The June 25, 2007 Edition of RAW is a Professional wrestling television show of the WWE's RAW brand, took place on June 25, 2007 at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Summary[]
This RAW show was the first WWE event following the news regarding the deaths of WWE superstar Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son, Daniel. This Raw episode was originally scheduled to be a 3-hour tribute to the life of Mr. McMahon following the angle where he had supposedly been killed in a limousine explosion weeks earlier. However, due to the real-life deaths of Chris Benoit and his family, WWE canceled their plans and changed it into a tribute to the career of Chris Benoit. In the middle of an empty arena, Vince McMahon broke character to announce the news and what followed was various highlights of Chris Benoit's career, including clips primarily from his Hard Knocks DVD released in 2004. Various wrestlers including Edge and Triple H among others also appeared on screen to give their thoughts and paying tribute. Following the show, the circumstances surrounding the deaths and Chris Benoit's alleged role in them were published and due to the controversy, WWE decided to remove all mentions of the tribute show and Chris Benoit from their website as well as the pulling the Raw show from international markets that aired Raw on a tape delay basis. Instead, other countries aired a different episode which showed highlights of various title matches over the past year, hosted by Todd Grisham. WWE has since then never acknowledged the Chris Benoit tribute and even on the WWE Network, they have uploaded the international version in its place.
Benoit Career Highlights[]
- Chris Benoit won the Royal Rumble Match
- Chris Benoit defeated Elijah Burke on June 19, 2007 edition of ECW in his last ever televised match
- Chris Benoit defeated Dean Malenko at Hog Wild 1996 on August 10, 1996
- John Bradshaw Layfield (c) defeated Chris Benoit on April 14, 2006 edition of Smackdown in a Steel Cage match to retain the WWE United States Championship
- Pegasus Kid defeated Jushin Thunder Liger at New Japan Pro Wrestling 1990
- Chris Jericho defeated Chris Benoit (c) at the 2001 Royal Rumble in a Ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
- Chris Benoit defeated Shawn Michaels and Triple H (c) at WrestleMania XX in a Triple Threat Match to win the World Heavyweight Championship