10 Times WWE Used Real Life Misery For Storyline Gains

3. Eddie’s In Hell

Randy Orton Eddie's In Hell
WWE.com

Sticking with the reprehensible utilisation of actual death as a means to gain the cheapest of heat, WWE has a real Jekyll and Hyde attitude towards the legacy and memory of Eddie Guerrero. On the one hand, Vince and company are always eager to remind us of how great 'Latino Heat' was, how inspiring, charismatic and downright talented the late hero was. All good, all true, but WWE is also somewhat obsessed with having heels bring up the fact he’s dead.

The infamous "Eddie’s in hell" segment in 2006 involving Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio still stings. It was the first SmackDown following Rey’s win at the Royal Rumble, and the two were on a collision course for WrestleMania, but the story wasn’t Rey vs. Randy. The story was "Eddie Guerrero is dead, Eddie Guerrero is dead, Eddie Guerrero is dead." In the first 30 seconds of that SmackDown alone, Michael Cole mentions Eddie on three separate occasions alone.

And then there’s that line. A sentence that angered the entire wrestling world. Mick Foley wrote an open letter that ended with the powerful notion that by “exploiting his death we achieve what I thought wouldn’t be possible: We cheapen his life.” WWE can honour the life and death of Eddie Guerrero respectfully, but instead, the promotion has time and time again chosen to honour it with cheap heat and soundbites.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.