a quality whereby Benoit, in the middle of a non-wrestling dialogue in a group situation, was prone to zoning out without warning. Later, struggling to make sense of Chrisâs murderous rampage, Graham remembered that a lot of the guys called Benoit âthe zombie.â
Another wrestling colleague who puzzled over Benoit was Chris Masters, who put it this way: âTo be perfectly honest, I respected the hell out of Chris Benoit for being the man that he was, but there was always an intense energy coming from him every time I shook his hand. It made for sometimes short and awkward conversations.â
On CNN âs
Nancy Grace
, fellow Canadian wrestler Chris Jericho described Benoit as âalmost a tale of two cities, a tale of two people. There is the Chris Benoit that had these horrendous acts of extreme psychopathic lunacy in the last couple days of his life, and then thereâs the Benoit that I myself traveled with, lived with, said âI love youâ to on many occasions. He was my mentor. He was one of my best friends. And he was a brother to me in so many ways. And the fifteen years I knew him and the two days that he decided to do these horrible, horrible acts, itâs hard to kind of discern the two. And thatâs why we have to figure out what would cause such a mild-mannered, polite, influential, tremendous person and performer to do such things.â
Jericho called Benoit âa very quiet man but not a recluse and not a hermit, just quiet. He minded his own business, but he was always around. If there was a joke, he would laugh. And of all the years I was with him, I never once saw anything â if there was a fight â if I went nuts and wanted to beat somebody up, he was the guy that would contain me. And a lot of people can tell you that.â
Journalist Dave Meltzer also had a nuanced view of Benoit. He considered being accessible to his fans his own important responsibility, and when Meltzer launched an Internet radio show in 1999 , Benoit was his first on-air guest. âChris was uncomfortable and distant, but was very nice and a good listener to those he knew,â Meltzer said. âI think he was someone who was always thinking and a very private person. He definitely needed to be by himself and didnât like being social at times. He internalized a lot. He was
not
a âdumb jockâ type.â
One factor in Chris and Nancyâs isolation from the Peachtree City circle was that, even back then, they had a habit of breaking out in operatic public fights that embarrassed those around them. Nancy had a sharp tongue, especially when she was boozed or pilled up, and she hit all of Chrisâs buttons. Their friends were hardly surprised when, in June 2003 , Nancy filed for divorce and was granted a temporary restraining order based on an April incident in which Chris, according to Nancyâs court papers, âlost his temper and threatened to strike the petitioner and cause extensive damage to the home and personal belongings of the parties, including furniture.â In August, they reconciled and Chris moved back in.
* * *
If Chris wasnât a hermit before he lost his twin anchors of Eddie Guerrero and Johnny Grunge, he became one afterwards. The Benoits built a sprawling new house, in the classic Federal style, at the edge of Fayetteville. They didnât even bother to secure a purchaser for the Peachtree house before moving to the new one â partly because the housing market was in a slump and they didnât need the cash, and partly because Chris wanted nothing more than to wall himself off in a gated mansion, as quickly as possible.
In addition to eschewing wrestlersâ funerals, Chris renounced religion. Or maybe he swore by it as much as at it â the distinction wasnât clear. Nancy took him to counseling sessions with their pastor, George Dillard of the Peachtree City Christian Church. Together, husband and wife read the
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