Today marks 10 years since the terrible tragedy that struck the Benoit home. This article is not another piece to determine or speculate what had happened, as the reality is, we will never know. But what we can talk about is who Nancy was, her accomplishments, and how she, like far too many other women, died at the hands of the one she loved.

Nancy got her start by modeling for wrestling magazines, and doing “Apartment Wrestling” which is a niche in the women’s wresting market. From there she joined up with Kevin Sullivan and joined his stable at Florida Championship Wrestling. She had first done a short stint in WCW with Sullivan, but was most famous for her character in ECW “Woman”. That is where I first saw her. By then she had moved on from Sullivan and was working with The Sandman. She was devious. She was one you had to watch out for, and despite her “sexy sidekick” persona, she wasn’t just a valet, she was truly a great ringside manager. If you have opportunity to look back on these videos, you will see what I mean. She was always important to her story lines. Despite what her name led you to believe “Woman” was a integral part of The Sandman’s rise to the top of the company. She spent 4 years in ECW, then returned to WCW where she managed the current lineup of the Four Horsemen. Chris Benoit was part of the stable at the time, and at some point they started an on screen love angle, and he was feuding with her then real life husband, Kevin Sullivan, and wrestling turned to real life, when she left Sullivan for Benoit. During the feud she had some memorable moments standing up for herself, in a liberated woman kinda way.  Nancy left wrestling in the late 90’s. I think 97 or 98, I was working a lot back then, so all I remember is one day she wasn’t there anymore.

Nancy had their son, and then later married Benoit in 2000. In 2003 she filed for divorce and a restraining order alleging cruel treatment but later dropped both.  4 years later, she was found dead, after Chris Benoit had gone absent from TV, and the family was found by authorities. It was deemed a double murder suicide. It is probably one of the most horrific things to happen in wrestling history, but to womanhood, this is part of a problem far too many of us have faced, domestic violence. CNN put this article out on intimate partner violence last month, but here are some of the quick facts it contains:

Worldwide:
Thirty-five percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence, according to the United Nations.

According to a Global Study on Homicide, of all women who were the victims of homicide globally in 2012, an estimated half were killed by intimate partners or family members.

United States:
Each day – Three or more women are murdered by their boyfriends or husbands on average, according to the American Psychology Association.