Chris Jericho got the wrestling world talking a few weeks ago when he challenged Kenny Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom, and the match took place in the Tokyo Dome this week. The match has been receiving rave reviews from the fans, but Jericho found himself on the wrong end of some backlash before the match.
The former WWE World Heavyweight Champion posted some fan art showing himself with Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, and he caught some flack from fans for bringing up Benoit.
Prior to his Wrestle Kingdom match, Jericho reacted to the backlash by posting a live video on social media, and he responded with the following:
“I get a couple smartass remarks here for an Instagram post that I put up of this great fan art that somebody drew of me with kind of the spirits of Eddie and Benoit behind me and I said I dedicate the match to those guys.
Yeah, I know, what Chris did. I think about it every single day. I was involved more than any one of you were. So trust me, I understand the horrible, horrible events that took place. I’ll never forgive it, I’ll never understand it – but I have my reasons for doing what I’m doing, so don’t anybody tell me, don’t anybody make smartass remarks about what I say and what I do…
Nobody tells me what to do, I have my reasons, and I think about the loss of Nancy Benoit and Daniel Benoit every single day. So that’s enough of that, I’ll never talk about it again.”
Chris Benoit’s legacy has been tarnished for obvious reasons, but Chris Jericho has a very different connection to the situation as he was close with Benoit.
In any case, Chris Jericho does what he wants to do, and now that his match with Kenny Omega has come and gone we’ll all be waiting to see what he does next.
H/T to CageSideSeats
What Chris Benoit did was bad. Heinous even. But do we define his whole life and career based off of that one action? Sorry, but I don’t think we should.