The tragedy of the Benoit family has undeniably and irrevocably stained the legacy of former WWE Champion Chris Benoit. While many fans still urge that Benoit's lauded wrestling matches should be considered separate from his actions on the last weekend of his life, his former co-worker James Yun known during his WWE career as Jimmy "Wang" Yang doesn't think that "the Rabid Wolverine" should even be considered a wrestler.
"I don't care anything about his wrestling ability now, what he did disqualifies him to me as a wrestler," Yun said during an interview with JackKilby onthe "Cheap Heat Productions Podcast."
When it became clear that Yun was taken aback after being asked about Benoit, Kilby followed up with a question about Yun looking "less than comfortable" during the televised tribute to Benoit's memory on the episode of "WWE Raw" that aired June 25, 2007 shortly afterthe death of the Benoit family, but before the details were made public knowledge.
Yun recalled being brought to the arena that night in Corpus Christi,Texas, where he was ironically set to participate in a kaybabe memorial service for then-WWE owner Vince McMahon, who had been "killed" in a televised limousine explosion two weeks before. The segment, which would have involved "Burn Notice" and "Evil Dead" franchise actor Bruce Campbell, was never aired, and the "Vince's death" storyline dropped, due to the real-life Benoit incident. Yun described being excited to see Campbell, of whom he was a big fan, before hearing Vickie Guerrero scream in reaction to the news about Benoit and his family being dead.
That night's episode of "Raw" was quickly re-written as a three-hour tribute to Benoit's career, a decision made before the news came out that Benoit himself had murdered his wife and child before killing himself. Yun, however, claims he guessed the truth immediately.
"I turn around, and Vince announced what happened, they found Chris dead, his wife and his kid," Yun continued. "And I looked directly to [former WWE Tag Team Champion] Brian Kendrick, and I looked at him and I was like, 'Yep, he finally did it, huh? He finally snapped and did that horrible act. We both thought the same thing from our previous experience with him."
Yun said he quickly second-guessed his suspicions, coming up with other scenarios that might have taken place. But when WWE announced to the locker room that a second tribute show would be taped the following day, to be aired that Friday on "WWE SmackDown," he once again had a bad feeling.
"My gut felt weird," he said. "I'm like, 'I don't know if I want to do a tribute match to Chris Benoit, like I'm not I need to see some more facts about what happened' ... And then during the day, all that stuff, things started to leak out. And I no-showed SmackDown,because I didn't want to be part of anything associated with what happened ... Kinda got in trouble, but then it got cleared after everything came out."
In closing, Yun reiterated his belief that Benoit's legacy is defined by his murderous actions, not his wrestling career.
"Personally,I don't give a s*** what wrestling match he did, or all this other stuff, I don't care," Yun said. "The last thing he did, that sticks with me."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit the "Cheap Heat Productions Podcast," and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
