10 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets Revealed By Former WWE Writers
6. Vince McMahon Pushed For "Eddie's In Hell"
Nobody welcomed WWE's exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's sad 2005 passing, seemingly with the exception of one person.
The problem was, that person held all the power. As Court Bauer put it in an interview with WrestlingInc:
"Vince McMahon, definitely. No one was on board but Vince kept pushing for it and he just kept doing it. Week after week. He kind of gave it the whole holy water coating thing of being kosher — mixing religious expressions and butchering it at that. Basically, he made it legit in his mind by saying that Eddie was up there right now laughing because he loved things like that. He’d be totally on board for stuff like this. How can you say that? It’s just his way of saying something that made it feel less of a cold, evil thing.It’s one of those things that I disagreed on and everyone in the room disagreed on. We all wished we could have done more but we weren’t — we all volleyed it. “You sure? We could keep it more subtle.” No. He wouldn’t even go for more subtle. So, there was nothing we could do and it was a terrible feeling and it was one of the first flags that went up that let me know I needed to consider other opportunities."
Bauer wasn't alone - SmackDown's ratings continued to slide. Many considered the story in horrific taste, choosing to simply not bother with the grabby and sensationalistic show in the aftermath.