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In the wake of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide and its aftermath, there is easily a plethora of topics that can be researched and written about in books. There is everything from steroid abuse, the rigors of a professional wrestling career, concussions, employee/employer responsibility, concussions and just about anything else under the sun. Author Scott Keith decides to do a broad generalization of all these topics and takes what could have been a stirring study of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide and its relation to the Hart Family Curse and instead fails every step of the way.
Each of the eight chapters covering the lives and deaths (except for one wrestler) of Chris Benoit, Bret Hart (the one), Stu Hart, The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & Tom “Dynamite Kid” Billington), Brian Pillman, Owen Hart and The Von Erich Family (Kevin, Mike, Kerry, David, Chris and Fritz) all follow the same formulaic pattern. That pattern is a few pages discussing the wrestler or wrestlers career prior to their death, followed by an explanation of their deaths and ending with a few lines demonizing the world of professional wrestling.
Also, on a quick note, I must wonder who the editor of the book was, because the author spelled out Brian Pillman’s last name as P-I-L-L-M-”U”-N, there is supposed to be an “A” instead of a “U.”
Throughout the book, Scott Keith seemingly has it out for Vince McMahon and the WWE, basically holding Vince McMahon and his company responsible for most of the deaths associated with professional wrestlers. Keith then takes aim at the various drug policies the WWE has had all the way up to the current WWE Wellness Policy, seemingly taking great pride in their independent failures while never making mention of their successes.
The second to last chapter focuses on twenty four deaths involving professional wrestlers like Eddie Guerrero, Road Warrior Hawk, Terry Gordy, Curt Hennig, Bam Bam Bigelow, Biff Wellington, Miss Elizabeth, Bobby Duncam Jr. and others. Now, while some wrestlers did in fact due to wrestling related issues, not all of them died due to being a professional wrestling. For example, Miss Elizabeth died from an accidental drug overdose in 2003, but had been out of pro wrestling for multiple years. However, if you take in account what Scott Keith wrote, you would be lead to believe that there is a magical wrestling fairy who flies around her and shoves drugs down her throat and up her nose every minute of the day, when in fact it was her poor choice that killed her long after pro wrestling passed her by. Scott Keith even manages to link the death of Sylvester “Junkyard Dog” Ritter to pro wrestling, despite the fact her died in a car accident after being away from pro wrestling for a long time.
What boggles the mind that most is that author Scott Keith even finds a way to turn a murderer in Chris Benoit into a sympathetic person. Scott Keith does it in a manner that leaves all responsibility out of Chris Benoit’s hands and places it within the wrestling industries for managing to turn Chris Benoit into the murderer he became. The fact that author Scott Keith finds a way to somehow justify Chris Benoit as a murderer should show the level of integrity this book was written with.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com.
