Roundtable: Wrestling Deaths

What was the first wrestling death you remember?

Chad Gelfand: The first wrestling death that I remember vividly was Eddie Guerrero’s death in 2005. I was only 8 years old at the time.

Adam B. Yuro: Owen Hart, I was just getting into wrestling when he died.

David Gibb: Bulldog. I learned about his death when I heard Tom Tolbert discussing it on sports talk radio. I was in my dad’s 1989 Toyota Camry.

Devonte Grant: Eddie Guerrero.

John Corrigan: Miss Elizabeth. I stayed up every Saturday night for WWE Confidential and was stunned by the tragedy. Looking back, WWE’s coverage is so tabloid and gross, but at the time, I was hooked by the drama.

Jack Goodwillie: It was actually Chris Candido. I believe Candido died due to a blood clot stemming from knee surgery complications, but mind you this happened in spring 2005, back when I still believed everything I saw on TV. I was watching an episode of iMPACT on a random Friday after school, and in the main event, the Naturals, with an assist from their manager, the Blonde Bombshell himself, defeated America’s Most Wanted (one of the strongest booked teams in the history of TNA) to win the NWA Tag Team Titles. I remember Candido had a giant cast/brace on his leg, but it didn’t make me hate him any less for screwing AMW. As the show faded, the lasting image was a graphic: “In memory of Chris Candido, 1972-2005,” and in that moment, I began to feel a shred of sympathy for the bad guy for the first time ever (though certainly not the last). RIP Chris.

Anthony Mahalis: The earliest one I remember was Owen Hart. That was before I was watching wrestling full time. I was only 6 years old, but I remember my grandmom reading it aloud from the newspaper.

Which wrestling death hit you hardest?

Gelfand: Eddie’s death definitely hit me the hardest as he was one of my favorite wrestlers during that time. He had such a radiant personality, and it was very easy to connect with him. When he passed away, I was devastated.

Yuro: Eddie Guerrero. I had the haircut and everything. He was the man. Lie, Cheat, and Steal….my life moto (not really).

Gibb: Snuka. His death was basically him powdering on justice for the family of the woman he murdered.

Grant: Eddie Guerrero. I was very young when he passed. He always seemed so genuine and full of life, totally blindsided me.

Corrigan: Roddy Piper. I saw people tweeting about his passing, and I couldn’t believe it. I had just watched him one week prior defending Hogan on The Rich Eisen Show. I still kind of regret not approaching him during WrestleMania XXX weekend – he looked pissed and I was legit scared of the Rowdy One, even in his 60s.

Goodwillie: Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was, and is, my most admired wrestler. He was the first wrestler I continued to cheer for after he turned heel. As a kid, particularly in my pre-high school years, I was very shy and reserved. Through Eddie, I saw this charismatic personality I could only hope to become one day. I had a habit back then of going on WWE.com in the morning before I went to school to start my day out right, but on that Monday morning, I logged on to find that my favorite wrestler had suddenly passed away. Of course, I was not that privy to his struggles with addiction in the past, and really didn’t know until I read his book a year or two later. I was devastated, and it all came to a head on Raw that night when they did the 10-bell salute and saw some of his biggest rivals, Kurt Angle, JBL and Big Show, were in tears. I’m getting choked up watching it now.

Mahalis: Eddie Guerrero, no question. He is one of my all-time favorites, such a sad situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqR0Bossso4

Has a death ever made you consider stop watching?

Gelfand: If there were any death that made me consider not watching wrestling anymore, it would have to be Chris Benoit’s. Eddie Guerrero was among my favorite wrestlers, but Chris Benoit was my favorite wrestler. When the details surrounding the circumstances behind the death of Benoit and his family started to trickle out, I felt a sense of betrayal that my favorite wrestler at the time committed those horrendous crimes. Ultimately, I continued to watch, but I definitely had some conflicting emotions about wrestling in the aftermath.

Yuro: No, I am a fan through and through, but there were times I stopped watching due to other reasons.

Gibb: No, but certain deaths have made me rethink the way I watch matches and what sorts of matches I enjoy. For example, I used to really enjoy Mike Awesome matches because they were so out of control, but ten-plus years after his suicide, knowing what we do about CTE, I find him hard to watch.

Grant: I did stop watching for a little bit when Eddie Guerrero passed. His death hit me pretty hard.

Corrigan: No, but the depressing amount of wrestling deaths made me reconsider my childhood dream of performing. It looked like such fun as a kid, but as I got older and wiser toward everything that happened once the cameras were off, it seemed like a gamble not worth taking.

Goodwillie: When Eddie Guerrero passed, I anointed Chris Benoit as my new favorite wrestler. Big mistake. When Benoit passed, I felt some of the same things I felt at the time of Eddie’s death, but not for long. When the details came out surrounding Benoit’s death, and it did not take long, it made me borderline depressed. Two of the WWE’s most unique wrestlers, gone within the span of 18 months, and the circumstances on Benoit’s death did not help. Remember, this was national news for over a week, and if wrestling became stigmatized during the Attitude Era, just imagine the stigma post-Benoit.

Mahalis: No, I don’t really see what that would accomplish. If anything, I think continuing to watch may help you get over a tough time.

Which death had the biggest impact on the industry?

Gelfand: Chris Benoit’s death had the biggest impact on the industry and is one of the biggest black eyes in wrestling history. The Benoit murder-suicide lead to stricter enforcement of the company’s drug testing policy to discussions on the impact of head injuries and the effects of CTE, these conversations have remained relevant in the wrestling industry as well as the NFL.

Yuro: Again, I am going to have to go with Eddie Guerrero. Wrestling hasn’t been the same since he passed.

Gibb: The Chris Benoit double-murder/suicide actually forced WWE to confront the performance enhancing/recreational drug culture that had dominated wrestling since the 1980s, as well as the culture of big bumps that emerged in the ’90s. If not for the deaths of Benoit and his family, today’s WWE roster would look and wrestle markedly differently.

Grant: I think Chris Benoit’s death had the largest impact. The nature of it and the circumstances really changed how many people viewed wrestling and the wrestling industry itself. So many things are done differently now.

Corrigan: Chris Benoit. He single-handedly almost tore down WWE’s empire, and put an entire industry in the hot seat for weeks. Friends and relatives who didn’t know a wristlock from a wristwatch were telling me all their theories, and it was such a dark time to be a fan.

Goodwillie: I sort of wish I was mentioning more names, as we’ve lost a lot of great entertainers and great people over the years. But in the case of guys like Macho Man, Dusty, Piper, Bruno, etc., they were a little before my time and their deaths came after they made their mark on the business as opposed to during. Owen Hart, to my recollection is the only wrestler to die in the ring, but it didn’t really change much about how WWE did business. Chris Benoit’s death did. Vince McMahon said in the Andre the Giant documentary mentioned he has a mechanism to get rid of bad memories very quickly. The WWE had a reputation to salvage, and responded to the Benoit double-murder suicide by ramping up wellness regulations and erasing him from the record books. Some, to this day, dispute the Benoit incident, and the truth is facts are sparse. While I won’t comment any further on that, I have over the years been able to separate the talent from the man he allegedly became, though recognize this won’t be the case for everyone.

Mahalis: I think that would probably be Chris Benoit. That gruesome situation made people look at WWE in a different way. I think outsiders had to start taking a deeper dive into the effects that wrestling could have on severe head injuries. Though, I believe it to be really unfair to blame WWE for what happened with Benoit.

If you could have extended the life of one wrestler, who would it have been?

Gelfand: I’m torn between Eddie Guerrero and Owen Hart. Both men passed away far too young, and they still had a lot to offer the world. Owen’s death is especially devastating because it was so easily preventable, so it makes his death all of the more tragic.

Yuro: I sound like a broken record at this point, but Eddie Guerrero. I would have loved to see him go against some of today’s talent.

Gibb: If I had some kind of magic god wand, I’d go back in time and prevent Brian Pillman’s car accident, which I’m confident would extend his life by decades (even though it wasn’t directly his cause of death). Imagine a healthy Flyin’ Brian getting to the WWF in 1996!

Grant: By now, I think you realize Eddie was one of my favorites. Imagine Eddie vs. Shawn Michaels, or better yet, Eddie vs a heel Shinsuke Nakamura. I can see Eddie having a role similar to Chris Jericho’s now, in his late 40s/early 50s, but still in amazing shape and putting on great matches. Eddie vs Naito, I can go on and on. Also Owen Hart left us way too soon, he had so much potential. Same with Davey Boy Smith, so many to name.

Corrigan: Umaga. He’s one of my all-time favorites and I used to play as him all the time in Raw vs. Smackdown 2007. Whether he was Jamal in 3-Minute Warning or the Samoan Bulldozer, he captivated me as a teenager. At 36 years old, he had so much more to offer the world.

Goodwillie: Eddie Guerrero died in his prime, and had he lived, he could have gone down in the legitimate conversation with guys like Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels (though I won’t hesitate to rank him there personally). As I became smarter to wrestling in later years, I began to formulate the things that I like and look for in good wrestling matches and I remember being so thrilled to find that Eddie, to me, is the patron saint of what a WWE wrestler ought to be: technically sound, charismatic, innovative, with the full spectrum of facial expressions and a desire to routinely take risks in the name of entertainment. Today, he would be 50 years old and his versatility could fill any backstage void the WWE could want, be it road agent, color commentator or Performance Center trainer.

Mahalis: I can’t really say. Guerrero, Benoit, Owen Hart, and many others had their lives and careers tragically cut short. I would have loved to see any of these men still able to lace them up.