Monday Morning Backlash: 10 Matches to Define the Career of Eddie Guerrero for the Anniversary of his Death

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November 13, 2005 the wrestling world lost one of its all time greats when Eddie Guerrero died. I won’t rehash the around his death, that’s been done at length or the fact that wrestling has not cleaned up, even with steps taken in the right direction since then. Instead, on the four-year anniversary of his death, let’s celebrate the circumstances life of Eddie Guerrero through 10 of his best and most important matches.

Bonus Match: Eddie Guerrero vs. Terry Funk – 5/20/89 – This is the debut of a very young Eddie, facing Terry Funk who had just come out of retirement to end Ric Flair’s career. Eddie is already quite good here and Terry gives the unknown f Guerrero quite a lot of offense before piledriving him on the floor.

From here, Eddie would spend the next five years working lucha for EMLL (now CMLL) and New Japan, both trips culminating in our first two listed matches.

1. Black Tiger vs. Wild Pegasus – 4/16/94, Super J Cup.In Japan, Eddie would don the mask of Mark Rocco, the original Black Tiger. Just as Rocco faced the best juniors of the 80s, original Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid, Eddie would face the premier juniors of the 90s, Jushin Lyger and Chris Benoit. Here he, in his Black Tiger role, faced Benoit, in his Wild Pegasus role and, unsurprisingly, the two put on an absolute clinic their chosen style – **** ½

2. Eddie Guerrero and Love Machine vs. El Hijo del Santo and Octagon, Hair vs. Mask Match – 11/6/94, When Worlds Collide. In lucha, Eddie and Love Machine Art Barr were the two biggest and most hated heels around. They feuded with the beloved El Hijo del Santo, who Eddie turned on to join with the Love Machine. Their blow off, which pitted mask vs. hair, the ultimate in lucha feud enders, still might be the best match of Guerrero’s storied career- *****

After Barr died of a drug overdose, it was time for Guerrero to move on to ECW, where he became known as one of the world’s best wrestlers thanks to this feud:

3. Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko – 4/15/95, Hostile City Showdown. In ECW, two second generation wrestlers who most thought would never make it in America due to their size put on numerous straight wrestling clinics that would become legendary throughout the sport. Guerrero and Malenko’s Hostile City Showdown encounter has become the most legendary of this series – **** ½

From here, Eddie would go to WCW, where after a short time as a face, he became the best heel in the highly regarded WCW Cruiserweight Division.

4. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio – 10/26/97, Halloween Havoc – Eddie, the prick heel, had been a huge bully to the smaller Mysterio and Rey would have to finally put up his mask against the Cruiserweight title to get rid of Guerrero. What followed was the most perfect mix of lucha, New Japan junior wrestling, and American Cruiserweight wrestling that the world has ever seen. One of my Top 10 Matches ever, this one is an easy *****

5. Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero, Hair vs. Hair – 7/12/98, Bash at the Beach. Eddie’s bullying didn’t stop with Rey, he even drove his cousin Chavo completely insane. They eventually faced off in a hair vs. hair match that didn’t go long enough to be the classic it might, but is still one of the more memorable matches and angles of Eddie’s career *** ½

From here, Eddie languished in several silly storylines, such as the LWO and Filthy Animals before jumping to the WWE with the Radicalz. He had a good European and Intercontinental title run, notably feuding with Chyna, but the drugs were taking their toll at this point and he was fired.

6. Eddie Guerrero vs. CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio – 3/1/02, IWA-MS. While fired, Eddie added huge legitimacy to two independent wrestling groups. The first was a fledgling Ring of Honor. The second was IWA-MS. This was among the first signs Eddie was getting clean as he took it to another level with a young CM Punk and his old rival, who we’ll see more of, Rey Mysterio ****

When Eddie returned to the WWE, it was to Smackdown where Paul Heyman was booking. Heyman took the best wrestlers, put them in teams and let the Smackdown 6 go!

7. Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio and Edge vs. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit – Survivor Series 2002. The Smackdown 6 went out and put on classics every single week. This isn’t their best, but it’s still a great match with amazing wrestlers in one of my favorite wrestling periods **** ¼

From here, Eddie became the biggest face in the company and with unprecedented fan support, he got a title shot against the heavily favored monster Brock Lesnar the month before Wrestlemania.

8. Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar – 2/15/04, No Way Out. It was a tough choice whether to include this or the Wrestlemania XX match against Kurt Angle, but the first title win and better match sealed it. This is one of the best big man vs. little man matches in wrestling history, with only Goldberg keeping it from the full five stars. **** ¾

9. Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL – 5/16/04, Judgement Day. This saw an established champion Eddie go to war with the racist JBL. Eddie was so over so fast he was already able to establish new heels. This was an absolute bloodbath and a forgotten classic, with nearly everything within the match making perfect sense and leading to one of the very best matches of a stacked 2004 **** ½

10. Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio – 9/9/05 Smackdown. As Eddie’s time alive wound down (not that we knew it, of course), he found himself a heel, facing his old rival Rey Mysterio once more, this time over Rey’s son. The angle was terrible, but the matches that it led to were not. Eddie got outright creepy here, controlling the pace and having an amazing mix of a WWE main event style match mixed with he and Rey’s usual moveset **** ¼

That, in a nutshell, is the career of Eddie Guerrero. Thanks for the memories, Eddie

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.