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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story – Disc 1

September 22, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke

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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story – Disc 1

The Documentary

Cheating Death, Stealing Life is one of the older WWE in-house documentaries, and it feels like it the whole time. From the terrible background music, made-for-TV graphics randomly inserted, and just the general structure, you know you’re watching a WWE-produced documentary designed to craft a certain narrative to promote one of their lucrative performers.

The feature is designed to get over the redemption narrative that WWE started promoting for Eddie Guerrero. It does not hold back on his battles with drug and alcohol addictions that he had to overcome (and of course that Vince McMahon believes in second chances), but they completely ignored his use of PEDs that continued long after those battles.

Eddie’s redemption story in regards to recreational drugs and alcohol is of course very bittersweet since Eddie died. The most haunting part is that at one point in here Dean Malenko says, “I don’t want to be one of those guys who finds out the next morning that Eddie’s dead in the hotel.”

At only forty minutes, not much else about this feature has a chance to sink in. It made Eddie seem like a likable human being, and that made it a successful piece of promotion. WWE should produce stuff like this on the Network for wrestlers before big PPV matches. As a documentary, it’s not much though.

For a more detailed rundown of the topics covered in this feature (and “special features” on the DVD), check out JD Dunn’s review.

Also, I must express some gratitude towards David Bixenspan for helping me with some fact-checking on Eddie Guerrero’s PED use.

The Matches

AWA Superclash
Chicago, Illinois
December 13, 1988

Chavo Guerrero, Mondo Guerrero & Hector Guerrero vs. Cactus Jack & The Rock ‘n’ Roll R.P.M.s. (Tommy Lane & Mike Davis)

It is kind of a neat idea that they put a match with Eddie’s brothers on here. I have heard a ton of great things about Chavo’s work in the seventies and eighties, but I have not seen any of it myself. The Guerreros seemed to have really great chemistry based on this match, and it would seem like a safe bet that they had many fun matches together. The match here was short and sweet, and I left it being much more interested in checking out their work. The match was basic in structure. There was shine for the babyfaces, an obligatory heat segment on Chavo, and then the match broke down. Mondo and Hector hit dives to the floor, and Chavo won the match in the ring with a moonsault. Good stuff! (***)

When Worlds Collide
Los Angeles, California
November 6, 1994

La Pareja del Terror (Eddie Guerrero & Love Machine) (w/Madonna’s Boyfriend) vs. El Hijo del Santo & Octagon (w/Blue Panther) [Cabellera contra Mascara]

Confession time: I’ve always considered this match to be a bit of a mess despite its lively nature and watchable-ness. The *broad* structure of the match carries it for sure. The rudos cheat and act like assholes. The tecnicos make desperate and valiant comebacks. They overcome the odds and win the match to much applause. So much of the match was clunky though and really disrupted the rhythm of what seemed like could have been a classic. The number one issue early on is that each fall required both members of the team to be pinned. That seems like a bad idea on paper, and it was not executed particularly well here in the first two falls. It did at least lead to great drama down the stretch when Santo had to defeat Guerrero and Barr on his own because Octagon was stretchered out. (Well, Blue Panther helped him out a little against the rudos, but you get the idea.) Overall, the action and drama down the stretch made up for the early struggles this match endured, but it would never cross my mind to classify this match as “great.” The third and decisive fall ended when Santo caught Eddie with a pinning combo. (***1/2)

ECW
August 26, 1995

Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko [2/3 Falls]

This infamous match was the last for each man in ECW. (Although Eddie would appear on the first One Night Stand.)

While the technical skill that went into the execution of this match is obviously exceptional, the story told is what really separates it from other matches these two had in order to make it great. The first fall is all about each guy trying (and failing) to get the upperhand on on each other. It eventually ends when Eddie catches Dean with a pinning combo. The second fall shows Dean adapting and deciding he needs a new tact. He targets one of Eddie’s knee and quickly makes Eddie tap out with a Texas Cloverleaf. It looked like Dean had the mental edge and would steamroll Eddie in the third fall, but Eddie managed to snap off a tornado DDT to even things up. After failing to put each other away for a while, a Malenko O’Connor Roll led to a double pin. The match was ruled a draw. Beautiful stuff. Based on everything I have seen, this is easily my favorite Dean Malenko match. (****)

Eddie and Malenko each did a goodbye speech afterwards.

WCW Fall Brawl
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
September 14, 1997

This match was for Jericho’s Cruiserweight Title.

The in-ring execution of this match was quite good. The structure was fairly basic. Jericho got some shine early on (and he focused on working one arm). Eddie came back and worked him over for a while (he targeted his neck/back). Jericho made a comeback, and then they tried to put each other away. That’s not reinventing wheel, but the formula is formula for a reason. The finish though *was* quite clever. Jericho went for a superplex, but Eddie reversed it and basically splashed Jericho’s head on the way down. That made Jericho easy prey for the frog splash to end this technically proficient match. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finish like that before, and it stood out in a positive way as a result. If there was a bit more character work here and/or payoff to the body work, it would have likely approached “great” status. The work was entertaining enough at least. (***1/2)

You can watch the match here.

Halloween Havoc
Las Vegas, Nevada
October 26, 1997

Eddie Guerrero(c) vs. Rey Mysterio, Jr. [Campeonato contra Máscara]

Guerrero’s WCW Cruiserweight Championship and Mysterio’s mask are on the line.

This was a great match featuring excellent character work by Eddie and some truly fantastic comeback spots by Mysterio. The in-ring chemistry between these two was as close to perfect as you can get. Eddie destroyed him in brutal fashion, and his work as a base for Rey’s spectacular offense was second to none. They progressively teased Rey’s comeback in the match more and more until you were just begging for him to do so. The sudden nature of Rey’s win (and Eddie’s post-match attack) managed to deftly balance giving a satisfying finish to this match while still leaving plenty of room for more. I’ve never seen this match as being the classic that most seem to see it as, but I would be hard pressed to relate to an argument that said it was not great. (****)

Watch this match here.

Watch some free Eddie matches!

Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge [GREAT match. One of the best either man ever had.]

Eddie Guerrero vs. CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio

Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio [Campeonatos en Mascara]

Eddie Guerrero vs. The Rock

Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho

Eddie Guerrero vs. Low Ki [Great match. Don’t sleep on it.]

Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko [from ECW]

Eddie Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani

Eddie Guerrero vs. Super Crazy [from the first ROH show]