by Big Danny T    
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

Well folks, thanks to your generally supportive response to my first try at this, here I go again, drawing myself up and putting together another deconstruction.

This week’s subject, while currently experiencing a new surge in popularity, has always been a favorite of the ‘Smart’ fans. His superior in ring work ethic is matched to an incredible, almost scary, charisma that regularly puts the crowd in the palm of his hand. He’s one of the wrestlers that people always look forward to on the show, and has yet to fail to deliver. He’s had his share of personal demons, but has gotten past them and shows no sign of losing the spotlight anytime soon. Seniors y Senioritas, I humbly present....

Eddie Guerrero
The History

Eddie Guerrero was born into arguably one of the greatest wrestling families in the history of pro wrestling. His father was the legendary Gory Guerrero, whom many consider to be, pound for pound, the greatest wrestler in Lucha Libre history. His older brothers Chavo, Mando, and Hector were already world renowned wrestlers by the time Eddie stepped into a ring, fresh off of 4 years at New Mexico State on a wrestling scholarship. Eddie started, primarily as the third man for his side in 6-Man tag team matches with his brothers before moving into singles competition under a mask and being known as Mascara Majica.

In 1993, he jumped to the newly formed AAA promotion and his career started to take off. He alternated between Japan and Mexico, wrestling alternately under his real name and as Black Tiger (An evil heel version of Tiger Mask.) In Japan he put on spectacular matches with the likes of Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit (as Pegasus Kid.)

In Mexico, he started teaming with El Hijo del Santos, reprising a legendary tag team made famous by their fathers. During this time he became friends with Art Barr, and eventually turned on Santos and formed the most hated tag team in Mexico’s history, La Pareja del Terror. This was one of the early examples of Eddie going from a crowd favorite to a hated heel almost at the drop of a hat.

Eddie and Art had a spectacular run as a heel tag team, but this was cut short by Art’s untimely death. Shortly after this, Eddie left AAA for ECW, where he proceeded to tear it up with many of his old opponents, winning the TV title in his first match against 2 Cold Scorpio. He then proceeded to feud with Dean Malenko for the TV title, trading the title repeatedly over the course of the summer of ’95.

In September of that year, he left ECW for WCW, and was plugged into a feud with Konnan for the US title. At the same time, he was making regular trips to Japan and under the Black Tiger identity; he won the prestigious Top of the Super Juniors title in June of ’96. Back in America, he was competing for the Cruiserweight title, first winning it from Chris Jericho, and then having an awesome feud with Rey Mysterio Jr for it. After dropping it to Rey at Halloween Havoc ’97, he wandered somewhat aimlessly around WCW, having a feud with his nephew, Chavo Jr before forming the Latino World Order in late ’98. The group was formed after Eric Bischoff threatened to send Eddie back to Japan when Eddie started complaining about the treatment of the Mexican wrestlers in the promotion. Many of the Mexican wrestlers joined up, but Eddie started to start using the LWO to advance his personal agenda more and was worrying about the welfare of his Latino counterparts less. During all this, Rey Mysterio steadfastly refused to join, seeing through Eddie’s bullshit. Eddie eventually won a “Loser has to join/quit” match and he sent Rey out to wrestle in a ridiculously oversized LWO shirt.

LWO was starting to get over as a legitimate heel faction when Eddie got into a car wreck on New Years Eve of that year. Eddie was injured so extensively in the accident that it was feared that his career was over. Instead of shifting the leadership of the LWO so someone else, Ric Flair dissolved the faction in early January and Rey, once not wanting to have a part of the faction, became it’s defender, wearing the LWO shirt in defiance of Ric and Kevin Nash.

Wile Eddie recovered from his wreck, the wrestling quality in WCW steadily went downhill, and by the time he returned to the company, there was no spot for him anywhere on the roster. He again drifted aimlessly about, rarely appearing on TV, until WCW management, in a move that was a major contributing factor in the death of WCW, allowed Him, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn to be released unconditionally from their contracts in a payroll thinning measure. Two weeks later, The Radicals took their front row seats on Monday Night Raw and thus began their ascent into the WWF.

Their first feud came against D-Generation X and they had to wrestle 3 matches against DX in order to get contracts to wrestle in the WWF.  Dean Malenko lost his outing against X-Pac and Perry and Eddie were set to take on the New Age Outlaws. They out-wrestled the Outlaws and were just about to win it when Eddie went for a frogsplash. Upon landing his arm was dislocated and they had to scramble for a finish and Road Dogg ended up pinning Eddie. Later that night, HHH bested Chris Benoit and the Radicals we’re left stranded. The next week, Mick Foley brought them into the ring to offer his apologies at not being able to do anything for them, but HHH interrupted the gathering and in a shocking display, the Radicals turned on Mick, stomping him down in the middle of the ring while HHH laughed.

From here, Eddie found himself in numerous tag team situations with Perry and Dean while Chris went into the singles scene in the hunt for the IC title. Eddie got into a feud with Chyna. After she pinned him at Wrestlemania 2000, Eddie charmed her with his “Latino Heat” and they started a relationship that lasted for the better part of 6 months, during which he went from heel to babyface, and slowly returned to heel by mentally abusing Chyna, taking the IC title from her, and eventually getting caught cheating on her (with Victoria, then one of the Godfather’s ho’s.)

Eddies personal demons would come back to haunt him, tho. Just before King of the Ring 2001, people were shocked to find out that not only had he been pulled from the tournament, he had been taken off the active roster all together. In a Ross Report, JR let us know that Eddie was battling an addiction to painkillers and was in no condition to wrestle. The fan community lamented this as another possible career ending situation for Eddie, what with the WWE recently releasing Grandmaster Sexy for getting caught with crystal meth trying to cross the border into Canada. Eddie battled back from his addiction, however and proceeded to make waves in the indy scene, hooking up with Ring of Honor and putting on a few shows with them, Ending up with a MOTYC against Super Crazy in February of 2002.

Shortly after, fans were surprised to see Eddie reappear on our TV screens again, appearing out of nowhere to powerbomb Rob Van Dam and reinsert himself into the Intercontinental title picture almost seamlessly. After a feud, Eddie started to fade into the background again, wrestling infrequently on TV.

That is until the Brand Split.

In the new Brand split, Eddie got his opportunity to shine with the additional time afforded to lower level workers. He became one of the fabled Smackdown Six (He, Chavo, Kurt Angle, Edge, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio) that proceeded to put on mind-blowing matches week after week.  He, along with his nephew Chavo, formed Los Guererros and became a force in the tag team division, winning the tag titles from Rey Mysterio and Edge only a month after the titles were formed and held them until February of 2003 when they dropped them to the new tag team, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. After an injury to Chavo, Eddie formed a makeshift tag team with Yoshihiro Tajiri and proceeded to win the titles again. Los Tajiros held the titles for a month and a half and were huge fan favorites before dropping the titles back to Shelton and Charlie. After being pinned (because he was showing concern after Tajiri had been knocked into his low rider and Charlie sneaked a schoolboy rollup in), He went out to check on his fallen comrade. As it turned out tho, Eddie was more concerned about the welfare of his car than he was his fallen partner. After crying over his car for a second, he turned around and began to brutalize Tajiri, ending it with a vicious slam through the windshield of the car. Eddie’s heel turn was in full effect.

Small problem, tho: the fans still loved him.

Despite all his efforts to draw boo’s (attacking Chris Benoit, turning Benoit’s friend Rhyno against him, feuding with the babyface Tajiri on his return) the fans continued to cheer. There were a few scattered boo’s in the crowd, but they were drowned out by the loud and lusty, ‘EDDIE!” chants. Eddie’s natural charisma and propensity for putting on great matches in the ring had won the fans over and they were not going to let him turn fully heel. He went on to participate in the newly reformed US Title tournament, winning by beating Chris Benoit at the Vengeance PPV in the summer of 2003. At the following Summerslam, he successfully defended the title against Benoit, Rhyno, and Tajiri in arguably the match of the night. The next Tuesday (Thursday for those that had to wait for the broadcast of Smackdown) Eddie returned to his hometown to a hero’s welcome. Eddie had won the hearts of the fans and the WWE finally acknowledged it by dropping his attempts at being a heel. And it was just in time, too, as John Cena interrupted Eddie’s familial reminiscing by challenging him for the US title. In the match later that night, Cena brutalized Eddie in front of his friends and family and Eddie found himself in another feud that is sure to provide great matches.

His Appeal

Quite simply, Eddie has ‘IT.’ That certain special something that draws people to him and makes us want to watch his every action to see how it affects him and the people around him. As a face, especially recently, he’s like an old friend that we want to succeed at all costs. As a heel, he’s even more effective, getting the audience to hate him with ease (that is, when the audience LETS him be the heel.) So badly has he worked up some fans, that he is occasionally charged in the ring (such as during his Ladder Match against Edge for the IC title.) As I stated at the beginning of my column, his charisma is almost scary at times. In one match in WCW, he started the match as a heel, had the crowd cheering him by mid match, and by the end, he was a hated heel again. His charisma is also augmented by one of the best workrates in the business. Trained in his back yard by his father Gory, Eddie knows how to work a match, uses great ring psychology, and can brawl, mat wrestle, or fly through the air with equal aplomb. He also knows how to use his arsenal, pulling out high spots at the right times, and not just being a spot machine. Eddie is the total package.

His Value

Eddie is a goldmine, and used properly, Eddie can contribute anywhere he’s placed. WWE is starting to realize this and showed it by leaving the title on him at Summerslam. He has no trouble getting over with the crowd, and when the fans need someplace to point when people ask, “Why do you watch this crap?” he is a handy target to shut up the naysayers. He is also one of a handful of minority wrestlers that are currently over with the fans; therefore, unless he screws up somehow, the WWE can utilize him as a positive spokesperson with the Hispanic community. With almost limitless potential, Eddie has the tools and the talent to be a major contributor to the WWE for years to come.

His Future

To put it simply, the sky’s the limit for Eddie. All he needs is for the WWE to show the confidence in him. Right now, Eddie could be elevated to the world title picture and nobody would bat an eye. At this stage of his career, he is putting himself forward as world champion materiel and the sooner WWE realizes that he will contribute solidly to the main event picture, the sooner business will pick up. Put him in the ring with Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Benoit, and you have got a good match just waiting to blow the roof off the place in any arena in the country. The only problems that I see could damage his ascension into the main event ranks would either be a relapse of his past demons, or he gets RVD syndrome: I.E. He becomes so dominant a champion with the US title that the only way that he could lose it would be to get injured or win the world title. Barring that, he is a viable contender for the World title and the sooner that WWE sees this, the sooner they can start making money off the cash cow that is, “EDDIE!”

E-MAIL DANNY    
BROWSE THE DECON ARCHIVES

Danny has not yet filed one of these mini-bios.

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