WWE Using Reid Fliehr’s Death Trivializes His Life, Mental Illness

Because some people ask for a label: Yes, this is an editorial.

Last night’s show-closing segment on Monday Night Raw was not the first time WWE has, uncomfortably, worked someone’s real life death into an angle. That goes back a decade to Eddie Guerrero’s death, and you can go back further for them using it outside of the storyline context, like the Raw interview with Brian Pillman’s widow in 1997. It’s never a good thing and it’s always uncomfortable, but what they did last night was, in its own unique way, the worst of them all.

“You know what, Charlotte? You’re wrong sweetheart. ‘Cause your little baby brother? He didn’t have much fight in him, did he?” -Paige

It’s been over two and a half years since Reid Fliehr’s death at just 25 years of age from an overdose of heroin and prescription medication. Ashley/Charlotte considers her wrestling career, in large part, her way of fulfilling his dream and keeping his spirit alive, .as he had been working for independent promotions and All Japan Pro Wrestling. As you might think from the cause of death, he had been battling drug addiction for years. Which is the beginning of why last night’s scripting stands out as so objectionable.

The Eddie Guerrero exploitation was terrible and crass, but was never really about demeaning him in a direct way. The same goes for the Paul Bearer stuff, and that at least had th slight improvement of it being more clearly delineated that the Paul Bearer character was killed off because William Moody had actually died. How they died was off limits.

Last night? It wasn’t.

As bad as it is to invoke his death for some lame pro wrestling angle in the first place, here, the inference is, effectively, “Ha-ha, your junkie brother ODed!” It prostitutes his worth as a human being and the mental illness he struggled with from his teens (and yes, addiction is as much a mental illness as OCD, depression, or bipolar disorder are). And for what? Some doomed to fail skit put at the end of the show because the third hour is siphoning viewers anyway?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WR40HgDbU

What gives this more wide-ranging, real world consequences that past WWE death exploitation angles is that mental illness is heavily stigmatized, especially in the United States. Die from cancer and the perception is that you lost your valiant battle. Die from a mental illness and the perception is that you’re weak. Unless, by some small chance this storyline ends with a passionate Charlotte promo about destigmatizing mental illness, then what exactly is the point?

No, most viewers don’t know how Reid Fliehr died. But plenty do: Charlotte talks about him all the time when she does media appearances and more fans than ever follow wrestling news online, anyway. Being cryptic helps WWE, because, like with Lana’s promo last year that viewers thought was about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, you can always say that’s not what they meant.

@WWE @StephMcMahon @VinceMcMahon @TripleH WWEWriters really, that lazy! #CheapHeat #disgusting #disrespectful #cruel #sad ?#RawGreenville

— Elizabeth Fliehr (@EFliehr) November 17, 2015

As for Charlotte, it’s really quite simple: If it wasn’t her idea, it’s disgusting as her employer to script her to take part in last night’s angle. If by some chance it was her idea, and her mom’s tweets certainly suggest that it wasn’t, then she should have been vetoed anyway.

To think this company wonders why they have trouble getting advertising rates at the level of non-wrestling programming with the same viewership. They’re in the bubble. Nothing will ever change.