JBL Recalls Vince McMahon Not Knowing What To Do Following News Of Benoit Family Tragedy

WWE Hall of Famer JBL has opened up about the atmosphere backstage at the June 25, 2007 edition of Raw, after the WWE roster had been informed that Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and son Daniel had passed away.

During a new edition of Something to Wrestle, JBL noted that he started to consider that Chris was the perpetrator prior to that night's Raw, which was due to be a tribute show to Benoit.

"I started thinking, what if Chris did it? I went to 'Taker and said, 'What if Chris did it?'. He just looked at me, and you could tell that the wheels were spinning. He said, 'We need to talk to Vince'. I said, 'Yeah, we do'. As we go to Vince, Steve [Austin] was the biggest name in wrestling history at the time, and still is. He grabbed Steve and said, 'Steve, come with us. We gotta talk to Vince"', JBL said. Continuing, the former WWE Champion described bringing the possibility up to McMahon, who was unsure about how to proceed from there, saying:

"So me and Stone Cold and 'Taker went into Vince's office. It was late in the day. I said, 'Vince, what if Chris did it? We're about to do a tribute show for a guy who could have done a horrific thing, if that's a possibility'. Vince looked at me, and I've never seen a man that was so indecisive in my life. I've never seen Vince like that. I don't know if he had thought about it before. I can't read his mind. I have no idea. He didn't give anything away, as he never does. He said, 'What do you want me to do?'.

"I said, 'I don't know. I'm just telling you that there's a chance that something horrific has happened here, and it could have been different from what we think'. He said, 'What do you want me to do?'. He was not confronting me. He didn't know what to do. He had no idea what to do. I mean, none. I don't know if he had thought about it before, but you know, Vince is a quick mind, and he said, 'John, I don't know what to do'. For Vince to say that, that maybe was the only time in his life he ever said that. I said, 'I don't know. That's the downside risk'. He said, 'John, I think we have to go with what information we have now, and if it changes, we’ll change'". Towards the end of the Raw broadcast, news began to emerge that the Benoit family tragedy was being investigated as a double murder-suicide, with Chris Benoit as suspect.

In the Netflix documentary Mr. McMahon, Vince McMahon expressed his belief that CTE did not affect Benoit's brain while discussing the tragedy.

H/T WrestlingNews.co