Benoit Tragedy - the final word [View All]

Well, the tox reports are in:

- Let the word go through the land. Chris Benoit was NOT using steroids. His tox results were completely clean. For all you lazy assholes in TV land, that mean's this could not possibly have been a roid rage incident.

- Benoit was found to contain "theraputic" levels of testosterone (i.e. the kind of level you get from legitimate medical use which jibes with Dr. Astin's story), a couple of commercial painkillers and Xanax (prescribed).

- The body of Nancy Benoit was found to contain the same commercial painkillers and Xanax. Plus a small amount of alcohol (although the coroner pointed out that decomposition makes that unreliable).

- Daniel's body was found to contain Xanax too. Since Xanax was not prescribed to Daniel and is not normally prescribed to children, it is the coroner's opinion that Daniel was sedated at the time of his murder.

- The WWE, having spent much of the last month being accused of routine steroid abuse, are understandably crowing about this since it proves their drug-testing program works. A little gloating on their part is slightly unsporting but understandable in the circumstances. However, WWE could also think about how one of their workers could slip over the edge without anyone noticing and should consider adding psychological counselling to their "Wellness Program".

- Debra Marshall, Marc Mero and Jim Hellwig, we expect you to shut the fuck up now.

- Word is gradually leaking out that Benoit's closest friends (such as Chris Jericho) have suspected Benoit to have been struggling with mental issues for the last year or so. What seems likely is that those issues were either touched off or exacerbated by the sudden death of Eddie Guerrero (one of Benoit's closest friends) in November 2005.

In short, there was NOTHING in Benoit's system which would have explained the murder of his family but there might well have been something in his mind which would. This wasn't roid rage. As far as we can tell, this was a very sick man on a downward spiral who finally reached the end of his rope.

Hopefully, this will now be the end of the Benoit saga. May they all rest.