Chris Benoit

Christopher Michael Benoît, better known simply as Chris Benoit (born May 21, 1967 in Montréal, Québec) is a Canadian professional wrestler currently wrestling for World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown! brand. Benoit, who grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, is widely known as one of the most technically proficient and skilled athletes in the pro wrestling world today. He trained in Calgary, Alberta under Stu Hart in his "Dungeon" and became one of the many stars to emerge from Stu's watch, alongside notables like Bret and Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Lance Storm, Chris Jericho, and others. He is known by well-earned nicknames such as The Canadian Crippler and The Rabid Wolverine.

Contents

1 Career 1.1 Early days in Canada and Japan 1.2 Extreme Championship Wrestling 1.3 World Championship Wrestling 1.4 WWF/WWE 2 Profile 2.1 Finishing/Signature Moves 2.2 Trademarks 3 Trivia 4 Championships/Accomplishments 4.1 Other accomplishments 5 External links

Career

Early days in Canada and Japan

Chris began his career in the mid-1980s in Stu's Stampede Wrestling promotion. He won several International Tag Team titles there, and had an excellent series of singles matches with Johnny Smith, before Stampede's demise in 1989, and at that point he departed for New Japan Pro Wrestling under the name and mask of The Pegasus Kid, later simply Wild Pegasus. While with NJPW, he came into his own as a performer in matches with luminaries like Jushin Liger, Shinjiro Ohtani, Black Tiger (Eddie Guerrero), and El Samurai. In 1991, he won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title, his first major championship. He would go on to win the Super J Cup tournament in 1994, which, to this day, is considered one of the best wrestling cards of all time, solidifying his status as one of the foremost light heavyweights in the world.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Upon his permanent return to the U.S. in 1995, he signed with Extreme Championship Wrestling. In his brief time with ECW Chris dropped his Pegasus gimmick for The Crippler, a reference to a match in which he accidentally broke the neck of Sabu. Later, he and Dean Malenko won the ECW Tag Team Titles and created enough excitement to attract the attention of the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. After being unable to obtain a proper work visa to compete for ECW and being told flat out that as a WWF competitor he would not be able to work in Japan, Benoit decided that he would return to Japan instead of wrestling in the US until learning about the New Japan/WCW talent exchange. This lead to Benoit signing with WCW in late 1995.

World Championship Wrestling

His time in WCW was defined by highs and lows. He quickly was made a member of the reformed Four Horsemen in 1996 alongside Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Brian Pillman. A strikingly real feud with Kevin Sullivan (due to the fact that Benoit stole Sullivan's wife, Woman) and several matches on the hunt for the US Title highlighted much of 1996, but with the rise of the New World Order storylines in the middle of that year, Benoit struggled to keep himself in the public eye. Many of his fans began to perceive a lack of respect for his abilities from the higher-ups, and indeed for a short time he was promoted as "the best wrestler to never win a WCW title." Throughout, he continued to put on outstanding matches, as the issue with Diamond Dallas Page and Raven in early 1998 and the WCW World Television Title Best of Seven series with Booker T in mid-year proved. However, he remained firmly kept in the midcard, without a very visible chance to elevate himself.

In 1999, he resumed teaming with new Horseman and former ECW partner Dean Malenko, and a series of WCW Tag Team Champion matches with Raven and Perry Saturn were among the best of the year. Benoit and Malenko defeated Curt Hennig and Barry Windham to win the WCW Tag Team Championship, and later in 1999 he would win the United States title as well. He formed the "Revolution" team with Malenko, Saturn, and Shane Douglas around this time, highlighting his disgruntledness with WCW management. From here, a last-ditch effort to raise his stakes was made, and by late 1999, he was facing Bret Hart on several occasions. One was their tribute match to Owen Hart in October 1999, in Kansas City where Owen had died. In November, he wrestled Bret in Toronto, Ontario in the finals of a World Heavyweight title tournament. He lost that match, though by January 2000, WCW had made their last try at keeping him, giving him the WCW World Heavyweight Title in a victory over Sid Vicious. However, he was stripped of the title the next day when he decided to depart for the World Wrestling Federation.

WWF/WWE

Chris signed with the WWF as a heel to start out with alongside Malenko, Saturn, and Guerrero, and they were introduced as The Radicalz. He was quickly put into a feud with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, and in April 2000 he won his first championship in the WWF, the Intercontinental Title. The Jericho feud and a high-profile feud with The Rock (who was the WWF Champion at the time) filled out the remainder of 2000. He would later turn face and team with Jericho to win the WWF Tag Team Titles in early 2001. A neck injury meant spinal fusion surgery and sidelined Benoit for most of 2002. After the WCW/ECW Alliance broke up he came back to Raw and turned heel again by betraying Stone Cold Steve Austin. Later he returned late in that year to become an integral part of SmackDown!, winning the first WWE Tag Team Titles with foe and partner Kurt Angle in October. They both turned face again by betraying Los Geros. Angle who won his third wwe championship against the then heel, Big Show would later turn heel for the third time by hiring then heel, Paul Heyman as his manager during that time. Benoit and Angle faced off for the WWE Title at Royal Rumble 2003 in what many called the match of the year; however, the remainder of 2003 was fairly uneventful.

On January 25, 2004, Benoit won the 2004 Royal Rumble and put himself in line for a title shot at WrestleMania XX. As a result of the long-standing Royal Rumble tradition that the winner receives a shot at the world champion at WrestleMania, and the fact that there were effectively two world champions, Benoit exploited a so-called "loophole" in the rules and challenged the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H instead of the WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. It is also noted that since then, this "loophole" has become standard practice, with a main post-Rumble storyline being the winner contemplating his/her choice of champions.

On Sunday, March 14, 2004, Benoit won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, by causing Triple H to tap out using his signature move, the Crippler Crossface, to the surprise of many wrestling insiders who predicted Triple H to retain the title and Benoit to win the title the following month in Backlash, which was to be held in Benoit's hometown of Edmonton. The match was a triple threat match that also included Shawn Michaels, and it took place at WrestleMania XX. Besides the single day reign as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, this is Benoit's first real World Heavyweight Title reign in any promotion. The triple threat match was hailed by many observers as one of the year's best.

On August 15, 2004, Chris Benoit was defeated by Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the SummerSlam PPV. His reign lasted 5 months and was a major part of his 7 straight PPV victories. He had successful, high-profile defenses against Triple H, Michaels, and Kane, among others. Later, Benoit perticipated in the Elimination Chamber at New Year's Resolution on January 9, 2005.

Benoit perticipated in a Money in the Bank ladder match for a title shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 21 on April 3, 2005, which was won by Edge. The other perticipants were Chris Jericho, Kane, Shelton Benjamin, Christian.

On June 9, 2005, Benoit returned to SmackDown! after being selected in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery.

Profile

• Height: 5'11" (180.3 cm)
• Weight: 220lbs (99.8 kg)
• Birthday: May 21, 1967
• Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec
• Hometown: Edmonton, Alberta
• Resides: Atlanta, Georgia
• Trained By: Mike Hammer and Stu Hart
• Professional Debut: November 22, 1985
• Previous Identities: The Pegasus Kid, The Wild Pegasus
• Previous Manager(s): Woman, Arn Anderson, Shane McMahon
• Quotes: "Prove me wrong!", "I am the greatest technical wrestler in the history of the WWF.", "I am for real."

Finishing/Signature Moves

• The Crippler Crossface: Starting with a fujiwara armbar takedown, Benoit locks an arm in between his legs and locks his hands around the chin (or lower face) and pulls back. Submission hold.

• Sharpshooter: Benoit would wrap the opponents legs around his legs and turn over, stretching the opponent's legs and back. Submission technique.

• Triple/Rolling German Suplexes: Benoit grabs his opponent from behind and bends backwards, causing the opponent to land back on his shoulders. Then, holds on as he gets himself and his opponent to their feet and repeats two more times. He normally releases after the third suplex.

• Swandive Headbutt: Benoit jumps off the turnbuckle headfirst and lands on the opponent with his head.

• Snap Suplex: Benoit executes a swift, high-impact front-facelock suplex.

Trademarks

• Throat Slash: The throat slash gesture is Benoit's traditional heat tactic, designed to promote his intensity and get a reaction from the crowd. This gesture also signals that Benoit is about to attempt his swandive headbutt.

• Snot Rockets: Benoit stands over his fallen opponent and holds one nostril shut, breathing out hard, to effectively blow snot on them. He was more well known for this during his earlier career in ECW and WCW, and does it more often when he plays the heel, but has done it to Kane, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Kurt Angle, at such notable shows as Wrestlemania XX.

Trivia

• Had first child with Nancy Daus-Sullivan together on February 25, 2000, a son named Daniel Christopher Benoit.

• When he was in WCW, he had a real-life affair with Nancy Sullivan, who was the wife of Kevin Sullivan at the time. A legitimate feud with Kevin Sullivan started when he found out about the affair. Since Sullivan was also one of WCW's bookers at the time, as revenge he made sure Benoit did not win any titles. Mainly because of this, The Radicalz left WCW for WWF in early 2000.

• Because of how often he defended his WWF Intercontinental Title, Chris Benoit has been called the "fightingest" Intercontinental Champion in WWF history.

• Underwent major neck surgery in July 2001 after a wrestling match with X-Pac where he suffered a botched X-Factor.

• Has a son, David, from a previous relationship and a daughter, Megan, from his ex-wife.

• Idolized The Dynamite Kid, Tommy Billington growing up.

• When he began wrestling, he wrestled as "Dynamite" Chris Benoit, as a tribute to the Kid. He also began using the Diving Headbutt, one of the Kid's trademark moves.

• He 'won' the WWF Title on two occasions, once at Fully Loaded and once at Unforgiven 2000. However, both times the decision was over-ruled and he had yet to win a WWE title officially until he won the World Heavyweight Championship WrestleMania XX. To date, he has not won the SmackDown! brand's WWE title.

• The second man to enter #1 and win the Royal Rumble (Shawn Michaels was the first), but now holds the record for being in a Rumble match the longest (over 61 minutes, former record holder was Ric Flair with almost one hour, while Shawn Michaels Rumble win was 48:37)

• He is the only man who has won every major WWF/WWE and WCW World Titles (if the one-day WCW World Heavyweight Title reign is included.)

• Benoit's entrance theme music is "Whatever", performed by Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace. This song is a vocal version of his earlier WWE theme music, "Shooter."

Championships/Accomplishments

Title Reigns

Title Name	Defeated	Date	Where	Lost to	Date	Where
Stampede Wrestling
Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Title (with Ben Bassarab)	Wayne Farris & Ron Starr	March 1, 1986	Regina, Saskatchewan	Wayne Farris & Cuban Assassin	March 21, 1986	Calgary, Alberta
Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Title (2) (with Keith Hart)	Wayne Farris & Cuban Assassin	May 5, 1986	Calgary, Alberta	Duke Myers & Kerry Brown	June 6, 1986	Calgary, Alberta
British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title	Gama Singh	March 18, 1988	Calgary, Alberta	Johnny Smith	June 10, 1988	Calgary, Alberta
British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title (2)	Johnny Smith	June 17, 1988	Calgary, Alberta	Johnny Smith	June 24, 1988	Calgary, Alberta
Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Title (3) (with Lance Idol)	Cuban Commandos	October 7, 1988	Calgary, Alberta	Cuban Commandos	October 28, 1988	Calgary, Alberta
British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title (3)	Johnny Smith	January 13, 1989	Calgary, Alberta	Johnny Smith	July 7, 1989	Dawson Creek, British Columbia
Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Title (4) (with Biff Wellington)	Makhan Singh & Vokkan Singh	April 8, 1989	Calgary, Alberta	Bob Brown & Kerry Brown	June 9, 1989	Calgary, Alberta
British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title (4)	Johnny Smith	July 8, 1989	Grande Prairie, Alberta	Gama Singh	July 7, 1989	Calgary, Alberta
New Japan Pro Wrestling
International Wrestling Grand Prix Junior Heavyweight Title	Jushin Thunder Liger	August 19, 1990	Tokyo	Jushin Thunder Liger	November 1, 1990	Tokyo
Extreme Championship Wrestling
World Tag Team Title (with Dean Malenko)	Sabu & Tazmaniac	February 25, 1995	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Public Enemy1	April 8, 1995	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
World Championship Wrestling
World Television Title	Booker T	April 30, 1998	Augusta, Georgia	Booker T	May 1, 1998	Greenville, South Carolina
World Television Title (2)	Booker T	May 2, 1998	North Charleston, South Carolina	Booker T	May 3, 1998	Charleston, South Carolina
World Tag Team Title (with Dean Malenko)	Barry Windham & Curt Hennig	March 14, 1999	Louisville, Kentucky(Uncensored)	Rey Mysterio Jr. & Billy Kidman	March 29, 1999	Toronto, Ontario
World Tag Team Title (2) (with Perry Saturn)	Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon	June 10, 1999	Syracuse, New York	New Jersey Triad (Diamond Dallas Page, Bam Bam Bigelow & Kanyon)	June 13, 1999	Baltimore, Maryland
US Heavyweight Title	David Flair	August 9, 1999	Nampa, Idaho	Sid Vicious	September 12, 1999(Fall Brawl)	Winston-Salem, North Carolina
World Television Title (3)	Rick Steiner	September 13, 1999	Chapel Hill, North Carolina	Rick Steiner	October 24, 1999(Halloween Havoc)	Las Vegas, Nevada
US Heavyweight Title (2)	Jeff Jarrett	December 19, 1999(Starrcade)	Washington, DC	Jeff Jarrett	December 20, 1999	Baltimore, Maryland
[WCW] World Heavyweight Title	Sid Vicious	January 16, 2000(Souled Out)	Cincinnati, Ohio	Benoit vacates the title	January 17, 2000	Los Angeles, California
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
Intercontinental Heavyweight Title	Kurt Angle2	April 2, 2000	Anaheim, California (WrestleMania 2000)	Chris Jericho	May 2, 2000	Richmond, Virginia
Intercontinental Heavyweight Title (2)	Chris Jericho	May 8, 2000	Uniondale, New York	Rikishi Phatu	June 20, 2000	Memphis, Tennessee
Intercontinental Heavyweight Title (3)	Billy Gunn	December 10, 2000	Birmingham, Alabama	Chris Jericho	January 21, 2001	New Orleans, Louisiana
WWF World Tag Team Title (with Chris Jericho)	Stone Cold Steve Austin & Triple H	May 21, 2001	San Jose, California	The Dudley Boyz	June 19, 2001	Orlando, Florida
Intercontinental Heavyweight Title (RAW) (4)	Rob Van Dam	July 29, 2002	Charlotte, North Carolina	Rob Van Dam	August 25, 2002(SummerSlam)	Uniondale, New York
WWE Tag Team Title (Smackdown!) (with Kurt Angle)	Edge & Rey Mysterio Jr.	October 20, 2002(No Mercy)	North Little Rock, Arkansas	Edge & Rey Mysterio Jr.	November 5, 2002	Manchester, New Hampshire
World Heavyweight Title (RAW)	Triple H3	March 14, 2004	New York City, NY (Wrestlemania XX)	Randy Orton	August 15, 2004	Toronto, Ontario (SummerSlam)
World Tag Team Title (RAW) (with Edge)	Ric Flair & Batista	April 19, 2004	Calgary, Alberta	La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier & Rob Conway)	May 31, 2004	Montreal, Quebec
World Tag Team Title (RAW) (with Edge)	La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier & Rob Conway)	October 19, 2004	Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Taboo Tuesday)	La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier & Rob Conway)	November 1, 2004	Peoria, Illinois

1. In a triangle tag team match against Public Enemy and Taz & Rick Steiner.
2. In a three way match against Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho.
3. In a three way match against Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

Other accomplishments

• 1993 Top of the Super Junior tournament
• 1994 Super J Cup tournament
• 1995 Best of the Super Junior tournament
• 2004 WWE Royal Rumble winner
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 69 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.
• He also won three PWI Awards in 2004. He won Wrestler of the Year, Feud of the Year (vs. Triple H) and Match of the Year (vs. Shawn Michaels and Triple H).

External links

• WWE profile (http://www.wwe.com/superstars/smackdown/chrisbenoit/)
• SLAM wrestling biography (http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/benoit.html)
• Fansite (http://www.cripplercrossface.com/)

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