Reported by Jay Flannagan of WrestleView.com
On Monday, September 11, 2006 at 12:06 AM EST

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, DC. In memorial of that tragic day, WWE.com, has posted a story up where several WWE superstars talk about 9/11 and the live 9/13 edition of Smackdown that aired.

World Champion, Booker T said he woke up that day and made coffee and turned on the television and saw the second plane strike the World Trade Center. He goes on to say that his thoughts went to the show that night (which eventually got rescheduled to a live edition of Smackdown two days later) and he wanted to entertain.

Jim Ross and Paul Heyman speak about announcing that show with Ross saying “Obviously it was very hard to stay focused. Going into the show, it was hard to keep your mind on anything with all the tragedy and trauma that New York City and the country was experiencing." Paul Heyman spoke about how he remembers Lillian Garcia singing the National Anthem and how it effected him saying, “I do remember when Lilian Garcia came out and sang the National Anthem; it dropped me to my knees, and I was weeping at ringside. That’s just usually not me."

There are also more comments from Matt Hardy, John Cena, Triple H, Gregory Helms, Test, and Matt Striker.

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On a personal note I have been allowed to briefly discuss my thoughts and feelings on September 11th being the only one on staff here at WrestleView to have been remotely close to the situation. I remember it vividly; I live in Maryland (30 minutes outside of Washington DC, 4 hours from New York City, and about 2 hours from Shanksville, PA) and in fact was scheduled to go to the Pentagon City Mall that morning with a close friend. I stayed the night at my sister’s house and awoke with a headache and cancelled.

I remember my mother calling my sister and waking us up after the first plane hit the first tower and thinking it was like a movie. Together, on phones, my mom, sister and I watched coverage and I remember seconds before the 2nd plane struck, I saw the plane and said “that plane is too low". A moment later the second tower erupted into flames. After the plane struck the pentagon, schools in the entire area were immediately closed. I remember racing with my sister to my nephew’s middle school, seeing parents lined up crying trying to get to their children, police everywhere and I remember looking at my nephew when he (at age 13) walked to me and asked what’s up. I had to explain to him, because my sister broke down, that the United States was under attack and that we needed to get home. When we got there, I learned of the 4th plan crashing in Shanksville.

I was scheduled to work that evening at my hotel which is by the Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI), one of the busiest airports on the east coast. I tried to avoid going into work but could not call out. I will never forget driving to work, I intentionally drove by the airport, and I saw planes everywhere. Planes on grass, in parking lots, it was and still is the most eerie thing I’ve ever seen in my life. When I got to my hotel there was armed military guards who checked your id’s because there was serious fear that airports would be struck.

I remember standing outside and seeing F-18’s flying air cover over head and knowing that life as I knew it had changed. I don’t really remember much about my shift, other than the hotel had become a make shift Red Cross shelter, with cots lining everywhere and a little girl, with a cut on her head, asking her mother (crying) why were we attacked. Her mother, looked at me for words, and I cried for the first time that day. It was a day that changed not only my life, but the lives of millions of Americans around the world. It's really hard to believe it's been 5 years already.

That’s my story of that horrific day. On behalf of everyone here at WrestleView.com, we would like to send our thoughts and prayers to the families and friends of all those that lost their lives on that horrific day.