10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Chris Benoit

8. CM Punk Was Supposed To Face Him On Show He Missed Due To His Death

€œChris Benoit was my hero and I was privileged enough to work with him and to know him as a person and to call him my friend. Even though I'll never get to wrestle him, he taught me a lot. I just hope I can do his memory good by always being the best I can be.€ €“ CM Punk That was the message from a teary eyed CM Punk on the June 25, 2007 edition of Raw. One night earlier, Punk was supposed to face Benoit for the vacant ECW Title at the "Vengeance: Night Of Champions" PPV event. Benoit no showed the event because of the incident in his home and Punk faced Johnny Nitro instead. It was later revealed that Benoit was going to beat Punk and then they'd have a feud over it with Punk likely getting in during a feud all about earning respect. http://youtu.be/45aYeTaI3P0 The feelings of Punk were expressed when he thought that Benoit was murdered in his home as opposed to actually committing the murder, so he should be excused for getting all emotional in that situation. However, what that video really showed is that Punk really wanted to work with Benoit and had a lot of respect for him. It's not like it was a major show that WWE brings up all the time, so it's easy for WWE to forget about it because the average fan isn't going to remember a random June 2007 PPV anyway.