Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: The Unmasking of Juventud Guerrera

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Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: The Unmasking of Juventud Guerrera – WCW, 1998

History

Chris Jericho was having a hard time. It finally came to a head on December 29, 1997. On that episode of Nitro, he was taking on NWO representative Curt Hennig. Hennig won easily with the Hennigplex. After the match, Jericho snapped. He grabbed a chair and started slamming it into the ringpost while screaming he was sick of it. He also destroyed David Penzer’s suit jacket.

Jericho was much more humble on the next Nitro (and no, the Iron Sheik was not involved). He apologized to the fans for his actions the week before, and even gave ring announcer David Penzer a new chair and jacket to replace the ones he’d destroyed the week before. Jericho then hopped into the ring to face Diamond Dallas Page. And lost. After the match, Jericho grabbed the chair from Penzer, tore off his suit jacket, and went nuts again.

On Thunder, Jericho came out with another suit jacket, gave it to Penzer, and apologized again. Then he faced Ric Flair. A figure-four leglock later, Jericho was again destroying Penzer’s jacket.

Jericho was back in action on WCW Saturday Night. Again, he had a new jacket for Penzer. He faced Page again, lost, and destroyed Penzer’s jacket again.

On Nitro, Jericho faced off against Mongo McMichael. Mongo easily defeated him, and Jericho was left screaming about it in the ring through the commercials. Jericho did a 180 when he realized that the cameras were on, and started talking about how he could lose with dignity.

Jericho faced Eddie Guerrero on Thunder. Jericho wound up defeating Guerrero with the Liontamer, and earned himself a shot at the Cruiserweight belt in the process.

Nitro saw Jericho taking on Juventud Guerrera. Jericho, polite man that he is, offered Juvi a handshake before the match which was accepted. Jericho wound up winning with the Liontamer, but held onto it a bit too long. After the match, Jericho apologized because he didn’t realize Juvi was tapping out. Juvi didn’t look convinced, so Jericho wound up jumping him from behind. That brought Rey Misterio Jr. (who Jericho had a match against at Souled Out) out to even the odds.

On Thunder Rey was defending the Cruiserweight belt against Eddie Guerrero. The match ended when Jericho ran in and attacked Rey. Then Eddie got into it with Jericho. That brought Chris Benoit out, and we had a match. Benoit easily won with the Crossface, and that brought Raven over the guard rail to attack Benoit.

Saturday Night saw Rey defending the title against Juvi. Jericho came out in the middle of the match and trash-talked Rey. He offered Rey a handshake and quickly locked him in the Liontamer. Juvi came off the top and broke up the Liontamer, then the two beat Jericho down.

That brought us to Souled Out, where Jericho had his title shot against Rey. Jericho was confused as to why the fans were booing him. Jericho wound up winning the match and the title, and then said that he knew the fans really liked him. That only prompted the crowd to boo him more. Jericho said that if the crowd wanted to boo him, he’d give them something to make them boo him. Jericho quickly went to work destroying Rey’s knee, then just kept apologizing as he walked out.

Mean Gene talked to Jericho on Nitro. Jericho (who was wearing a Rey T-shirt, by the way) teared up as he dedicated his win to himself. WCW followed that up by saying that Rey was scheduled for knee surgery later that week.

On Thunder, Jericho teamed with Eddie Guerrero to take on Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko. Benoit wound up winning with the Crossface. After the match, Benoit talked about how he deserved a US title shot, but the committee wouldn’t give him one. US champ DDP came out, agreed with Benoit, and set up a match with him for the next week.

Jericho took on Super Calo on Nitro, and began by saying that an apology wasn’t necessary, but he did want to thank all of his Jerichoholics. He went on to win the match.

Jericho had Thunder off, but he faced Chavo Guerrero, Jr. on Saturday Night. Jericho started before the match by talking about all of his great fans, and thanked the Jerichoholics. Then he quickly beat Chavo to retain the title.

Eddie and Jericho teamed up again to take on Chavo and Malenko on the following Nitro. Jericho was finally able to lock the Liontamer on Chavo.

Jericho’s night wasn’t over yet. Later on, Juvi took on El Dandy and won. Jericho hit the ring and said that he was out there to congratulate Juvi on his win. Unfortunately, Juvi only spoke Spanish. On the other hand, Jericho was able to translate for us. In the end, Juvi put up his mask to get a title shot at Superbrawl.

Jericho defended the Cruiserweight title against Chavo on Thunder. When Jericho won and refused to release the Liontamer, Juvi ran in to make the save. Jericho responded by dropping Chavo and going for Juvi’s mask. In the end, Juvi ran Jericho off.

Nitro had a Jericho/Guerrero vs. Benoit/Malenko rematch. Malenko wound up locking Benoit in the Cloverleaf for the win.

On Thunder, Juvi defeated Kidman. Jericho hit the ring and successfully pulled off Juvi’s mask, only to discover that Juvi was wearing another one underneath.

Later in the night, Jericho defended the Cruiserweight title against Dean Malenko. After Jericho talked about Juvi (including offering to let Juvi keep his mask even if he lost to prevent the crowd from seeing how ugly he was), he went on to defeat Malenko.

The final showdown before the match was on Saturday Night. Juvi had just defeated Lenny Lane when Jericho hit the ring. Jericho went after the mask again, which allowed Juvi to drop Jericho with a flying headscissors.

That brought us to Superbrawl. Jericho defeated Juvi and he was forced to unmask.

That was the end of that. Jericho continued on his way and lost the title to Dean Malenko in May. Juvi began his own gimmick of an underdog who would never surrender and got sweet revenge in August, when he ended Jericho’s final Cruiserweight title reign.

Analysis
Let’s face it – forget everything about the Mexican tradition with the masks. This was a Jericho push, pure and simple. We started off with Jericho first turning heel, and it was solidified with his defeat and unmasking of Juvi.

Of course, I suspect that events only played out this way because Rey went out for surgery. Otherwise, Rey might have been the one losing his mask. At least he managed to put that off for about a year.

Where are they now?

Juventud Guerrera was released from WCW in 2000 shortly after a tour of Australia. Juvi had taken something (rumored to be Ecstasy). When he and a group of other wrestlers returned to the hotel, Juvi stripped naked and went berserk in the lobby. Several police officers were required to restrain him.

After that, Juvi went on to work for various other independent promotions. He joined TNA where he was part of Team Mexico during the World X-Cup tournament alongside Mr. Aguila (Essa Rios), Hector Garza, Abismo Negro, and Heavy Metal. After the X-Cup concluded, the luchadores soon vanished. (Juvi’s case was not helped by the fact that he had also injured Jerry Lynn in a match with a botched Juvi Driver.) Meanwhile, Juvi continued working for Mexico’s AAA promotion, where he was partnered with Mr. Aguila.

In 2005, Juvi signed a WWE contract and was soon brought in (as simply Juventud) with Psicosis and Super Crazy to form the Mexicools stable. In October, he defeated Nunzio and won the WWE Cruiserweight title. He wound up losing the title to Nunzio and regaining it during an overseas tour before losing it to Kid Kash at Armageddon in December.

In January of 2006, Juventud was released from the WWE. Rumors had flown for weeks about how his backstage behavior was being viewed. Rumor has it that the final straw was Juventud using some discouraged (or in the case of his 450 splash, banned) moves, causing the match to go over its time limit, and trying to pull strings backstage to win the match.

Since then, Juventud Guerrera has returned to Mexico.

Chris Jericho jumped to the WWF in 1999. While there, he won numerous Intercontinental championships, and was even the first Undisputed champion following the buyout of WCW (Jericho defeated the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WCW and WWF world titles). He lost the title to HHH at Wrestlemania XVIII.

In 2005, Chris Jericho’s contract ran out and he left the WWE. Jericho said at the time that if he ever returned to wrestling, it would be with the WWE, but TNA has reportedly made attempts to bring Jericho in. As of this date, Jericho remains out of the wrestling business, instead touring with his band Fozzy and running his XM satellite radio show “Rock of Jericho.”

Next Week
Alex Wright gets a new look.