Thank you Chris Benoit

I figured I would come here tonight and type about how great Ring of Honor was on Saturday or the great meal I had at Wildfire or how I will never eat another lingonberry. Maybe later.

I worked until 7 pm tonight. Around 6:45, I was running out of things to do. So I decided to jump on the ROH message board to see if anything was going on. And the pages were loading so slowly, which is really strange. The only time that board ever runs slowly is after an ROH event takes place. After about 3 or 4 minutes, the page came up. And there I saw the words that are still chilling me. "Chris Benoit is dead." Then I found out, not only was he dead, so were his wife Nancy and their 7-year-old son Daniel.

I hvae posted an article to give you more details on this life and career. Here's my take. Benoit, 40, is in my mind, the greatest technical professional wrestler of this generation. I could tell from watching him for 15 years in and our of the ring that he was an absolute gentleman, a family man, passionate about the business, simply everything that is right about pro wrestling. And he's gone with no warning. In an era where the term pro wrestling has been replaced with sports entertainment, Benoit was one of the last links to pro wrestling. He wasn't about entertaining with his words or being flashy, he wasn't the greatest interview ever. He was just simply a hard working, no-nonsense, kick-ass wrestler and he did it that way for 22 years.

He was supposed to wrestle in Houston Sunday night at a pay-per-view. I found out this morning he didn't make it because he had to fly home to Atlanta for personal reasons. And then to find this out...even though I'm not one who reserves emotions very much, it takes a lot to make me cry. Well, I have shed a few tears for this. Nancy was also in wrestling, having been a manager for many years under the name Woman.

I have the Hard Knocks DVD and I will certainly watch it in the next few days. He never should have gone so soon and certainly not this way. Here is my final thought.

Chris, you were one of the guys that made me proud to be a fan of wrestling, when so many ridicule me for watching it. You were easy to root for, easy to admire, and easy to respect. Thanks for the memories. You will always be missed. You and Eddie will be main eventing in heaven's wrestling ring tonight.