During last Friday’s SmackDown, a teaser for this week’s show at Madison Square Garden aired. It tied the Sept. 10 show to this weekend being 20 years since 9/11, when terrorists hijacked commercial airplanes and used them to destroy the World Trade Center, damage the Pentagon, and kill thousands in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Turns out that won’t be the only product WWE is tying to the commemoration of one of the USA’s darkest days. It was announced today that Never Forget: WWE Returns After 9/11 will premiere on Peacock this Friday. The special features Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard, Steve Austin, Edge, Booker T and others talking about Sept. 13, 2001’s SmackDown in Houston - the first public assembly after the attacks two days earlier.
This was undoubtedly an interesting slice of history, and a galvanizing moment for many in an extremely uncertain and scary time. It makes sense WWE would recount their role in those events as the world reflects on them, and everything that’s happened in the past 20 years in 9/11’s wake.
Still, given WWE’s penchant for producing self-aggrandizing accounts of their past, I can’t say I’m terribly interested in their take on an anniversary that should be handled with great reverence and humility.
If you’re more interested than me, check Never Forget: WWE Returns After 9/11 out when it streams on Friday.