10 Most Infamous WWE Ruthless Aggression Era Controversies
5. The Exploitation Of Eddie Guerrero
Eddie Guerrero died on November 13, 2005 of acute heart failure. The wrestler's life caught up to him, just as it had too many of his peers in an awful cycle of tragedy and misery.
His shocking death devastated the industry, but this of course did not prevent WWE from exploiting it. His best friend Rey Mysterio was pushed as a direct result of it. He feuded with Randy Orton, who said that Eddie was "in hell" for the dirt-worst cheap heat, and won the 2006 Royal Rumble match. Ahead of it, it was implied that Eddie had posthumously ribbed Rey and fiddled with the tumbler to make sure that Rey was entered in the match at #2.
The whole deal was as strange as it was bleak. It was a disgusting thing to do in the first place, monetising a tragic young death, but WWE, in a non-specific but unsettling way, framed it all as if Eddie had passed in a manner that didn't indict the promotion nor the industry. It was shameless, showing no accountability.
They didn't commit to the Rey push after they secured the WrestleMania buys, either; Rey was the worst-booked World champion quite possibly of all time in what was an abhorrent reminder that this was no protracted, heartfelt tribute.
It was a WrestleMania angle, and after WrestleMania, Vince McMahon tended not to truly care until the next one.