Jimmy Wang Yang Recalls Bruce Campbell Being Backstage at WWE Raw When Everyone Found Out Chris Benoit Tragedy

This was not a groovy time.

June 2007, a month marked by pro wrestling fans and many around the world as the time where Chris Benoit killed himself, following his vicious murders of his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel. After news broke out, the WWE wanted to pay tribute, the only problem was, many on the roster felt like they knew exactly what happened, but did not want to be punished by the higher-ups.

When recalling the day they heard the news backstage, former WWE superstar Jimmy Wang Yang went into full detail of everything that transpired, from who was backstage to what he did once he heard the tragedy.

“That meeting we had in Corpus Christi, Texas, the week before, Vince got blown up in the limo and we had the memorial service in Corpus Christi. They bring us into the arena, and I sit down. I’m looking around, and I look behind me, and Bruce Campbell is right behind me. Army of Darkness. I was like, ‘Oh my God, Bruce Campbell, I fucking love you. I’m going to talk to you right after this.’ I turn around, Vince is there and I hear Vickie Guerrero screech, ‘Oh my god! Noooo!’ ‘What the fuck?’ Vince announced what happened. They found Chris dead, his wife, and his kid.

“I looked directly to Brian Kendrick, ‘He finally did it, huh?’ He finally snapped and did that horrible act. We both thought the same thing from our previous experience with him. I didn’t want to think that. He had this mansion in Atlanta. Maybe somebody robbed him and killed him and his family. It was a crazy mix of emotions. The next day they said, ‘We’re going to do a tribute show to Chris.’ My gut felt weird. I don’t know if I want to do a tribute match to Chris Benoit. I need to see some more facts about what happened. During the day, all the stuff started to leak out. I no-showed SmackDown because I didn’t want to be part of anything associated with what happened. I didn’t feel comfortable and I had a bad feeling with what happened. I kind of got in trouble, but it got cleared after everything came out. Personally, I don’t give a shit what wrestling match he did. I don’t care. The last thing he did, that sticks with me.”

Jimmy was not punished in the end, and his career still turned out pretty fine for the character and push he got with it.

(h/t to Fightful for the quotes/transcriptions.)

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