Chris Jericho serves as the narrator for Season 2 of VICE’s Dark Side of the Ring docuseries. The first two episodes of the season focus on the Chris Benoit double murder-suicide tragedy from 2007. Jericho recently spoke to Paste about his involvement in the documentary and the complicated question of Chris Benoit’s legacy in pro-wrestling.
During the interview, Jericho was asked about Benoit’s contribution to pro-wrestling and if it is important to revive the memory of his body of work.
“I don’t know, man. It’s a weird thing,” Jericho responded. “I’m not doing this to glorify a murderer but I’m also not doing this to wash away the things that he did. I think it’s a personal choice. If you were someone that didn’t know Chris Benoit you might want to study his matches because he was one of the greatest of all time. There’s no doubt about that. No matter what he did in the last weekend of his life, as a professional there were none better.”
Jericho said the issue of Benoit’s body of work and its legacy is more difficult for those who were around or following the business in 2007.
“Where it becomes harder is if you knew him, or if you were there or around or involved or a wrestling fan in 2007, when this went down.”
“I would say probably 10, 15 years from now—even now—you’re going to have a whole generation of performers that weren’t really fans back then, or might not have really known the true story, that won’t care as much. They’ll want to watch his matches and just try to learn and see what he did and what he was.”
Chris Jericho On Chris Benoit’s Body of Work In Wrestling
Jericho would then continue to say that he’s not sure if he wants to go back and watch old Benoit matches but understands why others would want to do so.
“I don’t know if I really want to go back and watch those matches even though they’re so connected to me in so many ways. It’s hard to do. But I don’t blame other people for doing it, because those matches are great examples of what perfect pro wrestling is.”
Jericho covers a whole range of topics during the interview. He also spoke about other episodes of the docu-series and how Chavo Guerrero got him involved. The full interview can be found here.
