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| AFTERMATH OF TRAGEDY |
| There have been many varying stories that have resulted since the news broke, and we are working on outlining each item and dissecting them to paint a clear picture of the truth as we know it. FRAGILE X SYNDROME One of the biggest misconceptions throughout this ordeal has been the allegations that WWE first claimed that Daniel Benoit had a genetic disorder related to autism known as Fragile X Syndrome, which, being an X chromosome disorder, could only have been passed on to Daniel through Nancy. However, in all fairness to WWE, they did not, although they do have egg on their face for taking it and running with it the way they did. The story about this originating from a woman in Delta, British Columbia, Canada, a suburb of Vancouver. In a June 26, 2007, article that first appeared on 1130 AM from Vancouver, Pam Winthrope claimed her husband had contacted Chris Benoit a few years back, with the discussion being about both of their sons having Fragile X. As the story went across the world the following day, Jerry McDevitt, attorney for WWE, and some colleagues of Chris Benoit, began speaking as though Daniel indeed suffered from the condition. Many of Benoit's closest friends were stating they had no knowledge of this, though when the symptoms of Fragile X were explained, several agreed that Daniel appeared to show some of them. Within the next several days, as the mainstream media began using that as a major theme within the story, causing much speculation that this was perhaps an underlying motive of Benoit’s actions. Several days later, Nancy's parents Paul and Maureen Toffoloni released a statement through their attorney Richard Decker challenging the assertion that Daniel was impaired in any way. When questioned, Daniel's teachers agreed that he showed no evidence of impairment. Once the family had spoken out, the story seemed to die down, and further discussion with Winthrope revealed that her husband had died since the alleged conversations with Benoit, leaving no avenue to pursue the inquiry. Upon the disclosure of the autopsy and toxicology reports, it was learned that there was no way to determine if Daniel or Nancy carried the gene for Fragile X, as live cells would have been needed for the DNA testing. WIKIPEDIA POSTING and ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE By June 28, 2007, a story had spread like wildfire regarding an edit made on Wikipedia, whereas the time stamp of the post appeared before the discovery of the bodies of the Benoit family, mentioning that Chris Benoit had not been at the Pay Per View WWE event on June 24, because his wife had died. This story took on a life of its own, and the mainstream media grabbed on and ran with it, even beyond the debunking of the theory that someone within WWE must have had advance knowledge of the deaths. In all fairness to the media, the edit did come from an IP address in Stamford, CT, home of WWE headquarters, and was made at 12:26 AM ET on Monday, June 25, about 14 hours prior to authorities entering the Benoit home to find all three bodies. It was determined that the post had been made by an individual in Stamford unconnected to WWE, who had a past history of vandalizing Wikipedia articles with spurious posts and had just happened to hit upon what actually happened in this case, and who then confessed, the confession issuing from the same IP address as the posts. Still, even after authorities had investigated the matter and disregarded it as a complete coincidence, as well as an explanation from the Wikipedia editor and Dave Meltzer, who had been falsely credited as the source of the information, the media would not let it go. Finally, nearly a week after the matter had been handled, the story finally died out, as it should have many days earlier. It has also been suggested by some theorists that people within WWE had prior knowledge because of the text messages Benoit sent to people within the company. However, that seems to have been proven false as well. TRIBUTE SHOW The tribute show which was broadcast live a few hours after the discovery of the bodies on June 25, WWE made a decision to scrap the original plans and cancel the live event, which was to be a mock ‘Whodunnit’ to seek the killer of Mr. McMahon, Vince McMahon’s on-air persona. Considering what authorities found that afternoon, had the WWE went on as planned, that perhaps would have been in worse taste than any decision to have broadcast a three-hour tribute show to Chris Benoit. As hindsight is always 20/20, the media attacked WWE for airing the tribute. However, in all fairness to WWE, no one within the company appeared to have known about the grisly details at the time the tribute idea was hatched, as they reported to have been planned around 5:00 PM, about an hour after they had been contacted about the deaths. However, that was until a question was raised on July 7 by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, which pondered how he heard from someone within WWE around 6:15 PM ET that it had appeared the company had already been told by authorities that they suspected Benoit had killed Nancy and Daniel prior to taking his own life. To reiterate, WWE denied knowledge of investigators suspicions, but it appears they had enough reason to not air the tribute. Most certainly airing the planned show was not in good taste, but if they indeed knew prior to 8:00 PM ET that night, something else entirely could have been shown, such as highlights from a previous PPV show. To reiterate further and clarify, this does not suggest that WWE had any advance knowledge of the deaths prior to investigators entering the home on June 25. DANIEL BENOIT FOUND IN A BAG and NANCY KILLED DANIEL A scenario that the body of Daniel Benoit had been found in a plastic bag broke almost immediately, though it was quickly debunked by the investigators. It was also rumored that Nancy had killed Daniel, resulting in Chris snapping and killing her. However, the medical examiners ruled this out upon initial studies to determine time of death, which showed Nancy died first, Daniel second, and Chris last. The latter rumor seems to have spawned on a message board and grew legs of its own for about a day or so. It may have simply been someone trying to reason how Chris could murder his own son, and perhaps someone else took it as truth and spread it around, much the same fashion as the aforementioned Wikipedia edit which began in a chatroom. CHRIS KILLED DANIEL WITH THE CRIPPLER CROSSFACE This story caused an immediate reaction, much of it decrying it as 'media speculation' and 'sensationalism'. However, the facts of the matter are that the authorities were confused after the autopsy by the bruising pattern on Daniel's body, which showed bruises on the left arm and the face, and no external bruising to the neck. One of the police officers subsequently watched footage of Benoit wrestling and saw him apply his finishing maneuver, the Crippler Crossface, a combination arm scissors and cross-facelock, and immediately recognized the similarity. The D.A., fearing an increase in media sensationalism if it were known that Benoit had used an application of his professional wrestling finishing hold to kill his son, for the next few days publicly referred to it as a 'chokehold'. CHRIS RUSHED HOME FOR A FAMILY EMERGENCY Early reports, ad some still, show Chris rushing home from a WWE tour on a family emergency. However, the last WWE show prior to the deaths was on June 19, and the next scheduled event was June 23. Chris would have most likely come home immediately from the Charlotte event on June 19 or at least by the following morning. The term “family emergency” in regard to Benoit seems to have been born from the ring announcer at the PPV on June 24, whereas it was referenced prior to the match in which Benoit had been slated to appear, it was explained he was not in attendance due to a family emergency. WWE STOCK and RATINGS Click here to see the history for TV ratings for WWE's RAW, ECW, and SmackDown, and TNA's iMPACT, as well as daily stock prices for WWE. Also included are ratings from WCW for Nitro and Thunder. This database dates back to the week WWE became a publicly traded company in October 1999. We will update on a weekly basis to keep a running history in that file for you to utilize for your own comparisons and trend analysis. |
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