Jimmy Wang Yang declined Benoit tribute after 2007 killings

Former WWE wrestler Jimmy Wang Yang said he refused to participate in a tribute show for Chris Benoit hours after news broke that Benoit had killed his wife Nancy and their son Daniel before taking his own life in June 2007. Speaking in a recent interview, Yang described a tense backstage meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas, the day the company announced the deaths and the uncertainty that followed as details emerged.

Yang recounted that the week before the announcement the company had staged a storyline in which Vince McMahon's limo exploded, and performers had been gathered for what he described as a memorial setup. He said that when officials announced Benoit's death he and other wrestlers were trying to process the news. Yang said he initially imagined other causes, including robbery, but that colleagues quickly suspected Benoit was responsible. He described looking at fellow wrestler Brian Kendrick and thinking, "He finally snapped and did that horrible act."

Yang said the following day's decision to run a televised tribute felt wrong to him. "I don't care anything about his wrestling ability now. What he did disqualifies him, to me, as a wrestler," he said. He added that he...