An Interview with Scott Keith

By: Jerome Cusson

Scott Keith is a Canadian author who has never been formally attached the wrestling busness. Yet, he has accumulated a large fanbase because of his love for wrestling and his sometimes unorthodox views on the business. He has already written three books about the sometimes hard to understand world of professional wrestling, and is coming out with another this November. As part of my soon-to-be written story on the one year anniversary of the Chris Benoit tragedy, Scott Keith graciously agreed to be interviewed about the tragedy and how the book came to be. You can catch additional reviews of his at www.insidepulse.com and other random thoughts about everything from wrestling to random wrestling lists to television shows at his blog, which can be found at www.rspwfaq.com.

Jerome Cusson: How long have you considered yourself a wrestling fan?

Scott Keith: Passively all my life because my dad watched a ton of it, but I actively got involved as a fan of the sport in 1986.

JC: Who were your favorites growing up?

SK: Most of the people I actively cheered for were in Stampede Wrestling, because that’s what we had the most exposure to in Canada. Owen Hart in particular was “my” wrestler because he started just as I started as a fan, and thus I got to watch him grow up in the ring while I grew up in real life. In the WWF, I took a particular liking to Randy Savage because he was just cooler than everyone else, and the British Bulldogs always had that star aura around them in the 80s, plus they both came from Stampede so there was the homegrown aspect there, too.

JC: When was the first time you saw Chris Benoit wrestle?

SK: His debut match for Stampede in 1987, in fact.

JC: What were your immediate impressions of watching him?

SK: Well, at the time I wasn’t the type of fan to appreciate the difference between a good worker and a bad worker, but I knew that Benoit was “good” and reminded me a lot of Dynamite Kid. Later of course I’d learn just how accurate that was.

JC: As he progressed through Japan, ECW, WCW, and WWF, what did you think of him as a wrestler? How did he grow, adapt, and change?

SK: The biggest thing is that he went from being a high-flyer in Stampede and Japan to being a more complete in-ring worker with WCW. In particular, the series of crazy brawls with Kevin Sullivan transformed him from the “little guy” in the Four Horsemen into a serious, main-event caliber wrestler (in the ring, although not in star power) who could wrestle any style and look good doing it. Once he got to the WWF, he was immediately able to pick up the so-called “main event style” and shift from a more technically-based offense into the silly ref bumps and Shane McMahon run-ins that PPV matches were somehow required to contain. It’s actually a tougher transition than it sounds like, and the fact that Benoit was able to pull it off so smoothly whereas it took someone like Booker T years to follow shows the level that Benoit was working at, I think.

JC: Would you consider Chris Benoit one of your favorite wrestlers before June of 2007? If so, why?

SK: Yes, absolutely. A lot of it was just hometown pride, what with Benoit being from Edmonton like myself, but he was also the poster child for the guys who were “too small” or “couldn’t talk” or “couldn’t work WWE main event style” or whatever breaking through and becoming a big star just by sheer force of willpower and respect. You never heard about him complaining or politicking, he just went out and did his job and acted as a silent role model every day. That of course would change later.

JC: Did you ever get a chance to meet Chris Benoit? If so, what were your impressions of him as a person?

SK: I met him a couple of times as a fan and he was a very nice guy. But then the meetings weren’t anything more exciting than “Hey, you’re Chris Benoit!” and a handshake 15 years ago, so it’s not like I could glean much from them.

JC: What did Chris Benoit becoming the heavyweight champion at the same his friend Eddie Guerrero was the champion in Madison Square at Wrestlemania XX mean to you as a fan at that time?

SK: It was a huge moment because we never thought it would happen. By “we” I mean the group of people I watched with on a monthly basis. In fact, Benoit winning the Royal Rumble in 2004 was actually the bigger moment for us, because we had watched him progress through a 60-minute match and just kept waiting for the inevitable letdown when they pulled the rug out from under us as fans, like they did so many times with him before. That being said, I actually knew fairly far in advance that both of those moments were coming, but as a fan you learn never to truly get your hopes up until they pull the trigger and go through with it. It kind of restored my faith a little bit, because I seen them jerk us around by putting Benoit in World title matches against Steve Austin in 2001 and get agonizingly close to winning, only to have him shoved down the card again to feud with Rhyno or A-Train or whatever stupid thing they had for him that week, and it was getting tough to keep holding on for your favorite guy to finally win the big one. With real sports I can deal with, say, the Vancouver Canucks constantly choking because I know that there’s millions of variables in hockey and there’s no guarantee I’ll ever see them win the big one. But wrestling is a predetermined sport — if Vince McMahon decides tomorrow that he’s going to dig up the corpse of Lou Thesz and make him World champion again, then there’s nothing to stop him but graverobbing laws and enough money to convince someone to lose the title to him. There was really no valid reason why someone like Benoit or Guerrero or Jericho COULDN’T have been champion.

JC: How did the mainstream Canadian media handle the story? If you saw any of the American press, could you possibly compare the two?

It was front-page news up here and he was treated more as a legitimate sports star than the circus freak that the American press treated him as. I’d say the coverage was more “gentle”, for lack of a better word, with the press asking more “How could this happen to a decent guy like Benoit” rather than “STEROIDS ARE THE DEVIL’S WORK!” like CNN seemed to jump right into the day after. But then this is sadly the second mainstream wrestling death that made the front pages in Canada in less than a decade, so they had some practice.

JC: Talking to other Canadian wrestling fans, how did they handle the loss? How are they handling the loss to this day?

SK: I think that we as fans still haven’t fully wrapped our heads around it yet. Most of the casual fans at work that I talk to have kind of moved past it and accepted it, but don’t really bring him up any longer. Most of the perception I’m getting is that he’s thought of as a decent guy who did a horrible thing, but he’ll still be thought of as a great wrestler when everything blows over. Really it’s too early in the process to start thinking about it anyway.

JC: Considering everything that’s happened to the Harts and now Benoit, do you think Canadian fans can still generally accept watching WWE?

SK: Absolutely. If Owen Hart’s senseless death on a live PPV couldn’t kill the WWE machine in Canada, this won’t either. In fact, they’re running shows in Ontario again and another tour of Western Canada is due soon, I’d imagine.

JC: What could and should the WWE to try and prevent something like this from ever happening?

SK: Drug support first and foremost. They need to pay real, licensed doctors and keep them on staff to monitor and administer painkilling medication, rather than letting wrestlers self-medicate. As well, the current policy of paying for any past or present WWE wrestlers to enter rehab is a great idea. The other factor is concussions, and I will be a happy man if I never see another chair to the head for as long as I live. It’s stupid and a chair to the back (although damaging in the long run as well) looks just as painful, if not moreso. I could live with all head-focused moves (piledrivers in particular) being removed from the sport as well. I’ve seen too many formerly great wrestlers messed up by needless head injuries, like Sean Waltman, in an industry that’s supposed to be about entertainment and fun, not actually hurting the other guy.

JC: Should the WWE acknowledge Benoit’s existence by including him on DVDs and historical pieces, or should they continue what they’ve been doing by ignoring him?

SK: When it first happened I was on the side of leaving him in for historical purposes, but with time and perspective I’ve since realized that every mention we get of him on WWE 24/7 creeps me out a little more and thus I’m not ready to see him again. I might not ever be able to watch his matches objectively again, and that saddens me a lot. So yeah, leave him off DVDs and TV until we can collectively figure out what his legacy is going to be.

JC: Do you still watch WWE on a regular basis? How much does what happened to Chris Benoit affect those viewing habits?

SK: I hadn’t watched on a truly regular basis since 2006, but that had more to do with my growing lack of interest in the people pushed as “stars”. However, Benoit’s death was the last time I watched current programming on anything other than a “flipping over to the channel” basis, and in fact I cancelled The Score (the channel that shows RAW and Smackdown in Canada) almost immediately after. I just couldn’t take another one of my favorite wrestlers dying, a feeling that led me to write Dungeon of Death, in fact. On the other hand, I watch WWE 24/7 religiously, because it allows me to relive the memories of my youth and gives me exactly what I’m looking for in a wrestling product, something that the current atmosphere can’t provide.

JC: What should people, fans and non-fans, take away from this tragedy?

SK: I think the main thing is that all the painful-looking “fake” moves and weapons come with a price, and no one, even someone who was the best in the world at the time, can escape that price forever. I also think that everyone should make sure to go to all of The Rock’s movies to show current wrestlers that you CAN escape the sport and find something bigger to do with your career, and you don’t have to destroy your body until you’re either a senior citizen like Ric Flair or a self-parody like Mick Foley.

JC: Did this at all change how you view wrestling and wrestlers?

SK: It certainly makes me sick to my stomach now when I see a chair to the head, but other than that I’d like to say I’m somehow a better person for this happening, but I’m not. I still instinctively view steroid-enhanced bodies as “stars” and cheer like crazy if someone does a million suplexes in a row, because I’m a wrestling fan and that’s what we are. The #1 thing that wrestling teaches is that no one ever learns, and that’s what the book is about more than anything. Wrestling promoters have a seven year attention span, and then everything is fair game again.

JC: Are you able to enjoy Chris Benoit matches knowing what happened? Do you think you’ll ever be able to?

SK: It’s still too weird. I might be able to watch them again someday, but I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy them again.

JC: Could you provide a thesis or summary of what your latest book is about? Could you also provide the title as well?

SK: The book is called Dungeon of Death: Chris Benoit and the Hart Family Curse, and overall it’s an examination of why Benoit’s death came to pass and how no one in the sport ever learns from the mistakes of the past, especially the mistakes that kill people.

JC: How did your deal to write this book come to pass?

SK: It was a “lucky” coincidence in that I was looking for subject matter to do a fifth book on, but my growing apathy towards the wrestling world left me without anything I wanted to write about in the current product. But then Benoit died and my publisher was wanting to do a book on him, and it worked out well for everyone.

JC: When is the book coming out?

SK: November of 2008, online and in bookstores everywhere.

JC: What do you hope to accomplish with this book?

SK: I think just to make people realize just how many people in wrestling have died and for no reason at that. I’m not going to say “Stop watching wrestling and Vince McMahon is evil,” but I’d like to people to remember that if they buy tickets to see big muscular stiffs on top, then the cycle will continue until more people are dead and the government steps in. And then it’ll really be game over.

JC: How will this book be different from some of the other Benoit books and even some of the wrestling books that have come out over the last few years?

SK: It’s not really about Benoit as much as Benoit was a catalyst for my examination of the deaths and drugs plaguing the sport. I can’t pretend to offer insight into Benoit’s mind, but I can offer insight into my own mind as a fan, and I think that’s an angle that hasn’t been played up very much with the other books.

JC: Do you have anything else to add that is important to this story?

SK: No , and thanks for the opportunity to tell my story.

Tags: Chris Benoit, Dynamite Kid, Eddie Guerrero, Pro Wrestling, Scott Keith, wwe

Jerome Cusson is a proud graduate of Columbia College Chicago. Currently, he is a freelance writer and a contributer to such websites as 411mania and giveawaytheending.com. Check out his NSR blog as well.

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