?

That can't have happened
because the person that

I knew would not do
this horrific thing.

But I think this is
gonna be gigantic.

It will affect WWE.

Well, the question is, was he
on steroids at this time?

Did the blows to the
head Benoit received in the

wrestling ring fundamentally
change his brain?

It really, really was the
darkest time in my life.

♪

♪

Fayette County, Georgia
is a laid back community.

It's more a
family atmosphere.

Not a whole lot of crime.
It's pretty peaceful.

My name is Larry Alden.
I was...

with the Fayette County
Sheriff's Office.

I was the lieutenant in
charge of the shift that was

working the day of
the Benoit incident.

I had been a detective
for about 15 or 20 years.

I'd probably see Chris Benoit
once or twice a week

at the gym, which was right
in the middle of Fayetteville.

He didn't talk a lot,
and he was pretty

focused on getting
his workout in.

I never heard
anything about him.

I didn't even know
where he lived at until

the call came out on
the radio that day.

[phone call]
My name is Dennis Fagan.

I run the security
for World Wrestling,

and one of our wrestlers that
lives down there is missing.

[9-1-1] And what's his name?
[Dennis] Chris Benoit.

[9-1-1] Okay.
And he's a, a wrestler?

[Dennis] Yes, he's--
What happened--

He's a very religious gentleman
and yesterday,

he was supposed to show up
at a Pay Per View and

never got on the plane,
never showed up.

It's unlike-- it's out
of character for him.

[9-1-1] Alright. We'll go ahead
and send somebody

out there to check on him.

If you want to call us back
in like 45 minutes or so.

If he's there, we'll tell
him to give you a call.

[Larry] I was in my patrol car,

just riding around
the county and,

was pretty close to the
area when the call went out.

I wasn't thinking of anything
other than a welfare check,

or maybe he had--
was sick, maybe drunk.

Didn't really know what.

I pulled up on scene about time
the neighbor was walking over,

and I walked up to them
and I asked if

she had seen Mr. Benoit
or anybody.

And she said,
"It's been 3 or 4 days

since I've seen
anybody over there."

There was two large
canines in the yard.

If I remember correctly,
they were German Shepherds.

We asked her if there was any
place she could put the dogs at

so that we could go up there
and do the welfare check.

And she said, "Oh, yeah.

Me and the dogs
get along great.

I feed them whenever
they're out of town."

And, she jumped the fence.
The dogs right there with her.

She walked 'em in there,
never had to take a hold to 'em.

It was taking a little longer
than I thought it should take,

but then she came
running out the door

screaming that,
"Daniel's dead. Daniel's dead!"

I went from just being a
regular welfare check -

Okay, we got
something more serious here.

♪

We crossed the
fence at that time,

myself, and
Deputy Mundy.

And, we went in
through the side door,

which she had left open.

We drew our weapons,

not knowing what we was
gonna come upon.

It was daylight and they had
plenty of windows in the house,

so you had a
lot of light coming in.

There was an
odor in the house.

And I looked over at
Deputy Mundy and said,

"Something is dead in here.

There was a set of stairs
going up to a bedroom so,

we went up those
steps and sure enough,

that's where the
juvenile child was at,

lying in bed.

I noticed the child was laying
on the bed, face down.

Deputy Mundy said,
"Do we need to start CPR?"

And I said, "No."
He'd passed away.

We started clearing all the
different rooms and doors.

We found another room and,

that's where we found
Miss Benoit at.

She was laying on the floor
and she was wrapped up

in a blanket or, maybe a rug
or something like that.

Went downstairs to
the basement area,

which was couple of large,
open rooms.

And, the last door we
opened was the gym door.

And, that s where
Mr. Benoit was at.

Because of the mirrors and at
the angle Deputy Mundy was at,

to my right, she saw
the reflection at the

far end of the room,
which might have been 5 to 7,

10 feet away from
where he actually was.

And she started to say,
"Show me your hands.

Fayette County
Sheriff's Department."

She could not see he had
cable from one of his weight

machines around his neck
and had some weights on it.

That's when I
told her, I said,

"He's sitting right here.
He's passed away."

Radio had called us,
asked if everything was okay.

And I told them on the radio
that it looked like

it might be a homicide
and suicide.

It was within 2 or 3 minutes
of us walking back outside

that somebody had already
strung crime scene tape

across the front
of the property.

I was at the gym
and I remember,

I was driving home.
My son was with me.

And, I got a call from one
of the writers from WWE,

who called me and said,
"Are you sitting down?"

I'm like, "What's
going on here, dude?"

And that's when he
said, "Chris is dead."

I said, "What? Chris who?"
And he says, "Chris Benoit."

And I pulled over on the
side of the road and

I just started bawling.

And I remember
my son, he said,

"Daddy, you cry funny."

I was just crying,
just bawling.

At this time, no one
knew what happened.

So, WWE is just thinking that
Chris Benoit has passed away,

along with
Nancy and Daniel.

You're not trying
to put together that,

okay, did someone break in?
Did carbon monoxide happen?

What's going on?

You just know that these two
of your friends are gone.

And no one has answers.

Vince McMahon,
the Chairman of the Board,

couldn't go on the air
and not do anything so,

we go on the air and did
what we thought was right.

Tonight, this arena here
in Corpus Christi, Texas

was to have been
filled to capacity...

with enthusiastic WWE fans.

We tried to honor the guy.
We tried to honor his family...

Tried to honor his fans...

But, we didn't have a full,
the full story.

Shame on us for that,
I guess.

So, tonight will be a
three-hour tribute...

to one of the greatest...

WWE superstars of all time.

We just know that Chris Benoit
is no longer with us

and neither is his family.

Of course, I'm gonna
pay tribute to my friend.

And I would trust you,
with, with me,

with my life,
with my kids' lives...

'cause I know,
I know you, Chris.

I know your heart.

Yeah, they called me and asked
me if I wanted to be on it,

and I was like,
"Absolutely not."

I remember just
sitting there, like,

just watching, like, dead...

with a bottle of vodka,
just drinking, like,

you know, 'cause Eddie's
was bad, but this was worse.

Chris Benoit was not only
one of the greatest wrestlers

I ever saw, but he
was one of the best friends

I ever had in this business.

We did not know
all the information.

That's our fault.

We were trying to
serve the audience.

It was a major story.

It was hitting all
the news sources,

and we had a TV show.

We wanted to update people
on what the hell was going on,

but we didn't have
all the information.

But we didn't know we didn't
have all the information.

We were told from
the authorities,

"Here's what happened."

"Oh, guess what,
we were wrong.

This is not what happened."

Chris was the type of guy
you'd want to go to war with.

It was hard
because at that time,

some guys were, you know,
in their speeches,

you know, praising Chris.

Because Chris Benoit
was my hero.

I love you, Chris.

[Chris] It's interesting to me
because when I watched the

Raw Tribute, and everybody
was talking about Benoit and

how great of a
performer he was and,

and how amazing he was, but...

I thought Regal's words on
that night were very revealing.

Now, all I'm
willing to say...

is that Chris Benoit was
undoubtedly the

hardest working man in
professional wrestling.

And, when you talked
to him afterwards,

you find out he lived in
the same city as Chris,

and knew a lot about whatever
fights Nancy and him had,

or whatever Chris was
going through at the time.

And, I'm not sure if a lot of
people would have noticed it,

but knowing
what I knew about him,

I started thinking,
"Wow, this is not good."

♪

My sister had told me to
spoil myself and go to the mall,

and get some makeup,
and have some wine with lunch,

and go watch a movie.

And I came out of the theater
and I turned my phone on,

and I had like 22 missed
calls from my parents.

And, my parents made sure,
they wouldn't tell me anything.

They wanted me to be parked
in my driveway and

inside my house
before they told me,

that's how I found out.

And then, when it
finally sunk in,

I just absolutely
lost control of myself.

It was very difficult.
Very difficult.

I had to go to the
hospital and be sedated.

♪

I was in Edmonton, and then
this number kept calling...

my mum's cellphone -

unknown number,
unknown number.

And then, she finally
answered it and

it was the police, RCMP.

[sighs]

So, we left, rolled
down to the station...

[sighs]

She found out first.

I see her crying there.

She couldn't
spit it out, so...

[sighs]

♪

The cop... told me...

that they all passed away
over the weekend.

I punched him in the chest.

And then, me and the
cop went for a walk.

We talked.

And that, you know...

"Your dad loved you.

They all loved you," and...

I thought it was a joke.
I really did.

♪

[Dean] It wasn't until
after the show,

and after the fact, that all
the details started coming in.

We have more for you now
on a developing story

in Fayette County: the deaths of
a pro wrestler and his family.

Fayetteville authorities say
the bodies of Chris Benoit

and his family were found
this afternoon in their home.

Right now, it's being
investigated as a

murder-suicide,
however, it...

until we get the
crime lab reports,

it's undetermined
exactly what happened.

That's when all of this,
you know,

all of these details
started coming out about,

it's not just
him that's dead.

It's Nancy and then
Daniel's dead as well.

And then, that's when it just
started getting out of control.

The father killed
his wife and son,

and then committed suicide.

That's what's happened here.

You didn't want
to believe it.

Can't believe it.
Can't be true.

But it was.

♪

The evidence indicates
that it was a particularly

brutal and vicious murder.

It was something that showed
some sign of real rage.

I'm Matthew Randazzo V,

and I'm the author
of Ring of Hell,

the story of Chris Benoit
and the fall of the

pro wrestling industry.

The weekend of the murders,
on Friday,

Chris Benoit had a barbecue
out by the pool with Daniel.

And then,
that Friday evening,

it appears that there was
some sort of altercation

between Chris and Nancy...

That Chris restrained
Nancy with duct tape,

and then utilized a telephone
cord to strangle her...

And then placed a
bible next to her body.

♪

There were a number of beer
cans and wine bottles around

that indicate Chris
may have been drinking.

Next morning, on Saturday,
Chris - we assume -

gave his son,
Daniel, Xanax,

and then murdered him
in his room,

being suffocated
by his father.

A bible was then placed
next to Daniel as well.

After that, Chris made
a phone call and

let friends know
that Daniel and Nancy

were both suffering
from a bad stomach virus,

and that he had to
take them to the hospital.

That night, Chris went to
bed with the bodies

of his wife and
child in the house.

On Sunday, Benoit makes
a couple searches

on the internet that are
chilling in retrospect.

One, for a story in the bible
about the prophet Elijah and

the resurrection of a dead
boy in the old testament.

And then, a search about
the quickest and

most painless way of
breaking one's own neck.

Chris then went down
to his home gym with

a half-drunken bottle of wine.

He went to his lat
pull down machine.

He took the bar off.

He wrapped a towel
around his neck,

and he took the metal cord from
the lat pull down machine

and put it
around his neck.

He adjusted the
weights to 240 pounds.

And then he released it.

So, it's a very
bizarre scenario.

It's a very bizarre weekend.

And it doesn't
leave a lot of answers.

He was just a guy,
you know, like, my friend.

Nobody expects their
friend to kill their family.

Like, what?

When I found what
had really happened,

the shock is just--
you can't even believe it.

He had put his
knee in her back and,

essentially, broke her back.

I... couldn't fathom
how cruel and

how much pain she must
have gone through,

and how horrific that
must have been for her.

It was just unfathomable.

If Chris did give Daniel that,
you know,

medication or prescription
pills and suffocate him,

you know, like...
shame on him.

Daniel was
innocent in all this.

[Julie] We were hearing other
things come out about the

circumstances of him putting
the bibles by their sides and,

having a knife that
he had planted

underneath Daniel's bed or
something like that.

[Dean] Still couldn't wrap
my head around it.

It just sounded so...

like some bad horror movie.

And now, I'm a part of
humanizing a murderer?

Strange.

[Vickie] I mean, to think
that Nancy was

dead for 2 days before
Chris took his life...

How is that even logical for
this man who loved her so much?

[laughs]

Later, it turned out that
there was a bible in the house,

similar to the ones left
by Nancy and Daniel's body,

that Chris had left something
akin to a suicide note.

Something along
the lines of,

"I'm preparing to
leave this earth."

So, Chris did
leave a suicide note.

He did know
what he was doing.

He was at least enough in
his right mind to understand

exactly what was happening,
and was still considering

whether he would go make a
flight to go wrestle

that night on
international television.

Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen...

We came up on air
with Vince talking,

and kind of letting everybody
know what happened.

Last night on
Monday Night Raw,

the WWE presented a
special tribute show,

recognizing the
career of Chris Benoit.

However, now some
26 hours later,

the facts of this horrific
tragedy are now apparent.

Therefore, other than my
comments there will be

no mention of Mr. Benoit's
name tonight.

It was understood that we
were not to speak of Chris,

speak of Benoit, speak of
anyone of that incident.

And, by that next week,
Chris' name was erased

from everything that was
involved with WWE.

I mean, when we
did interviews,

we were not to
mention Chris Benoit.

So, that s something that
was really hard for us to do,

but because we
all wanted our jobs,

it was understood.

[Dean] I know WWE has
kind of, like,

erased his history of being
in the business and I can

understand and totally
agree with what they did.

We're not gonna praise a guy who
murdered his wife or son.

Don't give him any
accolades for that.

I went to the funeral
of Nancy and Daniel.

You can't even
believe how sad it was.

I was the WWE representative
there, just me.

It was the shits.

You go to a funeral,
and people crying,

and a kid being buried and
a woman being buried

for no reason.
No reason to die.

[Sandra] The WWE sent JR,

and I lost my cool with him and
told him to his face that

he wasn't welcome at
the wake afterward.

It was all a work,
just fake garbage, nonsense.

I can see a work
coming a mile away,

and that's what I saw, and I
knew that that was the truth.

I felt like I was the most
unwanted person in

the building because
I was a WWE guy,

and I probably loved him
as much as anybody there.

[Vickie]
Everybody was just a mess.

It's shitty, and it's sad,
and it's unfair because

there's two people that
could still be with us today.

And, if Chris wanted
to take his life then,

then so be it.
But, to take all of them...

I didn't go to
Chris' funeral.

I was angry at that point.

I was pretty angry at Chris,
you know, for what he did.

His funeral was
very private.

We didn't tell
anyone about it.

That's when it all hit me,
right there, all at once.

I was crying my eyes out.

[off-screen] Who in the
wrestling business provided care

for you and your family in
the aftermath of this?

Is that a serious question?

Not a single person...
No one.

[off-screen] Did anyone
from the WWE ever

reach out to you
and your family?

Chris Jericho and
Chavo Guerrero.

That's it.
Nobody else, you know.

Screw them.

They weren't there
for me, you know...

they backed off like
I didn't even exist.

♪

It was so hard after the
funeral 'cause the media

was just nonstop, 24/7.

Tonight, we are talking
about the strange and

very sad case of Chris Benoit.

I didn't even watch
the news anymore.

I didn't even watch
TV for months.

I couldn't even
watch wrestling anymore.

We're also told by the
police here that there were

instruments of death found,
not instruments of murder.

There's gonna be
an autopsy report,

but there's an awful lot
of confusion about

how this happened.

It really, really was the
darkest time in my life.

Benoit had an intense
onstage persona.

He was nicknamed
the Rabid Wolverine,

the Canadian Crippler.

The couple actually met when
her former husband drew up

a script that had put the two
of them in a relationship.

It made everything
extremely difficult.

It made everything under a
magnifying glass 'cause CNN,

and Fox, and all the news
channels were at the gates,

you know, a double
murder-suicide with a

7-year-old kid is news.

But, I think that there's a
point where you really just

need to let the
family grieve.

All I really wanted to do was
to be with my niece and nephew.

The mainstream media's
reaction was typical because,

A, they love a tragedy.

And, it gives them
another reason to

take a shot at wrestling.
It was a field day for them.

Professional wrestlers are
20 times more likely to die

before age 45 than
professional football players.

I think a lot of the mainstream
media looks down at wrestling

as it is, and then,
suddenly, it was

public enemy
number one.

Chris Benoit's diary is
revealing new information

about his state of mind.

The wrestler wrote a series
of letters to his best friend.

At one point, Benoit wrote,
"I'll be with you soon."

Mike Benoit believes it's
the diary of his son going mad.

We just didn't understand
this was going on

at that time in Chris' life.

I got a call from Chris' dad,
Mike Benoit,

'cause he knew
my relationship with Chris.

And the first thing he asked
me was, "Why?"

Which, from a
father's standpoint,

I can understand
how upset he was.

Unfortunately,
and I felt bad,

I didn't have any
answers for him.

People need to
understand that,

that was not him.

Not the person we knew,
the person I loved

with all my heart, my hero.

The term that's being thrown
around everywhere is roid rage.

Some say steroid abuse is
rampant at the organization

and everyone just
turns a blind eye to this.

The media's initial response
to the Benoit tragedy was

that this was a
roid rage incident.

Where do steroids stand in
the bizarre Benoit deaths?

Pro wrestling, when Chris Benoit
entered it in the 1980s,

was extremely discriminatory
against people

who were not
6-foot-plus tall,

who were not 250 pounds or more,
and very, very muscular.

My understanding is that
Chris Benoit was using steroids

from when he
was in high school.

In the months
before the murders,

Chris received a number of
text messages from Nancy

in which she made it very clear
she was sick and tired

of his steroid abuse.

Nancy definitely directly
accused him of abusing steroids

to the point that it led him
to be an angry,

and violent,
and unhappy husband.

And, she said that the WWE's
drug enforcement policy and

testing regime was
obviously nonsense.

Something called the
Wellness Program that

alleged that it was testing
every WWE wrestler to

make sure they weren't
using recreational drugs,

performance enhancing drugs -
or steroids.

I think at that time,
you know,

instituting a wellness
program like that,

I think everybody was happy
that finally some of these guys

that needed the
help were gonna get help.

I thought it was a great idea.
Anything to...

help talent, save guys from,
from themselves.

[Chris] After Eddie died,

the WWE's drug testing
was super strict.

It went through the roof.
Like, you couldn't even take

a fricking Aspirin...
like, a high powered Aspirin,

unless you had,
like, a prescription.

And, I'm not kidding.

The drug testing is
so strict that this,

"rampant steroid use,"
dude, you can't.

You can't go snort cocaine,
or smoke weed, or... anything.

In practice, it was seen
that this initial version of

the Wellness Program had
large loop holes in it,

and large blind spots
that allowed wrestlers to

continue to use drugs at
a really large scale

without tripping the tests.

Speculation is running wild:
Did steroids play a role or

is there
another explanation?

We have an exclusive
interview with

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

WWE did everything they
could to combat any coverage

in the news media that
indicated that drug abuse or

steroid abuse was the
cause of the homicides.

And, obviously,
this is not an act of rage.

It's an act of deliberation
when you do something

like this over 3 days.

It's not an act of rage,
be it steroid rage,

or roid rage,
whatever it's called,

or any other rage.

WWE strongly suggests
that it is entirely wrong,

for speculators to suggest
that steroids had anything

to do with these
senseless acts.

It's all speculation until the
toxicology reports come back.

In his autopsy, Chris Benoit
was shown to have

enormous amounts of
testosterone in his body,

and testosterone is still a
steroid that's banned

in all major sports.

So, some people might
say he had 10 times

the normal amount
of testosterone.

Some folks have said he
had 57 times the amount of

testosterone in his
body as a normal human.

[off-screen] And, did Benoit
pass the Wellness Program

check leading up to the murders?

Yes, preposterously,
Chris Benoit passed

the wellness checks leading
up to the murder,

despite the irrefutable fact
that he was taking

enormous amounts of steroids.

♪

Well, after it
initially happened,

I actually had nightmares.

It was very
traumatic because,

as a female, I tend to
really get angry with him,

the one person she thought
was there to protect her

is the one that
really took her life.

[Chris] There was a lot of stuff
going on behind closed doors

that no one knew about.

I think there was a
lot of volatile fights.

One thing I'd always heard
about Nancy and

the fact that she
didn't take shit.

So, I just know there was
a lot of volatility there.

That s the word I
think was used, volatile.

There was a few times that
Nancy would call me and

she would say that her and
Chris were fighting.

There was an incident
when they were in Tampa,

and Chris was upset when
they were driving

on the way to our house,
and Chris went and

busted the windshield
of their car.

[off-screen] Did you ever
witness any abuse

that was going on in
that relationship?

My sister called me
to the house,

and she called Mike Durham,
known as Johnny Grunge,

who was also a professional
wrestler that lived in the area.

[Mike] Hey, cool.

[Sandra] And, Mike said,
"I'll go. I'll go wrangle Chris.

I'll go wrangle Chris.
Don't do anything rash."

But, it was already
kind of done: he hurt her.

I don't know whether it was
intentional or accidental,

but he hurt her.

Out of respect for the
kids that he still has here,

I won't go
further into that.

♪

She got a restraining order
against him and

I went down there and
stayed at the house.

Mike had him at a hotel
there in, in the area.

Chris contacted me directly
because Nancy wasn't

answering any of
his calls and,

asked me to talk to my
sister on his behalf.

And please, please, please
let him come to the house

and talk to her personally.

She called him and he came
over the next day,

and they were back together
a couple of days later.

[sighs]

Do I look back on that
moment and say,

you probably shouldn't
have gotten involved and,

why did I take his call
'cause maybe that

would have been the end of it?

Almost every day I
think about that.

♪

When police found
steroids on the scene,

many assumed that explained it:

the killer had flipped out
because of drug use.

Or, might there be
another explanation?

The initial media coverage
all focused on steroid use

and I said, there s no way.

I'm Chris Nowinski.

I'm a former WWE superstar,
and now, I am a neuroscientist

and run the Concussion
Legacy Foundation.

My wrestling career came
to an end because

I had a series of
concussions that

I didn't quite appreciate
were concussions.

[Announcer]
Oh!

[indistinct shouting]

[Nowinski] I never stopped
performing until

the damage was sort of too much.

So, I decided I would
start digging into

what else was known,
and it became a book.

Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy, or CTE,

is a progressive,
degenerative brain disease

that appears to be
started by hits to the head.

[Announcer] Oh!

Oh, my god!
Oh, man!

Anything goes.
My god.

What I knew about
CTE at that time,

was that there were 4
cases of NFL players.

Two had died by suicide,
and one had started

hearing voices and led
the police on a chase through

upstate New York and
died in fiery crash

going on the wrong side
of the highway.

When I heard about what
happened with Chris Benoit,

I immediately remembered a
conversation I'd had with him,

maybe 6 months prior.

I remember that he had sat
next to me in the locker room

and, he said,

"I heard you're writing a
book about concussions."

I was like, "Yeah."
And he goes,

"I'm interested
in what you re learning."

He's like, "How many
concussions have you had,

you know,
before you had to retire?"

And I said, "Well, I can
remember at least 6,

but I probably had more."

And I said, "How many
have you had?"

And he said, "I've had
more than I can count."

And then he said, "I'm gonna
give you my phone number and

I want you to
call me next week."

The next week, I called him.

It sounded like he was in
the middle of an argument.

He was clearly agitated.

It sounded like
someone else was there.

And he just said, "Hey,
I can't talk right now.

Can I call you back?"
And I said, "Sure."

I wonder if the reason he
was asking me to call him

was that he knew that
something was going on,

but he didn't quite
appreciate what that was.

And so, I decided that I
really needed to know

if Chris had CTE.

There was so much
media attention,

I really couldn't imagine
his family answering the phone,

but I said,
I'll, I'll give it a try.

And, Chris' father
answered on the second ring.

He was in a state of mind,
you can imagine,

when you've just lost your son
and learned what happened.

I told him my theory. And,
he, he immediately said,

"Yeah, I want to
see this done."

We have the brain
in early July and,

I think within about a month
we knew that it was positive

for CTE, and it was a
pretty severe case of CTE.

So, we held a press
conference in New York.

When you look at
Christopher Benoit's brain,

it is in fact, shocking.

Our findings showed
extensive areas of

Tau protein deposition
throughout his brain.

Tau protein is a
marker for brain damage.

With Chris,
he actually had a,

what would be defined as a
severe case of CTE at

40 years old, which is
early to have it.

So, it wouldn't just be
areas of his cortex or areas

of his brain stem, but there
was damage in areas that

you would think could influence
emotional behaviors.

And I believe the
degeneration of his brain

changed who he was and
what he was capable of.

If you get hit in the
head thousands of times,

your brain, essentially,
can start to rot.

You get this damage
in your brain that,

even after you stop
getting hit in the head,

will continue to spread and
changes who you are and

how you behave, and...

what you become.

♪

I think about, you know,
when me and Chris would be

talking and he would just
be crying so much that,

you know, I wonder why he
couldn't control his crying.

Does that, does that go
with the concussions?

Does that go with his brain?

You know, Eddie and Chris
took a lot of chair shots.

[Announcer]
Oh!

And these chair shots from,
like, years ago,

were hard and
they were mean.

[Audience]
Oh!

In the 90s, we used to take
chair shots to the head.

That was a badge of honor.

And what I mean by that is,
someone would swing

a steel chair at your head...

[Announcer]
Oh! Chris' Jericho's helpless!

[Chris] And I literally
remember, you would

grit your teeth
and you, you'd...

you know, tense yourself
and tense your neck...

And just take it.

They hit you on
the head with it,

and you just take it, "Ah!"

[Audience]
Oh!

That was what you did.
That was expected.

If you had a
concussion in wrestling...

you just shake it off.

Shake it off,
go in there and do it.

And, all of us did it.

[Chavo] I wrestled for
20 plus years...

It makes me wonder...
how much CTE do I have?

How much CTE do these other
wrestlers have 'cause

we all got it, to some extent,
you know.

Is this gonna be my end?

It's one of the most incredible
things to me is you have

Harley Race invents the
Flying Headbutt and

tells everyone after,
"Don't do this move.

It fucks your
spine up horribly.

It ruins your ability
to have an old age."

Dynamite Kid hears
that from Harley Race,

does it his whole career,
ends up in a wheelchair.

Dynamite Kid
tells Chris Benoit.

Chris Benoit does it his whole
career and then loses his mind.

[Audience]
Oh!

I mean, there is a clear
history of people repeating

the most self-destructive
story imaginable,

over and over again.

I think the Benoit tragedy led
to some institutional changes.

The awareness
of what CTE is,

was never before even
a conversation point.

Now it is.

And finally, unprotected
chair shots and subsequent

concussions are now being
addressed because the

one thing we've gotta do is
protect the athlete.

I think when you look at
what Chris Benoit did as

a symptom as some sort
of medical problem,

whether it's drug use
or brain damage,

I think that
misses the point.

Ultimately, this thing
that is the core reason this

happened was Chris Benoit
made a decision when he was

a very young person to do
absolutely whatever it took

to succeed at his
childhood dream of

becoming a pro wrestling star.

No matter what
happened that weekend,

Chris Benoit's story was
going to have a tragic end.

I think his fate was sealed
the day that Eddie died,

whether he knew it or not.

I don't think anybody could
save him after that:

not his kids, not his family,
not his other friends.

I just think that was
the one guy that he said,

"I can't do it if
Eddie's not with me."

♪

Whatever it was that
he was going through,

you know, I think he just
continued to shrink his

whole world until all that
was left was just whatever

was in his head that
caused him to snap,

and he fucking snapped.

It's not one thing.

I think that it's a
factor of alcohol,

and drugs, and yes,
possibly CTE,

and stress, and grief.

And all of those things
rolled together put him on

a path that weekend that
he couldn't get off.

Chris is always gonna be
my friend and my brother.

I just know that there was
something going on

with him that wasn't him.

And, it's something that,
you know,

I'm still very much torn with
because you love Chris...

you just hate what he did.

The act of what he
did is unthinkable.

Unforgivable.

But it's still hard for me
to separate a friendship

that I had with him,
matches that I had with him -

moments, times, car rides.

I think I can always look
at Chris as one of the

best performers our
business has ever seen,

and just kind of
leave it at that.

♪

[Jim] I get questioned
all the time,

"Does Chris Benoit deserve
to be in the Hall of Fame,"

and I say, absolutely not. No.

The issue is, is that if
Chris were here and we could

talk to him, he would say,
"Putting me in the Hall of Fame

is gonna be one of the
great distractions of the

entire event 'cause all it's
gonna do is bring up Nancy,

and Daniel, and Chris
and their last 24 hours."

So, therefore, I say,
Chris Benoit does not belong

in the WWE Hall of Fame,
now or ever.

If two guys that were the
same basically their whole life,

and had the same
reputation of just being

immaculate professionals,
immaculate human beings,

the nicest guys, and they
both die very young,

and one's
legacy is acclaimed,

and one's is buried so that
you almost can't say his name.

If you would have
told Chris, you know,

when you die, your name
and your body of work

is gonna be erased
from existence forever,

it would have broke his
heart because I think,

if nothing else, I remember
he told me once,

like, "Listen, the critics
are the critics,

but if you have the
respect of your peers,

then nothing else matters."

So, to find out that he
would have lost the respect,

not only of his peers,
but his friends,

his family, I don't think
he ever wanted that.

It almost took down
the whole business.

What Chris did almost--
And that's another thing:

What Chris did almost destroyed
the only thing that

he ever loved, from a
professional standpoint.

The only thing
he ever loved,

pro wrestling, Chris Benoit
almost destroyed it.

That would have torn
him apart as well.

So, it leads us
around to, like,

why did he do it?

And I don't think anyone's
ever gonna be able to...

answer that question.

You know, people look
at me different now...

because of what he did.

People talking shit
behind my back.

Looking at me different.
Getting bullied.

Screw it.
I'm defending my family...

And what I believe in,
you know.

He loved them.
That definitely was not him.

He's still my hero.

I think about him
all the time.

I want them to
recognize Nancy though.

She definitely deserves

the recognition that
she doesn't get.

That's the unfortunate and
the sad part about the story

is that she needs to be
remembered for a strong woman,

pioneering in this business,
and her talent.

And, focus on that instead
of what happened to her.

She's a Hall of Fame'r
all across the board,

in my opinion.

She was a pioneer and
one of the best at

a role that doesn't
exist anymore.

As a pro wrestling manager,
she created the role,

she perfected the role,
and then,

when stopped doing it,
the role basically disappeared.

I would like nothing
better than to see Nancy...

You know, Nancy Benoit.

Once again, you can't
even say that name, right.

Woman.

I would like nothing better
than to see Woman

be put into the
WWE Hall of Fame.

♪

She was a great mom.
She was a beautiful friend.

And, Nancy will always be
the superstar that

she was meant to be,
in my, in my mind.

Can I blow a kiss?

[indistinct chatter]

[off-screen] What do you
remember the most about Nancy?

I remember
everything about her.

I remember how
her hair smells.

She used to tuck me in
with both hands,

real hard, like, on both sides
of the blanket,

to tuck me in.

Almost like she was putting
a lock on me to keep me safe.

And to this day, when I
get sad, or upset,

or stressed out, I will
tuck myself in on the sides

so that I feel
more secure.

[off-screen] What do you
remember the most about Daniel?

[sighs] Everything.

I close my eyes and I can
see him doing everything.

He was our whole lives,
all of us.

He was very, very,
very, very loved...

By our family,
by his siblings.

He and his brother were
just thick as thieves.

[off-screen] Did you go on to
have any relationship with

the Benoit family afterward?

I tried...
Unsuccessfully.

♪

I was told -
I won't say by who -

that the children didn't want
anything to do with us.

And, apparently the
children were told that

we didn't want to have
anything to do with them

'cause of what their dad did...

Which was absolutely
not the truth.

[David]
My last trip with my family

was for WrestleMania XXIII,
in Detroit.

And then after the match,
we flew back to Atlanta.

Me, Nancy... and Daniel.

My dad went to
Mexico for a tour.

And then, me, Nancy,
and Daniel were just

hanging around the house,
taking pictures,

you know, out by the
trees with the dogs.

And then... You know...

You're doing it, brother.
Keep going.

It's all good. Just let it out.

That's what this is
all about, brother.

♪

[sniffles]

David is absolutely a victim.

He's a great kid that
was just dealt a bad hand.

And it's just not fair.
It's not right.

He didn't do anything wrong.
He was just--

He's an innocent
bystander in all of this.

[sighs] Fuck.

[sighs]

[sighs]

[Chris] I felt that because
Chris killed his family,

that the family he left
behind was automatically

black balled from the world.

Like, they're gonna be
blamed for what Chris did.

To me, those two needed
to be reconnected because,

talking with David,
and meeting Sandra and

knowing she was having
the same issues,

and pain, and hurt
that David had,

and nobody will ever really
understand what they

went through with the
exception of each other.

So, I thought if I,
if I could connect them,

if they had a
chance to talk,

that maybe they could move
on and still realize that

they have family
in each other.

Chris Jericho,
wrestling angel come to life,

he gave my number
to my nephew,

and gave my
nephew's number to me.

We hadn't talked since
before everything happened.

[David] So, 13 years the last
time we saw each other.

It's been a very long.

She finally called me.
I answered.

We talked on
the phone for...

probably a good 2 hours.

And now, going to
watch wrestling...

'cause I still love it.
It's in my blood.

Feels like we
never were apart.

Felt like we
just reconnected.

Left off where we started.
Nothing has changed.

She's still my
Auntie Sza-Sza.

[Chris] Chris lives on in
David every day.

And Nancy lives on
in Sandra every day.

And I think they were both lost
when Chris and Nancy died.

So, hopefully, this will
help them get found.

- You feel better.
- Light.

A weight's been lifted.

Well, 'cause you guys have the
same perspective, you know.

I think more
than anyone else.

It's important for you guys to
stick together on this, right.

'Cause you know, yeah, like we
can be friends and supportive,

but it's not
the same as for you guys.

No, it's not the same.
It's family.

Yeah, exactly.

I've never been--
[clears throat]

I've never been more
grateful and happy

to see someone that I love as
I was when I saw my nephew.

[off-screen] Do you think you
will ever be able to,

or want to give
forgiveness towards Chris?

Yes, I think I do, some day,
want to be able to forgive him.

I do.
Because, carrying around...

the burden of hate...
gets exhausting.

Everyone deserves forgiveness.

And, everyone
deserves mercy.

So, I think
that within time,

there'll be a day when I get
on my knees and

I finally say it,
that I forgive him.

You never know,
it might be tomorrow.

But, I do know
it's not today.

♪