Welcome to the third of WWEPreview.com’s weekly Roundtable features, where the WWEP regulars get together to discuss a WWE related topic once a week.

This week’s Roundtable discussion is based on the question: Should Chris Benoit be removed from the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame?

Mark Bright: With this year’s Hall Of Fame issue of the Wrestling Observer coming out soon the topic of whether or not Benoit should be removed has been a subject that has come up on various internet message boards lately, which is the reason I wanted to choose this topic when it came to my turn to pick a subject for our roundtable discussion. Because to me, I don’t even see the argument.

I was a huge fan of Chris Benoit the wrestler. If you’d asked me at any point between 1998 and June 2007, besides Steve Austin’s great period in 2001 and the high points in the careers of Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, if you’d have asked me who the world’s best worker is, chances are I would’ve told you Chris Benoit. And even before then, as early as 1994, other people may have told you the same. That’s a thirteen year window where he was arguably the best in-ring performer in the world, and if his career had ended in any other manner, he’s a certain Hall of Famer.

But he murdered his wife and child. He MURDERED HIS WIFE AND CHILD. Let that sink in. Even for a scummy business like pro wrestling, with its rapists, drug users, rip-off merchants and any number of other questionable characters, Chris Benoit was a whole different level of evil human being. And to me, “he murdered his wife and son” is far more important than “that match with Kurt Angle was pretty good” although to read some internet posts in recent weeks you’d think otherwise. I read something on a well known UK-based forum where some idiot said that when you hear the name Chris Benoit, most people’s first thought is “wrestler” not “murderer.” WHAT? I wouldn’t even say most wrestling fans think that, but most people would not have even heard of Chris Benoit before he murdered his family last year.

The way I look at this is, if it was my Hall of Fame, would I want some child killing psychopath in there? And the answer is no. There are some things that are so evil that it wipes out all the good a person has done previously and massacring your family is one of them. I think it hurts the Observer Hall Of Fame when you see the list of names in there, and this vile man sticks out like a sore thumb. Vote him out; his career doesn’t deserve to be celebrated. If Chris Benoit is to be remembered by history in any way whatsoever, it should be as the evil fucked-up bastard who killed the people closest to him in cold blood. Not as a guy who had some great wrestling matches.

James Mustoe: Although Chris Benoit departed this world in the most horrific way possible, what he did in those last three days does not affect the actual history of his career and the impact that he had on the sport.

Consistently an innovator, Benoit was always in at the very least, top ten, worker-wise on a world-wide basis from the 1990s onwards. Benoit’s back catalogue of matches is second to none in the 1990s and 2000s (Shawn Michaels had that 1998-2002 break), and despite the fact that he was generally acknowledged as a poor interview, many listed the Wrestlemania XX celebration with Eddie Guerrero as one of the most emotional out-of-ring moments in wrestling.

From a pure wrestling stand point then, which is how the entrants of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame are judged, Benoit was almost flawless. Therefore it would set a precedent if he was removed. Personally I think he shouldn’t be taken out, because regardless of what Benoit did in that last weekend of his life, when he was notably very ill and suffering tremendously (although that does not take away responsibility from him), it does not erase the other 20-odd years of his career, and the fact that in the field of pro-wrestling, Benoit, excelled like few others.

Steve McLaren: He most definitely should be removed from the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. Benoit was a fantastic wrestler; maybe in the top 5 all time North American wrestlers, but the man not only killed his wife, he also killed his little boy. Those actions overwrite anything he has ever done in his career, and quite frankly, his career has been tarnished forever.

If this were Baseball or Football for example, he’d be removed from the Hall of Fame right away, and I know Meltzer treats the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame in the same vain.

Phil Lowe: To an extent I can see why people would disagree, but for me Benoit should indeed by removed from the Hall of Fame. A great wrestler? Yes. Memorable matches? Yes. But the guy murdered two innocent people. A woman and a child.

For me, its a no-brainer. I was lucky enough to be at Madison Square Garden for WrestleMania XX and witness the end of that show, where Benoit and Eddie Guerrero embraced. At the time, it was a memorable moment - quite possibly the most memorable moment in professional wrestling in the 20+ years I’ve followed it. But even one year on from Benoit’s sickening rampage, I still can’t bring myself to watch that or any Benoit match. Now I realise that to some, that may seem a little OTT or unnecessary.

But to me, a future Hall of Famer who was loved by fans and co-workers alike ruined the reputation he had worked hard for over two decades on one crazy night last year. And for me, that pretty much wipes out everything he had achieved in the ring.

We all know the wrestling business is a circus full of ego, drugs, hazing and such like. We also know that steroids and blows to the head likely played a part in the build up to what Benoit did. But at the end of the day, the guy killed a child who had his entire life ahead of him, and then murdered his wife as well.

Whatever he achieved has been overshadowed by the final hours of his life. And deservedly so. Chris Benoit has no place in a Hall of Fame that is meant to celebrate everything great about professional wrestling.

Martin Smith: In my eyes, I definitely don’t think he should be removed. I’m not going to justify anything Benoit did last year, but I certainly don’t think he should be removed because of it.

Anyone who believes that Chris Benoit is a good guy and should be kept in this Hall of Fame because he “paid the dues and we all loved him” is an idiot. He should be kept in - but only because he was a fantastic wrestler. End of.

In terms of Chris Benoit, the father, the husband and the person, he is a piece of crap. That shouldn’t take away his place in a wrestling Hall of Fame. He existed, he gave us the memories and his wrestling ability put him in such a high regard. That should be the only reason to keep him on the list.

If the Wrestling Observer removed Benoit, I would quite simply be livid. Yes, Benoit is guilty and he’s the lowest of the low for doing what he did, but what about Steve Austin, Jimmy Snuka and Ric Flair? These guys have all been accused of hitting, beating and even murdering women. I say accused, none were ever proved guilty and should remain innocent until proven.

Should they be removed or excused from the list because of their past? Does the fact that Benoit was found guilty remove him from the Hall of Fame?

Yes, Benoit is a cold blooded murderer but by taking him out and leaving in others who have been arrested, done drugs and cheated on their wives, the Hall of Fame is about as credible and worthless as the WWE one.

Is the Wrestling Observer approving of the wrestlers that have done drugs just because they were never killed someone? Is taking drugs not killing themselves?

Benoit was clearly one of the best wrestlers to ever step into the ring. I’d rank him up there with the likes of Bret Hart and Ric Flair in terms of ability. That alone should be the reason he is left in. It’s a wrestling Hall of Fame. It’s not the “Father of the World” Hall of Fame. I’m a wrestling journalist and as a critic I say he was one hell of a wrestler. He has to stay in. On a personal level, I think he’s a piece of crap.

Benoit should not be erased from our memories. Unfortunately, the final days of his life can’t be.

Michael Campbell: No. In other words, should Chris Benoit be erased from history? Absolutely not.

Chris Benoit was placed in the Wrestling Hall of Fame for a reason. That reason was, that he is one of the most exciting, believable, versatile and committed performers to emerge onto the pro-wrestling scene in the last twenty years. He’s had as many classic matches as anyone largely based in North America, and became the poster boy for defying conventional limitations as to what a main-event superstar is.

What Chris Benoit, the person, did in the month of June last year, was an absolutely indescribably horrifying act. His crime was so outrageously shocking, that it has ensured that it will be the one thing that he will always remembered for. He, himself, has forever tarnished his own name. But he still existed.

He still had classic matches with Bret Hart, and Booker T in WCW, with Liger, Sasuke, Eddy Guerrero, and others in Japan, and Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and Steve Austin, in the WWE. At Wrestlemania XX, he provided one of the greatest feel-good moments I have personally ever experienced, when his World title victory became a victory for the fans. The fans finally were treated to what they wanted to see, rather than what Vince wanted to see. That moment, although obviously tinged with horror and sadness now, still stands as a point in time in which things were less bleak.

I’m not condoning what Benoit did. It can’t be condoned. It was unforgivable and disgusting. But as much as people like to simply bask in the horror of his crimes, and label him the villain, I see it as much more complex.

The Chris Benoit that murdered his wife and child, was not the same person who even those who knew him best, felt was a loving, gentle, and considerate family man. Benoit has become a fall-guy for understating the abuse that Professional wrestling can do on a human being’s body and mind. Does he deserve this label? Well, probably, yeah. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that none of us know for sure his mental well-being at the time of his death. Considering what we’ve heard from those who actually knew him - I would think it’s safe to say, he was in a deep dark place.

People have since said, why didn’t he just get help? Why didn’t he talk to someone? That’s not how depression works. People who are absorbed into the deep, dank world of severe depression do not function the same way that others do. Their thought processes are different, their cognitive interpretation of events and proceedings does not necessarily naturally play out as how it would for anyone else.

Chris Benoit may have been so f****d up that he was too paranoid, or disturbed to even consider help. When you are depressed, the solutions do not generally correspond to realistic goals as “healthy” people would interpret. Was he evil? Hardly - if so, the testimony of his long-term friends would be very different. One of the aspects of the media reaction, and fan reaction to this whole nightmare, that has caught my attention, has been a public lack of understanding, or sympathy for Depression as an illness.

He was a guy, who through a combination of deadly ingredients (Long term drug-abuse, repeated concussions, pain-killer addiction, depression- which can manifest at different points in life to a different degree of severity, paranoia, largely self-exercised pressure, and a whole host of other injuries) slid into a mental state that allowed for some sort of logical justification for some revolting acts within his own mind.

But he still existed. And he still entertained us for nearly twenty years. His death, and disgrace will be remembered, but so should his life.