both keller and the email..

http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_20635.shtml

KELLER'S TAKE
TORCH FOUNDER - EST. 1987 (online 1999)
KELLER'S BLOG: Thoughts on the Benoit Tragedy

Jun 26, 2007, 12:36

I will be updating this blog regularly as news breaks or as I have additional thoughts or comments on this story...

UPDATED: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 12:46 p.m.

-I just want to acknowledge all of the emails many of you have been sending regarding Benoit, expressing your feelings about this situation. I will be posting your comments in the Torch Feedback section as soon as there is a break in the reporting aspects of this story. Here is one email I just received that is representative of the tone of most of them I have received today...

Hi Wade,

I'd just like to say that while I'm having a really hard time figuring out how the f--- I should feel about this whole Benoit situation, I think your blog about it was helpful, in a way.

For me, it's just really hard to deal with the dual realization that a man who I admired for years, is both dead and a murderer. I realize that this dude has done something unspeakably horrible and unforgivable, but I still can't just erase the fact that I have a ton of fond memories of the guy, from my childhood up until about 24 hours ago. It's a really complicated thing, it's so hard to mix these two things together in my mind, and I think a lot of people feel the same way... and well, I just appreciate that you're not totally condemning the man, and you're not disregarding the past however many years. The line about having sympathy for Nancy and Daniel, while pitying Chris, I just found that really truthful.

I also appreciate how tough this must be for you to cover, but it's been really helpful to keep up to date with this whole insane situation.

I know you probably don't need to be hearing everybody's thoughts on this stuff, but I just basically wanted to say thanks.

Leigh

UPDATED: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 12:25 p.m.

-There are wrestling and steroid website reports attributing me with reporting that a large amount of steroids were found in Chris Benoit's home. I have not reported this.

On that subject, though, if steroids are found in his home or in his toxicology reports, the issue of "roid rage" potentially contributing to his strangling of his wife during a heated domestic argument could turn into a big media story that will lead to scrutiny of the WWE Wellness Policy and how thorough they were in taking action on wrestlers who tested positive, and the frequency (or infrequency) of the tests.

ABCNews.com's latest updated story states: "Additional toxicology reports, which could determine whether Benoit was using steroids at the time of his death, are expected to take at least two weeks."

UPDATED: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 11:11 a.m.

Here are some random thoughts that reflect what I've been thinking and talking about the past 20 hours...

-Raw last night was a mistake. WWE personnel had reason to believe (because I did at that point from people I was talking to) that it was a murder-murder-suicide and that Chris Benoit was likely the perpetrator (based on what I was told about the text message contents they received the day before). Doing a tribute show to someone who very possibly had just killed his wife and son was a bad call. Now, that said, I soften my criticism in this respect: As after the Owen Hart death, people were under duress and not thinking clearly and had a three-hour show to create quickly. Not acknowledging Benoit would seem crass, if not presumptuous of his guilt. The tribute to him as a great family man may have been a true reflection of the person they knew, but it does in retrospect seem akin to a Hollywood or sports world tribute to O.J. Simpson's contributions as the details were sketchy regarding what happened with his wife.

-What was the other option? Cancel the show entirely and air reruns of a USA Network movie or syndicated series in its place with a crawler at the top of each hour explaining the cancellation. Or have Vince introduce the show as he did in mid-ring, then broadcast a PPV or a previous edition of Raw or even a DVD documentary on tag teams or another innocuous subject. That'd be my call, and it's not a case of 20/20 hindsight because everyone in WWE suspected what's come out today, with less precise detail of course, at the time that show was put together. Wrestlers can mourn without cameras filming them.

-Vince McMahon did the right thing to appear on camera last night. He needed to end the death angle of Mr. McMahon immediately. One of the reasons they did the empty arena show was because they had already ruined the ten bell salute and sacred stage gathering scenes previously used for Owen Hart, Eddie Guerrero, and the victims of 9/11. To do that for Benoit after doing a fake one for McMahon wouldn't have felt right. After saying repeatedly after Owen Hart died, and repeating it for the Mr. McMahon storyline the last two weeks, the phrase "the show must go on," the show could not go on after the horrible incident at the Benoit family residence.

-WWE is making the right decision today - the only decision other than cancelling ECW and Smackdown this week - and that is to briefly address the situation at the start of the show, and then present straight wrestling matches without any angles or further mentions of Benoit.

-It is really sad for those of us who admired Chris Benoit's work over the years that his body of work is now permanently soiled. No match of his will ever be rewatched and appreciated the same way. Having said that, nothing about his pro wrestling body of work being ruined is the least bit relevant relative to the tragic death of his seven year old. I cannot imagine a worse death than your father smothering you after being a state of sheer petrified fright for however many hours it was since you last heard your mother arguing with your father. Absolutely horrible.

-In my nearly 20 years covering pro wrestling full time, this is the saddest time and hardest story to cover. Chris Benoit was well-liked by fellow wrestlers and so respected for his contributions to the industry in the ring. He conducted himself like a professional. The main image of him that fellow wrestlers have is him walking around backstage in his slacks, shirtless, carrying a cup of coffee around. As I talked about yesterday in my VIP Daily Keller Hotline, Benoit didn't laugh or smile a lot, but when you got a laugh or smile out of him, it meant something. Few people called him a close friend, but no one had a bad word to say about him. He was all about his job and being "one of the boys." He also loved his family. He had no reputation of physical abuse. It's what makes this story so much more difficult for those who knew him to comprehend what has happened. It will never make sense. Piecing together the "whys" and "hows" will help many cope. I have nothing by sympathy for Daniel and Nancy. I pity Benoit, as a nice man was driven to horrible, evil actions that will define him and his life in a sad way that will haunt wrestling fans forever.

-Finally, my apologies to those of you who had trouble getting onto the site last night. We had record traffic for the site, far exceeding anything previously, and our server which has served us well previously just couldn't handle the demand because of the number of articles and updates we were posting. The site never crashed, but it was at maximum bandwidth most of the night.