The Chris Benoit tragedy in June 2007 sent shockwaves through the wrestling world. The former World Heavyweight Champion was found dead in his home in Georgia, alongside his wife Nancy and their son Daniel, in a tragedy that forever changed how fans and the wrestling world viewed him.
Former WWE star Jimmy Wang Yang recently spoke to Cheap Heat Productions, where he recalled the day WWE informed talent of Benoit’s death and the tense atmosphere that followed.
Here’s what he said:
“I don’t care anything about his wrestling ability now. What he did disqualifies him, to me, as a wrestler.
I remember that meeting we had in Corpus Christi, Texas. The week before, Vince got blew up by the limo, so we had the memorial service at Corpus Christi. So they bring us into the arena, and I sit down, and this is kind of a crazy story – I’m looking around and I look behind me, and Bruce Campbell is right behind me, Army of Darkness.
I was like, ‘Oh my god! Bruce Campbell! I f**king love you!’ Oh, sorry for cussing too much, but, ‘I love you! I love Army of Darkness, Ash, Evil Dead, all of this stuff! I wanna talk to you right after this!’
I turn around, and Vince is there, and all of a sudden I hear Vickie Guerrero screech, like, ‘Oh my god, no!’ I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t, what the f**k?’ Sorry for cussing again. Then I turn around, and Vince announced what happened, like, ‘They found Chris dead, his wife and his kid.’
I looked directly to Brian Kendrick, and looked at him, and it was like, ‘Yep, he finally did it, huh? He finally snapped and did that horrible act.’ We both thought the same thing from our previous experience with him. But, after that, I was like, ‘No, I don’t wanna think that, he did have this mansion in Atlanta, maybe somebody robbed him and killed him and his family.’ It was crazy mixed emotions at that time.
And then, the next day, they say we’re gonna do a tribute show to Chris the next day. My gut felt weird. I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I wanna do a tribute match to Chris Benoit. I need to see some more facts about what happened and all that kind of stuff.’
Then, during the day, all that stuff, things started to leak out. And I no-showed SmackDown, because I didn’t want to be part of anything associated with what happened, I said, ‘I’m not going.’ And I didn’t go to SmackDown.
I no-showed SmackDown because I just didn’t feel comfortable, I had a bad feeling about what happened. I no-showed SmackDown, kinda got in trouble, but then it got cleared after everything came out. I just didn’t wanna be part of it.
Personally, I don’t give a sh*t what wrestling matches he did or all this other stuff. I don’t care. The last thing he did, that sticks with me, so yeah.”
WWE stopped acknowledging Benoit after it was confirmed that he murdered his wife and son before committing suicide. To this day, he remains erased from the company’s history.
