So this was in my Youtube feed and gave it a watch. I haven't bothered with the other wrestling videos in this series but this one caught my eye. Details his and Eddy's lives up until Vengeance. Looks like Part II will deal with the shitshow that was everything after. I dunno if it was common knowledge but I didn't realize the extent he took Eddy's death. I only recall hearing bits and pieces from Nancy's sister episode of TiJ so maybe it was just me. Also knew they found Eddy face-down in a hotel room, but didn't know he was still alive when Chavo got to his body. Very sad stuff. Might check out the other stuff in the series as I wait for part II. If you do the same be warned the next video in the queue is about a dildo maker LMAO. Think it may be region locked so hopefully some mirrors pop up if you can't access it.

I watched all of season 1 and enjoyed it. I watched this this afternoon and it was wild. Very sad.

They did an excellent job of telling the story.

I'm glad that over time more emphasis has been put on Nancy Benoit as a performer. Before I knew any better, I presumed she was somebody who worked a few shows because she was married to the booker but never really did anything of note. Come to find out years later she's the most seductive and sultry manager to come along who was one of the biggest personalities in early ECW and of course Florida. Those Benoit-Nancy tapes as difficult as they are to go back to from WCW 1996 were really effective at the time and the Benoit-Sullivan feud was one of the backbones of WCW during it's hottest period.

The episode nearly doubles as an Eddie Guerrero episode as well. One of my first memories of Pro Wrestling was his return match against Juventud Guerrera after his near fatal car crash. I actually like how WCW touched on the perception of the cruiserweights because my initial impression wasn't great because the biggest development in WCW was the return of Eddie Guerrero this seedy looking weakling. I wouldn't come around on Eddie until his ladder match with RVD and from that point on, he quickly became one of my favourites. Wrestlemania XX was a magical time in the company and was the last time I went into the show as a genuine fan, cheering for my guys to win and getting upset when guys like Evolution went over Rock n Sock, or the CLB duped Jericho. It was such a rollercoaster of a show, but when Benoit won the title it felt like I was watching my Rugby team win the premiershipand I made sure to get my hands on a tape ASAP.

I remember exactly where I was when Eddie passed. We were in the middle of exam block and as Year 10, we'd still have to go to school and do independant study classes which really just amounted to messing around with your mates and playing Quake III or SNES emulators on PC. We were just wrapping up for the day, when one of my peers asked if I had heard about Eddie Guerrero and that's when I first heard he'd died. I didn't want to believe it, and thought it was just a BS rumour which was pretty easy to come up with because of Eddie's history. When I found out it was true, I had mixed feelings about it because on one hand one of my favourite wrestlers on the roster had passed but on the other, here was this guy who got his second chance at life, completely re-wrote his ending and changed how we'll remember him for years to come. He got to die as a champion which not a lot of people get to claim.

I studied the Chris Benoit DVD religiously and felt the moment Eddie died, a part of Benoit would as well. What I got out of the DVD was that Benoit was this stubborn one track minded person who forced himself to make a living out of Pro Wrestling and the one guy who got that and validated that lifestyle choice was Eddie. To lose somebody that close, so intertwined in your career and with things clearly starting to wrap up, I was really worried about Chris.

Remember in 2006 there were all those rumours that there was going to be another Eddie Guerrero style death? The two names I thought of were Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. I'm so grateful if nothing else that Angle survived that period of his life because it sounded incredibly hectic for a few years.

When Benoit made his surprise appearance at No Mercy 2006, I was so happy to see him back and he was one of the few guys where I could ignore all my gripes with Pro Wrestling because at least I could see a great Benoit match at the end of the day. I considered his match at Wrestlemania 23 a minor miracle and the one match I was most excited about was Chris Benoit vs. CM Punk for the ECW Title. Finally the ECW title was being booked properly again and here we're going to have the best wrestler of a previous generation take on a future generation talent, this was going to be an amazing series of matches.

...then it didn't happen and instead we got Johnny Nitro vs. CM Punk.

WTF?

Was Chris injured again? Who else am I going to tune in for to watch Pro Wrestling? I was crushed.

When I found out he was dead, I was in mourning and I don't think I really grew to accept the situation for what it was until Nancy's sister appeared on the Jericho podcast. Even now, when I watch his son David Benoit, it's so tough because all of those good memories I had were tainted forever.

The one thing about the aftermath is how crazy the media cycle was. It was difficult to make heads or tails of what was going on, wrestlers who hadn't been on television in years would appear on television and it was difficult to wade through the speculation and the facts of the matter.

This documentary does a really good job of setting the record straight. They interview the patrol officer who performed the wellness check on Benoit and he goes through his entire version of events. The dogs were infact not in the enclosed pool area, they were in the yard so the officers asked the neighbour if they could look after them and it was the neighbour who discovered Daniel's body. They don't show any graphic photos from the crime scene but they do show a couple of odd photos like a large butcher's knife being placed under Daniel's bed.

Cut to the WWE Tribute Show and what stands out to me is how embarrassing that was for the company. They put together a three hour tribute show, guys like CM Punk were calling Chris his idol and Chavo worse of all said he'd trust Chris with his family. The only person who really chose their words carefully was Regal and I always wondered why that was and Jericho reveals that they lived in the same neighbourhood so Regal would have been aware of the domestic dispute.

They cut to the WWE's reaction and how they whitewashed Benoit from their record books and did everything they could to distance the murders from drug abuse. The worst thing to come out of it is that the only support the WWE offered either Benoit or Nancy's family is flying JR to attend Nancy and Daniel's funeral and since JR represented the WWE, the family gave him a piece of their mind. I believe JR when he says he genuinely wanted to be there for the family because he was always high on Benoit, even before Chris had signed with the WWE he was very complimentary of his work. Benoit supposedly had 10 times the amount of testorone of a normal man and had been abusing steroids since he was a teenager.

They gave us more insight into their marital problems. Nancy actually cited steroid abuse as an issue in a series of text messages where she was upset with his bi-polar tendancies and how often he'd shut her and his children out. At one point Nancy's sister shares a story about how Chris had abused Nancy and she had placed a restraining order on Chris. Incidentally, Johnny Grunge was asked to look after Benoit during the incident since they were close and he lived in the neighbourhood. Grunge would pass away only three months after Eddie but they didn't touch on that.

They touched on CTE and Nowinski explained that Chris had actually reached out to him months prior for more information but when Nowinski tried to share his findings Chris was in the middle of a fight and never got back to him. Nowinski decided to reach out to Chris' father who just wanted answers and that's when they found that Benoit had significant brain damage. They talk about chair shots, but they also talk about the diving headbutt and how dangerous the move is. Race used it and could barely function in his old age, the Dynamite Kid used it and ended up in a wheel chair and then Benoit lost his mind. They didn't say it, but Daniel Bryan obviously had his issues as well.

The final note the documentary leaves you with was those who were forgotten in the tragedy. Daniel and Sandra (Nancy's sister) and how much this haunts them and how they've had to deal with this alone and how they basically lost each other due to the hurt. There's a cool moment where they show them in the crowd in AEW and they give this illusion that Chris and Nancy live on through them but they can also begin to heal from this.

Holy fuck I had no idea this was on YouTube. Guess I know what I’m doing today.

Watched both parts last night, such a bad idea. I had a horrible sleep afterword, it still totally fucks me up.

I feel so bad for David and Sandra, at least they can attempt to mend fences. Big kudos go out to Jericho on this project. Also Chavo, Dean, Vicky and Dean's wife were so insightful. Chris Nowinski also had a great segment, he should get some special recognition from WWE at some point.

RIP Nancy and Daniel, such a travesty.

I don't know if I can watch this. Benoit is from here, was a favorite of mine and it really messed me up for a long time afterwards. I almost stopped watching wrestling afterwards.   It makes me feel so badly for his parents and children.  And of course Nancy's family.  A nightmare.  

I recently watched through the Shield for the first time and the final episode had a similar scenario to the Benoit tragedy, complete with a wife and son being staged with items. Just looked up when it aired and it wasn't long after this. Granted it was likely already done with zero knowledge of this, but wow. Family Meeting indeed.