Veteran pro wrestler Jeff Farmer, also known to fans as nWo Sting, recently spoke with Dr. Chris Featherstone for Sportskeeda’s UnSKripted podcast. Farmer discussed his relationship with the late Chris Benoit, who rocked the pro wrestling world in June 2007 when he murdered his wife Nancy Benoit (aka Woman) and their 7 year old son Daniel, then committed suicide by hanging himself.
Farmer said he got along really well with Benoit in WCW. Medical tests done following the Benoit family tragedy revealed that Benoit suffered from CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). Tests showed that Benoit’s brain was so severely damaged that it resembled the brain of an 85 year old Alzheimer’s patient. Benoit was reported to have an advanced form of dementia, similar to the brains of former NFL players who had suffered multiple concussions, which led to depression and the harming of themselves or others. Michael Benoit, Chris’ father, believes brain damage was the leading cause of the murder-suicide. Farmer commented on Benoit having brain damage due to bumps he took in the ring.
“I had a very good relationship with Chris, and he was always nice to me. I was always nice to him,” Farmer said. “In my opinion, what I think happened to Chris Benoit, and nobody’s really asked me about this that much, but I think he had some CTE from all the bumps he took. He used to do the diving headbutt all the time, and I think there was some possible brain damage from the business.”
CTE research in recent years has led to much safer rules in various sports and pro wrestling. Farmer commented more on Benoit and how athletes in other sports have had similar issues.
“You see it in football, you see it in all these places, and these guys, they become different,” Farmer said. “They change. Their personality changes. They try to kill themselves. We’ve seen it in sports. That’s my only real explanation for that. Maybe that’s me trying to rationalize, but I think it was some type of brain damage from his career in wrestling. I always got along very well with Chris. He was a good guy to me.”
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more. Below is the full interview with Farmer:
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