Kurt Angle Bringing Up Eddie Guerrero’s History Of Drug Abuse Got Poor Reception Backstage

WWE is all about engaging the audience and nothing brings more heat than bringing up someone’s very personal issues. This was the tactic they used with Kurt Angle when he battled Eddie Guerrero.

The Olympic Hero shaded Latino Heat’s drug issues in a promo during their feud. Years later, Jim Ross brought this up on Grilling JR, and he had to disapprove. After all, there are many other ways to draw heat than to bring up someone like that for entertainment value.

“I understand the heel saying all these outrageous things.  Wrestling villains have been doing it for years and years and years, but, there’s more creative ways to foreshadow Eddie’s dubious character that Kurt was alluding to than the way we did it.  It was a turnoff because what it does is if somebody didn’t know that story, now their mind is taken away from what they’re saying and wonder, ‘What did he do?  What kind of drugs?  When did this happen?  What’s going on?’” 

“I think we could have done a better job of selecting our verbiage for that match because what they were trying to do is to make it personal. You can make it personal. Kurt could have said, ‘Do you realize how much of an embarrassment Eddie Guerrero has been for his family?  You know that his daughters are ashamed of him because of his conduct and some of his bad habits?’ Let them fill in the blank.” 

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“You go into too much detail and that’s negative sh*t.”  I’m not blaming Kurt.  Kurt was given a directive of where to go and an outline of his promo on that topic.  How you get there is going to be up to him and the writer, but the bottom line is, it wasn’t the right path. I understood the logic.  I understood the destination. I understood the routing. Wrong road in my opinion.”

WWE also used Eddie Guerrero’s death to draw heat in Randy Orton’s feud with Rey Mysterio. This also drew a ton of controversy. Needless to say, WWE wasn’t afraid to use Eddie Guerrero’s personal life to gain an advantage in an angle, even after his passing.

Thanks to Wrestling News for the quote