Chris Benoit Applying the Sharpshooter #123 Double Matted 8 X 10 Photograph (Unframed). This fully licensed 8x10 color photograph is printed from an original negative, custom cropped on high gloss photographic paper, mounted in an acid free double matte featuring precision bevel cuts. Size with matting is 11x14. This is not a mass produced copy. It was made in a custom photographic lab, not on a printing press. Each game-action or portrait photograph was taken by a professional photographer.

Chris Benoit Flying high Double Matted 8 X 10 Photograph (Unframed). This fully licensed 8x10 color photograph is printed from an original negative, custom cropped on high gloss photographic paper, mounted in an acid free double matte featuring precision bevel cuts. Size with matting is 11x14. This is not a mass produced copy. It was made in a custom photographic lab, not on a printing press. Each game-action or portrait photograph was taken by a professional photographer.

Benoit's idol was the Dynamite Kid, and his wrestling style often reflects that to an eerie extent right down to using DK's finisher, the flying headbutt, as his own.

He also trained at the New Japan dojo and went on to wrestle in New Japan Pro Wrestling, debuting on 1/2/87 against Yuki Funaki(currently Masakatsu Funaki of Pancrase). After Stampede ended, he worked for a couple years in New Japan as "Dynamite" Chris Benoit; he then redebuted 2/10/90 under a mask as "Pegasus Kid" at a New Japan/All Japan joint card at the Tokyo Dome, teaming with Naoki Sano against Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Akira Nogami.

Benoit would then go on to win and lose the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title against Jushin Liger later on that year. He also worked for the UWA in Mexico, which at the time had a working relationship with NJ. The following year, Liger took Pegasus' mask on July 4, 1991 in Fukuoka, but he worked under the name of "Pegasus Kid" in Japan for a while after that, and even continued to work under the mask in Mexico until losing it in a 2 of 3 falls match to Villano III on Nov. 3, 1991. During this time, he also worked in Europe and held the CWA World Tag Team Titles with Dave Taylor.

Benoit began calling himself "Wild Pegasus" around the time of the G1 series in August of 1993, and works under that name in Japan to this day, continually earning his reputation as a great worker in a country with more than its share of great workers.

Benoit participated in "Top of/Best of Super Junior" tourneys from 1991-1996 as well as the first Super J Cup. He won BOSJ tourneys in 1993 (as "Pegasus Kid," beating El Samurai) and 1995 (as "Wild Pegasus" beating Shinjiro Ohtani). On 4/16/94, he won the Super J Cup, which was a NJPW 14 entrant (2 byes) tournament with all matches held in one night tournament(There was also a "Super Junior" tourney in 1994, and a later Super J Cup sponsored by the WAR promotion, but the New Japan Super J Cup format was only held that one time), beating The Great Sasuke in what many have called the greatest juniors match of all time.

During this same period, Benoit also worked in North America for WCW, teaming with Beef Wellington and Bobby Eaton, but (although his sheer talent and intensity stood out even then in matches such as his 2/93 Superbrawl bout with 2 Cold Scorpio) he never got a chance to show much in U.S. rings.

This would change during 1994-1995, as Extreme Championship Wrestling in Philadelphia brought in Benoit and fellow NJ juniors Eddy Guerrero and Dean Malenko on its way to becoming the hottest indy promotion in America. Benoit and Malenko held the ECW Tag Team Titles from 2/25/95 to 4/08/95. Then in late 1995, WCW picked up what came to be known on the Internet as the "New Japan 3" to form part of the foundation of its new Cruiserweight division. While Eddy and Dean were generally the mainstays of that division and also competed strongly at the U.S. title level, Chris' booking in WCW was wildly erratic if not downright damaging to his wrestling career.

He was a member of the Four Horsemen, and was involved in high-profile, long-term battles with Kevin Sullivan, Diamond Dallas Page, Raven and Booker T. For over three years Benoit never officially won a title in WCW (he held the TV title briefly via house shows, 3/30/98-04/01/98 and 04/02/98-04/03/98) partly because of real-life problems with booker Kevin Sullivan over a relationship with Sullivan's now ex-wife Nancy (Woman). Benoit and Nancy eventually married, and have since had a son.

After a promising start in the 1999 WCW, winning the tag titles with two different partners and a short stint with the U.S. title in Aug. 1999, Benoit's continuing troubles would come to a head during late 1999 and early 2000. With Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara, formerly writers for the WWF, now in charge of booking WCW, several younger wrestlers including Benoit were finally pushed towards the top tier of the card. Ironically enough, the day after the two were hired but several weeks before the started booking WCW, Benoit had one of the high points of his WCW career. On 10/04/99 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Bret Hart chose Benoit as his opponent in a special tribute match to his late brother Owen Hart, whose fatal accident had occurred at Kemper. Bret and Chris worked a 27:34 minute match that was a throw back to the old Stampede wrestling style, and the match would place high on several match of the year polls for 1999. Chris would go on to lose again to Bret the following month in the finals of the WCW Heavyweight Title tournament. But Chris won the WCW U.S. Title in a ladder match against Jeff Jarrett at Starrcade 1999, and then the WCW Heavyweight Title against Sid Vicious at the next PPV, Souled Out in early Jan. 2000. It looked like finally, The Canadian Crippler had arrived.

However, Russo was in the process of being removed from power due to backstage manuevering by Sullivan and JJ Dillon, who then took over booking duties. Possibly out of support for Russo, but certainly because they felt no confidence in their treatment by the latest booking regime, several of wrestlers asked for their releases, and number one on that list was Chris Benoit.

In an ironic reminder of his "phantom" TV title reigns, Benoit fans never got the chance to see him appear live on WCW TV as the WCW heavyweight champion. On the Nitro following Souled Out 2000, Arn Anderson, who had been the special referee for the Benoit-Vicious title match, announced that he had been out of position to see Sid's foot under the ropes - thus it was as if the match simply didn't happen, and Benoit's title victory was promptly erased from the official WCW history books.

Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn subsequently got their releases from WCW and went as a group to the WWF (joining Chris Jericho there, as he had gone from WCW to WWF in mid-1999 when his contract expired). There, less than a month later, they were introduced as a group called "The Radicals" (a play on the "Revolution" stable which three of them had been involved with during the Russo era), and within four months all had worn WWF gold: Saturn, WWF Hardcore belt; Dean, the revived WWF Lightheavyweight title twice; Eddy, WWF European Champ; and Benoit made his first appearance at Wrestlemania to win the Intercontinental championship, adding a second reign while continuing to feud with the also upwardly mobile Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle.

Unfortunately, in a tragic twist of fate, Chris Benoit killed his wife, child and himself in what was called roid rage.