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Bret Hart was a guest of Ross Abrams on Scorborough Country on MSNBC. He said he never saw Chris Benoit lose his temper or composure. He said when he first heard early reports, he hoped there was "a better explanation than this." He added: "I think it's going to be a long time before anyone gets over this in the wrestling business." Abrams asked about Benoit dating Nancy while she was still married to another wrestler. Bret said he didn't know such details. He said Chris never confided marital problems to him. "I always thought he was a good family man and a good husband," he said. Bret said most of his experiences with Nancy came at funerals. Abrams seized that and asked about the deaths of wrestlers of the years. An on-screen graphic said that since 1997, there have been 1,000 pro wrestlers 45 and younger and 65 of them have died - 25 by heart attacks, five of 25 from steroid use, 12 deaths from use of other drugs. The death rate are seven times higher than the general population. There is 12 times the chance of a wrestler dying from heart disease. Bret talked about steroids and pain kills. He said he understands a lot of that was remedied in recent years. "I don't want to see this pinned on steroids," he said. "I think that there is a deeper - it goes beyond that at this point." Abrams asked: "Is this going to bring wrestling down? Is this going to be a pock that wrestling won't be able to overcome." Bret said, "No, wrestling will always keep going." He said there's no reason for this to ruin that for everybody. He said everybody loved and respected Benoit, noting, "That's why this is so hard to accept. We all loved him. This is a great man; I can't think of any wrestlers who wouldn't have come to the aid of Chris Benoit and support him in whatever he was carrying around." He said wrestlers are reeling from the deaths of so many of his peers, it's hard to accept. He said depression is a big part of it and this will only magnify it. Abrams asked if people misread Benoit or was it steroids or another kind of drug that set him off. Bret said that should be left up to forensic experts. He said WWE had a strong drug testing policy in place since Eddie Guerrero died. He said they stamped out steroids. "There is no happy medium; it's no steroids, period," he said. He again said he hopes it's not related to steroids. But then he added that steroids may have been a factor and you need to look at the info as it comes in.

from NoDq.com