This Day In Pro Wrestling... (June 11th)

On June 11th...

• 2007: A special "Draft Lottery" edition of RAW was broadcast from the Wachovia Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. While the Draft Lottery had its surprising moments, including the draft of ECW Champion Bobby Lashely to RAW, the big story was the surreal, shocking end to the show...

The show that night was also "Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night." In an effort to pick up his spirits following his ECW Championship loss, Vince invited guests and stars from WWE's past and present to give their "fondest" memories of the Chairman. Safe to say it didn't go so well. After being harangued and roasted by WWE's finest, a depressed, despondent McMahon trudged to his limo and closed the door, only for the limo and himself to be engulfed in a fiery explosion, seemingly "killing" Vince McMahon.

In reality, it was a shock-factor wrestling angle that would've led into a "Whodunit?" storyline, which in turn would've led to a meteoric push for then-WWE Superstar Mr. Kennedy. The angle itself seemed to play out perfectly; fans were reporting the incident to local police, news outlets were covering the story, and WWE.com even acknowledged the explosion and McMahon's subsequent demise as "legitimate."

However, details concerning the angle had been kept far too close to the vest by those within the company; business partners were confused by the "incident", WWE's stock took a surprisingly large drop, and wrestling pundits drove up a public outcry against the angle, particularly following a WWE press release, in which WWE essentially used its owner's "death" as a vehicle to push the next, "exciting" episode of RAW.

While those were criticial factors in sweeping the angle under the rug, it was ultimately nixed two weeks later following the tragedy of Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and their son Daniel.


#ThisDayInProWrestling #June11 #GetKennected

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