(NOTE: Nothing's gone forever--here's Google's cached page with WWE's version of Benoit's bio. Fuck you, Vince McMahon, for trying to pretend a man who made you millions of dollars never existed.)
One of the biggest sound bites being shouted from the headlines is that over 60 wrestlers under age 65 have died since 1985. For those who give a shit, there's a list posted at this link from About.com's wrestling section. Unfortunately there wasn't a hell of a lot of hard information about how the men and women on that list met their end. Thanks to Pat Imig at JoeSportsFan.com for putting that list and the lives it represents in perspective at his site.
Mr. Imig makes other points about this group of people, the most telling one being that the reporting that's been done in this vein hasn't been placed into perspective.
I'd like to do that.
Let's look at another group of prominent folks who seem to die off far too young--famous musicians. One site lists 321 famous rockers who have died, with an average age at death of 36.9 years, while another has a list so extensive that it's catalogued in several different ways.
I sat and compared these lists.
Maybe it's just my personal opinion but each list mirrors the other more often than not. I was looking at two lists of people who became famous while young. Both these groups contained ordinary people who had extraordinary talents that pushed them from obscurity to stardom in the blink of an eye. Both groups were full of men and women who experienced radical changes in lifestyle...I could go on forever but again I'll spare you. My point is that no matter how these people died, whether or not we approve of how they died, we did NOT discard them the second they failed to draw breath.
Layne Staley was stupid enough to mix heroin and cocaine (not to mention touching either fucking one), but that doesn't mean I'm deleting my copy of "Man in the Box" from my iPod. Freddie Mercury died of a disease that screamed "Gay Male" at a time when being out was far from accepted, but I don't know a soul who's quit listening to Queen. I'm fortunate to have access to the legacy of each and every one of these souls who departed Earth too soon, and no matter how many damned times my AC-DC albums are stolen, I'll still go buy yet another copy and save the anger for the asshole who rips off my tunes, not for Bon Scott because he drank himself to death.
What's more, who's to say that every person on the lists of dead rock stars died innocently? Where can it be shown that none caused harm or killed either as they died or by things they'd done in life? Two other lives were lost the weekend Benoit died, lives that the jury of public opinion is conveniently blaming a dead man for. As far as I'm concerned, that's not any more proven than the innocence or guilt of a pile of dead rock stars and will wait for facts before jumping to conclusions.
Chris Benoit still gave us all some hellaciously great wrestling. The man who's often been called the best technical wrestler ever doesn't deserve to be obliterated and discredited, his existence and his work hidden by a corporate machine too ashamed to admit its own part in what happens to its employees, his fans discarding every moment he made them jump out of chairs to yell encouragement at their television screens on the basis of muckraking and wild-assed guessing.
I miss a lot of people in this world. Some I knew well; others I was just lucky enough to listen to or watch. Regardless of what the facts reveal, Chris Benoit stays firmly on that list. His death does not have the power to rewrite his life, no matter how many loud-mouthed shitheads try to make it so.
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10 comments:
You make some excellent points we should all remember whenever, whatever the media reports.
I've never had much respect for Vince McMahon. There's just too many stories of wrestlers he's screwed, Brett Hart being the most obvious. While I cannot condone what Benoit may have done, as you said, that doesn't take away his accomplishments. I wouldn't blame the WWE for focusing on his career and not the circumstances around his death. But to essentially disown him and try to erase his existance is plain wrong.
Vince McMahon sucks.
BTW, I check on that list of names and found out what wrestlers who I know died of. About half were heart attacks. There were car accidents, cancer, and drug overdoses.
In other words, if these guys weren't celebreties, no one would notice, as people die of these things every day. And I was looking at the "old timers" from the 80s, who I'm sure were not abusing steroids. Of the relatively "modern" wrestlers, most deaths were of the statistical variety, or just a product of a hard lifestyle.
right on!
right on!
goldennib--Too right. Too often I hear "Well I heard it on X network or read it in Y paper" but that doesn't make it so, nor does it make whatever was seen or read impartial. Not everyone remembers that.
sydwynd--Yep, Vinnie Mac sucks--dirty green donkey dicks with oozing red sores. You're right again about the causes of death on all those lists--if those people weren't household names the publicity would be limited to the obituary page.
Sir Jorge--Thank you Sir, I'm honored.
~applause~
You speak true, my friend. and very well spoken, as usual.
Thank you for the linky love! It has been returned. :) (or at least, will be within the next few minutes! :D)
I have always thought that the sport of wrestling can take its toll on those men both physically and mentally. Most men don't bulk up like that on their own and that medication can do incredibly destructive things on one's body and brain.
And you're right about Vince McMahon. He's a total loud-mouthed jackass. He would sell his own mother for a dime bag of pot if he could.
What a shame that suddenly Benoit was made "invisible." Very disrespectful.
It looks like fame has a price doesn't it?
Thanks for the comment. I am really tired of people that don't know anything about wrestling jumping on the bandwagon to bash it.
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