One Moment WWE Wants You To Forget From Every Year (1985 to 2026)
22. 2005 - Tim White's Lunchtime Suicides
Was it worse that WWE was mocking suicide in December 2005 for a storyline, or that said storyline rapidly found itself turned into a running gag for the website once it had outlived its usefulness (?!) on television.
It was both and it stunk.
Intended to hype the Hell In A Cell match between Randy Orton and The Undertaker at Armageddon, the idea was that former referee Tim White had become a depressed alcoholic since suffering injuries in a prior Cell match. Josh Matthews was stationed at his "Friendly Tap" bar to discuss the worst of it with White, who was forlorn enough to try and kill himself there and then with a shotgun.
The potentially fatal blow took place off screen, resulting in a reveal the following week that he'd shot himself in the foot. The company doubled down in the subsequent weeks, filming skits where he tried instead to do himself a harm via rat poison, electrocuting himself in the bathtub, suffocation, gassing, hanging, drowning in a fish tank and even paying to have somebody knock him off.
Impotently holding the microphone, Matthews remained at the scene, hitting his "Mr White, that's not wise" catchphrase before the skits reached their natural end of...White shooting Matthews from point-blank range upon realising that life was worth living after all. He might have thought differently if he was actually watching 2005 WWE.