To say that the state of professional wrestling is a horrible mess is a colossal understatement.

Podcast: Episode 36

First and foremost, I will not canonize Chris Benoit. According to Georgia authorities, Mr. Benoit not only killed his wife, but their 7-year-old son. In my book, that makes Benoit a monster. I don't care if he was a good worker in the ring or seemed like a nice guy. He went out a monster, plain and simple. All I can think of is that poor boy being smothered to death by his own father. Monstrous. It doesn't matter what Benoit did in the ring. It doesn't matter what goodwill he may have created in his career. According to authorities, he goes out a murderer -- and that's monstrous. I will not canonize Chris Benoit.

I will also not blame Vince McMahon for what authorities say Chris Benoit did. Vince McMahon is a huckster, yes. But he is not a murderer. But should Vince McMahon be criticized for holding a "Raw" tribute show to Benoit before the facts of the case were released? You better believe it. McMahon paid tribute Monday night to a man who police say killed two people before killing himself. What is there to pay tribute to? Murder? Certainly another avenue could have been explored while the facts of the case were in flux. Why not just tell the USA network that the show was canceled? Certainly there's a movie USA could have played in that three-hour time slot. Sometimes the show doesn't have to go on.

And then there's the mixing of McMahon's fake death storyline and Benoit's death. I find it very tacky that McMahon blew himself up in a car bombing in a TV storyline. Hasn't there been enough real death in wrestling the past few years? Sadly, we all know the answer to that question. Eddie Guerrero is dead. Curt Hennig is dead. Owen Hart is dead. Brian Pillman is dead. You don't want the full list. It's almost unbelievable the number of young wrestlers who died before their time in the past 10 years. Why McMahon would make a fake death angle part of his traveling circus is beyond me. When he had to give up that storyline because of the real-life Benoit situation, it was the right thing to do -- and a surreal, sad moment at the same time.

So it was Monday night, and once again wrestlers were crying on TV. Someone had died. It's a memorial show. Like the one for Owen. Like the one for Eddie. Sorry, but I refused to watch it, even though I didn't know the circumstances of the Benoit deaths. I couldn't take it. Another young wrestler had died, and the show was still going on. The only thing that rattled through my head was yesteryear. When I was a kid, wrestling was nothing but goofy fun. Now, more often than not, it's monstrous.

My real name is Doug Frattallone. I play around with this dopey column as Professor Wrestling. Sometimes I feel embarrassed about it. This is one of those times.