Exclusive: The Real Story Behind the Nancy Benoit Photos for Hustler Magazine
By Anna Elizabeth Anderson
Dec 31, 2007
In an exclusive interview published on Monday by Wrestling News Desk.Com the editors of Larry Flynt's controversial Hustler Magazine gave new details on the nude photos of the late Nancy Benoit that will be revealed in the magazine's upcoming edition.
Nancy Benoit in 1986 (Image Credit: Wrestling News Desk)
At first, Larry Flynt Publications did not want to discuss the pictures on the record with anyone from the press. Calls to Mr. Flynt's offices, the executive offices, and editorial guru Bruce David's offices were all met with resistance.
"This is a different situation for Hustler, which usually thrives on controversy and being tasteless," Wrestling News Desk.Com editor Matthew Cooper stated, "This is not just outing a celebrity with a secret past. These are pictures that are almost 25 years old, of a woman who had the originals destroyed. This is also a woman who left the spotlight behind and became a full-time Mom, only to be murdered alongside her 7-year-old by her world famous husband."
In the exclusive interview with Hustler's editorial staff, Cooper was told the photos, which will appear in the Hustler issue to be released nationally on January 8th, were "taken over 20 years ago by radio disc jockey Mark Samansky."
Samansky was a hot radio dj at Rock 100 WDIZ in Orlando, Florida from 1983-1992, working the 5:30 - 10:00 am shift with Alan Baxter. The duo were billed as Baxter and Mark, and had a big following.
Apparently, Nancy was considering going into a different field other than wrestling. During the time period that Nancy was married to her 1st husband Jim Daus, Hustler claims "the photos were intended to springboard Nancy into the world of adult modeling. But before the photos could be sent anywhere, Nancy met and married wrestler Kevin Sullivan, beginning her life as a wrestling personality. While the original print negatives were destroyed at Nancy’s behest, the video survived."
Nancy Toffoloni Daus Sullivan Benoit was a major sex symbol in the wrestling world. She was known as "Woman" in Ted Turner's WCW and Paul Heyman's original Extreme Championship Wrestling promotions, where she managed such wrestling stars as Nature Boy Ric Flair, The 4 Horsemen, and The Sandman. But before she was known as Woman, she was as known as The Fallen Angel, a sadomasochistic sex kitten beholden to Kevin Sullivan's implied Satantic Cult in the now-defunct Championship Wrestling From Florida promotion. Sullivan wrote all the storylines and characters on the show, and Nancy's exposure and popularity was widespread. Because she was such a popular subject of the multitude of wrestling magazines, she sold a series of THE PRIVATE PHOTOS OF FALLEN ANGEL risque pictures through wrestling magazine ads in 1986. Those photos and more are here.
Way before Sunny and Sable and Trish Stratus were the pioneers of the beautiful women in World Wrestling Entertainment, Nancy was a non-wrestler with a huge fan base. A smart marketer, she knew there was a huge audience for pictures of her in various stages of undress. "She was a very smart marketer," Cooper stated, "she was really ahead of her time."
On June 25, 2007, authorities in Fayetteville, Georgia discovered a horrific scene at the home of Chris and Nancy Benoit. Investigators pieced together that over the course of the weekend that had just ended, professional wrestler Chris Benoit, who married Nancy after she divorced Kevin Sullivan, murdered Nancy and their 7-year-old son Daniel, before taking his own life.
While speculation is rampant, including lurid tales of steroid abuse and a blind eye turned by WWE towards Benoit's apparantly damaged brain due to the number of concussions he suffered from wrestling, no one has ever been able to decisively figure out what drove Benoit to the double murder suicide.
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