10 Times WWE Used Major News Events In Questionable Taste
9. Eddie Guerrero's Death
Eddie Guerrero's untimely death at the age of 38 in 2005 was sadly far from unique in the world of professional wrestling. Less typical was the use the WWE made of his death. After airing tribute segments on Raw and SmackDown!, the company started plumbing the depths of its collective imagination for ways to turn the tragedy into money.
Rey Mysterio Jr.'s 2006 Royal Rumble win being dedicated to Eddie was perhaps a little mawkish but not in itself overly objectionable. Immediately afterwards, however, runner-up Randy Orton challenged Mysterio with a speech including the statement "Eddie's in Hell!" A later storyline had Chavo Guerrero, Eddie's nephew and the man who had discovered his body, feud with Rey after kayfabe accusing him of profiting from Eddie's death.
The gleeful plundering of a much-respected employee's death crossed the boundaries of taste arguably before Rey won the Rumble, and only got worse from there.