"I can never take back the years I stole from my own family in favor of writing fake wrestling scripts for human beings who could never have the insight to appreciate what I was attempting to do for them and their families. Yes, perhaps the wrestling business has hurt me more than any other."

- Vince Russo, Rope Burns


Really, Vince?

The wrestling business hurt you more than it hurt Michael Benoit?

The professional wrestling business took Michael Benoit's family away from him, too, and not just during the hours he was working, either.

Michael Benoit's son, professional wrestler Chris Benoit, you may remember, strangled his wife Nancy to death, hid that fact for hours from their young son Daniel, then choked Michael's grandson to death with his famous pro wrestling submission hold, then spent a day or so alone in hellish misery, before he committed suicide by wrapping the metal cord from a weight machine around his neck and strangling himself to death. Michael Benoit, in his grief, then got to watch the worldwide media firestorm his now reviled son's murderous actions ignited go on for months.

But then, you can never take back the years you stole from your own family, and what's Michael Benoit's pain compared to that?

And what about Martha Hart and her two children? You remember how the pro wrestling business hurt her family, don't you?

You should. You were there.

Owen Hart, Martha's husband and the father of her two children, by your own account one of your best friends in the pro wrestling business, died a horrifying death when he fell from the ceiling of the Kemper Arena trying to execute one of those fake wrestling scripts you wrote.

He was one of your best friends in the business, but it never occurred to you to ask him if he was afraid of heights.

Martha Hart lost her husband that night and was left to fight the bitterest of fights with the professional wrestling business that has hurt you so. Those two children lost their father.

But then, you had to write those fake wrestling scripts for human beings who could never have the insight to appreciate what you were attempting to do for them and their families. Hell, what happened to Owen Hart couldn't be as bad as all that; after all, the show went on, didn't it? And you kept on writing fake wrestling show scripts with real dangerous stunts for untrained wrestlers to perform, remember?

I know Owen's brother Bret Hart and Bill Goldberg do.

Or what about Vickie Guerrero? The wrestling business hurt her, too. Her husband Eddie, the breadwinner in her family, dropped dead brushing his teeth one morning before one of those wrestling shows. Eddie Guererro was only 38 years old and left behind three children for Vickie to raise by herself. Vickie Guerrero and her family lost more than a husband and a father. Dead wrestlers don't make money, either, for their promotions or their families, and the Guerrero family lost their home.

Still, that couldn't be as bad as spending all those hours away from your own family writing fake wrestling scripts for human beings who could never have the insight to appreciate all you do. After all, the wrestling business appreciated Vickie Guerrero, at least enough to allow her to leave those children at home without any parent at all to go on the road as the single poorest-paid regular on television, vilified at every stop for not having the body of a fitness model half her age.

Still, human beings appreciated Eddie Guerrero, and not you. That has to hurt.

I could ask you about how that hurt you feel compares to the hurt suffered by dozens upon dozens of wrestling families whose fathers and sons died, but what's the point?

All I know, Vince, is the pain you feel as the person who, perhaps, the wrestling business hurt the most must be horrific, you know, compared to all that.

===

Bruce Mitchell is the PWTorch senior columnist, beginning his writing for PWTorch since September 1990. He and editor Wade Keller discuss pro wrestling's current events and history every weekend in the PWTorch VIP Audio Show section. He is also occasionally guest cohost of Wade Keller's PWTorch Livecast at BlogTalkRadio.com/pro-wrestling-torch.

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