He was so over that WWE brass couldn’t deny him the biggest prize in the sport, and Guerrero was booked to defeat Brock Lesnar for the WWE Undisputed title at No Way Out in 2004. He teamed with Chavo, and his work on the microphone and in the ring was the highlight of the Smackdown! programming. He worked independent dates, stayed out of trouble, and was back in the WWE on April 1, 2002. Hard Past Plays a Part in the Death of Eddie GuerreroĮddie Guerrero was released from WWE after being arrested for DUI in late 2001.
The sky was the limit.īut Guerrero’s substance abuse problems would come into play. He was the unlikely breakout star from the Radicalz, but there was no glass ceiling for him in WWE. Steal.” gimmick, and he was still brilliant in the ring against the brand-new competition. He showed flashes of the brilliance of his later “Lie.
Guerrero and company debuted as The Radicalz (see, they’re edgy because they spelled their faction name with a ‘Z’), but Eddie broke out when he teamed up with Chyna, and the WWE creative team allowed Eddie to just sort of be Eddie on TV. They were also watching their friend Chris Jericho make a splash in WWE, and when they had the chance to jump ship from WCW in 2000, they never looked back. Eddie and his compatriots - Malenko, Benoit, and Perry Saturn - were banging their heads against the glass ceiling. He held the WCW cruiserweight title and the US championship.
It didn’t matter how talented Eddie was - he wasn’t getting near the main event for any extended period of time. Hulk Hogan, Paul Wight, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and Scott Hall were all part of the main-event scene in WCW. The company, at least on TV, was a home for giants. Generously listed as 5-feet, 8-inches tall, Guerrero wasn’t the imposing figure WCW was looking for at the time. He had great matches again with Malenko, with Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio Jr., Ric Flair, and a host of others. Eddie Guerrero – Memorable MomentsĪs part of the Monday Night Wars, Eddie Guerrero was a solid mid-card performer. Eddie Guerrero was already a master of his craft, and he was about to take to a much larger stage. The crazy-good charisma of both Barr and Eddie is off the charts here, and you see why he began making forays into ECW and then signing with WCW. Guerrero and Barr were heat magnets - I mean they were thermonuclear - in a feud with El Hijo del Santo and Octagon.Īt 1994’s When Worlds Collide pay-per-view, Barr and Guerrero lost a double hair-vs.-mask best 2-of-3 falls match in front of a sold-out crowd of 13,000 screaming fans.ĭave Meltzer rated it at five stars in the Wrestling Observer, and it holds up. It wasn’t until years later, thanks to the magic of YouTube, that I saw Eddie Guerrero teaming with Art Barr as La Pareja del Terror, a part of the AAA stable of American wrestlers known as Los Gringos Locos that included Louie Spicolli and Konnan. In otherwise blood-soaked cards, they put on wrestling clinics for Paul Heyman’s company before taking the money deals that would send them to WCW.
#EDDIE GUERRERO PANTS TV#
Like many American fans, I had first become aware of Eddie through his battles against Dean Malenko for the ECW TV title in the mid-90s. When news broke of the death of Eddie Guerrero, I had to sit down. Maybe he slipped around the corner for a cup of coffee, or maybe he’s chatting up someone down the hall. His personality, antics, and wrestling ability lit up any wrestling program he was part of. It’s still hard to believe Eddie Guerrero is gone. Eddie Guerrero remains one of the greatest and most influential wrestlers of his generation. Here, we fondly look back on Eddie’s finest moments, including that one masterpiece from 1994. Eddie had just turned 38 the month before. Chavo would perform CPR until paramedics arrived, but sadly, it was too late. On November 13th, 2005, Chavo Guerrero found his uncle unresponsive in his Minneapolis hotel room. The passing of Eddie Guerrero hit like a punch in the gut.
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