50 Absolute Worst Things WWE Has Done In The 21st Century
5. Referee Tim White Attempts Suicide (2005)
Armageddon 2005 wasn't the most memorable pay-per-view, but those not in the know should go out of their way to check out a top Hell In A Cell headliner between Randy Orton and The Undertaker. Other matches worth seeing are Chris Benoit vs. Booker T and a tidy Cruiserweight Title showdown between Kid Kash and Juventud Guerrera. That's about it for the SmackDown special.
WWE dangled another carrot in front of fans ordering the show though. A live suicide.
That is not a sick joke. Referee Tim White had been injured during an earlier Cell clash between Triple H and Chris Jericho at Judgment Day 2002. He tried to make a return to reffing in 2004, but re-injured his shoulder and had to step away. In storyline (and surely a bit in reality too), White was depressed about the whole thing. Then, his TV character decided to end it all and grabbed a shotgun as backstage interviewer Josh Mathews looked on aghast.
The gun fired off-screen so WWE had an out. Backlash for the skit flooded in immediately; some thought it was distasteful regardless of circumstances, and others couldn't believe that the promotion had done something like this so soon after Eddie Guerrero's untimely death a month or so earlier.
Explaining, WWE said White had only managed to shoot his foot at Armageddon. This led to several other suicide bids, including ingesting rat poison and Tim attempting to hang himself. To make things even more insensitive, WWE uploaded these segments to their official website with the title, "Lunchtime Suicide".
Yikes.
Side note: White worked for WWE on and off behind the scenes up until his own passing in 2022, and he was an immensely popular figure amongst wrestlers.