WWE’s controversial use of Paul Bearer’s death in the WrestleMania storyline between CM Punk and The Undertaker continued in two segments on Monday’s “go home” edition of WWE RAW, and the manager’s son weighed in on the situation.
During a backstage interview, when referencing Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, Punk cracked that Paul Bearer’s streak of waking up every morning recently came to an end. Later, in the show’s main-event segment, Punk’s manager Paul Heyman, in full Paul Bearer makeup, imitated the manager’s antics to draw Undertaker up the ramp.
As Undertaker made his way towards Heyman, CM Punk, disguised as one of the druids, attacked the veteran wrestler. His offense included repeated blows to the body with Paul Bearer’s iconic urn. Then, in the episode’s final moment, Punk opened up the urn and spilled the ashes onto his WrestleMania opponent.
WWE has a history of drawing storyline heat from real-life circumstances, and in such cases, the argument is either made that WWE had permission to do so from the affected performer’s family and/or friends or that the affected performer, being a loyal believer in the wrestling community, would have supported the storyline.
Permission was indeed at play here, as Bearer’s son Michael Moody commented on Facebook, “If anyone is wondering, yes WWE did come to us wanting approval for tonight’s storyline.”
But the full essence of WWE’s plans apparently did not come through in the request, as Moody added, “The way it was presented to us was ok. Seeing it on screen was a different story. I don’t even know what to say.”