41 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics In Wrestling History RANKED

9. 1997 - Vince McMahon Interviews Melanie Pillman

Brian Pillman, a revolutionary pro wrestling mind and one of the most memorable, credible characters ever, passed away on October 5, 1997. He was 35.

He died as a result of a heart attack brought on by a preexisting condition - atherosclerotic heart disease. Oddly, given Pillman’s unreal intake of recreational and pain-killing drugs, no traces of cocaine nor somas were found in his body during the autopsy. Regardless, Vince McMahon was not equipped with all of the facts 24 hours removed from Pillman’s death. Vince McMahon was also keenly aware of Pillman’s crippling painkiller addiction, and sought, in the most unconscionable manner imaginable, to disassociate the WWF from the death of one of its performers.

It was awful enough that Vince would interview Brian’s grieving widow Melanie live on television 24 hours later. He actually built up the interview throughout the broadcast, showing pictures from inside the family home, as if it was an episodic show-long hook, like Steve Austin returning from jail or something.

Vince, choosing his words carefully, basically said that Brian ingested too many prescribed pain pills of his own volition, and asked his widow if she’d like to offer any advice to “aspiring athletes” who feel the need to resort to painkiller abuse. Utterly ghastly stuff. This pretext was obscene. As if that’s what a benevolent Vince wanted to achieve.

Watching Melanie’s face twist and contort in anguish and indignation remains profoundly upsetting, all these years later. It is harrowingly obvious to anybody with a shred of empathy that she is deeply uncomfortable with Vince’s line of questioning.