Thursday, March 28, 2024
EditorialDon't Try These Promotional Tactics At Home! Vol #7

Don’t Try These Promotional Tactics At Home! Vol #7

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Terrorist Angle On Day Of London Bombings – WWE (2005)

I don’t remember seeing this as it was cut from the UK airing. Because of this incident, Marc Copani (the man portraying Muhammed Hassan) was written off TV and let go from his contract. Copani decided to retire from wrestling for good.

As shown in the video, on the July 4th episode of Smackdown Hassan had five masked men attack The Undertaker, choke him out, and carry the lifeless Daivari away from the ring like a messiah. Only problem was … the London terrorist attack occurred on the 7th July, the same day Smackdown was due to air.

Despite the UPN network showing warning signs throughout the show, fans were outraged at the angle and the media picked it up as a major news story. UPN pushed and succeeded in getting the Hassan character taken off Smackdown. Hassan responded to the criticism on the July 14th episode, but WWE decided to only show it via their website.

Terrible timing, and goes to show how much people bought Hassan as a terrorist. Some fans were highly critical of WWE when they let him go as they felt he had peaked as a heel and didn’t deserve to be taken off TV for something out of his control. Got to feel sorry for him. I actually hate the crowd who responded to him like they did (check second video), as they proved every single word he said to be true.

Exploitation Of The Death Of Eddie Guerrero – WWE (2006)

This one hurts as when I heard the news of Eddie’s passing, I shed a tear for the first time while watching a wrestling show. I really wanted to include a certain Mark Henry segment but I couldn’t find it anywhere (wouldn’t be surprised if WWE did everything to delete it). I’ll provide other videos though, and a timeline of events.

November 13th/14th/18th – Eddie passed away on the 13th. WWE gave fitting tributes on Raw (14th) and Smackdown (18th).

November 29th – Randy Orton used an ‘Eddie Memorial Low Rider’ to “kill” The Undertaker.

 

The following banner of “Viva La Savings” showed up on the WWE website a month after his passing.

December 18th WWE decided to emphasize the importance of the Hell in a Cell match at Armageddon by starting an internet show with presenter Josh Matthews and former referee Tim White. The story being that Tim was suffering from severe depression after being forced to retire due to a shoulder injury picked up in a Hell in a Cell match in 2002.

The first edition aired live on PPV, with Tim White drinking heavily before grabbing his shotgun, walking off camera, then apparently shooting himself. The show continued for another 15 episodes, with Tim White trying to kill himself in many ‘humorous’ ways. I could only find the second episode as WWE wants everyone to forget the first exists. The shotgun returned in the last episode … but someone else was the victim. Not in good taste considering Eddie died less than a month before, and certainly not wise.

 

February 3rd – As we know, Rey Mysterio won the Royal Rumble and was set to challenge for the World title at Wrestlemania. Randy interrupts and tells Rey “Eddie ain’t in heaven. Eddie’s down there – in hell.” He also went on to say Rey had as much chance of beating him than Eddie did coming back to life.

June 30th – Yep, still using Eddie’s name in the summer of 2006. In a feud between Rey and Mark Henry, Chavo tried to help Rey. Mark told Chavo he was a parasite to the Guerrero name, and “I spit on the Guerrero name. I spit on you. And if your Uncle Eddie were alive, I’d spit on him, too.”

August 4th – Chavo turned heel with the following:

“Rey Mysterio is a thief. Let me tell you what he stole. He tried to steal the spotlight, my spotlight. He did everything he could to tie himself to Eddie Guerrero because Rey couldn’t stand on his own two feet. I saved you from losing your title over and over. He used the Guerrero name… I’m the Guerrero Rey, not you. Rey, you didn’t just steal Eddie from me, you didn’t just steal him from the Guerrero family, you stole the memory of Eddie from each and every one of those people out there. You’re nothing but a leech living off the blood of the Guerrero name.”

August 25th Eddie’s widow turned heel and joined Chavo by cracking Rey over the head with a chair. Luckily Vickie went on to be an amazing heel authority figure (always gets a reaction!), otherwise this would get more criticism.

September 15th – Dominick joined Chavo and Vickie for no reason at all. Luckily the association was dropped.

October 13th – The feud still ongoing between Rey and Chavo/Vickie. Here’s a Vickie quote: “The difference between my Eddie and you Rey is that Eddie had balls.”

December 11th – Over a year, and WWE was still using Eddie’s name in nearly every broadcast. As Rey had been “retired” by Chavo, Vickie & Chavo targeted Eddie’s other friend Chris Benoit.

Finishing this up with Fit Finlay giving his thoughts on WWE exploiting Eddie’s name. There’s more examples … but I think the point has been proven.

Signing of Adam “Pacman” Jones And Having Him “Make It Rain” On Television – TNA (2007)

Jeff Hardy Teased Drug Overdose – WWE (2008)

Wrestling fans had to endure sudden deaths in Brian Pillman, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, so when WWE announced Jeff Hardy had been found unconscious in a hotel and sent to an undisclosed hospital, many fans speculated whether Jeff had overdosed. In 2007, Jeff had his World title push halted due to issues with drugs, so it wasn’t completely out of the question.

Funnily enough you can still find the news on the WWE website here >>> Jeff Hardy Found Unconscious

And you do know why WWE did this? To have a reason to take Jeff out of the Triple Threat match (Triple H as Champion, Vladmir Kozlov as the other challenger) so he could be replaced by the returning Edge. That’s it! No other reason … it was tasteless, and luckily all the controversy went away the second Jeff attacked Edge for taking his place in the WWE title match. Thanks for reading everyone!

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