Former WWE Head of Security Jimmy Noonan on Benoit Tragedy

You were probably around Benoit many times. Around Benoit. I tra I traveled with Chris. Oh, I there were nights there were nights I traveled far and wide with Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero in cars together. I mean, we ate together. We traveled together. Not all the time, but I spent a lot of time with Chris. Chris was one of my buddies. Yeah. I’m And I’m sorry. And I’m sorry for, you know, for your two for your losses there, man. And I don’t know if you I don’t know if you read about online Nancy Benoit’s sister recently did an interview and she’s six years removed from the tragedy.

Obviously, the doctor the I believe the coroner or the guy that did the autopsy even even told her that he probably would have been dead within 10 months if that tragedy didn’t happen. I mean, being around I mean, did you ever feel like there was anything off about him or did you always just kind of chalk that up as Chris being Chris and him being intense and caring about his craft? Okay. When you answer questions like this, you have to be careful because it’s the fair thing to do. The fair thing to do, you know, as somebody who was close to Chris and near him for a long time, and up till three months before he unfortunately went home and killed himself and his family.

So, and by the way, I’m not And by the way, I’m not asking you to predict like to say, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.” No, you were very clear. I just want to you know I would never give a frivolous answer here because this is where this is where the stuff gets serious and this is where this stuff you know how kids say these days you know it gets real you know this is very close to a lot of people including me and you have you know there’s a certain amount of responsibility okay with that said everybody knew there was something not quite right with Chris Chris was very very very quiet.

Chris was now first of all that’s who Chris was. Chris was a quiet unassuming guy but he was very quiet at the end. Chris was extremely intense. He was always like that but he was particularly intense at the end. Chris and Eddie you know for up until Eddie died they were fighting all the time. Chris would, you know, Chris was a bit of a perfectionist. He wanted things to be perfect. He wanted Eddie, you know, to be part of his workout regimen and his stuff. And, you know, he’d break Eddie’s balls and Eddie would break his balls and then at the end, Chris was yeah, Chris was like surirly all the time.

And I mean, he was always a good guy, but you know, you really Chris was not a guy you talk to. He was alone. He was off to the side. He was I think if it was one of those things, let’s put it this way, if it was one of those things where somebody came to you and they somehow said, Jimmy, if one guy, if one, you know, give me five guys on the roster that you think could potentially something bad happen to or die in the next 10 years, who would they who would they be? I think Chris would be on that list. Does that make sense?

Yeah. You know that. Yeah. Like Chris is like, you know, I the guys who, you know, who had a history and everybody knew of, you know, or the name showed up on a list of steroid use and, you know, they like their, you know, they like their alcohol and they like to drink and maybe they, you know, used other things and you knew they were taking a few painkillers and you knew they were take, you know, overdoing it with the Vicodin or whatever. And some of them were really out, you know, like Kurt and Eddie were kind of out there about it. I mean, you knew something was not quite right.

The other thing is, if you know anything about athletes, top athletes, a lot of people don’t know the top athletes frequently because of the way they train, and I’m not talking about bodybuilders. I’m talking about athletes like LeBron James. I’m not saying LeBron James falls under this category, but a lot of them have enlarged hearts. It’s just the way the heart get heart manages the body. It’s not necessarily healthy, but sometimes it’s not necessarily that unhealthy. A lot of them because of the strain they put on their bodies have enlarged. Okay. So then you take anabolic steroids and that only enlarges your heart further and then you take all the drugs that you know some people take in their respective businesses and that only makes the heart larger and larger.

So, you know, that’s what happened to Eddie and that’s probably, you know, if she’s correct, that sounds like, you know, what happened with Chris. The thing about one of the things that she said I wrote was that she said she thought she disagreed with the concussion theory. Am I correct? Isn’t that what she said? Yes, I believe she Yeah, I believe she did say she disagreed with that and thought it was, you know, due to steroid steroid rage. Yeah. And I 100% even though I have no idea, I 100% disagree with her. If you saw him, you know, if you saw the bumps this guy took, you know, and know a little about athletes and know a little about bodies and know a little about head trauma, you can figure out that this guy, you know, everything combined.

But a lot of head trauma, I would say I would say she’s I would say she’s 100% wrong. Think that wrestling should have an off seasonason or at the very least maybe have more breaks for the boys? Never. It’s too big. It’s gotten so big.