Christopher Michael "Chris" Benoit (IPA-frb??nw?) (May 21, 1967 - c. (Circa) June 24, 2007) was a Canadian professional wrestler (professional wrestling). He worked for several major promotions, including Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Benoit held a total of thirty-two championships during his professional wrestling career, and is recognized by WWE as a two-time world heavyweight champion (World Heavyweight Championship (professional wrestling)): a one-time (List of WCW World Heavyweight Champions) WCW World Heavyweight Champion (WCW World Heavyweight Championship) and one-time (List of World Heavyweight Champions (WWE)) World Heavyweight Champion (World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)), with both reigns represented by the Big Gold Belt. This renders Benoit one of three men to have held both companies incarnations of the belt, alongside Booker T (Booker Huffman) and Bill Goldberg. Also a five-time (List of WWE United States Champions) WCW/WWE United States Champion (WWE United States Championship) (twice in WCW, three times in WWE), Benoit is tied for most reigns in history.

In addition to championships, Benoit also won the 2004 Royal Rumble (Royal Rumble (2004)), joining Shawn Michaels as one of two men to win the match (Royal Rumble#Match) as the number one entrant. Described by WWE as "a favorite among WWE fans for his unbelievable athleticism and wrestling ability", Benoit was widely regarded as one of the most popular, respected and gifted technical wrestlers in history.

Over a three-day period ending on June 24, 2007, Benoit killed his wife and son and subsequently hanged himself (Chris Benoit double murder and suicide). Since Benoit committed suicide, numerous explanations for his actions have been proposed, including concussions, steroid abuse, and a failing marriage. He was booked (List of professional wrestling terms#B) to win his third world heavyweight championship, the ECW World Championship (ECW World Heavyweight Championship), at WWEs pay-per-view event Vengeance: Night of Champions on the weekend of his death.