Our friend Irv Muchnick has posted the full transcript (PDF) of Michael Benoit's press conference that held Monday in Hartford, Connecticut. The whole thing is a must-read, as he covers a lot of ground, including:
- How he first learned of the murders and how WWE executives knew that his son was the culprit hours before Raw went on the air. He believes that they went on with the tribute show because tribute shows consistently did strong ratings, which is one of the most likely explanations anyone's come up with in the last three and a half years. At the time, WWE was under heavy pressure from Bonnie Hammer of NBC Universal to get the ratings up, which gave us the death of Mr. McMahon angle..
There's also been plenty of speculation over the years that the McMahons and others in power in WWE were hoping (for lack of a better term) that it would be revealed after further investigation that Nancy killed Daniel and Chris killed her when he found out. While the show was billed as a tribute to the family, Nancy, a retired wrestling performer who they had plenty of footage of, was rarely mentioned specifically until late in the show when Lawler abruptly pointed out that she was also dead and that we should all be mourning her.
This theory actually supported by some of Michael Benoit's comments: "...Jerry McDevitt also approached our lawyers and said, 'You know, it's in our best interest to work together. We've got a pretty good idea of what happened here.' So, they were trying to push the theory of Nancy killing Daniel, Chris coming back to the house, finding it and killing Nancy. That was in their best interest. It took them out of the loop completely. They were trying to influence the investigation in that way."
- A lot of background about WWE's drug testing and safety policies. He gets the timeline mixed up at times, but the gist is true.
- The various ways that he believes WWE tried to influence the investigation as well as Jerry McDevitt's attempts at intimidation, like insinuating that Chris was dealing drugs.
- Lots of details about the concussion issues and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
- How he believes pro wrestling can be done safely and how the proper oversight can help.
It's 17 pages and well worth devoting your time to.