The wrestling world was stunned when news broke on Sunday November 13, 2005 that Eddie Guerrero had passed away in his hotel room, at the age of 38. Latino Heat was a former WWE Champion, an active member of the WWE roster and in the midst of one of, if not the, biggest pushes of his career. WWE and their roster were understandably devastated and dedicated that week's episodes of Raw and Smackdown to the beloved Guerrero. Following that, WWE inducted Eddie into the Hall of Fame class of 2006 and introduced the Wellness Policy, which would drug-test and monitor wrestlers' health in order to avoid another wrestler prematurely dying. The tributes were classy and it looked as though Eddie's legacy and name were going to be respected and honoured...for about two weeks, anyway. Yes, a fortnight after his passing WWE began the process of using his name in storylines as a means of generating heel heat. The November 29th episode of Smackdown ended with Randy Orton placing The Undertaker into one of Eddie's low riders, crashing it into the set, exploding it and ostensibly killing The Phenom. Yes, WWE ran this angle sixteen whole days after Eddie had passed on. As well as this deplorable cheap heat stunt, WWE also ran with the headline 'Viva La Savings!' and used Guerrero's likeness in order to shill merchandise on their website. The upshot was that every fan with even half a soul made it known that WWE were in the wrong and that exploiting their recently deceased star like that was disgraceful. Unfortunately, WWE didn't learn (or care) and continued on with the Eddiesploitation well into 2006.
