10 Steps WWE Took To Become The Most Toxic Wrestling Company Ever
6. Tragedy - Time = $
At his heart, Vince McMahon is a carny - and a carny never concerns themselves with morality: only money.
When Brian Pillman died, McMahon trotted out his widow Melanie on RAW to absolve his company of any complicity. It was a harrowing watch promoted in the worst taste imaginable.
When Owen Hart died, McMahon both continued with the pay-per-view, and obscured the careless wrongdoing of his death by celebrating his life on the next episode of RAW. If that was understandable, or with the best of intentions, the next week saw the WWF screen footage of his funeral without the consent of his widow, Martha - ghoulish at best, crassly insensitive at worst.
When Eddie Guerrero died, WWE essentially repackaged lifelong friend Rey Mysterio as The Ghost Of Eddie Guerrero. Rey was booked to act out his mannerisms in a sort of Weekend At Bernies twinned with a 1980s body swap movie scenario. He was awarded the World Heavyweight Championship on the grandest stage, WrestleMania 22, to enable the most lucrative monetisation possible.
Death is the overarching theme here; McMahon used the most shattering milestone imaginable as, variously, exercises in Public Relations and the selling point of his biggest show of the year.