Chris Benoit dead

[gribbo2001]

That makes this whole thing all the more tragic. His brain mirroring an 85-year old Alzheimers sufferer's just shows the kind of damage pro wrestling can cause. Don't think its something I want to have any more interest in to be honest.

[Bix]

Pro wrestler in court on harassment chargesBy Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.comOctober 26, 2006Tracy Smothers, 44, who also was known as “Freddy Joe Floyd” when he was affiliated with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), is scheduled to appear before a General Sessions Judge on Thursday to face two charges of criminal harassment.In March, Smothers’ live in girlfriend, Melba Renee Payne, told authorities that Smothers made a series of phone calls to her threatening bodily harm.“[He] called me at work and told me that he was going to bash my head in with a baseball bat,” Payne alleged in her affidavit. “[He] called me nine (9) times and left multiple messages. I told [him] not to call me anymore.”Payne went on to allege that Smothers called later that day and “stated that he was going to get me when I least expect it and take me away in a car where no one would ever find my body,” according to a second affidavit written by Payne.Smothers, of 5170 Hickory Hollow Parkway, has had prior brushes with the law while in Nashville.In March he appeared in court to faces two charges of misdemeanor drug possession and one charge of unlawful use of drug paraphernalia. Criminal Court documents indicated those charges were “settled.”In August of 2005, Smothers defended himself against a charge of domestic assault, which was also brought forth by Payne.“The defendant, who is my boyfriend and resides with me, has been calling me and leaving me voicemail messages threatening me with bodily harm. The defendant has stated to me that he is going to kill me,” Payne wrote in a sworn statement at the time.“The defendant has assaulted me in the past,” she alleged last year. “He is also addicted to steroids and he is a professional wrestler.”According to various professional wrestling Web sites, Smothers began his career in the early 1990s with the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) series.While with the WCW, Smothers joined wrestler Steve Armstrong in the tag-team duo “The Southern Boys.”He later joined the WWF under the name “Freddy Joe Floyd.”Since March 2004, Smothers has continued wrestling on the independent circuit.

http://tinyurl.com/2ksjer

The case is now being dealt with by mental health services. The charges will be dropped if Tracy goes though with getting the help that he needs.He has had 30 plus concussions and being around the wrestling business for 23 years makes it a little hard for him to deal with reality. That results in him being sick almost every morning, irrational mood swings and violent tendencies.I filed the charges in an attempt to get him the help that he desperately needs. He lost his health insurance while in the UK. The neuroligist told him he should have gotten out of the ring 10 years ago due to the amount of brain damage he has suffered.He has not done any steroids since the issue last year. When that occured he had just come off a cycle in hopes of getting hired by the WWE after the ECW PPV. The last cycle almost killed him and made him violent.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Bix

[Familiar_To_Millions]

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does this mean that WWE for example may start showing clips or bringing his name up again, most possibly in the long run, since we've found he didn't do what he did because he was a bad person or evil or anything?.Obviously what he did is still horrible, but at least we know he didn't do it with a right mind.

Most likely not. Fact remains he did murder his Wife and Child no matter how much he couldn't help it. I'm still wondering how they would package the Wrestlemania 20 main event in "looking-back-at-Mania's-past" style video clips now. Because they can't exactly say that it was HHH vs HBK when neither of them actually won the match. But I do expect he will be mentioned on a Randy Orton DVD if there ever is one. How can you leave out his winning of his first World Title thus becoming the youngest World Champion ever?

[TezzRexx]

I find the "erasing" of Chris Benoit ridiculous and extremely short sighted. Eventually they'll have no choice but to mention Chris Benoit in some form or another and I'm pretty sure it won't fuck people off if the WWE have to say "Chris Benoit was champion in 2004".Also, people don't pretend that Garry Glitter is dead or that he didn't have any hits in the music charts...

[BurningHammer]

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does this mean that WWE for example may start showing clips or bringing his name up again, most possibly in the long run, since we've found he didn't do what he did because he was a bad person or evil or anything?.Obviously what he did is still horrible, but at least we know he didn't do it with a right mind.

Undiagnosed concussions reflects just as badly on WWE as everything else that has come out. Especially if some hack journo makes a connection with Randy Orton's running punt trademark of late.

[DavidParis]

That makes this whole thing all the more tragic. His brain mirroring an 85-year old Alzheimers sufferer's just shows the kind of damage pro wrestling can cause. Don't think its something I want to have any more interest in to be honest.

That's the effect that wrestling 'Benoit style' for 20 years will have on the brain. This has to be about as extreme a case as you can possibly get. It's a bit melodramatic to say that you don't want to have any interest in wrestling anymore having seen this as if it happens to everyone who ever steps in the ring. Think how OTT Benoit pushed himself, you would almost have to litterally go out of your way to end up with results like that.

[BurningHammer]

I find the "erasing" of Chris Benoit ridiculous and extremely short sighted. Eventually they'll have no choice but to mention Chris Benoit in some form or another and I'm pretty sure it won't fuck people off if the WWE have to say "Chris Benoit was champion in 2004".Also, people don't pretend that Garry Glitter is dead or that he didn't have any hits in the music charts...

I'd say it is a short-term measure, because they would just open themselves up for criticism if they marketed DVD's and the like with Benoit advertised as a prominent part of the show. Give it some time and he will be quietly put back on the match listings, though you can forget about WWE featuring him too largely in a historical context.

[Bix]

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does this mean that WWE for example may start showing clips or bringing his name up again, most possibly in the long run, since we've found he didn't do what he did because he was a bad person or evil or anything?.Obviously what he did is still horrible, but at least we know he didn't do it with a right mind.

Undiagnosed concussions reflects just as badly on WWE as everything else that has come out. Especially if some hack journo makes a connection with Randy Orton's running punt trademark of late.

And they just let a senior citizen take the soccer kick legit.

[Astro Hollywood]

That's the effect that wrestling 'Benoit style' for 20 years will have on the brain. This has to be about as extreme a case as you can possibly get. It's a bit melodramatic to say that you don't want to have any interest in wrestling anymore having seen this as if it happens to everyone who ever steps in the ring. Think how OTT Benoit pushed himself, you would almost have to litterally go out of your way to end up with results like that.

Dunno about that. Concussions were absolutely rife on a nightly basis in ECW for example, or off the top of my head, Vampiro getting two concussions two nights running in WCW as one example out of a thousand, so there might be a hundred ticking time bombs out there. Probably not on as grand a scale as Benoit, but on the level of the Smothers post above, Dick Slater stabbing his girlfriend, Mike Awesome hanging himself, or whatever other wacky behaviour everyone just puts down to "ah, those crazy wrasslers."

[BurningHammer]

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does this mean that WWE for example may start showing clips or bringing his name up again, most possibly in the long run, since we've found he didn't do what he did because he was a bad person or evil or anything?.Obviously what he did is still horrible, but at least we know he didn't do it with a right mind.

Undiagnosed concussions reflects just as badly on WWE as everything else that has come out. Especially if some hack journo makes a connection with Randy Orton's running punt trademark of late.

And they just let a senior citizen take the soccer kick legit.

Yikes. I knew that kick looked far too snug in comparison to previous ones...

[Bix]

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does this mean that WWE for example may start showing clips or bringing his name up again, most possibly in the long run, since we've found he didn't do what he did because he was a bad person or evil or anything?.Obviously what he did is still horrible, but at least we know he didn't do it with a right mind.

Undiagnosed concussions reflects just as badly on WWE as everything else that has come out. Especially if some hack journo makes a connection with Randy Orton's running punt trademark of late.

And they just let a senior citizen take the soccer kick legit.

Yikes. I knew that kick looked far too snug in comparison to previous ones...

Yeah, they've been showing footage from the aftermath that makes it clear his eye was swelling up immediately.Also, the storyline article on WWE.com about Cena Sr. suffering "a concussion, but not brain damage" was creepy a week ago and is now ever moreso.

[BurningHammer]

Not to mention the way Michaels and RVD were written out a few months back.

[Bix]

Those weren't legit soccer kicks as far as anyone could tell, but it does make WWE look callous towards the idea that it's a problem.

[twelve_grand]

THe concussion angle was as short sighted as pushy Lashley, Batista and Morrison on top during a steroids scandal. Meltzer called them on it if I remember correctly.

I haven't read Foley's latest book so this might be out of context but, after reading the above, that sounds pretty sick. I don't remember the angle in question but if it was as bad as it sounds (deliberately hitting someone by 'accident') then I'd love to see McMahon questioned over that when he is defending how the Wellness Policy exists to protect the talents' Wellness. What could make the owner of any multi-million dollar company think "I've got an employee (sorry, 'independent contractor') who's throwing up after matches due to head trauma so I'll crack him on the head with a chair, lol"?

Foley was under chair shot protection in the WWE - everyone up to Vince knew he wasn't to be hit on the head because of his previous record unless it was expressely arranged for a big match (even that last part is fucking sick). Vince cracked him anyway by "accident" in a pretty minor angle. Foley doesn't state whether McMahon knew about his post-concussive symptoms (probably didn't) but it is still absolutely disgusting what he did. But as nonce Lawler has just proved it would be almost impossible (even if Foley wanted to which he wouldn't) to take an action retrospectively in court about such "accidents". Because hey that's wrestling and we're all family. What a crock of shit.

[Surf Digby]

"Our research shows that three concussions may be the threshold for lasting damage," Bailes said.

This is very worrying. I've always considered a concussion as one of the minor injuries a wrestler suffers (with the exception of a few cases, ie: Bret Hart, Steve Blackman, etc..). It wouldn't be difficult to think back and come up with a lot of bangs to the heads of wrestlers that could have caused this kind of injury. Off the top of my head, there's Kurt vs Shane's street fight when he doesn't go through the glass and takes an unprotected bump onto his head on concrete, the announcers table collapsing as HHH tries to pedigree Kurt, Lesnar's WM19 SSP, TAKA's rumble elimination, and so on.Also, I've had 2 concussions so far, so go gently with me.