Former WWE Star Claims WWE Used Plants to Cheer for CM Punk, Gives Theory on Chris Benoit’s Death

Former WWE Tag Team Champion Rene Dupree was recently interviewed by The Hannibal TV. You can check out some highlights here:

On working with CM Punk:

“Ya we did work together a few times,” Dupree said. “On the outside looking in, as an independent wrestler you’re like ‘what the? But you think of it when you’re there, you understand. Was he right to go on a podcast and tell his story? I think a lot of people wanted to know about it yeah, a lot of people were interested but now he’s being sued.”

On WWE using plants to cheer CM Punk:

“Yeah. They would do chants, and then it’s like a ripple effect. They hear chants, chants, chants and then try and get the people up. CM Punk or ECW shirts, I’d see like three or four guys scattered around the arena. And I was like ‘wow’, but I guess if you really want to get somebody over.”

On CM Punk’s UFC debut:

“I think Michael Lansburg is really happy about the outcome,” Dupree said with a laugh. “He (Brock Lesnar) had credentials, Brock was an NCAA wrestler. The guy knows how — and wrestling as you know is one of the greatest combat martial arts there is. Punk I don’t believe played sports in high school, I don’t believe he was ever involved in a really hard fight. But the thing is I’m hearing he was doing like comic books and he was doing movie roles. You have to dedicate yourself 24/7 to this. You’re not in there with some chump off the street, you’re in there with a guy who’s had legitimate fights and is a tough guy. Plus the fact that he is involved in a lawsuit, he had too many distractions. Plus he’s 38-years-old, he’s had hip surgery, knee surgery, he was an independent wrestler 16 or 17 years. I can guarantee he has at least 16 or 17 concussions. The odds were not in his favor. But he went and did it, that was something off his bucket list and maybe it’s his last fight, maybe it’s not I don’t know.”

On working with Chris Benoit:

“He was another very quiet, intense individual. Very polite, but when he drank alcohol you could see there was problems there. You saw a very evil person. And that has to do with neurological damage, now that I know cause I speak with neurologists. And when you have lots of head traumas, and I know from personal experience you’re drinking alcohol you black out and become very violent. And I suffer from that as well now.”

On his theory behind the Benoit family murders:

“Well I like to talk about one thing that nobody talks about. There was another body found that day, another wrestler died that day that nobody talks about and he was kin to Chris. His name was um, Biff Wellington. Stampede Wrestling, that was Chris Benoit’s former tag team partner. And they did tours together in Japan, and he was found the same day that Chris was found dead. He was found dead in Alberta. Now we all know that there was text messages between different wrestlers and Chris, right? To the office, Chavo Guerrero. I would like to know if there was any communication between Biff Wellington and Chris, that’s what I’d like to know. Cause that’s an eery coincidence to me.”

On Eddie Guerrero’s passing:

“That was hard, I still cry about it to this day if I think about it too much. The two smoothest guys I’ve ever been in the ring with were Eddie Guerrero and Tatsumi Fujinami. Ya that one, that one, I don’t want to talk about that one.”

On how Benoit influenced him asking for his release: 

“Again, the Chris Benoit thing. And then I relapsed. I relapsed on my drug of choice at the time. Sitting at home looking at the TV, I mean it was on every channel. Every channel, Nancy Grace, just everybody was ripping into your profession and this here is a guy that you’ve looked up to and all of a sudden it’s, you know what I mean? And just coming out of rehab, and this happens. And my rehab was in Atlanta of all places. It’s kind of creepy. Ya I relapsed off that. I said you know what, I actually listened to what they told me in there, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be a statistic. Ya I love the wrestling business but I’m not gonna die for it, sorry. I have way too much to live for, I come from a very wealthy family (chuckles). Sorry.”

On if he believed he’d ever come back at that point:

“Ya, the initial plan was you know what — and Johnny wouldn’t accept it at first he was like ‘give you a week to think about it’. Cause he did not want to get rid — and I actually did show up at TV in Corpus Christi to say goodbye to everybody. And if looks could kill, the way Vince was looking at me, I’d be dead. The death stare. He doesn’t like when people leave, he didn’t want to understand, but here’s the deal dude the last thing you needed was a dead 23-year-old on your roster. That’s exactly where I was headed. So it’s best for me and it was best for them.”

(All transcribed quotes of Wrestling Inc.)

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