Dark Side of the Ring 2x2

1. Previously on Dark Side of the Ring...

2. Every wrestling fan knew Chris Benoit's work.

3. With a headbutt to the heart!

4. This is my favorite page. The love that Chris and Nancy always had.

5. Chris was always a great father, very much about his family.

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

7. I have never seen a closer friendship than between Chris and Eddie.

8. - Eddie Guerrero has passed away. - I thought, "My God, Chris."

9. I love you, Eddie.

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

11. Nancy started getting worried. "I'm worried for Chris."

12. I just had this bad feeling.

13. More now on a developing story in Fayette County.

14. The deaths of a wrestler and his family.

15. In the wake of Chris Benoit's death, the world is searching for answers.

16. What comes to light goes beyond anything anyone could imagine.

17. People couldn't believe it, couldn't fathom that it was possible.

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

19. The person that I knew would not do this horrific thing.

20. I think this is gonna be gigantic. It will affect WWE.

21. Question is, was he on steroids at this time?

22. Did the blows to the head Benoit received in the ring

23. fundamentally change his brain?

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

25. The county is a laid-back community.

26. A family atmosphere.

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

28. My name is Larry Alden.

29. I was with the Sheriff's office.

30. I was the lieutenant in charge

31. on the day of the Benoit incident.

32. I'd been a detective for 15 or 20 years.

33. I'd probably seen Chris once or twice a week at the gym,

34. which was in the middle of Fayetteville.

35. He didn't talk a lot. He was focused on his workout.

36. I never heard about him.

37. I didn't even know where he lived until the call came on the radio.

38. I run the security for World Wrestling

39. and one of our wrestlers is missing.

40. - And what's his name? - Chris Benoit.

41. Okay. And he's a wrestler?

42. Yes, he's a religious gentleman

43. and yesterday, he had a Pay Per View

44. and he never showed up.

45. It's out of character for him.

46. All right. We'll send somebody out there to check on him.

47. If you want to call us back in 45 minutes.

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

49. I was in my patrol car, riding around the county

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

51. I figured it was a welfare check. Maybe he was sick, maybe drunk.

52. Didn't really know what.

53. I pulled up on scene when the neighbor was walking over,

54. and I walked up and asked if she had seen Mr. Benoit.

55. "It's been three or four days since I've seen anybody there."

56. There was two large canines in the yard.

57. I believe they were German Shepherds.

58. We asked if she could move the dogs elsewhere

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

60. "Me and the dogs get along great.

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

62. And she jumped the fence. The dog's right there with her.

63. She walked them in there, never holding them.

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

65. but then she ran out the door, screaming that, "Daniel's dead."

66. From "just a regular welfare check" to "we got something more serious."

67. We crossed the fence at that time, myself and Deputy Mundy.

68. And we went in through the side door, which she had left open.

69. We drew our weapons, not knowing what we'd come upon.

70. It was daylight, plenty of windows, a lot of light coming in.

71. There was an odor in the house.

72. I looked over at Deputy Mundy. I said, "Something's dead in here."

73. A stairway went up to a bedroom, so we went up those steps

74. and that's where the juvenile child was at, lying in bed.

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

76. Mundy said, "Do we start CPR?" And I said, "No." He'd passed away.

77. We started clearing all the rooms and doors.

78. We found another room, where we found Miss Benoit at.

79. She was laying on the floor, wrapped up in a blanket

80. or maybe a rug or something like that.

81. Went downstairs to the basement.

82. A couple of large, open rooms.

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

84. And that's where Mr. Benoit was at.

85. Because of the mirrors and the angle Deputy Mundy was at, to my right,

86. she saw the reflection at the far end of the room,

87. which might have been 10 feet away from where he actually was.

88. And she said, "Show me your hands. Fayette County Sheriff's Department."

89. She could not see he had cable from a weight machine around his neck

90. and had some weights on it.

91. So I told her, "He's right here. He's passed away."

92. Radio had called us, asked if everything was okay.

93. And I told them it looked like it might be a homicide and suicide.

94. It was within three minutes of us walking back outside

95. that somebody had strung crime scene tape

96. across the front of the property.

97. I remember I was driving home. My son was with me.

98. And I got a call from a WWE writer.

99. He said, "Are you sitting down?"

100. I'm like, "What's going on?" He said, "Chris is dead."

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

102. And I pulled over and I just started bawling.

103. My son said, "Daddy, you cry funny." I was just crying, just bawling.

104. At this time, no one knew what happened.

105. So WWE is just thinking

106. that Chris Benoit has passed away, along with Nancy and Daniel.

107. They're not thinking, was it a break in?

108. Was it carbon monoxide? What's going on?

109. You just know two friends are gone. And no one has answers.

110. Vince McMahon, the chairman,

111. had to do something.

112. So we did what we thought was right.

113. Tonight, this arena here

114. was to have been filled to capacity...

115. with enthusiastic WWE fans.

116. We tried to honor the guy, his family, his fans,

117. but we didn't have a full story. Shame on us for that, I guess.

118. Tonight will be a three-hour tribute...

119. to one of the greatest...

120. WWE superstars of all time.

121. We just know Chris Benoit is gone, as is his family.

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

123. I would trust you, with me, with my life, with my kids' lives

124. 'cause I know you, Chris, I know your heart.

125. They asked if I wanted to be on it. "Absolutely not."

126. I remember just sitting there, dead with a bottle of vodka,

127. just drinking, like, you know. Eddie's was bad but this was worse.

128. Chris was not just a great wrestler,

129. but one of my best friends in this business.

130. We did not know all the information. That's our fault.

131. We tried to serve the audience. It was a major story.

132. It was hitting all the news sources, and we had a TV show.

133. We wanted to update people, but didn't have all the information.

134. But we didn't know we didn't.

135. The authorities said, "This happened."

136. "Oh, guess what, we were wrong. This is not what happened."

137. Chris was a guy you'd wanna go to war with.

138. It was hard, because at that time, some guys were,

139. in their speeches, praising Chris.

140. - Because Chris Benoit was my hero. - I love you, Chris.

141. When I watched the Raw Tribute, everybody was talking about Benoit

142. and how great of a performer he was and how amazing he was,

143. but I thought Regal's words were very revealing.

144. Now, all I'm willing to say is that

145. Chris Benoit was undoubtedly...

146. the hardest-working man in professional wrestling.

147. Afterwards, you found out he lived in the same city as Chris

148. and knew a lot about the fights Nancy and him had

149. or what Chris was going through.

150. I'm not sure who'd have noticed, but knowing what I knew about him,

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

152. My sister told me to spoil myself, go to the mall, get some makeup

153. and have some wine with lunch and go watch a movie.

154. I came out of the theater, 22 missed calls from my parents.

155. And my parents wouldn't tell me anything.

156. They wanted me in my driveway and inside before they told me.

157. That's how I found out.

158. And then, when it finally sunk in, I just lost control of myself.

159. It was very difficult. I had to go to the hospital and be sedated.

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

161. My mum's cell, unknown number, unknown number, unknown number.

162. And then, she finally answered it and it was the police, RCMP.

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

164. She found out first. I see her crying there.

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

166. The cop told me they all passed away over the weekend.

167. I punched him in the chest.

168. And then me and the cop went for a walk. We talked.

169. And that, you know, "Your dad loved you.

170. They all loved you,"

171. and I thought it was a joke, I really did.

172. Daddy.

173. It wasn't until after the show that the details started coming in.

174. More on a developing story in Fayette County,

175. the deaths of a wrestler's family.

176. Authorities say

177. the bodies were found this afternoon in their home.

178. It's being investigated as a murder-suicide,

179. but without crime lab reports, exactly what happened is unclear.

180. That's when all these details came. It's not just him that's dead,

181. it's Nancy and then Daniel as well.

182. That's when it went out of control.

183. The father killed his wife and son and then committed suicide.

184. You didn't want to believe it. Can't be true. But it was.

185. The evidence indicates that it was a brutal and vicious murder.

186. It was something that showed some sign of real rage.

187. I'm Matthew Randazzo V, author of Ring of Hell,

188. the story of Chris Benoit and pro wrestling's fall.

189. That week, that Friday, Chris had a barbecue with Daniel.

190. That Friday evening, Chris and Nancy argued.

191. Chris restrained Nancy with duct tape

192. and utilized a telephone cord to strangle her.

193. Then placed a Bible next to her body.

194. The beer cans and wine bottles indicate he may have been drinking.

195. Next morning, on Saturday, Chris, we assume gave his son Xanax

196. and then murdered him in his room, being suffocated by his father.

197. A Bible was then placed next to Daniel, as well.

198. Chris made a phone call

199. and told his friends Daniel and Nancy both had a bad stomach virus

200. and that he had to take them to the hospital.

201. That night, Chris went to bed

202. with the bodies of his wife and child in the house.

203. On Sunday, his Internet searches are chilling in retrospect.

204. One, for a Bible story about the prophet Elijah

205. and the resurrection of a dead boy.

206. Then, the quickest and most painless way of breaking one's own neck.

207. Chris then went to his home gym with a half-drunken bottle of wine.

208. He went to his lat machine. He took the bar off.

209. Put a towel around his neck

210. and he took the metal cord and put it around his neck.

211. He set the weights to 240 pounds. And then he released it.

212. So it's a very bizarre scenario. It's a very bizarre weekend.

213. And it doesn't leave many answers.

214. He was just a guy. My friend.

215. Nobody expects their friend to kill their family. Like, what?

216. When I found out what had really happened,

217. the shock is... you can't believe it.

218. He had put his knee in her back and essentially broke her back.

219. I couldn't fathom how cruel,

220. and how much pain she went through

221. and how horrific that must have been for her.

222. It was just unfathomable.

223. If Chris did give Daniel that,

224. you know, medication or pills

225. and suffocate him, you know, shame on him.

226. Daniel was innocent in all this.

227. We heard other things about...

228. the circumstances of him putting the Bibles by their sides

229. and having a knife

230. that he planted under Daniel's bed or something like that.

231. Still couldn't wrap my head around it.

232. It sounded like a bad horror movie.

233. And now I'm a part of...

234. humanizing a murderer? Strange.

235. I mean, to think that Nancy was dead for two days

236. before Chris took his life.

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

238. Later, it turned out that there was a Bible in the house

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

240. that Chris had left something akin to a suicide note.

241. Something along the lines of, "I'm preparing to leave this Earth."

242. So Chris did leave a suicide note. He did know what he was doing.

243. He was lucid enough to understand what was happening

244. and to consider taking a flight to wrestle that night

245. on international television.

246. Good evening.

247. We came up on air, and Vince talking and explaining what happened.

248. Last night, the WWE presented a special tribute show,

249. recognizing the career of Chris Benoit.

250. However, now, some 26 hours later,

251. the facts of this horrific tragedy are now apparent.

252. Therefore, other than now,

253. there will be no mention of Mr. Benoit tonight.

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

255. speak of anyone of that incident.

256. And by that next week,

257. Chris' name was erased from everything involved with WWE.

258. I mean, when we did interviews, we were not to mention Chris Benoit.

259. So that was really hard for us to do

260. but because we all wanted our jobs, it was understood.

261. I know WWE has kinda erased his history in the business,

262. and I understand and totally agree with what they did.

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

264. Don't give him any accolades for that.

265. I went to Nancy and Daniel's funeral.

266. You can't believe how sad it was.

267. I was the WWE representative, just me. It was the shits.

268. People crying and a kid being buried

269. and a woman being buried for no reason.

270. No reason to die.

271. The WWE sent JR, and I lost my cool with him

272. and told him to his face that he wasn't welcome at the wake.

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

274. I can see a work coming a mile away and that's what I saw.

275. I was the most unwanted person in the building

276. because I was a WWE guy and loved him as much as anybody.

277. Everybody was just a mess.

278. It's shitty and it's sad and it's unfair

279. because two people could still be with us today.

280. And if Chris wanted to take his life then so be it.

281. But to take all of them... I didn't go to Chris' funeral.

282. I was angry at that point. Angry at Chris, for what he did.

283. His funeral was very private. We didn't tell anyone.

284. That's when it all hit me at once. I was crying my eyes out.

285. Who in the wrestling business took care of your family

286. in the aftermath of this?

287. Is that a serious question? Not a single person. No one.

288. Did anyone from the WWE reach out to you and your family?

289. Chris Jericho and Chavo Guerrero. That's it. Nobody else. Screw them.

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

291. they backed off like I didn't even exist.

292. It was so hard, after the funeral,

293. 'cause the media was just nonstop, 24/7.

294. Tonight, the strange and very sad case of Chris Benoit.

295. I didn't even watch the news. I didn't watch TV for months.

296. I couldn't even watch wrestling.

297. The police tell us

298. instruments of death were found, not instruments of murder.

299. There'll be an autopsy report,

300. but there's a lot of confusion about how this happened.

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

302. Benoit had an intense onstage persona.

303. He was the Rabid Wolverine, the Canadian Crippler.

304. The couple met when her former husband drew up a script

305. that put them in a relationship.

306. It made everything difficult.

307. It made everything under a magnifying glass

308. 'cause CNN and Fox and everyone were at the gates.

309. A double murder-suicide with a 7-year-old kid is news.

310. But there's a point where you need to let the family grieve.

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

312. The media's reaction was typical because, A, they love a tragedy.

313. And they love to blame wrestling. They had a field day.

314. Professional wrestlers are 20 times more likely to die before age 45

315. than professional football players.

316. A lot of the media looks down at wrestling.

317. Now it was public enemy number one.

318. Chris Benoit's diary is revealing new info on his state of mind.

319. The wrestler wrote letters to his best friend.

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

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

322. We just didn't understand this was going on in Chris' life.

323. I got a call from Chris' dad. He knew my relationship with Chris.

324. The first thing he asked was, "Why?"

325. From a father's standpoint, I can understand how upset he was.

326. Unfortunately, I didn't have any answers for him.

327. People need to understand that, that was not him.

328. Not the person we knew, the person I loved, my hero.

329. The term being thrown around is "roid rage".

330. Some say steroid abuse is rampant at the organization

331. and everyone just turns a blind eye.

332. The media's initial response was that this was roid rage.

333. Where do steroids stand in the bizarre Benoit deaths?

334. Wrestling, when Chris started,

335. was discriminatory against people who were not six-foot-plus tall,

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

337. I understand Benoit used steroids from when he was in high school.

338. In the months before the murders, Chris received texts from Nancy

339. in which she made it very clear she was tired of his steroid abuse.

340. Nancy directly accused him of abusing steroids

341. to the point that he became

342. an angry and violent and unhappy husband.

343. She said the WWE's drug enforcement policy

344. and testing regime was nonsense:

345. a Wellness Program which allegedly tested every wrestler

346. to make sure they weren't using drugs or steroids.

347. At that time, instituting a wellness program like that,

348. everybody was happy

349. that some of these guys were gonna get help.

350. Anything to help talent, save guys from themselves.

351. After Eddie died, the WWE's testing was super strict. Through the roof.

352. You couldn't even take an aspirin, like, a high-powered aspirin,

353. unless you had a prescription, and I'm not kidding.

354. It's so strict. "Rampant steroid use?" Dude, you can't.

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

356. In practice, it was seen that this initial version of the program

357. had large loopholes in it, and large blind spots

358. that allowed wrestlers to continue to use drugs at a really large scale

359. without tripping the tests.

360. Speculation is running wild. Did steroids play a role,

361. or is there another explanation?

362. With us is WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

363. WWE did everything they could to combat any coverage

364. that indicated that drug abuse was the cause of the homicides.

365. This is not an act of rage.

366. It's an act of deliberation that took three days.

367. It's not rage, be it steroid or roid rage, whatever it's called.

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

369. In his autopsy, Chris Benoit had enormous amounts of testosterone,

370. and testosterone is still a steroid that's banned in all major sports.

371. It leads to increased muscle growth. Some folks have said

372. he had 10 times the normal amount in his body.

373. Did Benoit pass the check leading up to the murders?

374. Yes, preposterously, Chris Benoit passed the wellness checks,

375. despite the irrefutable fact that he took enormous amounts of steroids.

376. Well, after it initially happened, I actually had nightmares.

377. It was very traumatic. As a female, I tend to really get angry with him,

378. the man she thought would protect her

379. is the one that took her life.

380. There was a lot of stuff going on that no one knew about.

381. A lot of volatile fights.

382. I'd always heard about Nancy, she didn't take shit.

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

384. That's the word I think was used, "volatile".

385. Sometimes Nancy would call me and say she and Chris were fighting.

386. There was an incident in Tampa,

387. and Chris was upset. They were driving to our house

388. and Chris went and busted the windshield of their car.

389. Did you ever witness any abuse going on in that relationship?

390. My sister called me to the house

391. and she called Mike Durham, known as Johnny Grunge,

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

393. Mike said, "I'll go wrangle Chris. Don't do anything rash."

394. But it was already kind of done. He hurt her.

395. I don't know if it was intentional or accidental, but he hurt her.

396. Out of respect for the kids he still has,

397. I won't go further into that.

398. She got a restraining order against him,

399. and I went down and stayed at the house.

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

401. Chris contacted me directly, because Nancy wasn't answering,

402. and asked me to talk to my sister on his behalf.

403. And please, please, please,

404. let him come talk to her personally.

405. She called him, and he came over the next day

406. and they were back together a couple of days later.

407. Do I look back on that and say, you shouldn't have gotten involved

408. and why did I take his call, 'cause that could have ended it?

409. Almost every day, I think about that.

410. When police found steroids on the scene,

411. many assumed that explained it.

412. The killer flipped out because of drugs.

413. Or might there be another explanation?

414. The initial media coverage all focused on steroid use.

415. I said, there's no way.

416. I'm Chris Nowinski, former WWE superstar,

417. and now I am a neuroscientist

418. and run the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

419. My wrestling career came to an end

420. because I had a series of concussions

421. that I didn't quite appreciate were concussions.

422. I never stopped performing until the damage was too much.

423. So I decided I would start digging into

424. what else was known, and it became a book.

425. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE,

426. is a progressive, degenerative brain disease

427. that appears to be started by hits to the head.

428. Oh, my God!

429. Oh, man! Anything goes. My God.

430. What I knew about CTE at that time was there were four NFL cases.

431. Two had died by suicide, and one had started hearing voices

432. and led the police on a chase through upstate New York

433. and died in a fiery crash on the wrong side of the highway.

434. When I heard about what happened,

435. I remembered a conversation with him, maybe six months prior.

436. He had sat next to me in the locker room.

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

438. He goes, "I'm interested in what you're learning.

439. How many concussions had you had before you had to retire?"

440. And I said, "Well, at least six, but I probably had more.

441. How many have you had?"

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

443. I'll give you my number. I want you to call me next week."

444. Next week, I called him. It sounded like he was mid-argument.

445. He was clearly agitated. Someone else was there.

446. "I can't talk. Can I call you back?" And I said, "Sure."

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

448. was that he knew that something was going on,

449. but he didn't appreciate what it was.

450. And so I decided I needed to know if Chris had CTE.

451. With the media storm, I couldn't imagine

452. his family answering the phone. But I said, "I'll give it a try."

453. Chris's father answered on the second ring.

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

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

456. I told him my theory. And...

457. he immediately said, "I want to see this done."

458. We have the brain in early July,

459. and I think, within about a month, we knew it was positive for CTE

460. and it was a pretty severe case of CTE.

461. We held a press conference.

462. When you look at his brain, it is, in fact, shocking.

463. Our findings showed extensive areas

464. of tau protein deposition throughout his brain.

465. Tau protein is a marker for brain damage.

466. With Chris, he actually had a...

467. a severe case of CTE at 40 years old, which is early to have it.

468. It wouldn't just be areas of his cortex or his brain stem,

469. but damage in areas that you would think

470. could influence emotional behaviors.

471. I believe the degeneration of his brain

472. changed what he was capable of.

473. If you get hit in the head thousands of times,

474. your brain, essentially, can rot.

475. You get this damage

476. that continues to spread even once you stop getting hit,

477. and changes who you are, how you behave, what you become.

478. I think about when me and Chris would be talking,

479. and he would just be crying so much, I wondered why he couldn't stop.

480. Does that go with the concussions? With his brain?

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

482. These chair shots from years ago

483. were hard and they were mean.

484. In the '90s, we took chair shots to the head.

485. That was a badge of honor.

486. Meaning, someone would swing a steel chair at your head...

487. Chris Jericho's helpless!

488. And I literally remember, you'd grit your teeth and...

489. you'd tense yourself and tense your neck...

490. and just take it.

491. They hit you on the head with it, and you just take it, "Ah."

492. That was what you did. That was expected.

493. If you had a concussion in wrestling, you just shake it off.

494. Shake it off, go in there and do it. All of us did it.

495. I wrestled for 20-plus years.

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

497. How much do other wrestlers have? 'Cause we all got it, to some extent.

498. Is this gonna be my end?

499. The incredible thing is, Harley Race invents the Flying Headbutt

500. and tells everyone, "Don't do this. It fucks your spine up horribly.

501. It ruins your old age."

502. Dynamite Kid hears that, does it anyway, ends up in a wheelchair.

503. Dynamite Kid tells Chris.

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

505. Oh, man.

506. There is a clear history of people repeating

507. the most self-destructive story imaginable, over and over again.

508. I think the Benoit tragedy led to some institutional changes.

509. The awareness of what CTE is

510. was never even a conversation point. Now it is.

511. And finally, unprotected chair shots

512. and subsequent concussions are now being addressed.

513. The one thing we've gotta do is protect the athletes.

514. When you look at what Chris Benoit did

515. as a symptom of a medical problem,

516. whether drug use or brain damage, I think that misses the point.

517. Ultimately, the core reason this happened is:

518. Chris made a decision when he was very young

519. to do absolutely whatever it took

520. to succeed at his childhood dream of becoming a pro wrestling star.

521. Whatever happened that weekend, his story would've had a tragic end.

522. I think his fate was sealed when Eddie died,

523. whether he knew it or not.

524. I doubt anyone could help after that.

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

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

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

528. Whatever it was he was going through, you know,

529. I think he just continued to shrink his whole world

530. until all that was left was just whatever was in his head

531. that caused him to snap, and he fucking snapped.

532. It's not one thing.

533. I think that it's a factor of alcohol and drugs

534. and yes, possibly CTE and stress and grief.

535. And all of those things rolled together

536. put him on a path that weekend that he couldn't get off.

537. Chris was always gonna be my friend and my brother.

538. I just know something was going on with him that wasn't him.

539. It's something I'm still torn with,

540. because you love Chris, you just hate what he did.

541. What he did is unthinkable. Unforgivable.

542. But it's still hard for me to separate my friendship with him.

543. Matches that I had with him. Moments, times, car rides.

544. I can always look at Chris as one of the best performers

545. our business has ever seen, and just kinda leave it at that.

546. I get asked, "Should he be in the Hall of Fame?"

547. And I say, "Absolutely not. No."

548. If Chris were here and we could talk to him,

549. he'd say, "Putting me in there

550. will be a distraction from the whole event.

551. All it's gonna do is bring up Nancy, the kids and their last 24 hours."

552. So I say, he does not belong in the Hall of Fame, now or ever.

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

554. and had the same reputation of just being immaculate professionals,

555. the nicest guys, and they both die very young

556. and one's legacy is acclaimed,

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

558. If you would have told Chris, "You know, when you die,

559. your name and your body of work will be erased from existence,"

560. it would have broke his heart. He told me once,

561. "The critics are the critics

562. but if your peers respect you, nothing else matters."

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

564. not only of his peers but his friends, his family,

565. I don't think he ever wanted that.

566. It almost ended the business.

567. What Chris did almost destroyed the only thing that he ever loved,

568. from a professional standpoint.

569. The only thing he ever loved, Chris Benoit almost destroyed it.

570. That would've torn him apart as well.

571. So it leads us around to, why did he do it?

572. I don't think anyone will ever be able to answer that question.

573. People look at me different now, because of what he did.

574. People talking shit behind my back. Getting bullied.

575. Screw it.

576. I'm defending my family and what I believe in, you know.

577. He loved them. That definitely was not him.

578. He's still my hero. I think about him all the time.

579. I want them to recognize Nancy, though.

580. She deserves the recognition that she doesn't get.

581. That's the unfortunate part.

582. She needs to be remembered for... a strong woman,

583. pioneering in this business, and her talent.

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

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

586. She was a pioneer,

587. and one of the best at a role that no longer exists.

588. As a pro wrestling manager, she created and perfected the role.

589. And when she stopped doing it, the role disappeared.

590. I would like nothing better than to see Nancy, Nancy Benoit.

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

592. Woman. I would like nothing better than to see Woman

593. be put into the WWE Hall of Fame.

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

595. And Nancy will always...

596. be the superstar she was meant to be, in my mind.

597. Can I blow a kiss? You bet.

598. What do you remember the most about Nancy?

599. I remember everything about her. I remember how her hair smells.

600. She used to tuck me in with both hands, real hard,

601. like, on both sides of the blanket, to tuck me in.

602. Like she was putting a lock on me to keep me safe.

603. To this day, when I get sad or upset or stressed out,

604. I will tuck myself in on the sides so that I feel more secure.

605. - What do you remember of Daniel? - Everything.

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

607. He was our whole lives, all of us.

608. He was very, very, very, very loved by our family, by his siblings.

609. He and his brother were just thick as thieves.

610. Did you have any relationship with the Benoit family afterward?

611. I tried. Unsuccessfully.

612. I was told, I won't say by who,

613. that the children wanted nothing to do with us.

614. Apparently, the children were told we wanted nothing to do with them

615. 'cause of what their dad did, which was absolutely not the truth.

616. My last trip with my family was for WrestleMania XXIII in Detroit.

617. After the match, we flew back to Atlanta.

618. Me, Nancy and Daniel.

619. My dad went to Mexico for a tour.

620. And then me, Nancy and Daniel were just hanging around the house,

621. taking pictures, y'know, out by the trees with the dogs.

622. And then, you know...

623. You're doing good, brother. It's all good. Just let it out.

624. That's what this is all about, brother. I'm sure.

625. David is absolutely a victim. A great kid, dealt a bad hand.

626. It's not right. He didn't do anything wrong.

627. He's an innocent bystander in all of this.

628. You all right?

629. Okay.

630. - Too real. Too real. - It's good for us. It's good for us.

631. I felt that, because Chris killed his family,

632. that the family he left behind

633. was automatically blackballed from the world.

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

635. To me, those two needed to reconnect.

636. Talking with David, meeting Sandra,

637. knowing she had the same issues and pain and hurt that David had,

638. and nobody will ever understand...

639. what they went through, besides each other.

640. I thought if I could connect them, give them a chance to talk,

641. they could move on and realize they have family in each other.

642. Chris Jericho, wrestling angel come to life,

643. he gave my number to my nephew and my nephew's number to me.

644. We hadn't talked since before everything.

645. So, 13 years ago, the last time we saw each other.

646. It's been a very long time. She finally called me. I answered.

647. We talked on the phone for probably a good two hours.

648. And now, going to watch wrestling. I still love it. It's in my blood.

649. Feels like we never were apart. Felt like we just reconnected.

650. Nothing has changed. She's still my Auntie Sza-Sza.

651. Chris lives on in David every day. Nancy lives on in Sandra every day.

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

653. So hopefully, this will help them get found.

654. - You feel better. - Light.

655. - You have the same perspective. - I think more than anyone else.

656. It's important for you to stick together.

657. We can be friends and supportive, but it's not the same as for you.

658. - No, it's not the same. It's family. - Exactly.

659. I've never been...

660. I've never been more grateful to see someone that I love

661. as I was when I saw my nephew.

662. Do you think you will ever be able to,

663. or want to, give forgiveness towards Chris?

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

665. Because carrying around the burden of hate...

666. gets exhausting.

667. Everyone deserves forgiveness.

668. And everyone deserves mercy.

669. So I think that, within time,

670. there will be a day when I get on my knees

671. and I finally say it, that I forgive him.

672. You never know, it might be tomorrow.

673. But I do know it's not today.