The latest episode of VICE’s Dark Side of the Ring documentary series aired tonight, once again covering the story of Chris Benoit and its effect on the world of wrestling. In the documentary, Chris Jericho spoke on Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, and said that the case surrounding Benoit nearly destroyed the wrestling business as a whole.
According to Jericho, the legacy of Guerrero is filled with acclaim, while when it comes to Benoit, it’s almost taboo to ever bring him up. Speaking on that, Jericho noted how Benoit doing what he did nearly destroyed everything that he ever loved, leaving everyone that knew him questioning why he did it.
“One’s legacy is acclaimed [Eddie] and one’s is buried so that you almost can’t say his name. If you would have told Chris that when you die, your body of work is going to be erased from existence forever, it would’ve broke his heart because of something he said once. ‘The critics are the critics, but if you have the respect of your peers then nothing else matters.’ So to find out that he would have lost the respect, not only of his friends but his family, I don’t think he ever wanted that.
“It almost took down the whole business—and that’s another thing—what Chris did almost destroyed the only thing he ever loved, from a professional standpoint. The only thing he ever loved, professional wrestling, Chris Benoit almost destroyed it. That would’ve torn him apart as well. So it leads us around to ‘why did he do it?’ and I don’t think anyone’s ever going to be able to answer that question.”
