The roster is out on the floor, the ten bells toll, the moment of silence, and then the video tribute.

 

To Johnny Cash's rendition of "Hurt."

 

Chants of "THANK YOU ED-DIE" through the crowd. The wrestlers are very affected, Angle, Benoit, Big Show especially.

I figured I'd shed a few tears. I recall feeling fine before RAW is Owen started, but losing it when they did the ceremony. I think my eyes watered up even sooner this time. No full-out bawling, but definitely some tears and a flushed face.

 

It's surreal to be watching a WWE program and not knowing who so many of these guys are or what the current storylines are.

I'm currently wondering if I'm the only one cringing every time a wrestler takes a hard bump, given the context and what we don't know about Eddy. Angle getting headdropped was just a little extreme.

I can tell you that I'm in real bad shape right now. REAL bad shape. I actually missed the start of the show so I missed the 10 bell salute and Vince's words; I think I came in on the first match. So I wasn't really affected until they spoke to Chavo, Rey, Batista and finally, just a few minutes ago, Benoit. When Benoit started to cry, I couldn't even look at my screen. I had to turn away and that's when I lost it.

 

Fuck.

 

I miss Eddy.

Man, it was hard watching Benoit. You'd have to be an emotionless bastard for that not to effect you.

I can't stand Steph, but listening to her talk about what a family man Eddie was made me think just how awful they must be feeling right now. No doubt they have the support of each other, but speaking from experience, I can assure you that inside, part of them feels alone.

When the show is over, can someone tell me how long the overrun is so I can det up the flex record.

Before the show, I dug out my Eddie Guerrero DVD from one of the boxes I'm moving this week to my new place. It was hard looking at the cover of the DVD, and the music video of "Hurt" at the same time and trying not to cry. It was even impossible to not cry during Rey Mysterio Jr.'s and Chris Benoit's speeches. This has been an incredibly emotional night, and to be honest, one I'm still hoping that is actually not happening, because I'm still hoping what happened on Sunday morning never really occurred. I'm an emotional wreck right now.

I guess since this is the RAW thread, I should note what a refreshing change Styles is. Has Lawler always been this quiet in a three-man crew?

I guess since this is the RAW thread, I should note what a refreshing change Styles is.  Has Lawler always been this quiet in a three-man crew?

Don't forget the theme of the show tonight, and if Lawler's usual content would be appropriate or not.

 

We'll see next week a bit more of a difference, I think.

Even if it was pretty much a carbon copy of Bubba's tribute to Hawk, Cena laying the WWE title on an Eddie t-shirt and leaving the ring was a very nice way to end the show. Especially since they pimped Cena and Orton as the future of WWE, it was a nice visual way of the future paying respect to the past/present.

I managed to make it through the entire show without bawling. I had company over, so I had to fight back tears. It wasn't easy. When something came on that was hard to watch, I'd open up Firefox and act like I was doing something else so that I didn't have to look at the TV screen. Overwise, I'd have been over. Especially when Benoit broke down. Triple H & Stephanie McMahon got to me a lot too.

 

It's too bad that this Raw had to occur because of such grave circumstances. All in all, it was a great show. Depressing, sad & emotional but it was a good show. Good matches, good commentary and heart-felt interviews.

I tried to focus on the matches, and in doing so I realized that it took a tragedy to have Flair, Michaels, Mysterio, Regal, Benjamin, and Angle all on one show.

 

That, and Shawn mentioning he never got to have a match with Eddie made me realize how much WWE wasted with all the stupidness.

I didn't watch it. No offense to anyone here but the WWF doing a tribute show really rings hollow with me. After the way they've ignored several recent wrestler deaths and the back patting that went on over the Owen show I just don't feel like watching.

You know I watched both shows.. Owen and this one and they felt like night and day to me. The setup was the same. Wrestlers only wrestled if they felt like it. Wrestlers gave testimonials. While I thought some of the interviews and actions during the Owen show were respectful, I also thought WWF was in full spin mode after the backlash they received when continuing the PPV. for this show, I felt none of that. I didn't see any one wrestler, not even Shawn Michaels, who I thought was being insincere... the way I felt when Austin raised a beer to Owen.

I always think Shawn is insincere, and really, when he goes down for a prayer which sets off pyro... how can you not?

 

I feel bad for the King who was REALLY trying hard to be a good commentator and just wasn't getting any love from Coach or Styles. Bringing up the Lucha/Mexican wrestler connection with Jose Lothario training Shawn, come on, A for Effort for Jerry.

 

The highlight of the show, for me, was Simon Dean vs. Eugene. Good comedy match that got the crowd going after they seemed rather apathetic to the 'tard at the beginning of the match. Simon Dean on a segway = gold. They should make this a feud.

Kind of sad that it takes a main eventer dying to get a good episode of RAW.

Simon Dean on a segway = gold.

I've been on the Simon bandwagon for a while now. He's been pretty good on Internet Velocity, with the Segway, the stolen indy moves, the whole schtick has been pretty good.

 

As for Raw, the part that really got me was the 10-bell salute. I know it sounds kinda corny, but it's almost as if he wouldn't officially be dead until the 10th ring, and if they stop before then, he'll still be alive. The shot of Benoit during it was especially sad.

When they honored Owen, it was like the whole show was "Owen would have wanted us to continue the PPV". This was more of an actual tribute to the man.

 

The only similarities I saw was Benoit's display of emotion reminding me of Jeff Jarrett and Debra talking about Owen.

I'm just glad we actually got a couple of good wrestling matches on a night that we held tribute to one of the greatest all-around performers I've ever seen in a wrestling ring.

 

God, that was a hard two hours to go through.