Bruce Prichard on Eddie Guerrero’s Injury During The Radicalz’ In-Ring Debut, The Group Losing All Their Matches That Night

On the latest Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard talked about how Eddie Guerrero got injured during his WWE in-ring debut as part of the Radicalz and how that affected their booking plans for the night.

After first appearing in the seats on the January 31, 2000 episode of Raw, the group were offered the chance to “win” WWE contracts by facing D-Generation X in three matches on the February 3rd episode of Smackdown. Malenko lost to X-Pac after an getting hit with a low blow, and Guerrero and Saturn were supposed to win against the New Age Outlaws. However, Guerrero came off the top with a frog splash and severely dislocated his elbow and the match was changed on the fly to have Billy Gunn get a pinfall immediately after the move. With Triple H getting a cheap win on Benoit later in the night, the group went 0-3 instead of the close 1-2 (with caveats) that they were originally supposed to.

Prichard recalled seeing the injury and how it affected the booking, as well as addressing claims from Guerrero later that he felt he was pressured to do the match despite not being fully ready to return from an elbow injury. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

On Guerrero saying he had been pressured to do the match before he was ready: “I don’t remember pressuring anybody. I think Eddie was like, ‘No, I’m ready to go man. I can do it, I can do it. I’m good!’ And doing the match, I think that’s the way with a lot of guys, that they don’t want to miss out. So they’ll tell you that they’re good when they may not be good. I’m not going to pressure anybody to go out there and get hurt, and do something like that. And I don’t think we knew how serious his injury was. So to that, ‘Mm, come on Eduardo.'”

On his reaction to the injury when it happened: But the match, yeah. It just — god, I saw it when it happened. And, off the damn frog splash and Eddie just rolled over and was like, ‘Pin me. Let’s go home.’ Because he knew he was screwed at that point.”

On the injury meaning the Radicalz went 0-3 against DX that night: “Well again, I think you can turn any negative into a positive. And it wasn’t what we had planned. But at the same time, it gives them another obstacle to overcome. And nobody was calling that, because I think the stereotypical dirt sheet writers and Clint from Hershey would say, ‘Well, you have to have the WCW guys come in and win everything the first night, because well that’s what I want to see happen,’ versus trying to do something a little different where they get f**ked [by Triple H getting the cheap win over Benoit]. And you want to see them overcome something to actually come back in. That was the plan, for it to be 2 to 1, not 3-0. But s**t happens, and sometimes you just gotta go with it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.