Former WWE star Jimmy Wang Yang says he felt uneasy about participating in Chris Benoitâ€s tribute SmackDown show.
In 2007, Chris Benoit killed his wife Nancy, their son Daniel and himself, creating one of the darkest moments in professional wrestling history. WWE aired a tribute show for him, unaware that he was responsible. The moment also saw company scrapping the storyline of Vince McMahonâ€s death.
Former WWE star Jimmy Wang Yang, who was on the roster at the time, recalled the situation and said he no longer cared about Chris Benoitâ€s wrestling skills because of his actions. On Cheap Heat Productions, he said, “I donâ€t care anything about his wrestling ability now. What he did disqualifies him, to me, as a wrestler. I remember that meeting we had in Corpus Christi, Texas. The week before, Vince got blew up by the limo, so we had the memorial service at Corpus Christi. So they bring us into the arena, and I sit down, and this is kind of a crazy story.â€
“Iâ€m looking around and I look behind me, and Bruce Campbell is right behind me, Army of Darkness. I was like, ‘Oh my god! Bruce Campbell! I f*cking love you!†Oh, sorry for cussing too much, but, ‘I love you! I love Army of Darkness, Ash, Evil Dead, all of this stuff! I wanna talk to you right after this.â€
“I turn around, and Vince is there, and all of a sudden I hear Vickie Guerrero screech, like, ‘Oh my god, no!†Iâ€m like, ‘Oh shit, what the f*ck?†Sorry for cussing again. Then I turn around, and Vince announced what happened, like, ‘They found Chris dead, his wife and his kid.’â€
Jimmy Wang Yang explains why he no-showed Chris Benoit tribute on WWE SmackDown
Jimmy Wang Yang initially struggled to process the news. He said he even tried to convince himself that the deaths might have been caused by a robbery. “I looked directly to Brian Kendrick, and looked at him, and it was like, ‘Yep, he finally did it huh? He finally snapped and did that horrible act.†We both thought the same thing from our previous experience with him.â€
“But, after that, I was like, ‘No, I donâ€t wanna think that, he did have this mansion in Atlanta, maybe somebody robbed him and killed him and his family.†It was crazy mixed emotions at that time. And then, the next day, they say weâ€re gonna do a tribute show to Chris the next day.â€
“My gut felt weird. Iâ€m like, ‘I donâ€t know if I wanna do a tribute match to Chris Benoit. I need to see some more facts about what happened and all that kind of stuff.†Then, during the day, all that stuff, things started to leak out.â€
As details emerged, he no-showed SmackDown and was later cleared by WWE despite initial trouble. “And I no-showed SmackDown, because I didnâ€t want to be part of anything associated with what happened, I said, ‘Iâ€m not going.†And I didnâ€t go to SmackDown, I no-showed SmackDown because I just didnâ€t feel comfortable.â€
“I had a bad feeling about what happened. I no-showed SmackDown, kinda got in trouble, but then it got cleared after everything came out. I just didnâ€t wanna be part of it. “Personally, I donâ€t give a shit what wrestling matches he did or all this other stuff. I donâ€t care. The last thing he did, that sticks with me, so yeah.†[H/T: Wrestletalk]
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