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.
After graduating high school as promised, Stu Hart lived up to his end of the deal as well. He would get Chris’s training underway immediately with his son Keith Hart along with fellow Stampede Wrestling star, Mike Hammer.
On November 22, 1985, he would debut as “Dynamite” Chris Benoit in a tag team match for Stampede Wrestling, where he teamed with “The Remarkable” Rick Patterson against Butch Moffat and Mike Hammer. Benoit’s team won the match after Benoit pinned Butch Moffat.
Chris would continue to wrestle in tag-team matches with different partners. His first taste of tag-team gold came in 1986 with partner Ben Bassarab. The two found themselves engaged in a feud with veterans Wayne Ferris & Ron Starr, eventually coming out on top after many matches on the losing end. But after only a few short weeks, he & Bassarab would part ways after losing the titles to Wayne Ferris and The Cuban Assassin. Now with no partner, he would find himself facing the new champs in singles matches. Before long, he caught the eye of Keith Hart for his bravery & toughness. They became partners and eventual tag-team champions after taking the belts from Ferris & The Cuban Assassin. The two would quickly become crowd favorites with Benoit’s high-flying maneuvers mixed with Keith’s ground-based submission offense. After several matches battling Ferris & TCA…a new rivalry reared it’s head. Former champions, The Masters of Disasters(Kerry Brown & Duke Myers) aimed their sights at the new champs and the numbers game caught up with them, as outside interference from Foley’s Army would upset the newly formed tandem.
After some time in Japan in 1987, he came back to Calgary better than ever. He would return to win the British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship from The Great Gama Singh. Chris had watched his idol The Dynamite Kid tear the house down many times with The Great Gama, which fueled his drive and intensity to put on great matches with him as well. It was voted one of the hottest feuds in the territory at the time as it was a lengthy rivalry with The Great Gama in both tag matches and singles competition with Gama coming out on top in several match types such as ladder matches, chain matches, lumberjack matches, and eventually a cage match. During this time he would also form relationships and team with future legends Davey Boy Smith, Owen Hart, and Bad New Brown.
Chris would go on to win the British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship on 3 more occasions as he traded the title back and forth for the next couple of years with Davey Boy Smith’s brother, Johnny Smith. He would also win the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship two more times with partners Lance Idol and Biff Wellington.
Chris Benoit was inducted into the Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1995.