Kurt Angle Addresses Why He Still Talks About Chris Benoit

Kurt Angle is one of only a few in the wrestling world who still openly talks about Chris Benoit.

In one of the darkest chapters in wrestling history, Benoit murdered his wife and son before committing suicide in 2007. Since then, WWE has all but erased his name and few wrestlers publicly talk about him.

However, Kurt Angle had some of the greatest matches of his career with Benoit during his first run in WWE in the 2000s, and he has previously said that erasing Benoit would mean erasing most of his career.

During a new Q&A session for AdFreeShows, the Olympic Gold medallist has given another reason for why he still talks about Benoit, explaining that it’s for the sake of his surviving son, David Benoit.

“The thing is, with Chris Benoit, you can’t forget he has a son still, okay? The reason why I talk about him so much is because of his son. He has a living son right now that thinks the world of his father. I mean, he’s giving him for what he’s done.

“There’s no excuse for what Chris had done, but when you have a living human being that absolutely idolized his father, and you’re going to say, ‘I don’t want to talk about Chris Benoit because he’s a piece of shit and what he did to his family is horrible.’ What is that going to do for that kid?”

“Chris Benoit was the best in-ring performer I’ve ever been in the ring with” – Kurt Angle

Angle admitted that he gets a lot of negative feedback when he mentions Benoit, but he argues that it can’t be ignored that he was “one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.”

“A lot of times when I talk about Chris, I get negative feedback on social media, but you can’t excuse the fact that he was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. You can’t ignore that. It’s really difficult to do that.

The WWE Hall of Famer reiterated that he doesn’t condone Benoit’s actions, but says he “can’t lie” about him being the best in-ring performer he performed with.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t condone anything he’s done, but I know this, Chris was the best in-ring performer I’ve ever been in the ring with, and I can’t lie about that.”

H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.