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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Viva La Raza – The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero – Disc 3

May 16, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Viva La Raza – The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero – Disc 3  

 

WWE Smackdown
March 16, 2004

Eddie Guerrero(c) vs. Rey Mysterio [WWE Heavyweight Championship]

I had no idea this match existed.

Eddie got control of the match early on and went after the left arm. Rey eventually got him to the floor, and he then hit an amazing Asai Moonsault. After a commercial break, Eddie hit a superplex and was in control once again. He went back to the arm again. DEAR FUCKING LORD. Rey went for a springboard moonsault DDT, but he accidentally did a piledriver. He then made a comeback after that. Eddie went for the Three Amigos, but Rey avoided the third one. Eddie made a point to hit the third one but missed the frog splash. 619! Eddie avoided the springboard leg drop though, and then caught Rey with a pinning combo that put pressure on the injured arm: 1…2…3!!!

What a fucking gem of a match. Eddie got to play the anti-hero, working over the smaller babyface. He targeted the arm throughout. Rey made an awesome comeback. Eddie then caught him with a pinning combo that put leverage on the injured arm. This might be my favorite match between the two. Just great stuff.

Match Rating: ****

 

WWE Judgement Day
May 16, 2004

Eddie Guerrero(c) vs. John Bradshaw Layfield [WWE Heavyweight Championship]

At least the racist in this feud was a heel that would never be a babyface again. He cut a very racist promo before the match.

The match started as a brawl right away. Eddie dominated it for a bit. JBL finally cut him off and then worked him over. JBL did the side headlock heat segment. Eddie fought back and went for a pescado, but JBL caught him. Fallaway slam on the floor. JBL worked him over some more. Eddie fought back and avoided JBL’s finishers. Ref bump. That allowed JBL to absolutely KILL Eddie in the head with a chairshot. Eddie did a fucking scary blade job for it. He was covered in blood incredibly fast. JBL brought him to the ring and killed him with the lariat. A second ref took long enough to show up to allow Eddie to kick out. JBL called for a second lariat, but he ended up tackling the second ref by mistake. Jackknife powerbomb: 1…2…NO! Eddie escaped a sleeper and fired back with some punches. Eddie finally reversed the fallaway slam into a DDT. He then went for the frog splash, but JBL avoided it. JBL grabbed a chair and the belt. He distracted the ref with the chair and tried to hit Eddie with the belt. Eddie kicked him in the balls and hit him in the head with the belt for the DQ.

Eddie attacked JBL more after the match. He caved in JBL’s head with a chairshot. And again. Frogsplash. The agents had to pull Eddie off JBL eventually.

If you just remove the DQ and Eddie wins after the two chairshots and the frogspash, you would have a fantastic PPV main event, world title match, and blowoff to a (rare) month-long feud. Instead, this is just the first chapter of what would end up being a feud that would put JBL on top of the brand for a year (and what a terrible business/artistic year it was).

The match is honest to goodness fantastic from beginning to end. Eddie was absolutely at his peak as a babyface here. He could do now wrong in this match, and he carried JBL to what would easily be the best match of his career. I wish the booking went in a different direction, but the match is great anyway.

Match Rating: ****

 

WWE Smackdown
July 13, 2004

John Bradshaw Layfield(c) vs. Eddie Guerrero [Steel Cage match for the WWE Heavyweight Championship]

Eddie was mostly in control for a while. JBL tried to climb every chance he got, but Eddie kept him in the ring. JBL had to use wrist tape to choke Eddie, but he still couldn’t keep control for more than a minute.  JBL managed to hit the lariat but still couldn’t escape. Eddie reversed the fallaway slam into a DDT. Eddie then finally tried to escape. JBL prevented that and hit the jackknife. Eddie had a chance to escape again, but he opted instead to hit a frog splash from the top of the cage! Well, that was dumb. Win the title, bay bay. By the time Eddie made the pin, JBL managed to kick out. JBL hit a DDT and climbed again. Eddie met him up there. They battled on the top of the cage. A masked man showed up and pulled Eddie back into the cage. JBL dropped to the floor and won.

Eddie eventually was able to take off the masked man’s mask. It was Kurt Angle. Angle was the Smackdown General Manager at the time.

I thought this match was really dumb and made Eddie look terrible. Eddie got 90% of the match, threw away an easy chance to WIN THE WORLD title, and then lost like a goober. On top of all that stupidity, the match was not terribly interesting. A heel getting worked over for a long time with the occasional climbing spot is not my kind of match.

Match Rating: **1/4

 

WWE Smackdown
April 14, 2005

Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle

I’m not the biggest fan of their PPV matches from 2004. I would love to discover that this is the gem of their rivalry.

Eddie had a lot of success early on. After a commercial break, Angle was in control. He worked Eddie over for a while. Eddie came back. Ref bump. Eddie tried to frame Angle for using a chair. The confusion allowed Eddie to schoolboy Kurt: 1…2…NO! Angle got control of the match again and worked him over. Eddie had an opening and went for the frog splash, but Angle got the knees up. After a commercial, Eddie came back when he reversed an Angle Slam into a DDT. They started going back and forth. Angle kicked out of a million of pinning combos and a frog splash. Ankle lock from Eddie. Eddie escaped but caused a ref bump. Angle went to use a chair, but Rey Mysterio made the save. Rey held onto the chair while he woke Eddie up. Eddie panicked, as he thought Rey would hit him. That confusion allowed Angle to shove Rey and the chair into Eddie: 1…2…3 DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB.

This was on its way to being my favorite match between the two, but the ending was just too contrived, labored, and fucking dumb. It made Eddie look like an idiot, and Kurt looked undeserving of the victory after his huge win over Shawn Michaels a few weeks earlier at Wrestlemania. The action was fun as heck though. You take the good with the bad.

Match Rating: ***1/2

 

WWE Smackdown
September 9, 2005

Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio [Cage Match]

Eddie being an all-out heel by this point was unfortunate to me. I don’t think he should have ever been a baby-kissing face, but this just seemed disingenuous to me.

Rey had some success early on, but Eddie crotched him as the show went to break. Rey prevented Eddie from escaping when the show came back. They did another climbing tease. Rey had to grab on to Eddie’s tights to keep him from walking out. After another commercial, Rey gave Eddie a Frankensteiner. Rey then did a belly flop to the mat on a missed diving cross body. Eddie walked out and could have won. He decided to hit a frog splash instead: 1…2…3

WWE has a bad habit of not protecting the cage match gimmick. This is a good example of that. The intensity was not really there at all, and it was hard to get invested in the story. By this point in his career, rooting against Eddie was just not something I wanted to do. He was too naturally likable no matter how well he played the rudo.

Match Rating: **1/2

 

Big Dave gets to talk about finding out about Eddie’s death. He obviously got choked up, and it was emotional to hear his reaction to it. “He was the big brother I never had.”

 

WWE No Mercy
October 9, 2005

Batista(c) vs. Eddie Guerrero [World Heavyweight Championship]

Dave had control for a while. The story at this time was whether or not Eddie had genuinely turned the corner as a human being after the Rey fiasco. Eddie teased using a chair but thought better of it. Dave got annoyed at that, and Eddie pounced. He hit a frogsplash to the back for a nearfall. Eddie worked him over for a while. There was a labored ref bump. Eddie went to use a chair, but he thought better of it. He thought better of using it though. Dave saw the chair though and got mad. Dave made a comeback. He shook them ropes. Eddie avoided the Big Dave Bomb but ate a spinebuster. Dave’s back gave out. Three Amigos. Dave avoided the frog splash though and hit another spinebuster: 1…2…3

This was a case of a story tremendously elevating a match. The idea of Eddie genuinely going through a crisis of character was really interesting to me and expertly executed by Eddie. Dave getting angry at the idea of Eddie considering cheating to win was a nice beat for him to play as well. It was also wonderfully tragic for Eddie to lose due to a combination of wasting time not cheating and from angering Dave just for considering it.

Match Rating: ***1/2

 

They did a Eddie montage with everyone wrapping up their thoughts on Eddie as a person and a wrestler.

 

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

Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko [from ECW]

Eddie Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani

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

Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho

Eddie Guerrero & Black Tiger vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue

Eddie Guerrero vs. Tommy Dreamer

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero

Eddie Guerrero vs. Billy Gunn

Eddie Guerrero vs. Johnny B. Badd

Eddie Guerrero & Booker T vs. RVD/Rey Mysterio vs. The Bashams vs. Luther Reigns/Mark Jindrak

Eddie Guerrero & Amazing Red vs. The SAT

Eddie Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero vs. WGTT

9.0
The final score: review Amazing
The 411
This DVD set was definitely more than the sum of its parts and became one of my favorite WWE compilations by the end of it. It perfectly captures Eddie's talent and his growth as performer, as Eddie became one of the best wrestlers that I've ever seen in his final years in the WWE. His early ECW and WCW years showed his in-ring talent and the potential he had as a character. His initial WWF run gave him a chance to really stand out as a personality. By the time he returned to the company in 2002, he was the fully-formed version of 'Eddie Guerrero.' He was a fantastic heel and a fantastic babyface. he could work from deeply underneath, as the subtle anti-hero, the all-out villain, and the tweener figuring out who he was. He could be the WWE champion and work blood/grudge feud. He was a great tag wrestler (although this set, admittedly, does not capture that well) and a singles main eventer. In his final years on this planet, he was everything you would want from a professional wrestler.
legend

article topics :

Eddie Guerrero, TJ Hawke