The G.O.A.T. 100 #100 | Eddy Guerrero

Eddie Guerrero wasn't supposed to be as successful as he ended up being. He was supposed to be a tag team guy. He was supposed to be just a cruiserweight. He was supposed to be a mid-card guy that wouldn’t be a world champion. Yet his achievements outshine a hell of a lot of people in this industry. Eddie Guerrero’s legacy is one of someone who thumbed his nose at convention. Eddie Guerrero (or Eddy, in actuality, as his contact details for his subscription to the Wrestling Observer was named as according to Dave Meltzer) is one of the most influential wrestlers of all time.

Eddy was the youngest son of the Guerrero wrestling dynasty – so much younger than his eldest brother Chavo that his only-three-years-younger nephew Chavo Jr. was raised more like a brother to him. His father Gory and (to a lesser extent) his many brothers were legends in the original lucha libre promotion EMLL (now known as CMLL). Eddy and Chavito grew up with the wrestling ring as their playground.

Eddy joined the family business in 1986, but his first real note of recognition came in 1989 when as an “enhancement talent” in WCW he had a memorable contest with Terry Funk in the midst of Terry’s run in the company in 1989. Eddy wrestled in CMLL under his real name for many years, until the summer of 1992 when he introduced a new masked persona billed as "Mascara Magica".

But later that year, when new promotion AAA was founded by then-CMLL booker Antonio Peña, (after a falling out with the owner Paco Alonso) Eddy was one of the men that followed Peña to help set up the new company. On his first night in the company, Eddy showed up in the Magica mask. 

Could it be magic?

The custom in Lucha is that the companies owned the IP of the masked wrestlers, to the point that if the talent under the mask left that the company would just replace them with someone else – like what AAA did with La Parka in the early 2000’s (and right now with the amount of La Parka’s we've seen this century in AAA almost reaching the amount of Prime Ministers we have had in the UK in this decade) and like what CMLL did with Mascara Dorada. So Eddy showed up in his CMLL mask on his first night with AAA – and unmasked in the ring with the help of his tag partner on that night, Octagón. – that was a shocking moment, comparable to a defecting champion throwing a rival promotion's title belt in the trash would've been in the US.

Eddy teamed with El Hijo del Santo to make up a new version of the Atomic Pair, the team that their fathers of Eddy and EHdS – Gory and El Santo – had formed back in their own heyday. But within seven months, Eddy turned on his partner. 

An alliance with Art Barr came quickly. Off screen, the pair weren’t that friendly. But with the potential money on offer in a lucha world where “rudos” could earn big pesos, they forged a working relationship that made them one of the great teams in Lucha history.

Eddy and Art Barr

Starting as La Pareja del Terror (The Pair of Terror) they soon became known as Los Gringos Locos, using every cheap heat tactic American heels would use when visiting Mexico for the next three decades. (MJF really did watch his 1993 and 1994 tapes before the Místico feud.) The pair feuded with El Hijo del Santo and Octagón for the entirety of their run as a team, with a Hair vs. Mask match being one of the marquee matches of the When Worlds Collides PPV, the first Lucha PPV to air on American PPV, with WCW helping out in promotion and production.

It’s my favourite ever Lucha match. The second stanza of the 2 out of 3 Falls especially. The original plan was supposed to be Guerrero vs El Hijo del Santo in the Luchas de Apuestas match, but Art requested to be added to the match and was very happy to take the loss and lose his hair.

It was the last match of Art Barr’s career. 17 days after, Art died of a heart attack with alcohol and drugs in his system according to an autopsy. 

The death of Art Barr is an interesting divergence point for people into alternate history scenarios. Art and Eddie were persons of interest for Paul Heyman, and with the value of the peso collapsing to historic depths, it meant AAA was not going to be part of Art and Eddie’s future. Would they have gone to ECW to compete in a tag team division with Public Enemy and The Gangstas?

Does the philosophy of ECW’s tag division change from a brawling one to a technical one in the shape of the era of The Rock and Rolls and Midnights?... and would that have left Gangstas and Public Enemy on an inhospitable island? Could Eddie have the career he does as a tag guy with Love Machine? Does ECW still develop their midcard of high-level workers like Malenko, Jericho and Guerrero? …for WCW to go on to steal (as a need for more numbers becomes obvious when Nitro becomes a reality)?

But in our timeline, Guerrero came into ECW on his own and became “married” to Dean Malenko as they faced off in a rivalry that went on through the summer of 1995.

Their first match is notable for the crowd. A section of the ECW Arena attendees were not having the action they were seeing, but they were drowned out by the section that were captivated by the match. Consistent ***¾ matches from the pair made this rivalry into a Top-10 feud for the year 1995, and the Philadelphia masses serenaded the pair with “Please Don't Go” chants in their feud-ender. 

The pair would then head to WCW. Eddie Guerrero’s initial start saw him as one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster. He had several notebook matches with Chris Benoit, as well as one with Shinjiro Otani at the 1995 Starrcade show which managed to take a disinterested crowd – and a very disinterested commentary team (sans Mike Tenay) – and captivate them. 

Guerrero is a Top-5 wrestler in both ECW and WCW in 1995, despite having less than 6 months of that year in either company. But despite this, 1996 didn't see the momentum he had built in his current place of work continue. 

Unable to break to the next level because of the Hogan-ism that was plaguing the company in the first few months of the year – plus an nWo storyline that dominated it from May onwards – Eddie's year didn't have the notoriety of the previous one, even though he had the US Title in his possession as the year flipped to 1997.

That year saw a heel Guerrero for the first time in WCW. A drop to the Cruiserweight division might have been seen as a demotion after a US-Title run, but the feud with Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight belt being only of two true rivalries for the title (the other being Jericho vs Malenko in 1998) gave Eddie the opportunity to stand out.

To a lot of people, Eddie and Rey’s match at Halloween Havoc 1997 is the greatest match in the second half of the life of World Championship Wrestling. I personally don't love it as much as others do, but in a time where the working standard of WCW was propped up by the wrestlers in the under 215 lbs (in kayfabe) division, Guerrero / Mysterio at the MGM Grand is definitely in the conversation for WCW’s best match that didn't involve Ric Flair.

1998 saw Eddie in a story with his nephew Chavo in which he took Chavito under his wing and mentored him – but using the stick more the carrot in the process, to the point that it drove Chavo insane. I think that “one can short of a six pack” Chavo is one of the most underrated gimmicks of the late 90s in the American wrestling scene. Part of it is his silly hobby horse, Pepe, to be honest – but Eddie’s selling of Chavo craziness is just great. 

Of course, WCW "capitalised" on Eddie’s work in this role by giving Eddie a storyline where he “wasn't happy with his spot”. Worked shoot promos dealing with a backstage incident where he got dressed down by Eric Bischoff for spilling coffee on him went down like a lead balloon. Talk in those promos of WCW holding back Latino wrestlers age well, considering the WCW racial discrimination lawsuit hitting within a year of Eddie talking about the subject. 

Remember the original LWO?

The Latino World Order group that followed is, according to WWE propaganda lore, one of the most beloved groups in WCW history. The truth is they were a tiny dot in the canon of the company, especially after what happened to Eddie on New Year's Day 1999. A car accident crushed his ankle. Reports indicate that doctors believed that Eddie was lucky to survive the crash at all, and that he would never be able to wrestle again. In fact, Eddie Guerrero would be back in the ring on May 31st.

Eddie was now in the Filthy Animals faction with Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman. They got into feuds with the trios of Vampiro and Insane Clown Posse, Revolution (Shane Douglas, Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn) … and with Ric Flair when they buried the guy alive in the desert (Vince Russo was now the booker of WCW).

When Russo left as booker and was replaced by Kevin Sullivan, Eddie (along with Saturn, Benoit and Malenko) handed in release requests which were granted … and within two weeks, they were on WWF television.

The Radicalz showing up in the front row in the opening segment of the Jan 31st episode of RAW was another nail in the coffin of WCW. WWF being WWF, they had to book the show to put the new signings in their place. The next night on a Smackdown taping, Malenko lost to X-Pac, Benoit lost to Triple H and the team of Guerrero and Saturn would lose to The New Age Outlaws team of Billy Gunn and RoadDogg in a Best-of-3 Radicalz vs. DX series for Eddie and co. to get their WWF contracts, as (in storyline): “they don't work here”.

It was in the tag match, the second of the three contests, that Guerrero performed a frog splash off the top rope and dislocated his elbow when he landed the move; as a result, he was sidelined for several weeks. Guerrero and Saturn had originally been booked to defeat The New Age Outlaws but, due to his injury, Guerrero panicked and told Road Dogg to immediately pin him.

By the time Eddie got back, he was put into a storyline where he pursued Chyna, who he referred to as his “mamacita”. Chyna turned on her ally Chris Jericho the night after Mania 2000 to join Eddie. The duo got so over they redacted what was supposed to be a Chyna heel turn less than a month after it happened, and she went on to help Eddie retain the European Title that he had won in April

Of course, within six months of their union, they split because love doesn’t actually exist in WWE land. Eddie turned heel when caught showering with two of Godfather “Hos”. 

Guerrero was involved in the mid-card title scene contending unsuccessfully for the IC Title in a fourway at No Way Out but winning the Euro again at WrestleMania X-Seven. That reign lasted 25 days. Eddie was booked in a storyline with The Hardy Boys, but an addiction to painkillers that had started two years earlier after the New Year's car crash had taken Eddie into the abyss. Eddie was in such a bad state, he was sent to rehab.

But on November 9th, 2001, Eddie was arrested for drunk driving. WWE released Eddie from his contract three days later.

The road back to redemption for Eddy included appearances at ROH where he was the marquee star of the first show Ring of Honor put on, wrestling on the undercard of a show that was headlined by Bryan Danielson, Low Ki and Christopher Daniels and their triple-threat match that goes down in many people's eyes as defining. He appeared on Andrew McManus’ WWA, wrestled CM Punk twice in a weekend on IWA: Mid-South and was the star name in the King of England Tournament put on by FWA and broadcast live on talkSPORT radio in the UK. The semi-final match versus Doug WIlliams is really good … but the most important thing on this night for Eddie was out of the ring.

Guerrero in Ring of Honor

Brian Christopher / Grandmaster Sexay was booked on the show at the Crystal Palace Sports Arena (I wonder if that place was a pain in the arse to get to in 2002 as well…) in a non-tournament match against Guy Thunder. Brian took advantage of the best “Colombian imports” that Croydon has to offer and when he offered Eddie the chance to join, Eddie politely said no.

Eddie was taking his newly found sobriety seriously, and he wanted to earn a second chance with the “leader in sports entertainment”. That second chance would come with a return to WWE on April 1st 2002, the night after Mania X-8, and with a feud with Rob Van Dam for the IC Title that followed.

A feud with Steve Austin next was the plan, but Austin walked out of WWE after creative disputes that didn’t involve Eddie. It would be a feud with Edge at the end of the summer that set Eddie up for superstardom.

A hellacious No-DQ match – that involved an insane bump in which Eddie took a back body drop onto a propped-up ladder in the corner – was Eddie’s best match in WWE up to that point, and the best match he had had since the Mysterio classic at Halloween Havoc 97. A clean, sober Eddy looked like a different man from the one who was addicted to pills in the years before.

Smackdown – booked by Paul Heyman, the man who brought Eddie to American wrestling in 95 – the “blue show” was the "wrestling show" … especially compared to RAW’s at-times grotesque freak show, with the Katie Vick storyline and HLA dominating Monday nights. And one of the main characteristics of the blue show was The Smackdown Six with three tag teams – Edge and Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle and the Los Guerreros team of Chavo and Eddie – anchoring Smackdown in quality wrestling.

With a mantra of “we lie, we cheat, we steal” as showcased in vignettes, Los Guerreros brought it in ring with their fellow Smackdown-Six clan, with the half dozen producing notebook matches weekly and on PPV. The Guerreros won the tag belts at Survivor Series and as their reign evolved they turned face as the cheers for Eddie and Chavo ended up dictating.

Los Guerreros

A feud with the team of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas ended prematurely after Chavo tore his bicep. Eddie won the belts with Chavo’s replacement Tajiri off of Benjamin / Haas in a Ladder Match but the belts quickly went back to Shelton and Charlie with a Guerrero heel turn on his new partner in the aftermath.

Back as a singles heel, Eddie took up the “lie, cheat, steal” mantra and dialled it up to 11. This got so over with fans that he was a face again by mid-September.

As 2004 came by, Eddie was now one of the most popular guys on the roster. His quarters on Smackdown on UPN were successes. So – with the only chance of the current WWE Champ Brock Lesnar and Goldberg being matched up (with Goldberg’s contract up) coming at WrestleMania XX – the belt needed to leave Brock, and Eddie Guerrero was the man to hold the title.

Latino Heat!

Eddie's World title victory at The Cow Palace was one of the great occasions in wrestling in the 00’s. Yes, Goldberg interfered. But the point of time between the Spear from Goldberg that felled Brock to Eddie hitting the frog splash for the 1-2-3 made it practically a clean win. The following month at Wrestlemania XX saw Eddie beat Kurt Angle in a fun match – but after Mania, the talent drain was making the Smackdown show that Eddie was leading weaker than it was when Eddie had first lifted the belt at No Way Out.

Brock Lesnar left WWE after Wrestlemania and his match against Goldberg, and Kurt’s neck was bothering him and he had to take a break from in-ring action. The 2004 WWE draft lottery didn’t help, with no real reinforcements brought in on the heel side of the blue brand.

Rene Dupree, Mark Jindrak, Rob Van Dam and Spike Dudley were the male stars that moved from Raw to Smackdown. Triple H was also “drafted”, but in storyline managed to worm his way to stay on Raw – which helped the perception that Smackdown was the inferior brand to Raw, something that was enhanced when they ran an angle in which Booker T– who was traded for Triple H so he could stay on Monday nights– pulled a sulk and called Smackdown “the minor leagues”.

With a lack of heels, the call was made to turn Bradshaw – a tag-team wrestler in the APA – heel and pair him with Eddie, repackaged as John Bradshaw Layfield, a JR Ewing-esque figure who extolled the virtues of capitalism.

Unfortunately, Luigi Mangione wasn’t around in 2004 so we had to suffer the reign of JBL after he beat Guerrero for the title at The Great American Bash. The feud saw JBL get cheap heat with anti-hispanic promos, an angle which saw JBL beat up immigrants on the US / Mexico border (I wonder if JD Vance’s favourite wrestler was actually JBL) and cause Eddie’s mom to have a “mild heart attack”. 

The Judgement Day match between Guerrero and JBL – a month before the Great American Bash Bullrope Match where Layfield ended Eddie's reign – is a high-quality bloodbath in which Eddie lost so much blood he went into shock backstage and had to be rushed to hospital with a recommendation that he needed a blood transfusion – a recommendation that Eddie turned down, instead leaving hospital with 16 stitches in his forehead.

That match, the main event of the PPV, attracted 235,000 buys, a 26% drop from the previous year's May PPV. It was also the least-bought PPV since the Over The Edge PPV way back in May 1998. Smackdown’s ratings were also down, slipping below the 3.0 mark for the first time since the show's inception.

Eddie was taking the downturn in fortunes for the blue brand personally. He responded to hecklers in a show in Oberhausen, Germany getting on the mic and saying that “Germany sucks” (maybe Eddie took the USA loss to Germany in the 2002 World Cup Quarters personally) and the original call to have Guerrero retain his belt in the Bullrope Match was reversed to alleviate the pressure that Eddie had put on himself. 

When Angle returned from his neck issues, his feud with Eddie resumed, which Eddie then won when his team beat Kurt’s in a Survivor-Series elimination match. As 2005 started, Eddie and Mysterio started to team. They won the tag titles at No Way Out but instead of defending the belts at Wrestlemania 21, they would face each other in an attempt in storyline to “steal the show”

They didn’t. 

While not helped by Rey’s mask being looser than Kevin Bacon's feet, the match was never going to live up to the Shawn Michaels / Kurt Angle match later that night. Mysterio won the match. Eddie, despite showing frustration at losing, showed sportsmanship to his opponent… but a heel turn seemed obvious in the future.

It came on the May 5th Smackdown with an attack that left Rey bloody. Their feud lasted throughout the summer but supplied no real classics. It was most remembered for the story beat of Eddie threatening to reveal a secret about Rey… and especially about his son Dominik. That “secret” being that Eddie had had a child out of wedlock… and that child was Dom and that Dom was in fact the adopted son of Rey and his wife (Mid-00’s WWE, everybody!)

All roads would lead to a Ladder Match at Summerslam with the custody of Dom on the line (no wonder the kid is so scarred that he hangs out with JD McDonagh nowadays) The match itself is a hot mess – and while Rey won that match, Eddie won the Steel Cage rematch, earning a title shot at World Heavyweight Champion, Batista.

The lead-in to their No Mercy match saw Eddie claim to be friendly with Batista with Big Dave being wary of Eddie’s tactics. The match at the PPV saw Eddie show a willingness to show sportsmanship which would lead to his loss in the match.

Eddie would show his face characteristics in the weeks after the PPV. He was due to represent Smackdown in the SD vs Raw Survivor-Series elimination and apparently he was booked to win the World Heavyweight belt in a Triple Threat match on a Smackdown taping on November 13th, 2005… but Eddie would never make it to the building.

Chavo would find his uncle unconscious in his hotel room bathroom in the Marriott in Minneapolis. He was pronounced dead when the paramedics got to him. An autopsy found the cause of death to be acute heart failure from atherosclerosis. 

The taping that Eddie was supposed to win the belt was instead a tribute episode to Latino Heat. Dream matches would be on the show, and wrestlers paid tribute to their fallen friend. The sense of sadness was mixed with fond memories, but the feeling that just overwhelmed me at the time was that Eddie Guerrero was another statistic of an industry that took people from their fans way too easily. Easier than many industries for sure.

Change was attempted in the aftermath of Eddie Guerrero’s passing. But the wellness policy that WWE tried was not enforced like it should've been until the events of the weekend two years later when Eddie's close friend Chris Benoit murdered his wife and child. Change did finally happen after that, but far too late for Eddie. An industry that eats its young had taken one of its most beloved wrestlers before we could see the whole of his career.

"What if?" might be the operative word for the career of Eddie Guerrero. What if the peso hadn't crashed as hard as it did? What if that New Year's Day 1999 crash never happened? What if Vince Russo had got his wish and Tank Abbott had been the guy to win the vacant World Title at Souled Out 2000 (yes, this is a thing Russo wanted to book) and … what if Eddie had not died?

Eddie Guerrero’s life is one of overachieving but is still one that could have been something even more generational. He did catch a mood of what fans wanted out of their wrestling as the attitude left the Attitude Era, and that first quarter of 2004 was magical … but Eddy Guerrero's body gave up on him. In the ring in 2005, Eddie wasn't the same man but outside the ring even more so.

What could have been? We'll never know…