10 Times WWE Used Major News Events In Questionable Taste
4. Osama Bin Laden's Death
Some things are really, really American. Apple pie. Bald eagles flying over the Rocky Mountains. John Wayne riding a star-spangled horse while firing pure freedom from a Colt .45 in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. But nothing in the 240-plus years of the United Sates of America's history has there been anything as American as what transpired on 1 May 2011 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa Bay, Florida.
It was there, in the closing moments of Extreme Rules 2011, that John Cena walked out to the ring with a microphone in hand. He announced to the crowd that, "we have caught and compromised to a permanent end Osama Bin Laden." The news of Bin Laden's death had only just broken and most of the audience were learning this for the first time. 'USA' chants filled the arena and Cena signed off to the strains of 'Stars And Stripes Forever'.
In retrospect, breaking the news this way, especially using an icon of Americanism like Cena, was a triumphalist move that risked isolating anyone who did not consider themselves as red, white and blue as Big Match John. But the WWE didn't care, because hey, it got a hell of a pop.