WWE: 10 Real Controversies We Want The WWE Network To Cover

7. Exploiting Eddie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_BJiteGaPM Eddie Guerrero's death in 2005 was a particularly heart breaking moment in wrestling history. Eddie to that point was a major success story, having conquered all his demons and become a Heavyweight Champion for the first time in his career. Though he dropped the title a few months later, Eddie was going through one of the most entertaining periods of his career when he suddenly died of heart failure. On a recent episode of the "Talk is Jericho" podcast, Eddie's nephew recounted the horrible events of Eddie's death including being there when the body was found and attempting to revive his uncle with CPR. Storylines were suspended for the next two episodes of Raw and Smackdown, instead being made up of matches, interviews and archive footage celebrating Eddie's life. Listening to how much Eddie meant to the stars of the WWE and especially Chavo's first hand account of events, it's unthinkable to imagine that WWE could ever treat Eddie's death as something worth exploiting. Unfortunately, they just couldn't help themselves. Just months later in 2006, Guerrero's death became just another storyline in a particularly tasteless move even by WWE standards. Eddie's longtime friend Rey Mysterio never stopped remembering Eddie in the months following his death. When it came to the 2006 Royal Rumble, Mysterio dedicated his performance in the match to the departed Guerrero, even coming to the ring in one of his trademark low riders. Using Eddie in the buildup was questionable but at least it was done in a positive way to help push Mysterio towards the World Heavyweight Title. Rey last eliminated Randy Orton, who didn't react kindly to losing. In order to goad Mysterio into putting his WrestleMania title match on the line, Randy disrespected the memory of Eddie Guerrero in a story that WWE must be regretting to this day. Prior to No Way Out, Orton told Rey "You're looking up towards the heavens, like you're looking at Eddie. Eddie ain't in heaven. Eddie's down there, IN HELL!" WWE did most things right after Eddie's death particularly donating the proceeds from his merchandise to the family and looking after Vickie Guerrero to this day. Though the line about hell was well within the character for the despicable Randy Orton at the time, it was definitely tasteless just months after Eddie's death. Former Smackdown writer Alex Greenfield said in an interview years later that the writing team was uncomfortable with it but Vince insisted that Eddie would want it that way. That fact is debatable and I guess we'll never know but it would be nice to see the WWE take a real look at the story and let the people involved speak honestly about it. Now that WWE are embracing podcasts, there's no reason they can't bring in people like Chavo and others to speak on new content for the Network.