While the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy was focused on Jeff Hardy’s WWE return in 2006, the conversation turned to Chris Benoit.
Hardy reflected on how eerie it was that day. Benoit missed the pay-per-view. Hardy ended up filling in for Benoit on house shows earlier that weekend. “It was very strange because Chris was not one to be late. I’ve told you stories about how Chris and Eddie would stay by the gym. They would get a hotel near the closest Gold’s Gym so that they could work out first thing in the morning. They were very timely and very punctual, so Chris never missed shows, never missed shots, people always heard back from him. So, it was very strange the whole weekend. Very strange.”
“And I’ll never forget that day when they called a talent meeting to get everybody together. And keep in mind, we’ve been walking around all day long. There’s caskets in several different places for shots they’re going to do about Vince. There’s all these wreaths everywhere. There’s flowers everywhere, like it’s really like a funeral home. There’s so many weird, eerie vibes floating around that day as we’re doing the show that followed Vince’s explosion and the supposed “death” of the boss.”
Matt Hardy on How He Learned of Chris Benoit’s Death
“They had this talent meeting, they call everyone together. I’ll never forget I saw ‘Taker coming out slowly, walking out to where all the crowd was gathered around. I saw Michelle McCool like, crying. I remember turning to Ken Kennedy and going, ‘Chris is dead.’ I saw Undertaker and Michelle coming and Undertaker would’ve been given the heads up and Michelle’s just so upset, I thought ‘he’s gotta be dead.'”
“And then I remember them coming out and proceeding to tell us Chris had been found dead and his family had been found as well. We’re going to change the whole show that night and they’re going to go a different direction and remember Chris Benoit that night. It was a super eerie day and even having walking around all day seeing that funeral stuff, it was just a weird, creepy day. Corpus Christi, Texas. I’ll never forget it. I remember it like it was yesterday and how shocking it just was.”
Final Thoughts
Jon Alba clarified that they will never do an episode dedicated to Benoit. He will come up only in stories. Since it’s the only time they’ll talk about him out of respect for the victim’s families, he did ask a few more questions.
Vince McMahon and the top people in the office broke the news of Benoit’s death. “They told everyone about it and what their intention was for the show. I was asked to do a testimonial, but I said, ‘I’m okay’ and declined to do it because as the day was going on, as you know, more info started coming out and they weren’t really sure how his family died. There were some guys who were suspicious, it could be foul play. I was one of those guys who declined to speak just to be safe. I mean, very sad day, obviously.”
“Extremely sad. Just remarkably eerie in every way possible because of what we were there to do that day, the Vince storyline; the explosion angle. And then to have that real life storyline set in on you like that. It was so crazy. So yeah, there were guys who did to testimonies and it is what it is. It was meant to celebrate Chris Benoit’s wrestling career and life and it’s just very unfortunate how it all ended with him. It’s inexplicable to even try to explain why that happened or how that happened or could have happened. At the end of the day, it’s just heartbreaking. It’s just sad.”
“It hit everyone hard. Everyone was just floored. It came out of left field, no one was expecting that. Chris Benoit’s gone the whole day and not only is Chris Benoit dead, his family has passed away as well. That’s mind-blowing. It strongly effected everyone, even worse when we found out what truly happened.”
Hardy gave his final thoughts on that time. “That was just a very tough day, very tough day at work. Learning that information about someone you worked with very closely hand in hand, you spent time with, that you went on car rides with, that you shared hotel rooms with, to learn that was heavy, man. It’s the first time I can ever say I’ve been in some criminal, traumatic event like that and known someone that close. It was a heartbreaking day all the way around.”
