Eddie Guerrero - 20 years on

[TheScarlettChad]

4 minutes ago, JNLister said:

Shawn Michaels claims nobody ever mentioned wrestling Guerrero at WrestleMania 22 to him. Instead he'd made an offhand comment about how it would be nice to have a year where there was no pressure to do the best wrestling match, which led to the Vince McMahon match.

I wonder where that rumour came from then. Its been urban legend for almost twenty years that Eddie was to win the WHC in a house show, around November, lose it to Orton then wrestle HBK at Mania 22.

[RedTwoster]

19 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

I wonder where that rumour came from then. It’s been urban legend for almost twenty years that Eddie was to win the WHC in a house show, around November, lose it to Orton then wrestle HBK at Mania 22.

Bruce Prichard confirmed it on his podcast, so whether HBK was told or not, I assume it was at least talked about.

[CTXRussomark]

2 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

Bruce Prichard confirmed it on his podcast, so whether HBK was told or not, I assume it was at least talked about.

Bruce Prichard confirms whatever fits his narrative or whatever makes the best story. I wouldn't believe a word he says. 

[TheScarlettChad]

So lets say its not true. What would Eddie have done at Mania 22?

[AshC]

Tommy Boyd knew talent. 

[TheScarlettChad]

Rey Mysterio pens a heartfelt letter to Eddie Guerrero on the 20th anniversary of his death: "Dear Eddie" where he describes the wrestler Dominik has become as a loveletter to Eddie

Full Article...do yourself a favor and read it. Well worth it. You can feel Rey's emotion here:

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/rey-mysterio-wwe-eddie-guerrero-wrestling

"When I say you would approve of who Dom has become, Eddie — it’s an understatement.

"You would love it.

"The wrestler he is now, it feels like a love letter to so many of the things that made YOU so special.

"He has the presentation down perfect: the sleazy (no offense) stache, the terrible (no offense) mullet, the ugly (no offense) jewelry and clothes.

"He’s got the s\**-eating grin. He’s got that innate ability to play off different people (like you did with me, Batista, Chyna and so many others). And I’ll tell you the number one trait of Dom’s that’s a love letter to you, Eddie — and I bet you already can guess what I’m about to say here, too. THE WORSE HE BEHAVES??? THE MORE THEY CHEER.*

"As you know, it’s harder to pull this off than it looks: To be a bastard (no offense) who the fans want to embrace, flaws and all … because even at your worst, they can see something human at the center. But that’s what Dom has been able to achieve."

 

[uklaw]

I’d just come back at night from a weekend in Sweden and was so knackered I decided to watch Survivor Series on tape in the morning (as I had no uni or work to catch up on).

I was annoyed with my sister for waking me up so early on the Monday morning, but could see a shocked and upset look on her face so I was all ears…

I didn’t sleep again that day and started thinking back to all the Eddie Guerrero matches and moments that kept us amused, captivated and entertained.

It’s amazing that it’s been 20 years because it still feels like yesterday.

 

 

Edited November 14, 2025 by uklaw

[air_raid]

16 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

I wonder where that rumour came from then. Its been urban legend for almost twenty years that Eddie was to win the WHC in a house show, around November, lose it to Orton then wrestle HBK at Mania 22.

House show? Never heard that one in said 20 years. They were doing Batista vs Eddy vs Orton for TV on the episode of SmackDown before Survivor Series. According to big Dave himself it was scheduled for Randy to win the title. Batista called Eddy to tell him he should be winning it but Eddy agreed it was Orton's time. Had neither Eddy died nor Batista got injured it would have been Orton vs Batista for the belt at Mania and Angle vs Undertaker and HBK vs Eddy in the two cross brand matches.

[Chili]

I think the hubub about Eddie taking the WHC was people making assumptions from something Stephanie McMahon said in her eulogy on the Eddie tribute show, unless I've completely misremembered or made it up.

[RedTwoster]

8 minutes ago, Chili said:

I think the hubub about Eddie taking the WHC was people making assumptions from something Stephanie McMahon said in her eulogy on the Eddie tribute show, unless I've completely misremembered or made it up.

No you’re right, she worded it in a way that made it sound like this was about to happen.

[TheScarlettChad]

I may have got it mixed up in fairness. 

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

House show? Never heard that one in said 20 years. They were doing Batista vs Eddy vs Orton for TV on the episode of SmackDown before Survivor Series. According to big Dave himself it was scheduled for Randy to win the title. Batista called Eddy to tell him he should be winning it but Eddy agreed it was Orton's time. Had neither Eddy died nor Batista got injured it would have been Orton vs Batista for the belt at Mania and Angle vs Undertaker and HBK vs Eddy in the two cross brand matches.

I may have got it mixed up in fairness. This sounds right actually 

[wandshogun09]

Sorry in advance, I’ve proper rambled…

19 hours ago, Chili said:

Eduardo might be one for the 'never had a bad entrance theme' club. 

 

His absolute best theme for me. This one with no added vocals or silly bollocks. They never topped it. Perfectly captured his sleazy heel persona in 97/98. And the mad thing is it almost certainly wasn’t even made with Eddie in mind. It was probably in Turner’s random stock music library somewhere under ‘Mexican Drug Cartel 7’ or something. 

Loved Eddie. Like others have said, one of if not the best ever when it comes to all-rounders. The only thing he didn’t have going for him was natural size. It’s a shame he felt the need to bulk up as much as he did. That undoubtedly played a part in screwing up his health at a young age. Had he came along a decade or two later when size wasn’t as much of an issue, maybe he wouldn’t have felt it was necessary to do that. He certainly didn’t need to. As far as in ring ability, natural charisma and a connection with the audience goes, he left the vast majority of his peers in the dust.

I was trying to think back to the first time I saw Eddie. Initially I assumed it must’ve been when he came to WCW. I have a vague memory of seeing a video package on Worldwide in the dying days of the WCW run on ITV, so late 95, and they were showing clips of all these new wrestlers that were coming in as part of something called the ‘Cruiserweight division’. I vividly remember seeing this Eddie vs Liger match from Main Event around that time…

For one, putting Eddie Guerrero vs Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger on their C-string show was diabolical. And it still looks surreal to me seeing Eddie and Liger in that setting when WCW were still using the same old aesthetics from their 1993 shows. WCW programming looked exactly like this in 93 when you had the Cole twins, Big Sky and the Colossal Kongs knocking about and here’s Eddie and Liger going all Best Of The Super Juniors in there! Still looks weird now. 

But thinking about it, I actually saw Eddie before that but without realising it was him. I definitely saw him as Black Tiger on Eurosport’s ‘WSW’ shows AKA ‘selected New Japan matches from the early to mid 90s with Craig DeGeorge and Oliver Humperdink dubbed over commentary and some names altered due to copyright issues’. That title didn’t catch on for some reason. Took me ages to put two and two together that Eddie and Black Tiger were one and the same. This was most likely the giveaway…

No-one, no-one, could do that as smoothly as Eddie so right there I knew it was him. Then from 96, obviously Eddie was a fixture on Nitro and I was glued to that every Friday so he became part of my weekly wrestling watching routine from then on. He was great. Clean cut, white meat babyface Eddie in the white and red singlet in 96 was probably his weakest presentation and he was still arguably the best thing on any show he appeared on back then. Even at the height of the NWO craziness, Eddie was always having that one killer match on the undercard that I’d rewatch over and over. The heel turn in 1997 is where things really clicked for him though…

For all the incredible things Eddie went on to accomplish in his career later, this is still my favourite version of him. He’s at his physical peak there, lean and ripped, was probably never better bell to bell, and as a character he’d finally found his feet. Arrogant, sleazy, greasy, smirking dickhead. But so good you couldn’t look away from what he was doing. Doesn’t hurt that he had that theme @Chiliposted above around this time and also had that all timer great match with purple Rey at Halloween Havoc. It’s a shame he had that car crash in 98/99 whenever it was. I don’t think it stopped some big push or anything. At the time of the crash I think he’d been pissing about with the LWO or Filthy Animals or something hadn’t he? As great as he was, he was never going any further up the ladder with the usual big name suspects occupying all the top spots. It was the crash which really started his problems with pain pills though.

If you’d said to me in 1999 that Eddie would be in the WWF by early 2000 I’d have been buzzing. If you told me that his first storyline would be with Chyna, I’d have groaned. But it was perfect. It’s a pairing I’d never have expected to work but their chemistry was great. It turned out to be the ideal way to showcase Eddie’s personality to the WWF audience and it says it all about how likeable he was that he was the one out of the Radicalz who they had to pull away from the group and turn him babyface. It also put Chyna in a different light and gave her something to do after Triple H cast her aside. I’ve said it before but you’d be hard pressed to find a period in Chyna’s short career where she looked as comfortable on screen and as happy as she did in that year or whatever it was that she was with Eddie.

I vaguely remember his release in 2001 and I didn’t find out about his stuff on the indies and back in Japan in that period until years later. I just remember him coming back in 2002 like he hadn’t missed a step. Straight into the series with Rob Van Dam, which was a bit of a dream match for me at the time. It wasn’t Eddie’s best work but I enjoyed some of their matches. I was all in on the Smackdown Six stuff in late 2002 but then after that I felt like Eddie kind of fell back into that same role he had in WCW. The ‘dependable hand’ propping up undercards. Still had his moments but, to be honest, I never really rated Chavo and Eddie seemed to be carrying him in their Los Guerreros stuff every time I switched on in 2003.

2004 was a different story…

I never saw this coming at all. There didn’t seem to be any signs to me in late 2003 that they were heading in the direction of putting the belt on Eddie. And especially with Brock as champ. Without checking, I can’t even recall what Eddie was doing at the end of ‘03. My latest memory is him arsing about with Big Show for the US belt at No Mercy. If you held a gun to my head I couldn’t tell you what he was doing between November 2003 and February 2004. So him taking the title off Brock was a mix of shock and happiness for me. I wasn’t following online then so I don’t know if the plans had been leaked ahead of time? I had zero idea. Fully expected Brock to be going into WrestleMania as champ. Of course I didn’t know he was leaving either.

It’s shit that a big chunk of Eddie’s best work involves a certain someone and now has the stench of tragedy and murder attached to it. His matches with Chris Benoit in Japan, WCW and WWE were awesome. Watching them as Black Tiger vs Wild Pegasus in Japan genuinely felt like an upgraded 90s version of Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid in the 80s. They were that good together. Says it all when their match at One Night Stand 2005 was considered a dud when it’s still better than what some wrestlers put out. By their usual standards though, it was like they were just sleepwalking through their signature spots in half the speed they usually did. It’s also sad that that moment they had at the end of WrestleMania XX is ruined. But like @Carbomb said, his match with Kurt Angle that night, and the finish especially, is tremendous. Those two didn’t always gel but they did that night.

The title reign was short but I’ll never forget the ridiculous amount of blood he spilled in that JBL match. His 2005’s a bit of a blur for me but, whether it’s just benefit of hindsight stuff now or what, I find a lot of it hard to watch now. I probably didn’t notice it in real time back then but knowing what we know now, he just looks in so much pain at times in that last year. He’s bloated to fuck and nowhere near as fast and nimble as he was even just a couple of years earlier. Even still, he was having some good matches with Rey. Not at the level of their 97 stuff obviously, and I felt like their WrestleMania 21 match was a bit of a letdown. But they had a belter on Smackdown in (I think) June and I enjoyed the ladder match at SummerSlam, even if the ‘For Custody of Dominick’ stip was a bit WCW Russo.

Wasn’t until probably 2002ish on that I started actively seeking out tape traders and that’s how I ended up seeing a lot more of his stuff from Japan and ECW. Just an absolute workhorse. Like everyone’s already said, he could do anything. Serious, comedy, high flying, hard hitting, could talk, could be the loveable face or a bastard heel. He was incredible.

That planned Shawn match at WrestleMania 22 would’ve been something special. Even at that stage of Eddie’s physical decline, it’s hard to imagine those two wouldn’t have created some magic together on that stage. No doubt the wheels would’ve been set in motion at Survivor Series, they were scheduled to be on opposite teams in the Raw vs Smackdown elimination match. Which would’ve been the first time they’d have touched, wouldn’t it? Unless they interacted in a Rumble or something. One that got away along with Eddie vs Bret in WCW. 

RIP Latino Heat.

Edited November 14, 2025 by wandshogun09

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

I think the hubub about Eddie taking the WHC was people making assumptions from something Stephanie McMahon said in her eulogy on the Eddie tribute show, unless I've completely misremembered or made it up.

Plus, at the time, lots of us were convinced that the natural conclusion to the Batista/Eddy story was Latino Heat reverting to his nefarious ways and betraying his “friend” and winning the belt. As it’s been laid out since, Eddy would have cost Batista one of his subsequent rematches with Orton. Eddy would have been back full blown heel and while I forget the explicit details they’d have made a big deal of him being a total villain up against the “reformed character” of Shawn Michaels (LOL) at Mania and - again, excuse the memory - there was some way they’d have had Eddy agree to the match for some kind of personal gain rather than “brand pride” for SmackDown. Alongside Taker vs Angle representing Raw - had Batista not been injured, Kurt wouldn’t have been switched back.

[Supremo]

This is the best part of that fantastic Rey Mysterio piece. You could feel it in the moment, watching the segment live. Highly recommended to anyone who hasn’t seen it. Must be such a thrill for Rey watching his daft nepo baby son put it all together and become the most exciting thing in the company. The kid has it. Maybe they need to do another DNA test, just to be sure.

A little over a week ago, after being out with an injury for seven months, I made my big return on Monday Night Raw. (Yeah, we still have Raw.) It was a good feeling. But the best part wasn’t the return itself. It’s that I returned to cut a promo on Dominik — so I got to share a ring with him. Dom was a double champion at the time, across two promotions: Intercontinental Champ in WWE (I know, crazy), and Mega Champ in AAA (I know, crazy). And since he’s this cocky heel, he got on the mic and started to boast about how his belts prove how great he is, and how he’s the best luchador of all time, how he’s “King of the Luchadores.” And once he’s saying that, you know I’m coming out to set him straight. 

My music hits, I walk to the ring, and I’m basically like, Dominik, mi hijo, come ON. You’re not serious. Are you really going to stand here in this ring and claim you’re “King of the Luchadores”?? That you’re better than El Santo?! (Nice pop.) That you’re better than Blue Demon?! (Another nice pop.) That you’re better than.... EDDIE GUERRERO?!?

Alright, WeeWeeto, I don’t want your ego to get too big — but you’re going to have to trust me on this. When I mentioned your name in that promo…... “nice pop” doesn’t even come close to describing it. Brother, that’s the LOUDEST pop I heard all night. It was like an explosion. Like I’d invoked the name of God himself.

And it didn’t stop there. Pretty soon, the entire building was in a full-on chant. “EDDIE!! EDDIE!! EDDIE!! EDDIE!!!!!” (And of course Dom had the perfect line: “You keep my father’s name out of your mouth!!!” Hahaha.) Man..... I’ve been in a lot of rings, on a lot of nights. It takes a lot to take my breath away. But that moment??? It took my breath away.

 

[wandshogun09]

12 minutes ago, Supremo said:

And of course Dom had the perfect line: “You keep my father’s name out of your mouth!!!”

Ha. I haven’t seen enough of Dom.