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Over the three day period from June 22nd to
June 24th 2007, the latter of which coincided

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with WWE’s Vengeance PPV, Chris Benoit murdered
his wife Nancy, his young son Daniel, and

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finally committed suicide.

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It remains the darkest moment in wrestling
history, but also ironically finally forced

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through much-need changes to mainstream wrestling
content and practices that has, hopefully,

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helped to safeguard it from happening again.

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Vice’s critically acclaimed Dark Side of
the Ring series opened its second season with

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a two-part episode about the events with in-depth
interviews from the three men that probably

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knew him best: Chavo Gurerro, Dean Malenko,
and Chris Jericho, as well as Nancy’s sister

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Sandra Toffoloni and Chris Benoit’s son
from his first marriage, David Benoit.

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Obviously this list is going to be really
rough-going, so please know that going in,

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as we talk about the actions of a man who
shouldn’t be remembered, but cannot be forgotten.

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Here are 10 things we learned from Dark Side
of the Ring: Chris Benoit.

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Nancy wanted Chris Benoit to quit wrestling
in 2007

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A key focus of the documentary is that after
Eddie Guerrero died in 2005, Chris Benoit

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fell apart emotionally.

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As Chris Jericho testifies, Benoit and Nancy’s
relationship went from very loving to, in

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Jericho's carefully chosen words, “volatile
[QUOTE].”

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Vickie Guerrero tells of a time when Benoit,
during an argument with Nancy, smashed the

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windshield of their car with his bare hands.

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Jericho says that his friendship with Benoit
more or less came to an end after Eddie’s

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passing because Chris became so much more
insular, even calling him a “hermit [QUOTE]”.

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Jericho said, however, that Benoit refused
to take time off throughout his career, and

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that was not going to stop now.

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“I think he just continued on because he
didn’t know what else to do [QUOTE].”

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Nancy’s sister Sandra adds that in 2007,
the year of the tragedy, Nancy wanted Benoit

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to leave the industry, saying “He was so
grief stricken on a monumental level that

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[Nancy] thought staying in the company and
the business was eventually going to harm

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his well-being [QUOTE].”

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The Wellness Program Was Full of Loopholes

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Despite Ring of Hell author Matthew Randazzo
noting in the documentary that Benoit has

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10 times the amount of testosterone in his
body as normal, and that it was quote “irrefutable

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[QUOTE]” that Benoit was on steroids, despite
the WWE Wellness Policy program being introduced

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in February 2006, to test their talent for
recreational drugs, other medication and steroids.

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Randazzo argues, “In practice, it would
seem this original version of the program

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had large loopholes in it, and large blindspots
that allowed wrestlers to use drugs at a really

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large scale without tripping the test [QUOTE].”

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And the doc shows texts that Nancy sent to
Chris Benoit about his steroid abuse, with

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one text reading: “we both know the wellness
program is a joke [QUOTE].”

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JR Was The Only WWE Representative At The
Funerals

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As anyone who visited WWE.com in the weeks
following the Benoit case will know, Chris

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Benoit was erased from WWE history as the
company washed their hands of anything to

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do with their former World Champion.

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In fact, WWE only sent Jim Ross as a company
representative to the funerals for Nancy and

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Daniel.

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When talking about Ross being there, Sandra
says, “The WWE sent JR, and I lost my cool

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and told him to his face that he wasn’t
welcome at the wake.

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It was all a work.

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JR himself says in the documentary, “I felt
like I was the most unwelcome person in the

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building, because I was a WWE guy.

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And I probably knew him the best of anybody
there.”

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WWE Shut Out David Benoit

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One of the saddest new perspectives the documentary
gives us is not only was it a horrible tragedy

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for those who died, but life was really hard
for those left behind.

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David Benoit says that he still considers
his father his hero, that the man who committed

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the heinous acts was not the same Dad he’d
known.

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David was a regular at WWE shows with his
father, and was present for Benoit’s huge

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World Championship win at WrestleMania XX.

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However, once his father became a real-world
scandal, no one from the company reached out

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to him.

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He says in his interviews, ““Screw them.

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They weren’t there for me.

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They backed off like I didn’t even exist.”

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Vickie Guerrero, who became an on-screen personality
for the company after her husband’s passing,

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notes, “It was understood that we were not
to speak of Chris, speak of Benoit, speak

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of anyone of that incident.

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That was something that was really hard for
us to do, but because we all wanted our jobs,

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it was understood.”

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The Cops Knew It Was A Homicide While WWE’s
Tribute Show To Benoit Was Airing

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On Monday June 25th, after finding out about
the tragedy earlier that day, they ran a tribute

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show to the career of Chris Benoit.

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At that point, the only news was that Chris,
Nancy and Daniel were dead.

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Jim Ross says in the documentary, “Vince
McMahon couldn’t go on the air and not do

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anything.

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So we went on the air and did what we thought
was right.

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We tried to honour the guy, honour his family,
his fans, but we didn’t have the full story.

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Shame on us for that, I guess...We did not
know all the information, that’s our fault.”

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The show featured a lot of wrestlers talking
about how much they all loved and admired

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Chris Benoit.

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However Chris Jericho was not present for
it, declined to be a part of it, saying that

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he watched the show from home while drinking
a bottle of vodka.

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Dean Malenko says in the documentary that
it wasn’t until after the show finished

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that WWE learned the truth of the situation,
and Vince McMahon made a public apology for

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it on the following night’s episode of ECW.

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However, the documentary reveals that the
cops knew it was a double murder suicide - and

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reported it as such - as soon as they discovered
the bodies earlier in the morning.

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Religion and The Eddie Connection

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Prior to his friendship with Eddie, Chris
Benoit was not a religious man, and it was

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in fact Eddie that introduced Chris to religion
and bought him a bible that Benoit subsequently

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took everywhere.

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The documentary says that Eddie was trying
to help Chris find his “higher power”.

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As already discussed in this video, Benoit
took Eddie’s death very badly and fell into

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a deep depression that fractured his home
life, until he started writing a diary addressed

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to Eddie believing he was actually communicating
with him.

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Dark Side of the Ring does take time to highlight
the religious connections to the Benoit murders,

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with Randazzo pointing out that bibles were
placed next to the bodies of Nancy and Daniel,

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that he did write a suicide note and placed
it inside a bible, and one of two Internet

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searches his did on his final morning were
of a bible passage about a young boy being

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resurrected.

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Some People Still Don’t Believe That CTE
Was Fully To Blame

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The documentary also features interviews from
former WWE wrestler and now President of the

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Concussion Legacy Foundation, Chris Nowinski,
who talks at length about the connections

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between Chris Benoit’s actions and the multiple
concussions he suffered wrestling.

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Nowinski says that Benoit, after he heard
what Chris was researching, even approached

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him to talk about concussions, saying he’s
had more than he can even count.

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Nowinski says that Benoit asked him to call
him the following week, but when he did Chris

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was in the middle of a heated argument and
asked to call him back - but he never did.

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Nowinski says, “I wonder if the reason he
asked me to call him was that he knew something

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was going on, but he didn’t quite appreciate
what that was.”

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The Legacy Foundation contacted Chris Benoit’s
father, who granted them access to Chris’

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brain after his death and did extensive testing
on it, doing a press conference to show what

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damages CTE had on Benoit’s life.

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Nancy’s sister Sandra, however, thinks it
was more than just CTE.

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She says, “It’s not one thing, I think
it’s a factor of alcohol, and drugs, and

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- yes - possibly CTE, and stress and grief.”

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Chris Benoit Wouldn’t Want To Go Into The
Hall Of Fame

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Chris Benoit will never go into the WWE Hall
of Fame, and according to Jim Ross, one person

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who would fully agree with that decision is
Benoit himself.

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JR says in the documentary, “Absolutely
not.

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The issue is, if Chris were here and we could
talk to him, he would say, ‘putting me in

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the Hall of Fame is going to be one of the
great distractions of the entire event’.”

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Jericho agrees, saying that Benoit used to
tell him that while critics are critics, nothing

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else matters but the respect of your peers,
saying that if Benoit could see how his peers

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now see him, he wouldn’t want that.

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Jericho adds, “It nearly took down the whole
business.

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What Chris did, nearly destroyed the only
thing he ever loved from a professional standpoint.”

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However, David Benoit says, “I want them
to recognise Nancy.

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She definitely deserves the recognition she
doesn’t get.”

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Jericho agrees, mentioning Woman, the gimmick
Nancy had in WCW “She’s a Hall of Famer

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in my opinion…

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I’d like nothing more than to see Woman
in the Hall of Fame.”

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Sandra and David reunited at AEW Revolution

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One of the most touching moments comes towards
the end of the documentary.

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At one point the Vice crew ask Sandra if she’s
had any contact with David Benoit or his family

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and she replies that she tried and failed.

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“I was told, I won’t say by who, that
the children didn’t want anything to do

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with us.

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And, apparently, the children were told we
didn’t want anything to do with them because

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of what their dad did.

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Which was absolutely not the truth.”

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This is followed up by an interview with David
Benoit, struggling to get through, when he

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is hugged by Chavo Gurerrero - an executive
producer on the series - and Sandra.

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It’s revealed that Chris Jericho - who Sandra
calls a wrestling angel - put them in touch

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and invited them to attend AEW Revolution.

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David and Sandra are shown enjoying the show,
and David says that he still loves wrestling.

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The pair are also shown backstage with Jericho
after his match.

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And finally, Sandra Toffoloni Wants To Forgive
Chris Benoit

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And perhaps that reconnection has led to one
of the most surprising moments of the documentary

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where Sandra reveals that she would one day
like to forgive the man who murdered her sister

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and nephew.

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“Everyone deserves forgiveness.

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Everyone deserves mercy.

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I think within time, there will be a day when
I get on my knees, and I finally say it.

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That I forgive him.

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You never know, it might be tomorrow, but
I do know it’s not today.”

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So that was 10 things we learned from Dark
Side of the Ring’s look at the Chris Benoit

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tragedy, what did you think of the documentary?

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We highly recommend checking out the series.

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Thanks for watching, everyone