Still processing this second part, probably going to watch it again later today.
Two things nobody's mentioned about this documentary in this thread (that I've seen):
1. Even though Eddie's death was probably the big turning point in Benoit's life, people forget that he was losing close friends throughout the entire time period leading up to his death. Johnny Grunge (who probably died right after the DV incident Sandra talks about in the doc) and Black Cat (who rode with Benoit and company during his Japan and Mexico days) were two of Benoit's closest friends and confidants, and died within three months of Eddie's death. Losing your three closest friends like that (and I'd imagine, as Jericho hints at repeatedly, that he was withdrawing from other friends like Jericho, Malenko, and Regal during this period) would really flip your world upside down and place thoughts in your mind that may not be there otherwise.
2. The fact that so much emphasis is put on unprotected chairshots, as if that's going to make such a huge difference in the amount of wrestling-related CTE victims is asinine. As Randazzo mentions, these issues point to a larger cultural problem in wrestling that a policy change or two isn't going to solve (everyone should go read Ring of Hell, by the way, even if the Sports Criminals episode on Benoit annoyed me greatly by relying on it so much. It's focused on Benoit, but it's really an expose on wrestling culture as a whole and its effects on guys like Benoit). People are still trying to do the most extreme moves possible, the WWE work style is more strenuous than ever with no real changes to the schedule, and there's still no real move toward things that wrestlers have needed for decades, like unionization and comprehensive medical coverage. Moreover, focusing so much on the chairshots de-emphasized the effects multiple sub-concussive impacts can have on one's brain. Wrestling's a lot like football in that respect: it's inherently unsafe for your brain because of what it is; saying or trying to imply otherwise is willful dishonesty at best and malicious negligence at worst. Even if Benoit didn't take all those chairshots (and they didn't even show the worst of them. I was watching some old WCW stuff a week ago, and Benoit did diving headbutts onto chairs multiple times during his tenure there), he still may have had bad CTE issues just from his work style.
It's almost as if they can't just say "wrestling is inherently dangerous for your brain, and not THAT much has really changed in its culture to make it less dangerous over the past 13 years, specifically because no one wants to learn anything from Benoit so much as just bury him." Really the most infuriating aspect of a gripping documentary.
