Sometimes I'm grateful for little things over the most selfish of reasons. I rarely watch Raw on Mondays these days since there's other people in the apartment. Usually if I watch any of it it's the final half-hour.I read about Eddy dying on a KAOS computer while Kicked did her show and knew that both Raw and Smackdown's original script had been scrapped in favor of an Eddy tribute. I wanted to see the ten-bell salute.
I happened to have the livingroom to myself just as 9:00 started. I knew the time was limitted but was sure I'd be able to see it, was sure that even if the rest of the household came in they'd let me finish the segment.
The entire roster from both shows were out on stage. No gimmicks, no characters, no bullshit - just fellow wrestlers, just friends, just family of the road. Some fans wiping away a tear while others cried hard. And some of the toughest men in the world letting it all out. Paul "Big Show" Wight looked like he was taking it hard, Kurt Angle kept his composure at first but lost it. Shawn Michaels had his arm around Chavo.
Vince McMahon didn't use his tough voice. He just told us that Eddy was gone, told us what Eddy meant to everyone who was out there, and asked the audience to stand for the ringing of the bells which was to be followed by a video tribute. And I, before I realized what was happening, was wiping at my eyes, and then wiping at them again as I hadn't done since Owen Hart's death in 1999.
After the bell rang they played the video, and the song they used was Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt". It was the most appropriate song on so many levels. Eddy had a well documented fight with demons which was recently part of a UPN special and part of his DVD Cheating Death. As Eric Szulcewski of InsidePulse put it he at least fought them to a standstill.
He was Heavyweight Champion of the World for four months in 2005. He got to leave Wrestlemania XX in Madison Square Garden as the champion, along with Chris Benoit. For 16 years where one was found the other wasn't too far away. They were both in Japan, ECW and WCW at the same time. Both of them were badly misused in Atlanta and both left for the WWF at the same time.
Benoit broke down while giving a video testomial. He's lost a brother. In the world of wrestling your co-workers are your family. You're on the road with them with hardly a break, you see them more often then you see your family at home. Many don't stay married long.
Not Eddy, he was still married to Vicki. His oldest daughter is only 14. But like most others before him he died before he was 40. Like most others he died 1000 miles away from home. Uncannily he died ten years and one month after Brian Pillman in almost the same place.
When the video ended the crowded started a very loud chant that went on for a while: Thank You Eddy clap clap clap-clap-clap.
That's all I can do for someone I never got tired of watching, for someone I never got tired of hearing on the mike. To paraphrase what John Cena said you were a man of faith, and I know you're in a better place today.
I was grateful I got to see it. I was selfishly grateful that I was alone.
RIP Eddy<>
