WWE News: Chris Benoit’s Son Attends WWE Event Saturday Night In Edmonton
David Benoit, the son of the late Chris Benoit, attended the WWE live show last night in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. After the show, Benoit reportedly spent some time with Chris Jericho, one of his father’s best friends. Jericho posted about his evening with the young Benoit on his official Instagram account.
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David Benoit, now 22 years old, bears a striking resemblance to his father, as the picture above shows. He is the oldest of two children that Chris Benoit had with his first wife, Martina Benoit. The marriage also produced a daughter, Megan, who is now 17. Chris and Martina Benoit divorced in 1997.
Following the end of his first marriage, Chris went on to marry Nancy Benoit (known as “Woman” during her time as a WCW manager) on November 23, 2000. Chris and Nancy’s only son, Daniel, was born on February 25, 2000. In June 2007, one of the most tragic events in professional wrestling history happened when Chris murdered Daniel and Nancy before taking his own life. Research on Chris’ brain concluded that he had suffered from years of traumatic brain injury, and many believe that numerous concussions Chris suffered over the years lead to his breakdown and the horrific murders. The Sports Legacy Institute concluded that Benoit’s brain resembled that of an Alzheimer’s patient at the time of his death. There has continued to be much debate on how far the WWE should go in recognizing or ignoring Benoit’s past accomplishments in the company.
As recently as last spring, there were rumors that David Benoit could be entering the wrestling business himself. He was being advertised by Smith Hart (Bret’s older brother) to wrestle his first match, tag teaming with Chavo Guerrero, Jr., at a 2014 Hart Legacy wrestling event in Calgary, but the match was cancelled.
A report by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter at the time noted that the match was cancelled due to Chris Jericho contacting Smith Hart, furious at them advertising David for the show. Benoit had not been trained to wrestle at the time, and Smith more or less advertised him as a publicity stunt to gain interest the show. Chavo, in his defense, had been told that David had been through wrestling training. According to Meltzer, Smith Hart told Jericho that David wasn’t going to wrestle after all, they had just planned on using him in a storyline on the show. Even so, Jericho insisted that Hart Legacy remove David from the show, and that is what happened.
David has dabbled with wrestling school in the past, but he has not followed through with training. He once enrolled at Lance Storm’s school, but he reportedly did not show up for the first day of class. Even so, Benoit claims to have spoken with the WWE about wrestling in the future, and he also says that the WWE told him they would have no problem using the Benoit name again.
“For all you dirtsheets out there and all you fans, it was at a show in Edmonton, two years ago, I sat down in the production office, talking to one of the writers, they said ‘Yup, we’ll use the Benoit name again. We could do a lot with it.’ There’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
It remains to be seen whether or not David will follow through on entering the wrestling business. Given his family’s tragic past, it could be an uphill climb for the young Benoit. That being said, his father was one of the most talented wrestlers of his generation, so he also would seem to have the genetics for success.
[Image via Instagram]
