Joe King
At one time, ‘The Crippler’ Chris Benoit was one of the best mat technicians in the entire world of professional wrestling. His absolute heinous and inexcusable crimes against his wife Nancy and son Daniel are unforgivable. We are in no way celebrating or condoning his crimes. Joe King is simply chronicling Benoit’s rise to fame as a pro wrestler.
Chris Benoit had accomplished numerous goals as a professional wrestler within his first 5 years. More than most would EVER accomplish. He had won championships everywhere he wrestled. He had a huge fan following. He was respected in the locker room AND he was making great money. But his #1 goal since day one was still ahead: Becoming a prominent star in the United States of America.
In 1993, Chris would once again team up with good friend and partner Biff Wellington in a match against “Flyin” Brian Pillman & Jushin Thunder Liger. Chris & Biff had been billed backstage in Japan as the “MEGA DOSES” for their massive intake of anabolic steroids. This match would take place for WCW at the Clash of The Champions. Benoit was introduced with much praise to fans at home on TBS by Jim Ross as being an “international superstar” and “former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion”, even coming out to the Canadian National Anthem. His wrestling prowess and success in the Super-J cups had North American fans enthralled. A lot of the hardcore fans considered Chris “The best in the world”. But Chris said “he didn’t consider himself the best, as he considered wrestling an art form”. This international cruiserweight bout was Bill Watts’ first step into restoring legitimacy to WCW as he invited teams from around the globe to participate in a tournament for the NWA World Tag Team Titles. And also, NJPW wanted someone that they trusted and knew could make Liger look as good as possible when sending him over state side.
Benoit quickly learned that American wrestling was much more different than Stampede, Lucha Libre, and Japan. And the traveling was different as well. For a Canadian, the below freezing temperatures were the norm. It took a lot of getting used to the hot, swampy humidity in the South and Southeast. He would sit for hours pouring sweat down in the South. He would start pouring sweat even before entering the arena. The traveling was much different too. In Stampede, the guys would be cramped in vans. Shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee. In Japan…it was buses. In the States, you would ride in rental cars. Chris always chose to drive himself whenever possible, especially if he didn’t trust or had any suspicion about a certain individual. Luckily his good friend, “Flyin” Brian Pillman was already an established star in WCW and they quickly became travel partners.
Though the fans were impressed with his impressive skills in the ring, his performance was geared toward the locker room, where everyone knew how selfless Benoit was being with his body and his ego. Chris was obsessed with putting on the best show possible for the fans, no matter the in-ring risks. But he was also obsessed with contributing to the business and showing the legendary performers in the back such as Ric Flair & Arn Anderson his hard work ethic, making sure they would notice.
Paul Heyman, a longtime fan of Benoit, allegedly sold Chris to Bill Watts as a credible cruiserweight whose moves “looked punishing”, who “bumped harder than anyone” and whose intensity was “animalistic”. Bill Watts liked the young kid and told Chris that once he got a little more leeway with signing wrestlers to contracts that he would give him an opportunity. Chris started with WCW on the road full-time in 1993. Other than guys like Liger and Pillman, Watts would mainly book him in matches against the incredible 2 Cold Scorpio. He was putting on great contests on a nightly basis. This meant a lot to him as he had finally made it. He was following in the footsteps of his idols The Dynamite Kid and Bret Hart(who was the current WWF Champion), making six figures a year in the “major leagues”.
This initial deal didn’t last long as Bill Watts was fired as head of WCW after a short tenure. The new man in charge was grizzled veteran Ole Anderson. Ole wasn’t helpful at all as he didn’t think much of Benoit. Ole immediately started making Chris do jobs night after night to Johnny B. Badd. After that, he paired him in an underneath tag team with “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton. He was able to learn a lot from Eaton, who was one of the greatest technicians of all-time. He even got the chance to mix it up with some of top stars of the sport, such as Sting & The British Bulldog. But Ole just didn’t think much of younger talent. Especially younger, smaller talent who couldn’t talk. Benoit was fired in the summer of 1993.
Benoit would find his initial success in the United States in 1994 in a newly developed territory in the Northeast called ECW. This place was coincidentally ran by the same man who “sold him” to WCW to begin with, Mr. Paul Heyman. Heyman knew exactly how to best utilize Chris and he would excel in ECW as he put on wrestling clinics with some familiar talent that he had previously faced over in New Japan who were just making their way into the United States: Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, 2 Cold Scorpio, and Sabu. While under contract with ECW, he would work a few dark matches for the WWF. Chris would leave ECW in August of 1995 due to Heyman not being able to renew his work visa. When it expired, he went back to Japan for a couple of months until WCW called. He would sign a new contract with WCW as he was now wrestling’s hottest free agent in the world.