Last night's (Nov. 12, 2012) episode of Monday Night Raw was a special one. It marked the return of Jerry Lawler after a two month absence following "The King's" massive heart attack back on Sept. 10 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, one that very nearly took his life.
And it happened live on television.
It was a terrible situation but ultimately, Lawler pulled through thanks to the heroics of medics who rushed to his aid and administered CPR before getting him proper treatment at a local hospital.
Naturally, WWE used this to get heat on its heel WWE Champion, CM Punk. They accomplished this by having Punk berate Lawler for his "attention grabbing stunt" and Paul Heyman fake a heart attack.
Here's the segment in question:
Fans reaction to this has been mixed, although the majority seem to come down on the negative side. Some are uncomfortable that WWE would do such a thing, others feel it's simply in bad taste, and still others believe the company should be ashamed of itself for exploiting such a situation.
But what do former WWE superstars think about this? Our friend Arda Ocal of the Baltimore Sun got the opinion of a few wrestlers who used to work for the promotion and the opinions vary on the situation.
Stone Cold Steve Austin didn't like it:
"I believe in pushing the envelope in an aggressive fashion. But when a guy damn near dies at ringside, let it go. You look at all the contributions Jerry Lawler has made in this business: from a work standpoint, a promo standpoint and then as a broadcaster. I think that's pushing the envelope in the wrong direction. There's better ways to go get real heat than that."
Chris Jericho did:
"I think it was pretty obvious, don't you? I kind of expected it. Punk's promo was awesome. It's wrestling so you knew it would end up as an angle sooner or later. I got the same complaints when I did the alcoholic angle (earlier this year with CM Punk). It would be like being mad at 'Breaking Bad' because the dad was a drug addict or something. It's just a TV show, after all."
Read the others here.
Having read their opinions, do any of you Cagesiders want to change your mind on the matter?