Chris Benoit is dead. One of the biggest names in entertainment wrestling was found dead along with his wife and son in their home of an apparent double murder suicide.

Pretty glum stuff, huh?

For a good majority of you, you probably have no clue who Chris Benoit is. Well, I do. Not because he’s a Canadian, but because I’ve watched World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since I was a little girl.

My dad used to watch WWE religiously every week. Names like Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, the Hillbillies, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Jack “The Snake” Roberts and The British Bulldogs were the huge names in wrestling at the time (I did this all without having to Google the names). Because there was only 1 TV set in the house at the time, there was nothing to do but watch grown men jump around in tights.

My dad lost interest in it once someone told him it was fake and I too no longer watched it. My interest in the WWE was re-awakened 10-years ago while dating my ex-boyfriend. It was him whom I called earlier today to commiserate about Mr. Benoit.

Forty-five minutes later, I got off the phone with him, but I still wanted to talk about this some more. No one in my house was interested in chatting about it. Not one. So, I turned to Facebook and would you believe that there were more than 500 groups all dedicated to the wrestler called Chris Benoit?

Not knowing which group to join, I decided to go with the one that had the most members at just over 5800. Within 10-minutes of joining the group, the creator closed it saying:

“It’s a terrible thing that people cant just get along and respect others opinions, and because of that i needed to shut down this group. Thank you to all, good and bad.”

From the few comments I did read, people were upset that some chose to ignore the circumstances behind the death of Chris Benoit and his family and instead, celebrate his wrestling feats.

So, I joined the next biggest group at just under 300. While there were many in this group using epithets to convey their disgust that anyone would pay tribute to Benoit, there were just as many people who were in disbelief that a man as popular and as entertaining as Benoit could be accused of doing something so evil.

I ignored the comments from those who told WWE fans to “fuck themselves and Benoit.” You see, I didn’t go to Facebook to talk about Benoit The Murderer. I went to Facebook to talk about Benoit The Wrestler. I wanted to share my thoughts about:

• His greatest matches
• His greatest moves
• His most entertaining quotes (he didn’t have many)

One woman named Joy summed up my feelings about Benoit the best. She said:

“I sit here still not able to believe this has happened. I have watched Chris since his WCW days. We never know what life has in store for us and sometimes we make choices that are not fair in life or to others. No matter what the outlook appears to have happened in that family, let’s try to remember who he was in the ring. Its sad if he did murder his family, but something had to have triggered him emotionally to do something like this. Something like that is not normal, and that is not the Chris we grew to love. I pray for their familes and fans during this time for peace and understanding.”

That’s all I wanted. To share fond memories. Instead, I – and other WWE fans – are abused for even wanting to talk about his days as a wrestler.

This is the problem with conversations that are open to everyone – you get some who just want to talk and those who want to preach. Those who want to talk share information about a very specific issue. Those who preach want to grill you on why you’re not wearing ecologically-friendly cotton or why you’re killing children in third-world countries because you threw out the crust from your bread.

Just because I want to talk about Benoit, doesn’t mean I’m giving the thumbs up to murder. I just want to talk about Benoit – that’s it. The social and moral impact of his actions outside the ring doesn’t matter to me right now. Why? Because nothing is conclusive. If he did it, shame on him. If he didn’t, I hope they catch the real culprit. Regardless, my prayers are with all those affected by this. In the meantime, I just want to celebrate his career and chat with others who are in the same mindset.

Transperancy, honesty and openess has a place, but it’s not for everyone. While every business can participate in open conversations, not every business should. It took the CIA 25-years to disclose some of their top secret documents, so what makes us think that every business on the planet will embrace transparency just because we say blog/podcasts are cool and conversations are the new marketplace?

Update: According to Wikipedia, the WWE has removed all references to Chris Benoit from its website and has ordered all stores to stop selling a DVD about Benoit. If the WWE has taken this measure to distant itself from Benoit, then investigators have confirmed that Benoit murdered his wife and son, then took his own life. No matter how bleak life may look, taking one’s own life and those of the people he or she loves is unacceptable. While Benoit the Wrestler was exciting to watch, Benoit the Double Murderer has tainted his own legacy. It’s now difficult to talk about someone who did something so heinous.