Wrestlers you remember where you were when they died.

[castletonsnob]

I thought of this topic while watching Eddie Guerrero's "Addiction" promo on YouTube.

I still remember EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing when I heard he died.

[lildude8218]

I was just about to leave for a concert when I saw "RIP Chris Benoit" on a celebrity nudes message board of all places. I didn't find out how crazy the story would turn out until I got home late that night.

The night Brian Pillman died I was having a dream that Vince McMahon came onto the PPV and announced that Brian Pillman had died. It was later revealed to be a hoax done by Goldust who had kidnapped Pillman to get his wife back and had been keeping him locked up in a closet at his home. I almost fainted the next night while watching the actual PPV.

The night Owen Hart died I was watching the PPV and assumed that he was just badly hurt and would be okay. I had the PPV taping in one room and then went and watched/taped the Jesse Ventura story in the other room. The movie ended and the local news preview popped up saying "Professional Wrestler dies at tonight's event" and I broke down crying.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

With Eddie, I was setting up my PS2 to play online games for the first time. It was my first time playing any online video game, and I had Tony Hawk 4, RE Outbreak, and I think one other one up and running, and then I browsed some forums to troubleshoot something and someone had a memorial in their signature. My jaw dropped.

With Benoit, it was announced early on that Monday, and I called my friend and talked about it a lot. We the public knew very little by then, the only people at that point that knew something was up were directly involved with the crime scene or were people he texted. At the time, lots of rumors swirled around about carbon monoxide poisoning taking out the entire family.

With Owen, I was out with my mom, and I had bought a few wrestling figures at Toys R Us, and I remember telling her that we had to hurry because the PPV had already begun. I got home and was very confused. We had that scrambly, wave PPV 'video' where you could barely make anything out but could hear fine. I remember things sounding off, guys breaking kayfabe to wish Owen prayers, and then JR's haunting announcement later in the night. I figured it could've been a storyline, but it seemed a little too real to be one, so I was concerned. My parents informed me that they had announced it on the nightly news, and my heart sunk knowing that it was real. Owen and The Rock were my top two guys once Bret left, and it figuratively left a mark on me as a kid. I still hate that I could've seen his last actual match (he and JJ vs Edge & Christian) but didn't get tickets the day before at Rosemont in Chicago.

[tafkaga]

Kerry Von Erich, I was in a Radio Shack in north Texas and heard it come across the radio. That was the first big wrestling death to cross my radar. Of course, back then we didn't hear about stuff instantly like we do now. It was like 1997 before I learned that Dino Bravo had died.

Otherwise, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing for Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Ultimate Warrior, Chris Benoit.

Randy Savage really hurt, and I actually mourned for about a week.

[Allie Kitsune]

Eddie is the only one, really.

I was reading these very boards.

[James Fabiano]

Owen is the easy one as I'm sure a lot of us were watching the PPV, myself included (it was at my aunt's house, as my uncle and cousin, and their friends would see all the PPVs)

I didn't get Badd Blood, but did watch the preview show (at home), so that's a similar example.

Benoit happened when I got home from work, I was told about it when in my home kitchen. Actually I think similar happened with Eddie, only my uncle was visiting and he had just heard and broke the news.

I was driving to Target when I heard about Lanny.

Someone at work told me about Savage.

[Andee9001]

Eddie i remember because my Mum and my brother had an argument. I was at the computer and we only had dial up and WWE.com took forever to load. The main banners didn't load until last and below that wad an article "Superstars remember Eddie." My heart just sank until finally everything loaded up.

Dusty and Roddy i remember because i was staying with my parents. We were at a motel because my brother lived in a tiny house around the corner and we all visiting him at the time. Stayed at the same motel both times and woke up to the news both times.

Brodie Lee i was sitting outside with my dad at my parents house waiting for mum to finish work and it came up on Facebook. I was gutted.

[The Rick Jericho]

Owen Hart. Was following the show via 2xzone.com live updates.

Once I heard about it, called a friend during high school on the phone. And broke the news to them. That felt so raw, because he literally died live on the air. No other WWE wrestler has had it happen to them.

Eddie I found out on the Sunday. Was going through some tough times at the time, this made me depressed for whole week.

Benoit. Logged into a computer at a lab at University. I believe it was around 3:40 PM that Monday and immediately logged into MSN messenger. This day and that week was surreal.

[canceled4truth]

I was visiting my aunt in Miami when I heard about Roddy Piper. With Macho Man, my sister had thrown a party at our house and someone told me.

The one I'll never forget is poor Daffney, because I was scrolling through Reddit in the backseat of an Uber back home from grad school and I saw someone post about her (later, as we would learn tragically, final) Instagram livestream in r/SquaredCircle and I clicked on it out of morbid curiosity. I even remember commenting some pithy shit like "please talk to someone," because, f***, what else can you do in a situation like that? The first thing I did when I woke up the next morning was check the news, and man, I was devastated. I was too young for WCW, and I was never much of an Impact head, but that one I think will stick with me the most.

[animaniac]

Owen Hart was on the front of my local newspaper. I had been in and out of wrestling at that point. Was absolutely floored.

Watched Raw is Owen that monday.

[Psicofreak667]

My folks were holdouts on getting cable, and when they finally relented, it turned out that the very first time I was able to tune into Raw/Nitro was the Raw with the Pillman tribute.

My dad told me he'd read in the physical newspaper that Owen Hart had died the morning after the show.

For all the others, I think I was just derping on the internet and ran across the news. For Chris Benoit, I was a poster on a dying forum called WrestleTalk (it started as a splitaway from the GameFAQS pro wrestling boards because they were overrun with trolls), Benoit's death probably gave the place another year of life because a bunch of ex-posters came back to talk about it. Brodie Lee's, I was in a Discord chat and some guy brought it up. Daffney, I actually found out about on this forum when her goodbye post had been discovered and people were still trying to find her.

[DSR]

Owen Hart - I was watching the PPV with my brother-in-law. I went to the restroom between matches and when I came out he told me Owen was being rushed to the hospital.

Eddie Guerrero - Me and some college friends were driving to attend a CHIKARA show. One friend got a text telling her of the news, and she informed the rest of us.

Chris Benoit - I was actually on about a year-long hiatus from watching any wrestling, decided to tune in to Raw just to see how it was going...and it was the Benoit tribute show. That was a real gut-punch, and then as the show went on and news came out about what happened, that feeling just got worse.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Pillman, went over to my Nana's to watch Bad Blood and my uncle told me. It had just been announced on the Free-For-All.

Owen, heard it on the news the next morning in the car on the way to school and didn't know what to think. The way they worded it, I thought the accident happened on a trip or something, then realized they'd had a PPV the night before.

Benoit, I had just gotten home from Karate and was taping that Raw to watch afterwards. Logged online and saw it trending on whatever my homepage was at the time. Was utterly shocked, and it only got worse from there.

Brodie, I was chilling in bed and saw New Legacy had posted a tribute to him on their community tab, so I rushed over here.

Daffney, when the livestream incident happened, I was watching Dynamite and saw someone post about it in the live thread.

[Hypnosis]

Eddie Guerrero: After I got home on Sunday from vacationing out of state with parents, I saw the headlines.  Felt miserable for a few days.

Jay Briscoe: Was watching NXT back in January of this year, then one of our posters mentioned his death in a live thread.

[Venti]

I'll never forget walking into the living room as the TV was on and seeing the 'Chris Benoit 1967-2007' graphic on the screen

[Ishmeal Loves Kaseyhausen]

Owen I was watching Over the Edge. I remember not really sleeping that night and just having the news on (CBS News would have an overnight show that repeated every half hour until the morning local news) and just watching the story over and over.

Eddie I’m pretty sure I read on the WrestleCrap boards.

Benoit I was living at college (we lived off campus and stayed there year round). I was at work and just remember my phone blowing up with texts and the first thing I did when I got home was fire up my laptop and check the boards.

[ppl591]

Eddie I was out playing basketball with friends that afternoon. We all came back to my place to watch the tna ppv that night. Put on the score(old Canadian sports channel) to check the hockey scores and on the ticker at the bottom of the screen had Eddie's death. I was the only one who saw it. One of my friends smacked me and sad I was lying. Eddie was his favorite. We waited and it came back around again and were shocked. I'd hoped I misread something.

With Benoit we were out and I came home to check the wwe site for the raw preview and I broke down. Benoit was my favorite at the time. Obviously I look back on it a little differently now.

With Owen my dad saw it on the morning news and woke me up to tell me

The only other one I remember was my ex girlfriend texting me at work that a Canadian wrestler passed away. It was roddy piper.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Andre the Giant. Was on my way to a hockey game somewhere in Alberta and the news came over the radio. I was in a teammates van.

Kerry Von Erich, my grandma picked me up from school and we were on the way to hockey practice, just crossed the bridge, when I heard the news.

[wildojinx]

Andre the Giant, my dad showed me the article in the newspaper. That was the first wrestler death I had heard about shortly after it happened (other wrestler deaths I read about in the Apter mags, but those were usually 2-3 months behind, and most of the guys who passed on back then I had never seen).

[sarkerpolseng]

I found out Eddie died when I arrived to the Eddie tribute shows


Didn't know until I got to the arena. I was at work all day before, and it was before smart phones.