The Crippled Crippler

Yesterday, we learned that Chris Benoit's brain had been damaged by concussions suffered in the ring as a professional wrestler. We don't know if this is what led to him killing his wife and child, but it helps explain how this tragic event could have happened.

I grew up watching professional wrestling as a kid, even spending most Saturday nights of my high school years in North Georgia watching local guys like The Black Terminator, "Natural Boy" Paul Lee, The Fly Guy and Chattanooga's own, the late Terry Gordy wrestle in front of 30-40 people as part of the American Wrestling Federation. Suffice it to say, I did not have many girlfriends in high school.

Today, it is impossible to watch professional wrestling without some guilt and sadness. It is supposed to entertain me, but it just bothers me now. These guys take a variety of pills and injections to become super-human, then perform moves and manuevers that could leave them crippled in an instant or slowly over time, and then do the whole thing again the very next night in a different town.

The results are staggering. So many of the wrestlers I watched as a kid are now dead - Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, The British Bulldog, Miss Elizabeth, Eddie Guerrero, The Big Bossman, Chris Beniot and more. Over 60 former WWF/WWE wrestlers have died in the last few years, all under 50 years old.

The immediate blame has been steriods, and new stories of current WWE stars like Edge and Randy Orton getting caught with illegal prescriptions is only fanning the flames of those who want to pin the problems of pro wrestling on drugs. But the newest revelations about Benoit place the blame less on actions outside the ring than inside it.

The wrestling boom of the 1990s was due in part to the changing culture of the sport. The cartoon-ish characters of the 1980s who often looked like they were doing their best not to mess up each other's make-up when they were supposed to be pounding each other were replaced by guys who actually looked and felt dangerous. Just as the subject matter and language of the shows began to push the limits of appropriate, the in-ring work became more intense as well. Chair shots were no longer taken on the back, but now to the head. Repeatedly. High-flying moves were no longer special, but expected. Each week, the bar was raised and each week someone, somewhere, was devising a new way to spin off the top rope or fall off a cage.

As fans, we all looked the other way as these wrestlers took chair shots to the skull or dove head-first onto the concrete. Wrestling is fake, remember? It doesn't really hurt when they get hit.

Now, we are finally seeing the results of this "fake" sport. Chris Benoit's brain was damaged by repeated concussions suffered as he jumped off ladders and cages, usually to deliver his patented "flying headbutt"; a move that no doubt led to some of the trauma that may have driven him to depression, murder and suicide. The moves that made Benoit my very favorite wrestler of his era eventually killed him.

Maybe that is why I feel some guilt about Benoit's death. Like most wrestling fans, I got caught up by the smashed tables, the dives onto the concrete floor, the drops onto the back of necks, the chair shots and the bloody faces. It was why I watched. Now, it is why wrestlers are dying at such an alarming rate. I'm not saying it is all my fault, but...