R.I.P. Rabid Wolverine & Family

[Hawk Daddy]

I agree rot in pieces, he killed his kid not cool.  And if you pay tribute to him then you should deserve the same fate. I don't care what was wrong with him mentally.  Because what ever he did was a result of the stuff that he did to his self. And so as they say he brought it on him self.

Hawk

[AtomSmasher]

I don't see anything wrong with the title, theres nothing wrong with hoping someone you once admired finds the peace in death that they did not have in life, even if they did commit such an atrocity.  Besides, if you believe in hell, then you know he won't be finding the peace he was looking for since suicide is the one sin it's impossible to ask forgiveness for.

[RTSDaddy2]

The latest from Atlanta:

US National NewsLawyer: Benoit Doctor Will Be Charged
By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writer
5 hours ago

ATLANTA - The personal doctor of pro wrestler Chris Benoit will turn himself in Monday to face federal charges in connection with a federal drug probe, the physician's attorney said.

Attorney Manny Arora would not say to say what charges were involved.

Federal drug agents have taken over the probe into whether Dr. Phil Astin improperly prescribed testosterone and other drugs to Benoit before he killed his wife and son and committed suicide in his suburban Atlanta home last month. State prosecutors and sheriff's officials are overseeing the death investigation.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta, Patrick Crosby, declined to say Monday whether federal prosecutors were planning any criminal charges.

Investigators have conducted two raids at Astin's west Georgia office since last week.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just hope they nail the WWE as well.  A local sports spot was saying that 60 wrestlers have died in the last 10 years as a result of steroid related conditions.  That's 6 a year - and whatever the industry is or isn't, that is just unacceptable.

[ChadTower]

Yeah, that was a couple days ago.  They've also raided the guy's mother's house and as of yesterday afternoon the doctor was preparing to turn himself in.

I don't think they'll have anything to nail the WWE on.  Those numbers, while bad, aren't all WWE.  Most of them weren't ever WWE employees and some others were former WWE employees.  They're tossing in guys who died of car accidents and other obvious causes (Yokozuna was 700 freakin pounds).  Not to say the WWE doesn't share actual accountability for the culture but I don't see much they're going to get them on legally.

The latest twist is that they can't find any evidence (outside of the body) that the kid actually had Fragile X.  There is also news that the DEA was investigating Benoit before he died.


EDIT:  just checking today's updates now... wow.  There is no way he was taking this many himself.  He'd be crippled.

"Dr. Astin has been identified as prescrbing on average a 10-month supply of anabolic steroids to Mr. Benoit every 3 to 4 weeks from May 4, 2006 to May 9, 2007.

[CCM]

I wonder if Benoit was supplying other wrestlers?  That would account for the DEA investigation.

[ChadTower]

From what I'm seeing at this point, he was tagged as an excessive purchaser, but not (yet?) as a distributor.  Wouldn't surprise me at all if he was giving them out to others.  There are a couple others also IDed as excessive purchasers that could be wrestlers but the names aren't out there yet.


EDIT:  Ooop... one of those two others may be Rey Mysterio.

[shardian]

EDIT:  Ooop... one of those two others may be Rey Mysterio.

He's been named in the steroids probe a few months ago. I can't believe him of all people would do roids. WTF was he thinking?? I used to be a big fan of his, but when he hit the wwf, I lost interest in him.

[ChadTower]

If you look at the size difference between when he was in ECW/WCW and shortly after he hit WWE, it was obvious.  He put on a lot of upper bodyweight very quickly, enough of it that he lost a good amount of the athletic ability that made him the best cruiserweight of his generation.

Plus, a lot of the benefit is healing duration, and Mysterio has been injured a lot.

[ChadTower]

MSNBC is now reporting on the word within the wrestling industry the past week that Chris Benoit took out a new life insurance policy, found by Nancy, with listed his ex-wife and oldest two children as beneficiaries, and Chris refused to change it when confronted.

 

EDIT:  Mark Jindrak's name has surfaced as possibly being in the Doctor's records as well.  That dude was juiced like a grapefruit.

[ChadTower]

Now there are reports that the doctor may have been overprescribing for Johnny Grunge... who died last year.

[alomar721]

any new info out there 

[ChadTower]

The story really slowed down.  Mostly just the media going on and on about steroids in wrestling and ignoring the ridiculously Ozzy level of recreational drug use, which is what is really killing these guys.

[ChadTower]

New reported customers of Benoit's doctor:

Lex Luger
Buff Bagwell
Bob Holly

Three BIG guys.

[FrizzleFried]

The one photo I saw of the doctors office early on showed a pretty dingy nasty office complex ... not the type of place you would expect a Doctor's office.

[RTSDaddy2]

I'll agree with Frizzle on that 100 percent....if I made an appointment with this "doctor" and got there to find that....I'd be running the other way, and I'd dare  ANY of you to try and catch me.

To quote Lewis Grizzard, "If that man's a doctor, my dog's a Ph damn D."

[CCM]

I'll agree with Frizzle on that 100 percent....if I made an appointment with this "doctor" and got there to find that....I'd be running the other way, and I'd dare  ANY of you to try and catch me.

To quote Lewis Grizzard, "If that man's a doctor, my dog's a Ph damn D."

I would bet that the wrestlers in question never actually visited his office. 

[ChadTower]

Benoit was there the day before he killed his wife.

[CCM]

some updates:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/17/wrestler.murder.ap/index.html

[ChadTower]

What a crappy story.  It leaves out statements made such as "An elevation of that ratio doesn't translate into something abnormal in their behavior" and "the drug levels were at normal therapeutic levels for someone in pain".

What is far more important, IMO, is that they also said that they cannot test for Fragile X post-mortem.  That means we'll never know for sure if the kid had Fragile X.

[ChadTower]

So, after going through reports a bit more, this is what I take out of it as key:

Daniel was sedated when killed with a drug that would never be given a child (Xanax).

Chris was found to have hydrocodone at therapeutic levels.  As a pro wrestler, a standard painkiller is expected.  He was found to have Xanax (antidepressant) at standard levels.  That is to be expected of a man with low testosterone levels.  He was found to have a high enough test-epitest ratio that he had to have been injecting testosterone.  That goes hand in hand with depression and is the expected pattern for someone who had used anabolic steroids over the long haul.  When not taking them, testosterone levels are very low, and injected testosterone is the solution.  Plus he had a prescription for injectable testosterone.  No evidence of "other" steroids or GHB in his urine.

Sounds like he had been off the juice for a while and was dealing with low testosterone, physical pain, and depression.  To me, what this says, is that while the long term use of steroids was a contributory factor, it would be no more of a factor than stress, untreated concussions, exhaustion, possibly Daniel's condition, marital problems, etc... the guy just lost his mind.  Maybe the media will pick that up and go with it but I suspect that they will ignore the story now that they can't spin a sexy steroids bowtie onto it.

There is a secondary issue, though, that may not be as easy to see.  He was getting a ten month supply every 4 weeks... if that wasn't in his body, and wasn't in his house, who was he giving them to?

[NightGod]

Sounds like he had been off the juice for a while and was dealing with low testosterone, physical pain, and depression.  To me, what this says, is that while the long term use of steroids was a contributory factor, it would be no more of a factor than stress, untreated concussions, exhaustion, possibly Daniel's condition, marital problems, etc... the guy just lost his mind.  Maybe the media will pick that up and go with it but I suspect that they will ignore the story now that they can't spin a sexy steroids bowtie onto it.

Investigators said Tuesday they found steroids and other drugs in the body of pro wrestler Chris Benoit, who killed his wife and young son last month before hanging himself in the family's home.



Umm...what was that?

[ChadTower]

Bad reporting.  Read the actual press conference and not summarized reports.

Other drugs:  Xanax and hydrocodone.

Steroids:  no. 
Injected testosterone:  yes.

The two are not the same.

[ChadTower]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3560015&page=1

The tests, conducted by Julian Bailes of the Sports Legacy Institute, show that Benoit's brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient.

Bailes and his research team say that this damage was the result of a lifetime of chronic concussions and head trauma suffered while Benoit was in the wrestling ring.

This is what was always my first instinct on this... dude was brain damaged.  It was always obvious his wrestling style was going to kill him eventually... way way way too much self inflicted head and neck trauma.  No one saw coming what actually happened, though.

[abrannan]

Mental Note:  Stop delivering flying headbutts off the top rope.


An interesting twist on a case that will likely never get the media attention it should. 

[billf]

An interesting twist on a case that will likely never get the media attention it should. 

Do you want more coverage or less?  This latest news has already made it through the cable news channels this morning.

[ChadTower]

I think at least as much as that diving headbutt, the is the result of the fact that he used to take chairshots to the back of the head.  Few wrestlers will allow that.  The Germans didn't help, either, as he slammed the back of his own head down with serious force on every one of them.

[abrannan]

An interesting twist on a case that will likely never get the media attention it should. 

Do you want more coverage or less?  This latest news has already made it through the cable news channels this morning.

My point exactly.  One readthrough and they're done with it.  Meanwhile, we'll continue to see stories from his "doctor" and the other athletes he's been prescribing various substances to for the next few months.  The real issues of repeated concussions and what they do to the brain will continue to linger on the back burner.  Steroids are the media darling, not concussions.







Unless, of course, Troy Aikman ends up with dementia and kills someone, too.

[billf]

An interesting twist on a case that will likely never get the media attention it should. 

Do you want more coverage or less?  This latest news has already made it through the cable news channels this morning.

My point exactly.  One readthrough and they're done with it.  Meanwhile, we'll continue to see stories from his "doctor" and the other athletes he's been prescribing various substances to for the next few months.  The real issues of repeated concussions and what they do to the brain will continue to linger on the back burner.  Steroids are the media darling, not concussions.







Unless, of course, Troy Aikman ends up with dementia and kills someone, too.

Not the reports I saw today.  They didn't stick with only the steroids issue completely.  There were actually some in depth reports about the concussions and bruising of the brain over a period of time.  So I don't think, at least at this point, that it is all steriods and only steriods.

[ChadTower]

Given the number of guys I've known that were heavily juiced over long periods, and how zero of them have done something like this, I'm still thoroughly convinced it was mostly a product of brain damage combined with the fact that his two best friends died suddenly within a very short span.  He couldn't cope and didn't have the brain capacity to deal.

[shardian]

Slowly but surely, concussion syndrome is coming to the forefront of discussion topics in contact sports. The NFL has tried to downplay it for years, but people are paying attention now.

[RTSDaddy2]

I believe it is stated above, but while I didn't find it surprising knowing his wrestling style, it stunned me when I heard his brain looked like that of an 85 year old man (I am not a scientist nor a doctor, had no idea that would happen over time). 

That he killed his kid, and Nancy, I do not condone....but knowing this now, how badly destroyed the man's mind was, I will go back to what I said earlier in these posts.  I do feel sorry for the guy at the same time. 

I bring this up again here due to the fact that they say Chris' brain looked like an Alzheimer's patient as well.  I am watching Alzheimer's and Parkinson's eat away at my own father's brain and body as I've said on here, and it's hard.  In addition to this, he lost his middle brother to cancer back in the Spring - Dad is now the last living member of his family and that's got to suck.  Mom is physically unable to take care of him; he just sits and stares out the window of the nursing home when we visit, never calls Mom, my wife, my sister or myself by name....talks about his fear of the kudzu outside his window getting into the building...the only thing that seems to light him up is when we take our daughter to see him (he can recall her name still, it's recent history).  Problem there is I don't want her last memories of her Poppi to be frightful ones.

An example - now our little girl did not notice this, but Dad was going to be helpful and help her blow her balloon back up the other day...and his mouth was trembling so he could not even blow air into the balloon.

I didn't mean to go off thread to that extent, nor imply that we're the only family to ever go through this.  Just been a hard year around here.

So to wrap it up and try to bring it back on course, for those of you who condemned him to hell without knowing the amount of brain damage, I don't resent what you said - he did kill his child.  Knowing, however, that dementia had set in - in all probability - I will say again while I don't condone what he did  I do feel sorry for him in a way....because in all likelihood, at that moment in time, he did not have the mental capacity to even realize what he was doing....he just snapped.