When I began this blog last month, I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d have to be writing about a double murder/suicide. I’m certainly not ignorant to the fact that there is an alarmingly high death rate in pro wrestling, so I expected to be writing an occasional tribute, but the Chris Benoit family tragedy is way beyond anything that I’ve seen in my lifetime as a wrestling fan and observer.

I think the main reason the wrestling community is having such a hard time dealing with this is that there is just no way to make sense out of it. Investigators have concluded that an innocent 7-year-old boy was murdered by his father, and a wife and mother was murdered by her husband. That is just incomprehensible. For those of us who have children, harming even one hair on their heads is unfathomable.

The fact that Benoit was the one who committed these horrific acts makes it even more unsettling. During his 20-plus years in the wrestling business, he had built an impeccable reputation. Benoit was universally liked and respected by his fellow wrestlers and others who work in the industry, and he was regarded as a genuine person in a cutthroat industry filled with massive egos. How eerie was it to hear Chavo Guerrero, one of Benoit’s closest friends, say on Raw this past Monday that he would have trusted Benoit with the lives of his children?

I can recall a conversation I had with The Rock the day after Benoit won the world heavyweight title at WrestleMania XX. I was interviewing him at a Washington hotel for a story about his movie Walking Tall, which was about to be released, and we started chatting about the event at Madison Square Garden (he had appeared on the show in a tag-team match with Mick Foley against Ric Flair, Randy Orton and Batista). The Rock smiled and his eyes lit up as he talked about how happy he was that WWE “did the right thing” in putting over Benoit strong in the main event.

As far as being a star attraction, Benoit was never on a level with guys like The Rock, Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin, but any fan who knew anything about the business knew he was one of the best ever inside the ring. Now, instead of being known for his phenomenal skills and consummate professionalism, Chris Benoit will forever be known as “that wrestler who killed his family.”

It’s so odd to see Benoit’s face all over the news on television and the Internet and in newspapers, as he never had any mainstream appeal before this. I’m contributing to it as well, as I spent part of last night and today working on an article about the tragedy for tomorrow’s edition of The Sun. I couldn’t even get away from this story when I went to get a haircut this afternoon. I was the only man in the unisex salon, and the topic of conversation among the female customers and employees was the Benoit killings.

With information constantly emerging regarding possible motives and other details, I am now at the point where I just don’t want to see or hear any more about this depressing story. It’s time to embrace that healing process that Vince McMahon talked about last night.

This is probably not the last time I will be writing about Benoit, but I really look forward to the time when Ring Posts again reads like a pro wrestling blog and not a true crime book.

It’s all just so sad.