Vince McMahon dismissed a major claim about Chris Benoit.
In 2007, WWE star Benoit was found dead at his family home along with his wife Nancy and the couple’s seven-year-old son.
It was later revealed that the wrestler, nicknamed the Canadian Crippler, took his own life after murdering his wife and child.
Advert
In the wake of the murders, several media outlets speculated that Benoit’s mental state had been affected by steroid abuse and several concussions.
However, in episode 6 of Netflix show ‘Mr McMahon’, the former WWE CEO insisted that there was no correlation between Benoit’s crimes and steroid abuse.
McMahon said via Wrestletalk: "Chris Benoit was thought of as an excellent in-ring performer. And as far as we knew, a great guy.
Advert
“There’s no correlation between taking steroids and what happened to Chris Benoit, human beings are flawed.
“Chris went nuts, it happens in every form of life, that’s the only thing I can take away from it.”
With regards to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) being labelled as a potential reason for Benoit’s actions, McMahon continued: “This doctor came up with this ridiculous statement of, ‘Okay here’s why Chris Benoit did this.’
Advert
“There was some sort of trauma to his head and things were shown where Chris would dive off the rope and hit someone with his head. That’s a complete work. It looks like there’s damage and there’s not. We know what we’re doing, we don’t hurt each other.”
Elsewhere, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin also discussed the potential impact of CTE in the WWE.
He said: “I worked for a long time. I got dropped on my head one time, I got concussed. But other than that, I can’t remember having too many concussions in the business of pro-wrestling.
“And my take on that has always been, if you were just wrestling and you got a bunch of concussions, you’re probably doing something wrong.
Advert
“I’m not a CTE guy. Just don’t believe in it.”
Topics: WWE, Vince McMahon, Wrestling
Chris Byfield