As seen on Monday night’s WWE Raw, the show opened with a moment of silence as the company took the chance to reflect on the life and times of one of the most unique, legendary managers in the business, William “Paul Bearer” Moody. The Undertaker then came to the ring as only the Phenom could. An urn was centered in the ring, an iconic item of both the Dead Man and Bearer, and Taker kneeled in tribute. As this was happening, CM Punk’s music hits and ‘Taker and the crowd both seem shocked and appalled. Punk attempted to quell the crowd and wished to extend his heartfelt condolences and apologies to ‘Taker … at WrestleMania 29. Punk said that “To Paul Bearer, Undertaker will always be perfect. To everyone else, in four weeks, Taker will be 20-1.”

WWE had plans for CM Punk to “mock” Paul Bearer’s death. In an exclusive update on this, after the RAW segment aired, a family member of William “Paul Bearer” Moody said they allowed WWE to do it, they simply stated that Moody always knew it was just entertainment and would have almost surely approved of it.

The family member confirmed that his two sons were backstage at RAW and talked to WWE management, Kane and The Undertaker earlier in the day. The sons agreed to a “stipulation” where the company would air a tribute video first, make it respectful and then and only then run with the CM Punk angle. The family 100% approved of the tribute and segment.

The Undertaker also had a major say in what went down on RAW. WWE also agreed to run tribute videos throughout the show. That was an idea that The Undertaker suggested and WWE had no problem airing the videos. Kevin Dunn put together the videos during the afternoon hours with input from ‘Taker, Kane and Moody’s the two sons, Michael and Daniel.

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