Dan Abrams on MSNBC interviewed the D.A. Scott Ballard who said the information about the Chris and Nancy fighting in the days leading up to the tragic deaths came from WWE and he had no knowledge of it. Abrams asked if the steroids found in the house were in Chris’s name or from valid suppliers. Ballard said there was already an ongoing investigation and he didn’t want to see too much because it could compromise the investigation. He said the son had no bruises, but did have internal injuries in the throat area.
Later in the show, Abrams brought on Joe Laurinaitis, a/k/a Road Warrior Animal. Animal confirmed that his brother, John “Johnny Ace” Laurinaitis, V.P. of Operations for WWE was the other person to get the text messages from Benoit. Animal talked about how Chris was great father. Laurinaitis said “I’ve seen Chris with his son Daniel. Chris loved that little boy. There was something else psychological happening to have him flip out and blow his cork like that and do what he did.” Animal also said pro wrestling needs some kind of oversight as well as mandatory time off for the wrestlers. Abrams showed a graphic that said 65 wrestlers died between 1997 and 2004, 25 by heart attacks, five likely from steroid use, and 12 deaths from other drugs. No source was cited.
The most interested part of this interview is that all the information related to Chris and Nancy fighting in the days leading up to the murder-suicide came from the WWE and no other sources. It begs to question did the WWE float that information out there to take the focus off steroids and the WWE and on to making Chris Benoit out to be a monster who killed his family because his son had Fragile X Syndrome?
