These days, it’s very rare that you’ll hear Chris Benoit’s name or see pictures of him because of the horrific details surrounding his death. The former WWE champion murdered his wife and seven-year-old son before taking his own life between June 22 and June 25 of 2007.
Now, his story will make its way to the big screen in a biopic titled Crossface, named after his finishing submission move, the Crippler Crossface. According to Comic Book Resources, the film will be based off the book Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit & the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry by Matthew Randazzo V.
Lexi Alexander, who directed episodes of Supergirl, Arrow and Limitless, is set to take the helm. “I was pretty certain I’d stay in TV rather than returning to the feature world, because the material just seems so much better in TV, especially in drama, but then Crossface came my way,” she said, per Variety. “A heartbreaking, true story about the dark side of wrestling…I couldn’t say no to that.”
Before his death, Benoit had been lauded as one of the greatest technical wrestlers of his time and had been well respected backstage. While we still don’t know why he did what he did, tests showed his brain resembled that of “an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient” after suffering from untreated concussions. Even so, there’s no erasing the gruesome crimes he committed over that weekend.
As a longtime WWE fan, it’s still something that’s difficult for me to wrap my head around. How can someone do this? Why did he do it? What was going on in his head? He didn’t have alcohol or steroids in his system at the time of death. The truth is, we’ll probably never get answers to any of these questions.
Still, I’m curious to see how the film will turn out, and in what light they’ll paint his character. Benoit’s story is complicated, to say the least.
(via Comic Book Resources, image via Screencap)
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