At WWE Vengeance 2007, Chris Benoit was purported to face CM Punk for the vacant ECW World Championship, but Benoit was not on the event.
In his place, John Morrison, then generally known as Johnny Nitro, stepped in and would find yourself winning the match Benoit had been slated to win.
On a recent edition of the “Insight” podcast, Morrison spoke about being around for the show, despite not being booked, and his impromptu match. He said,
“I used to be like a standby. I used to be booked to be there, possibly have a dark match, I don’t know. So, say call time is 1pm, all the pieces’s wonderful. I’m just in catering. Around 3pm, I hear Chris Benoit hasn’t showed up, and if he doesn’t show up, I’d have to fill in or something. Okay, sure he’ll be there though, it’s Chris.”
Hours later, there had been no word from Benoit, and the choice was made for either Morrison or Kevin Thorne to face Punk as a substitute.
Morrison explained that WWE didn’t want the last-minute alternative to be seen as a dud, so whoever was picked can be winning the title. He said,
“So we now have that talk, after which I spend the following two hours pacing, hoping that Chris Benoit doesn’t show up. Walked out to the parking garage a few times, simply to see if I saw a automotive coming. I didn’t. Then the pay-per-view began, put my tights on. The entire time I’m like, ‘Oh my god, Chris Benoit is gonna show up.’”
Benoit didn’t appear, as that weekend, he killed his wife Nancy and their son Daniel before taking his own life. He was 40 years old.
On the podcast, Morrison recalled how “the very best night ever” was quickly overshadowed by the following 48 hours surrounding the Benoit tragedy. He said,
“Then the following day, we get the news about Benoit and what happened. I felt like crap. I felt so guilty only for being joyful with something that got here to be due to tragedy we’ve heard about and talked about ad nauseam.
“It’s still tough for me to be joyful about how all the pieces got here about. I’m joyful that I got that match and my profession took an enormous turn upwards due to all the pieces. It’s just a really confusing thing to profit from a tragedy, even in the event you really had nothing to do with it.”
Morrison would hold the ECW World Championship for several months before losing the gold to Punk, who would finish the yr with the gold.