10 Most Shameless WWE Promotional Tactics
2. Melanie Pillman's Interview
This only gets worse as the years go by.
Shortly before the Badd Blood pay-per-view went on the air in October 1997, a sombre Vince McMahon addressed his audience to inform them that 'The Loose Cannon' Brian Pillman had died earlier that day. The pay-per-view aired, but mostly approached the tragedy with a quiet dignity that carried over to a sobering ten-bell salute at the start of the following evening's Monday Night Raw.
If only it had ended there.
Already one of WWE's darker occasions, the scene went pitch black when McMahon cruelly exploited a grieving widow less than 24 hours removed from the death of her husband. Announcing that Pillman's wife Melanie would be interviewed later in the broadcast, McMahon got his ratings before casually burdening the grieving single mother with the plight of her nightmare situation.
McMahon pathetically fished for absolution with Melanie, who predictably could barely manage a cognitive response. Probing how she’d cope raising five children, the chairman gave his viewers an unrelentingly bleak and still-inexplicable image of the reality of the dire situation.