Chris Benoit Interview
July 10, 1999
Page 2
by RichInKC

RichInKC: I understand that the Dynamite Kid is now working on his biography.

Chris Benoit: Yeah, I still keep in touch with him.  The last time I spoke to him we talked about that. 

RichInKC: Did you spend much time in the infamous Stu Hart Dungeon?

Chris Benoit: I probably spent about six months in the Dungeon before I even got in the ring for my first match.  The time was broken up some.  I didn't live in Calgary.  I lived in Edmonton which is 180 miles north of Calgary, but on weekends I would get on the Greyhound and go to Calgary and work out and stay at the house.  By the end of the weekend, it would be back on the bus and back up to Edmonton.  Sometimes during the week and during the summer there was a guy named Jim Baker who set his own ring up in Edmonton.  I would help him set up the ring on his acreage and I would go up during the week when we both had times and we would wrestle.

RichInKC: Is wrestling the only profession you have ever known or were you doing other things before that?

Chris Benoit: I came out of high school and went right into wrestling. 

RichInKC: How long were you with the Calgary Stampede before you went to other federations?  I believe New Japan was your next stop.

Chris Benoit: I was there probably about six months, maybe seven months.  I wasn't wrestling steady, just weekends.  Sometimes I would get four days in a week, but at the time they were running six or seven days a week.  Stu kept me pretty busy. 

 Tokyo Joe was an agent in Japan and Bad News Allen was going to Japan to wrestle for New Japan Pro Wrestling and to train in the Dojo there.  They asked me to go to New Japan and I jumped on that right away.  I was always a big fan of the Japanese style because throughout the years Stu always had Japanese wrestlers working for him.  Stampede Wrestling's style had a lot of Japanese influence in there.  I was watching all the old tapes of the Dynamite Kid, Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith when they wrestled over there and I always dreamed of going there and finding out what it was all about for myself.

RichInKC: When you debuted in New Japan Pro Wrestling did you debut as Chris Benoit or was that when you put on the mask and wrestled as the Pegasus Kid?

Chris Benoit: No, I was still going as Chris Benoit.  I went over there and trained in the Dojo as Chris Benoit.  I spent the first six months just training.  The next six months of my year there was in the ring as Chris Benoit.

RichInKC: How long until the Pegasus Kid character evolved?

Chris Benoit: After I completed my year at New Japan, I went back to Calgary for two years.  I sharpened my skills and Stu really put me to work.  I was now working six or seven days a week every week year round, which really gave me a lot of experience.  A couple of years later I returned to New Japan and became the Pegasus Kid.