JBL Gives Insight Into Vince McMahon Uncertainty Around Chris Benoit Death & Tribute Show

JBL stated that he, Undertaker, and Steve Austin expressed their reservations to McMahon prior to the Chris Benoit tribute show on Raw just following his death.

JBL / WWE.com

JBL spoke recently about his immediate uncertainty regarding the deaths of Chris Benoit and his family, and he gave insight into Vince McMahon’s response to his and others concerns.

JBL, who has been filling in for Bruce Prichard on his podcast “Something to Wrestle”, was discussing that week’s topic, The Undertaker, when Benoit was mentioned.

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Benoit murdered his wife, Nancy, and son, Daniel, and then took his own life on June 25, 2007. At the time, no information had been released by the investigators of the crime, and it was not yet known the extent of what happened. WWE cancelled their previously scheduled Monday Night Raw episode the same day and aired tributes to Benoit, as well as clips from his DVD chronicling his life and career.

JBL said that he had reservations about the details of the tragedy, and immediately started questioning it.

“I started thinking, what if Chris did it? I went to Taker and said, ‘What if Chris did it?’ He just looked at me, and you could tell that the wheels were spinning. He said, ‘We need to talk to Vince.’ I said, ‘Yeah, we do.’”

Chris Benoit / KMazur/Getty Images

As they both went to speak to McMahon prior to the tribute show, they ran into Stone Cold Steve Austin and told him he needed to come with them to discuss their concerns.

“So me and Stone Cold and Taker went into Vince’s office. It was late in the day. I said, ‘Vince, what if Chris did it?’ We’re about to do a tribute show for a guy who could have done a horrific thing, if that’s a possibility.’ Vince looked at me, and I’ve never seen a man that was so indecisive in my life. I’ve never seen Vince like that. I don’t know if he had thought about it before. I can’t read his mind. I have no idea. He didn’t give anything away, as he never does. He said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I’m just telling you that there’s a chance that something horrific has happened here, and it could have been different from what we think.’ He said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He was not confronting me. He didn’t know what to do. He had no idea what to do. I mean, none. I don’t know if he had thought about it before, but you know, Vince is a quick mind, and he said, ‘John, I don’t know what to do.’ For Vince to say that, that maybe was the only time in his life he ever said that. I said, ‘I don’t know. That’s the downside risk.’ He said, ‘John, I think we have to go with what information we have now, and if it changes, we’ll change.’

- JBL

Once the details of the murder-suicide were publicly released, McMahon gave a brief recorded statement at the beginning of the ECW episode that night, acknowledging the facts of the situation. Since that episode of ECW aired, no mention of Benoit has been made on any WWE programming.

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