Marilyn Monroe once said, “I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.” WWE has officially crossed the line regarding the death of Eddy Guerrero by re-airing a bad decision in this week’s Smackdown Rebound on RAW. They took Randy Orton’s comment that Eddy was not up in Heaven but in implied Hell, “down there.” The WWE should get a lot of real life heat from the audience and for originally going through it on their regular night of Smackdown programming and then airing it again on Monday night. Where I live, the CBS affiliate carrying Smackdown since we don’t have a local UPN affiliate, dropped it off programming mid-Janurary right after Kurt Angle won the belt for unknown reasons, mostly likely being in a poor time slot Mondays at 4 p.m. I was disappointed by the station’s decision to no longer carry it in any capacity but I’m glad I don’t have to spend more hours thinking how WWE will exploit Eddy Guerrero each week.
WWE is at it’s worst morally right now, when in a less than two week time they are STILL airing Tim White killing himself on WWE.com in a new way every week as if that’s supposed to be funny (I’m sure it’s not funny to those who have lost people to suicide), Randy Orton says that Eddy Guerrero is not in Heaven but rather “down there” implying Hell in a promo attempting to get heel heat and Mamma Benjamin suffers a apparent heart attack on RAW. Can the WWE Creative Writing Team not come up with something that concerns fatality? When the writers applied to join the company were they told that nothing is sacred in pro wrestling in the WWE?
What if more people die in wrestling suddenly or tragically? It’s certainly more likely to happen than in most professions. Wrestling itself is lucky that they have fans that so passionately care about their superstars, it’s a crime to violate that relationship.
I’m okay with merchandise sales if all the proceeds go the Guerrero family and the merchandise isn’t tacky. However, using Guerrero’s death in a effort to produce heel heat for Orton or Triple H is bottom line wrong. Why should Eddy’s children even watch their Dad’s former employer if they are going to say their Dad is in Hell?
I would hate to think that fans would be turned off and actually boo the thought of Eddy right now because the WWE is milking his death so hard for their product. Having said that, WWE would be making a even bigger mistake taking Rey Mysterio Jr. out of the WWE Title picture against Kurt Angle. Even though Kurt Angle would be the clear face against Orton, since the WWE has already created this “feel good” idea with Mysterio winning the Rumble “for Eddy” why screw with the fans emotions for the biggest night in professional wrestling each year? Fans can handle seeing two faces face each other because Angle’s always going to be liked and fans legitly want to pull for Rey to live his dream and become the WWE champion. It’s a win-win for all parties involved. Even if Angle were to face Orton and dominate him for a victory, fans aren’t going to pay big money to see that right now as a Wrestlemania main event. That’s something to save for a subordinate pay-per-view.
Professional wrestling has at least in the past represented a form of entertainment, a sport that could tell a story in and out of the ring and distract you from your real life problems. The Tim White suicide angle goes without saying how tasteless that is and it is truly amazing how they haven’t lost sponsors over it. I refuse to give them that “hit” and watch it because I saw enough of it already to be disappointed in the WWE Creative Writing Team. People can use the argument of “sports entertainment” all you want but a suicide in this case is not used to garner any sort of sympathy for Tim White, it shows how a Hell in a Cell ruins a man to the point he wants to die.
This week’s RAW Mamma Benjamin collapses after Big Show yells at her at ringside during his match with Shelton Benjamin. They in a unbelievable fashion attend to her and carry her away on a stretcher. So either she joins Al Wilson in deceased character heaven or she recovers and comes back. Perhaps she will recover but Shelton will make his mother stay home, when he attempts to grow a spine and not be a “mamma’s boy.” Regardless, I’m not a fan of any injury angle, especially any that resemble anything fatal because it cheapens what the talent goes through on a nightly basis when the chances of getting hurt are very real.
There’s enough real life tragedies happening in the world on a daily basis, I do not want to see wrestling go down a path it is apparently going, by bringing me “entertainment” where death and suicide are glorified in any way. WWE, please stop making Eddy Guerrero a joke and stop thinking suicide and tragedies are funny and that’s putting it in perspective. Thanks for reading, next week I’ll be going to RAW live in Greensboro, North Carolina, weather permitting. Feel free to write me anytime at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
