William Regal has spoken about what the first Monday Night RAW after the Chris Benoit tragedy in 2007 was like.
On the June 25th episode of RAW, hours after the bodies of Benoit, his wife Nancy and son Daniel were found, WWE dedicated the episode as a tribute to the former World Champion.
Regal said on the Gentleman Villain podcast that the entire day felt off to him:
“I didn’t know anything. I was walking around in somewhat of a daze all day … All day, I was calling my house to check on my family because, for some reason, I had this notion when we heard of these terrible things that had happened. I no way, shape, or form would have thought Chris had anything to do with that.
“On the Monday when we were hearing this, I’m in a daze, but I start to think, ‘What if there’s some insane person going ’round doing horrible things to people?’ And this, in my mind, ‘Could it be my family next? Could it be somebody that doesn’t like wrestlers?’ Because I didn’t know any of the facts.”
The next night on ECW, Vince McMahon appeared to discuss the revelation that Benoit had killed his family before taking his own life.
While still acknowledged in title histories and on the WWE Network, references to Benoit have been blacklisted by the company.
