Ep. 114-Chris Benoit: When the Machine Broke the Man

A final early morning text about the dogs and an open back door becomes the last breadcrumb before pro wrestling’s most haunting headline. We walk through the Chris Benoit case with care for the victims and clarity about what the public record shows, from the three day timeline inside the home to the unanswered question everyone still wrestles with: how does a celebrated performer reach a point where violence becomes the outcome? 

We zoom out to the larger context that shaped the moment. Professional wrestling may be scripted, but the injuries are not, and we talk about the reality of repeated concussions, chronic pain, painkiller culture, and the long shadow of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE, head trauma, and mental health in contact sports are no longer fringe conversations, and Benoit’s postmortem findings pushed wrestling toward tougher wellness policies, drug testing scrutiny, and overdue discussions about brain health. We also unpack why reducing it to one factor like steroids misses how multiple stressors can collide. 

Just as important, we center Nancy Benoit as a respected wrestling personality and professional in her own right, not a side character to someone else’s legacy. Her career, the strain in the marriage, and the prior reports of abuse open a necessary conversation about warning signs, the realities of coercion and control, and why “just leave” is rarely that simple. If you care about true crime, WWE history, CTE awareness, or domestic violence prevention, this conversation is heavy but vital. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what part of this story you think people still misunderstand.

Transcript

A Chilling Final Text

SPEAKER_03 0:00

In the early morning of june twenty fifth, two thousand seven, professional wrestler Chris Benoit sends a text to his friend and wrestling mate Chavo Guerrero that reads The dogs are in the enclosed pool area and the back door is open. This is the last time anyone hears from him. And this is Hold My Sweet Tea. And welcome to Hold My Sweet Tea. I'm Holly. And I'm Pearl. And I'm drinking iced coffee. Not sweet tea. But good ASMR. And your glass over there.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

My glass coffee uh cup. So before uh Holly starts making us all sad, yeah. I want to make us a little happy.

unknown 1:30

Yay!

SPEAKER_01 1:31

I have to apologize because we did not have a sweet tea after dark episode this Thursday because we ran out of time. Womp womp to record it. Yeah. Um, but I have a grandbaby.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Yes. So I think that is the the ultimate excuse for not recording.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

I was busy at the hospital helping helping my daughter take care of her new son. Yes. So and that's what I've been doing the last few days, too. He is the most adorable little thing. He's so cute, cute. He looks just like his mommy.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

Yes, absolutely just like his mommy. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

So and she's she still says every day, she's like, when does it stop? When do I stop going, that's my baby? Right. Oh my god, I'm actually a mom. Never. You wake up every day going, that's my baby. Oh my god, I'm actually a mom. And then they're like getting on your last nerve, and you're like, God damn it, I'm a mom. Right?

SPEAKER_03 2:36

You came out of me. And me being the astro witch that I am. I have given them lots and lots of astrology breakdown because we are in this weird Aries stellium fire horse era, and he is definitely spicy.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah, looking forward to it. I like spicy kids.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Yeah, they're fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, they are. As long as you take, you know, good care and teach them well, they'll be fine.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Don't don't try to squelch his fire. Don't try to put it out.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Let it let it fly. We're just we're just not gonna let it rage. That's all. No raging.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

But the good thing about the good thing about Aries is they spark fast and they fizzle fast.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

So I notice that with the fits he's thrown.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

It'll be a b and then it just stops.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

And then silence. And then a few minutes later, it happens again.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Yeah. So his astrology witch auntie here.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

I get all the all the good astrology tea.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Then I don't have to. Yeah. Like I just get it in my email. Like that's right. Like I signed up for something.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

I know. I'm like, this is way too long to text you. I'm gonna email this to you, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So but we're absolutely enjoying him. And I again I'm so sorry, but we'll get back on track.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Oh yeah, absolutely. I think everybody can uh forgive us for not doing the episode.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

So yeah, and I thought I was tired before.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Nah, I'm tired now. Very she got like zero sleep for days.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, I literally in the hospital was up for two days straight.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

It's crazy.

unknown 4:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

And then I got mad at other people for taking naps, and the only place there was to take naps when they had all slept many other times, but I had not rude.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Yeah, I would have been like, get up.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Taking a nap. Hear me over their own snoring. Perhaps that might have worked. But it did not. These are people that are sleeping, like they don't hear a thing. I'm like, how do you live life like that? Because I hear everything in my sleep.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

See, I would have rolled them off the little couch bed and been like, oh my gosh, you fell on the floor.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Cool. I get the spot. My turn. Right. No.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Because I'm mean.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Do you know what? I'm used to it. Yep. You know, I'm the the one dragging the whole refrigerator in the house by myself, you know? Yeah. That's me. So I guess independence. I'm up. Here I am doing all the things.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Yeah. That's just how we were raised, though. Yeah. To take care of everybody and take care of ourselves last. But we gotta take care of ourselves too.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Well, if we don't take care of me, there's nobody to take care of everyone else. And I mean, let's be real here. They can't do it.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

And and I said I already said you deserve a double Mother's Day present this year.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

That's right. As a matter of fact, to make you laugh last night, I was holding the baby and I said to my daughter, your baby just said that you owe me a cookie. There you go. She went, and got me a cookie. Thanks. She's like, just a cookie? I was like, yes, a cookie. One single cookie. Just want a cookie. I deserve this.

Content Warning And Wrestling Era Memories

SPEAKER_03 6:21

It had MMs in it. Ooh, those are those are the good kind. So well, I guess we'll slide right into this episode, which is gonna be one of those content disclaimer ones like you had last week. Fun time. Yeah. So we're gonna do a little content warningslash disclaimer. Um, this episode discusses real life violence, domestic homicide, child death, suicide, mental health deterioration, chronic traumatic brain injury, and professional wrestling-related head trauma. It includes sensitive subject matter that may be distressing to some listeners. So if you don't want to hear it, please go listen to our next episode or one of our past episodes. And I'm sorry, but as someone who grew up in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, wrestling was huge. And like you said, like your dad was like this huge wrestling fanatic. My ex-husband never missed an episode, so therefore, by being in the same house, I got to watch it too.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

I was about to say, same, same. Like he didn't miss one, neither did I.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

You know, as now people have all these options and choices and TVs in every room. We had like a TV. Same, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

There was no TV in my bedroom. No, I had a radio.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Although as a teenager, I did have one of those little tiny TVs in my room with the little clicky buttons on the top with the cable box. I did have one of those. But being, you know, um a newly married couple, we can't afford the second TV. Yeah, we had a hand-me-down TV. So wrestling was on, you know, there was Monday Night Raw, there was like shoot, I don't even remember all of them, like SmackDown, there was cage matches, there was all kinds of stuff. So wrestling was a big part of that era in the like 90s, 2000s. It was huge. It was at its height.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

That's when the macho man Randy Sanders was snapping into a slim gym. Snap into a slim gym.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

And you know, fun fact my sister used to work for ConAgra Foods, which produces Slim Gyms, and she worked in the Slim Gym like room. Oh fun. So that snap is actually an edible plastic.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Ew.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Yeah. And if you don't want to hear it and you love Slim Gyms, just tune out right now, turn the volume down real quick. So there's literally, it's literally like byproducts and bins full of discarded feet, feet, and hooves and lips and assholes. So, like literally all those chopped up, made into a slim gym. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Nummy nummy. And we're back.

The Bodies Found In Atlanta

SPEAKER_03 9:52

And wrapped in edible plastic. And edible plastic. That's the snaps. Yep. And you know, that was when like Ric Flair was Rick Flair and all the cool stuff. But The Undertaker. Yeah, The Undertaker, Kane, like all those were like huge household names. And Chris Benoit was a huge household name. Like he was part of all of that. So we're gonna back up to like where I started in the intro to June 25th, 2007. Um, when authorities entered the home of professional wrestler Chris Benoit, they did not find an athlete. They did not find the hero he was perceived as on TV. Instead, they found a scene that would permanently fracture the legacy of professional wrestling itself. That tragic day, three lives were gone. Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their seven-year-old son Daniel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

I hate when that happens and they take it's like why like why take everyone else's life?

SPEAKER_03 11:07

I I I don't get it either. And I I've tried, I've looked into the psychology of why people do that, and it's just I don't know. But the kids. Yeah. The kids he was an innocent child. You could have just left him and sent him to his grandparents something.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Right. Like why? Get him out of the house before you did that.

Benoit’s Rise And Wrestling’s Toll

SPEAKER_03 11:29

You left the dogs in the backyard by the pool. So Chris Benoit was not born into fame. He was built into it. In a world of professional wrestling, especially, like I said, in the 80s and 90s, Benoit was known as something rare. He was a purist, a technician, a man who treated wrestling like performance and more like less like performance and more like combat choreography at the highest possible level. Benoit rose to fame as the Canadian crippler through his technical proficiency starting in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling. And that was like mid-80s to like early 90s. That's the old stuff. And then he started refining his craft in that same time until about 94 in New Japan pro wrestling as the Pegasus Kid. He built an international reputation for intense high-quality matches, subsequently gaining prominence in the WCW, and that was from like mid-90s to 2000, as part of the four horsemen. Definitely remember that. Yep. He wasn't the loudest. He was not the flashiest, like he was not Ric Flair. But inside the industry, he was right respected in a way few performers ever are. He became known as one of the most technically gifted wrestlers in the world. Then came the rise of the WWE. So he was in the WWE from 2000 to 2007. And this like turned things on its head. But it also brought something else. Pain. And like professional wrestling, it's scripted entertainment, but the physical toll is not fictional. Like if you watch some of those matches, they script it, they practice it, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Right. It's still like unpredictable. You can still get hurt, but it's just like being somebody stunt double. Right. They get hurt all the time. It's a very, very physical laboring job, as far as that goes. Like it takes its toll on your body.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

Yep. And if you're in something like rage in a cage and you can't get out, and you're like 20 feet up and you get all of a sudden drop kicked off of a ladder, it's gonna hurt no matter how you know scripted and staged it is.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

How ready you are right.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

Like they teach you how to fall, and yeah, there's like a the ring is kind of like a trampoline, not so much, but it's still gonna hurt. You're still gonna like sustain some injuries. So Benoit's style, high impact, high risk, physically punishing meant years of repeated trauma. By the mid-2000s, his body was literally deteriorating. He had neck injuries, chronic pain, surgical fusion of vertebrae. He was reliant on lots and lots of painkillers.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

That like is very limiting in range of motion, and you're like continuing to wrestle. I can't imagine doing all that.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

But he was popping painkillers, so numb the pain and let's go. And then there were the repeated concussions, which many, many, many of them, and not just him, were un undocumented.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

I bet.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

There were lots of concussions.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

I mean, if they documented all of those, they wouldn't be able to wrestle the next time. Exactly.

CTE And The Brain Breaking Down

Nancy Benoit’s Life And Career

The Three-Day Timeline Of Deaths

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Yet he was still performing at an elite level, but internally his system was breaking down. And this is where like modern science adds an important layer. After his death, examinations of his brain revealed severe damages consistent with. CTE is also associated with memory loss, emotional instability, impulse control issues, depression, paranoia, cognitive decline. So of course, when your brain gets beat up on the daily, it's gonna kind of fizzle out and cause all these things. It's gonna short circuit. But at the time, CTE was not widely understood in wrestling or any other sport at for that matter, football, like all of those, boxing. Um today it is recognized in contact sports as a serious long-term consequence of repeated head injury. But Benoit's world, pain was not a warning sign, it was just normal. I'm in pain, this is hurting. Give me a shot here, let me take some pills there. We're good. I got the show must go on. Um he was often described as quiet, very disciplined, and intensely private, but behind the curtain, cracks were forming. His marriage had become strained over time. Reports from friends and colleagues described increasing tension in the household. There were allegations of emotional volatility. In May of 2003, his wife Nancy filed for divorce and a restraining order alleging cruel treatment and domestic abuse. Though she later withdrew the filing and reconciled with Chris in August of that year, which happens a lot when women file restraining orders. Like your brain is telling you, do this, and then your heart is like, oh, well, maybe I can, you know, make this work. So you withdraw it. Like a fool. Yeah. So let's let's get into who Nancy was because she was a very important woman, also. So Nancy was born Nancy Tofalani. Um, she was a prolific and highly respected professional wrestling manager, valet, and model who became a major star in the industry long before she married Crispin Wall. So she was a badass bitch. She was often remembered by by her fans as woman. And when I heard that, I was like, oh, I knew who that is. Yeah. She was a pioneer who helped define the modern role of female personalities in wrestling through her intelligence and commanding presence. So she was born in 1964 and she began her career as a model, and then she first entered the wrestling world as a fan in Orlando, Florida. She had started selling like programs at shows before a photograph of her caught the attention of wrestling magazines. Very beautiful. Eventually leading to her transition into a managerial role. She was like really smart. So she was like, I'm gonna work my way in here and work my way up. She was known for her ability to reinvent her character to fit like different promotions and storylines. Um she debuted in Florida Championship Wrestling, and she portrayed a dark, mysterious character known as the Fallen Angel. And then throughout the 90s, um, in the WCW, she was known as Woman. She also managed major acts, including the tag team Doom and the legendary Four Horsemen, which is where she met Chris. Um, she also, you know, worked along icons like Ric Flair, which we were talking about earlier. She she did all of this stuff. But beyond her on-screen character, she was known behind the scenes for her deep understanding of wrestling psychology and business. So Nancy and Chris were married on November 23rd, 2000. In her later years, Nancy largely retired from the public eye to focus on being a mother to their son, Daniel, while continuing to manage her husband's career from their home in Atlanta. Those who knew her personally often described her as very kind, sweet, a very class act, like a classy woman who was easy to work with. So she was like, you know what? I have a child, I can't be out there injuring myself. I'm gonna manage my husband, everything's good. So now we're gonna fast forward back to what happened in that span. It was a span of three days that all of this happened in June of 20 or 2007. The timeline reconstructed by investigators suggests escalating tragedy inside the home. So Chris was supposed to, he like they kind of worked together in groups, like him and Chavo and all that. They would You know, meet at the airport, they would fly to their next event. They were they were gonna go to um, they call it the Texas tour. So there were certain arenas around Texas because it's so big that they would hit during that time. And so, you know, he told Chavo that um Nancy and Daniel had food poisoning, and he's like, I really just want to be there and take care of them and all of this stuff, they're not feeling well. He's like, Okay, um, keep me updated, I'll meet you at the airport, you know, tomorrow, and then we'll see. So he didn't show up. So I guess they kind of plan things around him and all that stuff. Not a big thing. Wrestlers, I'm sure, do this sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

They miss everybody calls in sick.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Right. So he really didn't think anything of it. So on June 22nd, once the you know, police had entered the home and everything, they they put together this timeline that June 22nd, Nancy Benoit's body, like she was killed um after investigating her body. Her cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation. When they found her, her hands and feet were bound with coaxle cables and duct tape.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Does everybody know what a coaxle cable is?

SPEAKER_03 23:31

So back in the day, everybody uses like HDMI cables and things like that now. So that was the old uh it came from the wall and plugged into the back of your TV or cable box type of thing. The little pokey needle thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

And it screwed on.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Yep, yeah, and it would never screw on straight. So you were back there like trying to screw it on a thousand times on the back of this huge monster dinosaur TV. Yeah. Yeah. It's a pain in the butt. But they were heavy-duty cables, so they were. He had um bound her hands and feet with one of those and duct taped them. Medical examiners found bruises on her back and her stomach, suggesting Chris had pressed a knee into her back while pulling a cord around her neck. So, you know, imagine this man who is trained in how to do all this stuff, pretty much, can turn that into looks like a wrestling movie. Yeah. So he, you know, was on top of her knee in the back, pulling this cable up around her neck and strangling her. So they did toxicology on her. They revealed um non-toxic therapeutic levels of hydrocodone, which is a painkiller, and Xanax for anxiety in her system. So she wasn't like on a bunch of drugs. This these were prescribed, they were non-toxic levels, just regular stuff. So investigators determined like that was about her time. So he killed her on the 22nd. So by June 23rd, this is when they determined that seven-year-old Daniel Benoit was killed also by asphyxiation. But he was found in his bed with no signs of external bruising. Toxicology reports show levels of Xanax in his system. So medical examiners concluded that he was sedated at the time of his death. So he gave him Xanax. I'm sure he was just looping out of it, and then he asphyxiated. It didn't say how he was. I don't know if it was a pillow over the face or he just held his hand over his face until he stopped breathing. There was no reports of neck trauma or anything.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Who knows considering he like basically made him pass out before he did it? Right.

Steroids Painkillers And A Perfect Storm

SPEAKER_03 26:20

So there was there was nothing on there. So two days have passed. So then we're coming up on the 24th, 25th time, which we know that early morning, it was about five, five thirty in the morning when he sent the text to Chavo Guerrero that the dogs were in the the pool area in the fence and that the back door was unlocked. So it was sometime within that time that um he went into his home gym, and that is where he died by suicide. Investigators determined that the cause of death was asphyxiation by ligature hanging. He used equipment within that space to be the, you know, to kind of hold him. So when he put the rope around or the cord around his neck, he could kill himself and hang. There was no note, no explanation, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Just the dogs are out there by the pool.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Right. So again, toxicology reports um found that he had elevated levels of testosterone indicating the use of synthetic hormones.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Of course.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

He also had therapeutic levels of Xanax and hydrocodone in his system. So I know when that happened, people went crazy. They're like, oh, it was roid rage and all this stuff. Um, that's what caused it. He was on steroids and all that. He was. But I don't think that that was just what caused it. I think it was a culmination of a lot of things. Um, there was really no public awareness of the situation until like the authorities conducted this welfare check and all of that. So um, investigators, just a side note, investigators also noted that there were Bibles placed near the deceased. And when they did the autopsy on Chris, he had a significantly enlarged heart. Um, a condition that experts suggested could have led to like natural heart failure in the near future. So like he was he was on the path of dying anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

But just him.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Right, just him. He didn't have to go and take out his wife and seven-year-old son. He also had severe CTE across all lobes of the brain. Like severe. This is where this whole interpretation becomes delicate but important because there was no single trigger. It was like a convergence of different things.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

My thing is if you have that bad of head injury, like that's gotta be exhausting dealing with the pain from that. Because your head's gonna be constantly hurting.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Like you might want to die. And then you're taking like all of this, you know, like steroids, testosterone, like amplifying all this stuff. Yeah. So imagine like how any little thing triggered him.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

And I'm not making excuses for him, but like No, but it had to be like really intense.

Fallout For WWE And New Protocols

SPEAKER_03 30:04

Like, holy crap. So while CTE was the primary focal point, investigators and um biographers pointed to a dangerous cocktail of other stressors. So the autopsy report showed Benoit had 10 times the normal level of testosterone in his system. Yikes. That's a lot of testosterone. While doctors noted that steroids did not cause the brain damage, but they may have exacerbated his unstable mental state, you think? Just a wee bit. Just a little bit. So after the tragedy, um professional wrestling entered a period of like intense self-examination because they had to. Uh, questions were raised about concussion protocols, long-term brain health, performance pressures, painkiller use, mental health support systems. Like his situation became like the catalyst for like them having to put all of these protocols into place.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Well, good.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

I mean, at least something positive came from something terrible.

Lawsuits Doctors And Exploitation After Death

SPEAKER_03 31:23

Exactly. Um, his name was gradually removed from the WWE programming and archives. They didn't uh he's not erased from history, but they like separated him from like, you know, any old stuff was not shown of him, nothing. Just like he was never there. But the tragedy did trigger a federal investigation into steroid abuse and professional wrestling, leading to a congressional hearing where WWE executives were questioned about their wellness policy and drug testing protocols. Legally, the WWE maintained that Benoit had tested negative for illegal substances in April of 2007, but the fallout kind of forced the company to implement stricter um management of that and significantly more like rigorous drug testing. So then we jump ahead like two years after all this because they were like, really, you know, we don't know. It's a culmination of all these things that happen. So there was really for her family, there was really no answer. Like he just flipped out and all this stuff happened and he killed them. So Maureen and Paul Toffellini, which were um Nancy's parents and Daniel's grandparents, filed a wrongful death suit. The suit was filed in June of 2009 in the U.S. District Court in Noonan, Georgia. Um, her mother, Maureen, acted as the personal representative for the estates of both Nancy and Daniel. The lawsuit specifically targeted Dr. Phil Aston, which was Chris Benoit's personal physician, as well as three unnamed drug distributors. Notably, like the family did not name WWE in this specific suit.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

I was about to say, do they include like I would imagine there are doctors on staff at WWE as well that have to be treating these guys and giving them things.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

When you're watching football, there's doctors on the sideline that are like treating, like, oh my gosh, they're injured. They run back there, they start treating, they do whatever they gotta do. So yeah, there are doctors on staff. But then he also had his personal doctor that prescribed him stuff. So the suit sought to sought like um compensatory and punitive damages. I think I said that right. Yeah. Compensatory. I was like, hold on. Um, for the full value of the lives of Nancy and Daniel, as well as for the pain and suffering they endured prior to their deaths, because it wasn't a happy family life. Um, separately, Maureen also filed a lawsuit against LFP Publishing Group, which is the publisher of Hustler magazine, after the magazine published nude photographs of Nancy, which were taken years before her death without her consent. So all this tragedy happened. So Hustler's like, hey, I got an idea. We have these photos of Nancy that are nude. Let's put them in our magazine.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

She's dead, she can't see anything. My thing is, is why do they have nude pictures of her? Yeah. If there was never a consenting moment.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

That's weird.

SPEAKER_03 35:18

That is very weird.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

I want to know how they came to be.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

So while the family initially won a$19 million like jury award type thing, the verdict was later overturned by an appeals court on First Amendment grounds. I'm like, how?

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Right. I was like, how does that apply?

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Because they own the photos and they do, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

But how do they um Right?

SPEAKER_03 35:48

But you just picked some bad, bad timing to release these. That's that's uh really really bad. So you know, the family did sue sue the doctor. Um the doctor did get prison time for because with a lot of these medical professionals who treat celebrities, they're out here writing prescriptions under the table.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

They'll give them whatever they want.

SPEAKER_03 36:18

Right. Because they're paying for it.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 36:21

So, you know, I I think it was all the brain injuries and the testosterone levels being high, and all of the things, like you said, how is he even functioning with that level of pain and and things in his system that caused this? And they were, you know, having marital problems, so it was just a a trigger. And I, you know, his excuse was, oh, I'm gonna stay home because they have some food poisoning, but he had already planned to kill them.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Yikes.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

So my family's sick. Mm-hmm. It's not. I mean, that's just messed up. Like tell everybody that they're ill and you need to stay home and take care of them, like your your intentions are kind there. But then to turn around and do that.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

But then, you know, there had to have been warning signs. There had to, I mean, he had our she had already filed um for divorce before in a restraining order because of the volatile, you know, home life.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Well, and that's what I was gonna say. Was there like physical abuse previously? Because like I can't imagine him just like never flashing out physically until that very moment.

Warning Signs Abuse And Staying Safe

SPEAKER_03 37:50

So it was it was most definitely previously, like there was lots of there were police reports, there were things that were filed beforehand.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

So it wasn't just a one-time thing, but like how many warning signs are people willing to ignore before how bad does it have to get before you realize you're about to die?

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Right. So, you know, pay attention to those warning signs if you know that somebody is feeling a certain type of way and things are happening, or you yourself, because again, I was in an abusive relationship and I knew things were happening and I knew things could escalate, but in my head, I had to be like people would be like, Oh, why didn't you just leave? You gotta be in the right situation and the right time and the right place to do that sometimes, especially if you don't have the means to get out. Like she, I'm sure she had it, but also she managed him, so there was a lot of legal things in place, I'm sure. I would rather the legalese the the legal ease, the legality of it get ugly than lose my life.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Like money's one thing, but your life is another. So yeah, that was the the story of Chris Benoit and how he's I I had heard the story, but I never went in depth of like what happened and how it happened and all of his stuff because you really don't think about it, you're like, oh, they get knocked around a little bit. They have doctors, it's fine. But it's literally it's so sad for all of them, really. They all I'm sure there's like what are thousands of them with those brain injuries.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Like you sit and think about like what you're willing to put on the line to make all that money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

Like, is it worth putting your body and your brain and your life through that to make some money? Because you get caught up in the the fame and the yeah, the celebrity of all of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

And then all the money. I mean, who doesn't want some of that?

SPEAKER_03 40:15

Right. You're like, look, I have an action figure of myself.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

So what?

unknown 40:19

Woohoo.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

But yeah, my head hurts every day. Yeah. Like I can't stand a headache, and I can't even imagine living with one that comes from that.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

So I'll wake up with a headache and I'm like, why?

SPEAKER_01 40:33

It would probably make me crazy at some point, and something terrible would happen. Yep. That's all I would need is that long-lasting headache.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

And really, that's probably my point where I like go a little bit cuckoo, you know, is when I have a headache and things are like stressing me out, and I'm like, oh, I can't take today. My head hurts. Exactly. Like, no, get away from me. Get away from me before I like say something I shouldn't say.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

I'm going to karate chop you in the troll.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

Right. Like I said this morning, I'm gonna go punch someone in her sleep. Because she is like really, really getting on my nerves.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Didn't have to have a headache for that one. Nope, did not is the headache.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

But I was already having a morning.

Listener Stories Email And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 41:23

So yes, indeed. Yeah. Well, you know who doesn't give me a headache. Who's that? Patty Salzetta. Right. Her movie music is so soothing. It is. Therapeutic. So fun. So fun. We get to hear it every time we listen to an episode. Absolutely. Something she created.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

So thank you. Thanks, Patty. And if you have a story, since I know you guys were looking forward to a sweet tea after dark episode, but if you have one for the next child, you have a human life. It's fun. A cute one at that. Um, but if you have, you know, we didn't have one for this one, so Pearl was gonna do one of her own.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:11

But this gives you a chance to get your story in there. That's right. Because we can pop it out there and get it done for the next one.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

Yep. So if you have send them over. Yeah. Hold my sweet tea podcast at gmail.com. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

And and as always, Hold My Sweet Tea is a drunken bee production.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Poor sad little bee. It's a tired drunk bee. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 42:44

Right. Sleepy drunken bee production. And you guys remember to stay safe out there. Don't tombstone pile drive off of a 10-foot ladder, 20-foot ladder, anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Beat people with metal chairs.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

Don't be one of those backyard wrestlers that think you're cool because you listen to ICP.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

Throwing the mattress in the yard. It's not the same. Had to throw ICP in there to do that.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

The drugalos and they're wrestling. Uh which they were wrestlers also. Because it was in that height. Funny enough. But you guys stay safe out there. And remember, just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep dipping.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Bye.