Today's flashback is from the Dec. 1, 1995 edition of the PWTorch Newsletter featuring my "Torch Talk" interview with Chris Benoit.

I had met Benoit multiple times over the years and he was always very polite, but also reserved in most cases. That was the case with this interview, as he was among the least talkative interview subjects I've had over the years. But he warmed up as the interview got going, and I will run future installments in the future here at www.WadeKeller.com.

Torch Talk with Chris Benoit, pt. 1
Originally Published: December 9, 1995
Torch Newsletter #364

Chris Benoit has become over the last eight or nine years one of the premiere wrestlers in the world. He has more experience in the last ten years working a variety of styles worldwide than any other wrestler. After finally being given a push in the U.S. by ECW, both WCW and the WWF noticed his talent. After a tryout with the WWF, he chose WCW and is now one of the Four Horsemen along with fellow Calgary Stampede alum Brian Pillman. In this, the first installment of a "Torch Talk" with Benoit, he talks about his early years in wrestling. In future installments, he talks his stay in ECW and his decision to join WCW...

Wade Keller: When and how did you originally get started in pro wrestling?

Chris Benoit: I started in '86 with Stu Hart. I had gone to wrestling matches for years, ever since I was 12 or 13. I used to go every week and watch it. Gradually I got to know them more and more. I remember being 14 or 15 and I wanted to leave school already and start wrestling. Fortunately none of them took me all that serious that soon. As soon as I finished high school they started training me. It took off from there.

Keller: Who do you remember watching when you were younger that turned you on to wrestling?

Benoit: Dynamite Kid. He and Davey because back then the angles were mainly between them. He and Davey used to have great matches back then.

Keller: What was it about Dynamite Kid that made you look up to him?

Benoit: His aggressiveness and confidence in the ring really rose above everyone else who was in the territory, I thought. I'm not putting anyone down, but he was just so aggressive and confident in the ring. Everything that he did looked so strong and devastating.

Keller: What approach or steps did you take to become a pro wrestler?

Benoit: I got to know the ring crew who set up the ring up in Edmonton. None of them wrestled but they had been around it for years. A couple of the guys who set up the ring, their dad had worked with Stu (Hart) promoting Northern Alberta so they were a little familiar with the sport. After a while they started taking me in the ring and showing me stuff. It snowballed from there.

Keller: At what age did you start training?

Benoit: Probably at about sixteen and a half. I wasn't seriously training at first. They would set up the ring and would go in and throw each other around. They weren't too familiar either with the sport. We'd just horse around.

Keller: At what point did you begin formally training to make pro wrestling your career?

Benoit: Probably when I was about seventeen and a half when I started going down to Stu's place.

Keller: Tell me what it was like training with Stu?

Benoit: I didn't actually do much training with Stu. He would come in and show me different holds, but he himself couldn't get in the ring and do what he used to do. But he pretty well guided me. I worked out a lot with Bruce (Hart) and Keith (Hart) and Mr. Hito. I would do most of my work with them. Stu stood ringside and basically guided everything.

Keller: Did you start wrestling for Calgary Stampede at that point?

Benoit: Yes I did.

Keller: Talk about that era because Calgary at that time produced excellent wrestlers.

Benoit: Yeah, they had a hell of a working crew. Cuban Assassin was there, a different one than the one from Florida. Jerry Morro was there. They had a strong backbone and they kept everyone else together because a lot of guys were coming in like myself and further along Brian Pillman and all of them who really weren't prepared. Those guys were the real backbone of the territory and held us together for Stu.

Two others were Brian (Pillman) and (Hiro) Hase when he came in early in his career. It was a lot different style than you see in the other territories in the States. It was a lot closer to the Japanese style. I think that really contributed a lot to the talent that was pumped out of there.

Keller: When did you cross paths originally with Owen Hart?

Benoit: Pretty well when I started going up to Stu's. We never really worked out in the ring together until he started working for Stu. We bump into each other now and again.

Keller: Did you think he was going to be something special in the ring or did it take a while for him to break out?

Benoit: No, right away I pretty much knew. Growing up in a wrestling family he was really eager to learn and train. Everybody knew he'd be good on athletic ability alone.

Keller: At what point did you go to New Japan's dojo?

Benoit: I started working for Calgary on weekends for about five months. Afterward Tokyo Joe and Bad News Allen set me up with New Japan Pro Wrestling and that's how I ended up there.

Keller: Was that a tough decision to leave the country and head to Japan?

Benoit: Not at all. It was exciting. I had been watching Dynamite in Japan wrestling Tiger Mask. Once I started getting in the ring and actually working for Stu, it was one of my ambitions to go over there and succeed over there. It was really exciting.

Keller: Do you remember your first match in front of fans in Calgary?

Benoit: Yeah.

Keller: How comfortable were you for the first time in front of a crowd?

Benoit: I wasn't comfortable at all. The match went about 12 minutes. It was a tag match and I looked pretty rotten.

Keller: How long did it take for the wrestling ring to feel like a second home?

Benoit: About five or six years.

Keller: How long did it take before you knew you would end up feeling comfortable in the ring eventually? Was it after two or three matches or even before you got in the ring in front of a crowd?

Benoit: No, not at all. It was a dream that I dreamt for a long time, but when I started - when you start actually wrestling you realize how much is actually to it. As a teenager I sat at home and watched the matches. You look at stuff and don't realize what goes into it and what it takes to actually do that. Once you start to know how much a wrestler has to put in timewise and what it takes to actually be able to go out there and have a Dynamite Kid match, it's unbelievable.

Keller: I asked this of Rick Steamboat earlier this year and he had an interesting response. I'll ask the same question to you. At what point did you realize that you would end up being pretty good at what you do as opposed to someone who would have to drop out or never really succeed?

Benoit: Well, it's funny. I never really think of myself as being pretty good. I'm really critical of myself. A lot of times I watch matches on tape and I sit back and get embarrassed. I'm really critical so I really never think, well, I'm accomplished.

Keller: Tell me about the New Japan dojo experience, what it was like when you carried your bag in on the first day and had to start the process.

Benoit: I went in there really eager to learn. Bad News Allen had really filled me in on what they were going to be doing. There aren't enough words to explain what you were going to go through, but I sort of went in there expecting the worst and knew how hard I was going to be working, but I figured if it did anything it would help me in the end.

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