Going out on a limb and guessing that everyone who is reading this remembers where they were on September 11, 2001, the day when terrorists attacked the United States in a manner in which we’d never seen before. Airplanes crashing into the twin towers in New York as well as the US Pentagon felt like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster, but it was absolutely real and happening in real time before our very eyes. It left nearly 3,000 people dead and transformed this nation that in many ways has never really returned to what it was before. The world had changed and the United States had to as well, as the days of being anything but super secure were suddenly long gone. Remember those days when you would meet your family as soon as they got off the airplane? Never again.
Much like you, I remember exactly where I was that morning, getting ready to head out for work. Mrs. Deal came to me crying and telling me I had to come watch what was on television at the moment. I held her and calmed her down as best I could. I did wind up going to work that day but it was very, very eerie. I felt like I was the only one on the interstate and a glance up in the sky showed zero airplanes. I had friends in California that could not fly home – they literally drove 2,000 miles instead. It took a few weeks before anything remotely started to feel normal again. I could explain more, but instead, I present this footage from of all things Live with Regis and Kelly, a show that was on air as all this was happening. Heck, it may have been the exact show we were watching that morning. I will warn you though – it’s a very tough watch.
My apologies if that brought up bad memories, as it did for myself. I wouldn’t even have shown it if it weren’t to at least try to bring the gravity of what we’re going to talk about here today. Again, after this happened, everything in the US seemed to come to a complete and utter stop. Folks were terrified to leave their house, scared of what may happen next. Could another plane crash somewhere near your home? Work? Were semi-trucks going to be used next? Trains? No one knew, and the US had zero real world experience with terrorist attacks of this magnitude.
Public events of all sizes were immediately cancelled, as logic would dictate that a large public gathering would be an ideal target for the next attack. Indeed no one knew when sports like Major League Baseball or the National Football League would resume. Low and behold, it was the World Wrestling Federation that ran the first live event following the attacks, taking place on September 13 from Houston, Texas.
The show opened with Vince coming out and addressing the crowd with a rah-rah USA speech. Honestly, the idea wasn’t horrible. If you wanted someone to get the crowd up as it were, there were far worse choices than Vince, even if he did want to sneak in the fact that this was the WWF was the first company to get crowds back to the arena. And you know, even with that, so what? Someone as going to be first, it just so happened that he was gung ho to get back on the road less than 72 hours after the attack and others felt it would be better to be cautious. Maybe he was empowered due to having a gigantic metal fist at his beck and call. Anyway, the idea of the show was to rally the country and let folks know that things could get back to normal. For the event, storylines were largely dropped and it was basically a string of matches with babyfaces generally winning.
Rock and Vince led the entire locker room out to the ramp and when I say the entire locker room, I mean THE ENTIRE LOCKER ROOM.
There were people there I had never seen before or since, seemingly normal men and women flowing out from the back en masse. You were just as likely to see an unnamed and unknown production assistant as you were, say, Jeff Hardy.
You want Ron Simmons, Chris Jericho, Spike Dudley, Kurt Angle, and BRUCE PRICHARD singing the national anthem with their hand over their hearts? WE GOTCHA COVERED.
And indeed, Lillian Garcia belted it out in an amazing manner with tears steaming down her cheeks. This was a true feel good moment for the company and one that probably DID make a lot of folks feel better about life in general. Let me reiterate – this was something the company did that I thought was GOOD. They did something NICE and something that was a POSITIVE. I know folks will just read the article title here and make their decision I’m insane so I want to make it incredibly clear my feelings here. So it begs the question…why on earth are we talking about this show at WrestleCrap.com? Allow me to explain.
Throughout the show, various folks were given the opportunity to speak about what had happened. And you could tell these bits were in no way, shape, or form scripted. It was just people speaking from the heart. Half the time they’d get done and glance off camera and say, “That’s it” or “I’m done”, which would never fly on a ‘normal’ show. Kanyon for example talked about about how his cousins were New York City cops and were part of the rescue effort and how proud he was of them. And how proud he was of the country as well.
Lita spoke about how she was a whirlwind of emotions: anger, fear, sadness…and helplessness. And I know that’s what most folks were feeling. Helplessness. It wasn’t something they could combat. They were just there and had no idea what could happen next.
And like many folks, Booker T was in tears. He did his best to string together some courageous words to inspire us, but it was really, really tough.
Stacy Keibler spoke about how she was just in shock, noting that she was a mere 21 years old and had never experienced anything like this in her entire life. I was shocked when I went back and watched this that she was that young. That meant she was in her TEENS (or days past them) when she first came to WCW. Holy smokes. Yeah, I’m sure she was even more shell shocked.
I think the one that may have hit hardest for me personally was Taz. Unlike say Bradshaw who decided to go all guns a blazin’ and let’s blow ’em all straight to hell, Taz was anything but, saying how he was from New York himself and he as shook. He stated he was legitimately scared to be in Houston that night. He wanted to be home with his wife and his son, protecting them however he could. When you consider we see that son, Hook, weekly these days it really does drive home just what a scary moment in time this was. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, everyone was doing their best to process the horror of the world around them. They were given the chance to speak, and they did, in and while they weren’t all eloquent, you could tell they meant what they said and you had to admire them for it. That is, until she showed up.
This was a country in mourning, hurting, searching for answers and hope…and how did Stephanie McMahon respond? Inexplicably, with an axe to grind. She told us a story of how when she was younger, her father was attacked and wrongfully accused, referencing the steroid trials that nearly put Vince in jail and the WWF in serious danger. These trials I should note were by the US government. The US government who was at this time trying to calm the country down following the terrorist attacks. “They tried to rip us apart,” Steph boldly proclaimed, “but all they did was make my family stronger!” Yes kids, she told us with not only a straight face but a rather angry and determined face, that terrorists crashing planes into buildings was equivalent to her father being on trial for steroid distribution.
I say this in earnest: it’s been twenty-three years since this happened and I remember this speech like it was yesterday. And even though I’ve run WrestleCrap.com since that day, I’ve never inducted this, likely because it’s a 45 second promo. But it’s one that has ticked me off royally for nearly a quarter century because there was zero place for it on a show like this. A show where we were trying to bring people together. Today, that oversight has been corrected – congrats Steph, your all-time dumbest promo has found its home. It left an uneraseable black mark on what could have – should have – been a highwater mark for the company. Instead, when folks mention this show, almost inevitably this promo. And that’s a total shame. No idea if that was her own words or she was reading off a teleprompter a speech Vince himself had written, but this was, without question, one of if not THE most tone deaf moment in the history of WWE. And consider the ground that covers.