Disc 2 starts the WWE period of Eddie’s career, with Chris Jericho talking about how Eddie helped to pave the way for smaller people to make it in US wrestling, and says that when Eddie was on then he was the best worker in the world, which is pretty close to the truth to be fair. He then puts Eddie’s angle with Chyna over because Eddie, in Jericho’s words “did something I failed to do” when talking about how he was so entertaining in that angle, which was really the first time his over the top entertaining personality had come to the fore onscreen.
To illustrate this period of Eddie’s career we get the match against Jericho where Eddie won the European Title and Chyna joined him, from WWE RAW on April 3rd 2000. The first thought that comes to mind when watching this is thank God Jericho is no longer doing the double-powerbomb spot. It worked when Brock Lesnar did it because Brock was a fucking monster, but Jericho is way too small (even when in there with a smaller guy like Eddie) to pull off such power spots. It’s a shame that the two guys were kept apart for the large majority of Eddie’s WWE run as here you could tell they were trying to adjust to how the WWE wants their wrestlers to go, with more strikes such as a chop exchange on the floor that wasn’t a feature of their earlier matches, and more playing to the crowd and character-driven drama, but they weren’t quite there yet. The ending saw Chyna turn on Jericho with a DDT and put Eddie on top for the win. I remember at the time hating that they’d put Chyna with Eddie but really it was the best thing for his career as being able to project that over the top character on screen probably did more for him in the eyes of the WWE top brass.
Matt Hardy then talks about how Eddie was so good he would call matches in the ring, and sometimes Matt wouldn’t even know what they’d be doing and would just go along with Eddie. Of course he doesn’t follow that up with the logical conclusion that guys today overly script their matches and come straight from the WWE system so they don’t have the versatility in the ring that Eddie had.
Eddie’s match with Matt from WWE SmackDown on June 8th 2000 is then shown to illustrate this. Some of the WWE match choices on this set totally seem like “lets get this guy or that guy on the DVD set” and it’s actually something that works as this is a rare and not very much talked about match that if I’d have been picking the matches for the DVD I’d have never even thought of including. It’s a short match based around some chain wrestling early then throwing in some highspots before Eddie got the win with a second rope huracanrana done Rey Mysterio-style going directly into the cover rather than releasing him and going to cover afterwards.
Jerry Lawler talks about his history with the Guerrero family, and says that the first time he saw Eddie he was spooked by just how much of a mirror image he was of his brother Hector. Lawler then talks about how much fun it was to sit at ringside for all Eddie’s matches, and honestly for all the shit he gets as a commentator now, Lawler’s “Latino Heeeeeeeat” catchphrase really helped get Eddie over I think.
Lawler continued on, talking about the Eddie Guerrero v. Rob Van Dam match from Backlash 2002, saying it was like watching a great artist do a painting and called it the best match he’d seen in years. The match was shown, and to be honest I had completely forgotten all about it after having only ever seen it live, but it is a really good match. It’s also an important match for Eddie as he won back the InterContinental title on his first PPV match back from his absence from the company when they let him go for his drug issues. Obviously both Eddie and Van Dam do the frogsplash as a finisher, but besides that their in ring styles are both flashy, entertaining and move heavy, with enough crowd interplay from both guys that should have kept them involved. As Lawler said, this really was a beautiful match with both guys countering each others moves, looking smooth, with seamless transitions and great nearfalls, in particular RVD changing up his Rolling Thunder so that he landed in pinfall position rather than back-first onto Eddie as was usual, and Eddie hitting a nasty top rope sunset flip powerbomb. The only problem was the crowd heat, the people here were just dead, and I don’t really know why. The finish saw Eddie hit a beltshot and then follow up not just with a regular frogpslash but a frogsplash to RVD’s FACE to win. An important match for Eddie as it showed that WWE were willing to give him a second chance, which he took full advantage of. I just wish the crowd had responded to what they were doing, but that would not be a problem for Eddie later in his career.
Jeff Hardy then talks about how star-struck he was when he first met Eddie, which sounds so weird coming from one of the biggest stars around today, the current WWE Champion. Jeff even went as far as to call Eddie the perfect wrestler.
Then Jeff’s match with Eddie from the April 29th 2002 edition of Monday Night RAW is shown. Jeff was well into the “couldn’t care less” phase of his career, so Eddie basically walked him through a match and tried to help Jeff avoid seriously injuring himself, and watching Jeff superplex Eddie off the top rope and come down on his own head was really scary, and not in the usual “its Jeff Hardy doing a Jeff Hardy bump” kind of way. They did a really clever spot leading to a ref bump as they teased it, avoided it, had Eddie do his panicky heel flip-out, before Jeff hit the Whisper In The Wind and wiped out both Eddie and the ref, and how I’ve described it here really doesn’t get across just how perfectly that sequence ran. Jeff then went for a dive on the outside and Eddie met him in midair with a beltshot, and won with the frogsplash. Yet again, much like Matt’s match it does come across as just an excuse to get them on the DVD, but I don’t care it was cool to see.
Edge talks about how he and Eddie are both perfectionists, and expected their 2002 feud to rock, but matches at SummerSlam and Unforgiven were good but not great, and then they had the famous September 26th 2002 no-DQ match where everything clicked. Edge talks about taking the airplane home the following day, and seeing how messed up they both were, but how it was completely worth it.
Then said no-DQ match is shown, and it’s amazing how great it still is today. No-DQ matches are generally amongst the main match types that don’t hold up to repeated viewings years later. And the reason for that is usually that they descend into any excuse to use hardcore plunder with no psychology or no build to the spots. Eddie Guerrero and Edge used two weapons the entire match, most famously a ladder, but also a chair, which was only used once, after a referee took a ladder to the face and Eddie gave Edge a chairshot to take him down as he was distracted. But the big spots were built to, hell they didn’t even grab the ladder at all for the first 10 minutes, and then after the ref bump and chairshot went back to the ring for a bit. Once the ladder was brought in, it actually added to the regular spots such as Eddie being monkey-flipped into the corner by the other guy’s legs, a spot Eddie used to do all the time particularly with Rey Mysterio, and the slingshot senton from the apron into the ring, which here was done onto an Edge ladder sandwich. You know it’s a great match when, during some of the nearfalls, you can see Michael Cole in the background leaping up and down in his chair, since normally he looks like he’s about to fall asleep on the rare occasions he is actually caught on camera. But him marking out for the kickout from a sunset flip off the top of the ladder was so awesome. Edge talks about that spot in his prematch VT here as well, saying Eddie whispered to him “we’ve got them now!” as the crowd went mental at that spot, and given what Edge says earlier about thinking their PPV matches were good not great it must have been a big moment for them both, so that’s nice. And the DDT off the ladder to finish was amazing, one of the most breathtaking looking finishes to a match in years. This match convinces me that Edge would have no problems going babyface in the future, as awesome as he is as a heel, but also that Eddie was amazing and the standing ovation he received in losing the match just showed that.
Chavo Guerrero then talks about how teaming with Eddie was the highlight of his career, and how when they first did the Lie, Cheat and Steal vignettes they were heels, but people started cheering, which he surmises as people could see they were having fun out there so they had fun watching. He’s right too.
Los Guerreros v. Team Angle from Backlash 2003 is shown, and Charlie Haas carries out a large picture of Kurt Angle, so he’s there in spirit despite actually having suffered the first of his WWE-era neck injuries and not being on the show at this time. They pretty much take 15 minutes to work a clinic in tag team wrestling. Jim Cornette has talked about how to have the standard tag team match a million times, and they do it here to a T, as the babyfaces shine, but with the Los Guerreros twist of getting their shine by cheating and doing stuff that the heels should generally be doing, then the heels get heat, and one good thing about including this on the DVD is that it shows Eddie playing face-in-peril in a tag team match, which isn’t usually a role we saw a lot of him doing, yet, and I’m sure this isn’t going to be much of a shock to you, it’s a role he was fucking incredible in. When he’s getting beaten down, even by two relative newcomers who had only been in WWE less than 6 months, Eddie’s selling is so great and he treats his opponents as being on his level that the fans actually believe they can beat him, and that just means they get behind him even more, then once the hot tag is made Chavo makes the comeback. It falls apart from there though, as Eddie comes back in at random stages without tagging and it’s just a bit of a mess, before Shelton trips Chavo and holds his leg down from the apron as Chavo covers him for the win. But after the match, Chavo wipes them out with a tope and they take the belts anyway and drive off in a low rider.
Apparently that Backlash match was the first appearance of a low rider from the Guerreros in WWE, as John Cena talks about how he bought that and had it restored as a present to Chavo, which is cool. He then talks about facing Eddie early in his WWE run, and how Eddie taught him wrestling psychology and performing at the level the WWE wants. I actually remember they kind of played that up in 2005 in the leadup to Cena’s first WWE title win, Eddie gave Cena a pep talk on a backstage promo before his #1 contenders match with Kurt Angle about what it takes to carry the company, and my god has Cena ever lived up to that more than anyone could expect.
Then we see highlights from the Parking Lot Brawl on September 11th 2003 between Eddie and John Cena. It starts with Cena in the circle of cars running down Eddie with a heel rap, before Eddie shows up in a lowrider. As a once-every-few-years thing, I actually like parking lot brawls, and think the collection of lower card guys out there watching the match added a lot to the atmosphere too. Besides one comedy spot where Cena tries to run Eddie down with a lawn mower, they do nothing out of the ordinary, it’s a WWE walk and brawl with punches, smashing people’s heads into cars, and basic moves like suplexes and flapjacks which have even more visual and audio impact and get more of a crowd response when done onto a car. Cena showed a knack for heelish stooging here which he could get back if the WWE ever turns him, and it was an important match for Eddie in that WWE at this time were still holding over from the Austin era in many respects, where crowd brawls and use of props in matches were seen as essential to working in main events. This was a lot of fun, and definitely went longer than I remembered, before Eddie won when Chavo made his return from injury and Eddie frogsplashed from one car onto Cena on another car. A fun and different match that’s a good break from the rest of the DVD set, and also it gets the WWE’s current top star on there, which can never be a bad thing.
Chavo Classic~! makes his first appearance on the DVD, to talk about how Eddie had to fight against people who resented the Guerrero family in Mexico, and talked about how sometimes he let his legendary temper get the better of him.
Up next is a match where Eddie controlling his temper was actually the storyline, his match with Chavo at the 2004 Royal Rumble. Classic was in Chavo’s corner, and the story was that Chavo had acted like a prick and wanted to wind Eddie up, but Eddie had to control his temper and wanted to win by proving he was the better wrestler. His character work here was amazing, particularly his facial expressions when he’d clench his fist, realise what he was doing and have to hold back. As his character work was so great and the crowd reaction to him was so amazing that even though the internet really didn’t like this match all that much when it happened, I’d guess internally the WWE loved it, as it showed Eddie’s character could get a match over just as much as his ring-work. That, plus the fact that a singles match with Chavo is one of those things that would’ve had to be included, are probably the reasons that it’s on here. Eddie got the win in a short match, cleanly with the frogsplash, then got his payback after securing the win by bloodying up Chavo afterwards and forcing Classic to watch by punching him out and tying him to the ropes. This was great, as Eddie’s character didn’t lose any face, and the crowd got to also see him kick some ass like they wanted him to.
Vickie Guerrero talks about the night Eddie became WWE Champion as him living his dream, and clips are shown of Eddie’s celebrations including backstage footage of him on the phone to Vickie, and hugging Vince McMahon. Vickie then talks about how happy Eddie was when he came home with the title for the first time.
Then the match is shown, from No Way Out 2004 against Brock Lesnar. I know it’s repeated from his first DVD, the only match in that situation, but it is the crowing achievement of Eddie’s career so I think the set would’ve felt incomplete without it. And the fact that it’s arguably the Match Of The Decade helps a lot too. It’s a fucking masterful performance from both guys, as Brock uses his power and you just think Eddie is overmatched as he gets nothing early and Brock destroys him. They do an unbelievable job painting Eddie as the ultimate underdog and Brock as the unstoppable monster, but when Brock makes a mistake missing a high knee and Eddie is able to work it over and make things a level playing field. Well, I say that, but you still always feel like Brock is the favourite and even 10 minutes of cool leg submissions (yes, from Eddie Guerrero, again showing his versatility in his career-defining match when he could’ve just done “Eddie doing Eddie spots” since it was his time to shine, but having a great match telling a great story was more important) are stopped in their tracks by Brock hitting one simple move. It’s David v. Goliath in real life human form, and even the run-in from Goldberg doesn’t detract from the moment, as the match continues on from that point, and the pop for Eddie hitting the frogsplash to win is earth-shattering. I really cannot think of enough great things to say about this match that haven’t already been said, because otherwise I really would be here forever (and I’m sure it already feels like that for some of you that have read up to this point!). In a way it is unique amongst WWE matches in the last ten years because they had the great match and then because of circumstances this match never got it’s impact lessened or got lumped into a series of matches by having a million rematches, and off the top of my head I can’t really think of another great WWE main event that applies to.
Also on Disc 2, as a special feature are the Los Guerreros “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” vignettes, which were some classic stuff, and several outtakes are included, which is something I love seeing for regular TV shows, so on wrestling vignettes it’s an added bonus too.
Disc 3 begins with Rey Mysterio talking about how Eddie winning the WWE Title was him realising his dream, then he reminisces about some private jokes they used to share with each other.
Then Eddie’s match with Rey from the March 18th 2004 episode of SmackDown is shown. This was very interesting because in all their previous matches, Eddie was the clear heel, and in all their future matches Eddie was either setting up for a heel turn or was the clear heel, yet this is the one match where they were both 100% babyfaces, plus their only match for the WWE Title. They work a brilliant mat-guy v. highflier match with Eddie working over Rey’s shoulder and using the fact that he’s the older, bigger and more experienced guy to have him control most of the match, whilst also showcasing Rey’s highspots at the right times. In many ways it reminded me of a match I watched recently on the WWE Raw XV Anniversary DVD with Bret Hart wrestling the 123 Kid, with Eddie in Bret’s role. The similarities are clear and it’s not something I really thought about watching at the time as they were both undersized champions getting the rare chance to be something other than the underdog against bigger guys and showing that they can excel in that role. Seeing Eddie Guerrero, the flashy “has fun in the ring” guy working hammerlocks for ten minutes actually sounds kind of dull on paper but he’s so good at it and you’re so engaged in the match that it works completely. The fact that when they did up the pace and had Rey take the advantage with his big spots, that they hit those spots, in particular an Asai Moonsault that led to the commercial break, and a springboard off the ropes into a DDT with such precision, fluidity and grace that they’d maybe not approached since their classic Halloween Havoc match really helped put this match on another plateau too. Eddie got the win when Rey missed the drop the dime legdrop and Eddie got a La Magistral cradle to win. See, that’s another Bret trait, winning by outwrestling your opponent rather than just running through your finishing moves. I can’t recommend this match highly enough, and the more I see of them the more I think Eddie v. Rey might just be the greatest in-ring rivalry of all time.
JBL talks about how he can’t go back to El Paso without getting spat or having a police escort to drive him out of town because of his feud with Eddie, which just goes to show how beloved Eddie was. I’m sure the story is either embellished or outright lies to be honest with you but it does show just how popular Eddie was in the Hispanic areas, to the point that people internally at WWE were referring to him as a “Latino Steve Austin.”
Then we get the bloodbath of a match between Eddie and JBL at Judgement Day 2004. I remember really not being into this at the time, but looking back I assume that was just because the beer drinking, poker playing midcard tag team guy had got this ridiculous makeover and an immediate main event push. And when I say ridiculous makeover in character, much like when The Undertaker changed from The Undertaker to some guy riding a motorbike, the fact that JBL was a rich dude who has moved to New York in real life does not mean the gimmick change on TV wasn’t way too out there. As for the match, you know how sometimes people refer to matches as being a one-man show, or only being great because of one man? Well Eddie was that one man here. At the start when he’s pissed off and doing toe-to-toe brawling with JBL and beating him up and down the aisle, in and around the ring, it’s great. In the ring, JBL lays out Eddie with a big boot and takes charge, and it sucks. I mean who the fuck wants to see JBL laying in a five minute headlock. Then comes THE CHAIRSHOT. Everyone who has seen it won’t forget it, blood was spurting out of Eddie’s forehead like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and it drew audibly shocked gasps from the crowd. From there, Eddie is magnificent in being beaten up to the point where you really do think all hope is lost, then he fires up a la Lawler in Memphis, all covered in blood and screaming at his opponent to bring it, and punching away, getting total payback and revenge, despite the DQ ending as he just beats the shit out of JBL all the way back up the aisle. The shot of Eddie bleeding like a stuck pig, mounting JBL and punching away while JBL and the WWE Title belt is laying in a pool of Eddie’s blood in the ring is something that should’ve been an iconic image of pro wrestling, along with Mick Foley taking the Hell In A Cell bump or Steve Austin in the sharpshooter, and it astounds me that the WWE never really took advantage of that. Great match, and proof that DQ endings can still leave a crowd satisfied, because Eddie kicked ass and totally got revenge at the end here. Oh and if you love wrestling for the hokey comedic side that non-fans rip into as the most ridiculous stuff they’ve ever seen, there’s a magnificent spot as referee Brian Hebner is laying unconscious, and the impact of JBL powerbombing Eddie into the mat somehow wakes him up. Seriously a tremendous moment that I rewound and watched back about 5 times.
JBL talks about how when he grew up he’d always dream of being in main events against a great wrestler having a great match, and says that with Eddie Guerrero he got to fulfil that dream.
Then their steel cage match from the July 15th 2004 edition of WWE SmackDown is shown. Now that Eddie was an established main eventer, there were less and less “hidden gems” in terms of TV matches, and as shown by the next few matches on this DVD, his SmackDown bouts were now long PPV-length matches. In some ways that’s good because you are getting these long matches for free, but on another it didn’t allow Eddie’s versatility to shine through in terms of taking short matches and still making them memorable and great like some of the stuff earlier in the set. Here it’s a main event brawl, with a strange twist for a cage match in that the bigger, stronger guy with a more brawl-based offense in JBL was painted as the underdog, as Eddie kicked his ass so much that the entire heat segment took place in a commercial break. I don’t know if that was intentional, if it was miscommunication with the guys and the back, or if the early stuff in the match ran long, but it was a weird placement of the commercial. I didn’t really like this match that much, it’s probably the first one on the set I can say that for, but it did have one great spot in the frogsplash off the top of the cage, which really should’ve been either the finish or a post-match payback spot. Surely that’d be better than Kurt Angle coming out as El Gran Luchador to cost Eddie the match and get unmasked two minutes later. So this was not only a lame finish to a good match where the infinitely more talented worker ended up jobbing but they blew off a good mystery angle in a heartbeat. Was I watching TNA?
Michael Cole talks about how Eddie was so entertaining that you couldn’t help but smile at his antics, which is actually a reason why his attempted heel turn in 2003 ended up making him the biggest babyface in the company for a time. Then he talks about the contrasts between Eddie and Kurt Angle, saying Eddie was all about having fun, and Kurt was serious and a “stuffed shirt.” Would this be the same Kurt Angle who famously wore a kid’s cowboy hat once and also drowned an entire roster with a milk truck?
The Eddie Guerrero v. Kurt Angle match from the April 14th 2005 episode of SmackDown is then shown. I remember at the time people were a bit disappointed in the Eddie/Angle matches, but looking back now I think they were all good. And that disappointment extended to the two guys, as there was a famous story going around at the time that they got into a fight backstage because Kurt thought Eddie wasn’t getting up quick enough to take his moves, which basically means Kurt at that point somehow still didn’t understand pro-wrestling because a babyface selling moves to get a heel over isn’t something to flip out over. Here, they’d slowed down, probably because they knew they were having a long match and didn’t have to cut it short like SummerSlam 2004 because Eugene v. Triple H needed some extra time, and the slower pace actually helped tell the story and give the match a more serious vibe. I think it’s good that WWE is still including Kurt in their DVD releases, he had some excellent matches and was a major player in that company, and from November 2009 I expect him to be again, and certainly he was one of Eddie’s major rivals. This is also the first appearance on the DVD of Eddie doing the “throw a chair at his opponent, have him catch it and play dead” thing, which still years later makes me break into a smile and was a major part of Eddie’s act. The finish saw Rey Mysterio come out and cost Eddie the match, as they were doing the “tag team partners with dissension in the ranks” bit at this point, which lead to Eddie’s final heel turn where he became the best promo guy in the business.
Rey then is shown talking about how much charisma Eddie had, as well as how he was born to be a performer, as well as being a great guy backstage. And I heard all those stories about Eddie when he was still alive too, so it’s not like one of those situations where people only speak well of somebody once they’re dead.
Then Eddie’s cage match with Rey is shown from the September 9th 2005 episode of SmackDown. The majority of their 2005 feud is included on Rey Mysterio’s Littlest Big Man DVD that came out last year, which means that although they had better matches in the feud, so as not to repeat across DVDs we get the cage match where Eddie finally got a win over Rey in the feud. Eddie comes out in his I’m Your Papi t-shirt, which only he could’ve got over as the biggest catchphrase of the time. Eddie was really aggressive here, although you could tell injuries were effecting both guys as they had slowed down dramatically even from their 2004 match. But here it just meant that Eddie could get over his heelish uncaring viciousness more, and also they could build to a big highspot, in this case Rey missing a crossbody from the top of the cage, which left him a crumpled heap for Eddie to hit the frogsplash on to win. I liked this, but the cage gimmick really didn’t suit these two especially as something given away on free TV, as it limited what they could do.
Batista talks about how Eddie helped him out when he first moved to SmackDown, and made him realise he’d have to lead the locker room. Then he talks about how Eddie helped him through some tough personal times, meaning his divorce presumably, and was like the big brother he never had, before getting choked up and crying talking about finding out Eddie had died.
Then the Eddie v. Batista match from No Mercy 2005 is shown. Obviously it’s strange watching this back now, as it was clearly the first step in a feud which unfortunately never got the chance to fully come to fruition. That said, even as a standalone match it’s excellent and tells a great story, with Eddie being conflicted about whether to return to his old cheating ways even against an unstoppable monster babyface who seemingly overmatches him. And Eddie and Batista did a GREAT job here of making Dave look like an unstoppable monster, he overpowered Eddie and dominated early, and in an interesting twist it was actually Batista being distracted by Eddie NOT going through with cheating that gave Eddie the opening to take over and work Dave’s back, which played into the finish as Batista couldn’t hit the powerbomb and instead had to pin Eddie with two spinebusters. Eddie played the crafty veteran really well here, and they got so much drama in just a postmatch handshake that you know once Eddie turned on Batista it would’ve fucking ruled and really added to their future matches if Eddie could’ve added cowardly heel spots, more heat and a fuller backstory to the match here, they could’ve done something really special.
The main feature of the DVD ends with several minutes of comments from various people talking about what a great wrestler Eddie was, what a great person he was, and how much everyone misses him. Additional features on disc 3 are Chris Jericho telling the by-now-semi-famous story of when he and Eddie first met and Eddie yelled at him while he was drunk, then apologized the next day by saying “I know I did something wrong, I don’t remember what it was but believe me I’m sorry.” Been there. Also shown is Eddie’s last ever match, from the November 11th 2005 episode of SmackDown, where he beats Mr. Kennedy by DQ when after a ref bump he throws Kennedy a chair and he gets caught red-handed when the referee wakes back up. In many ways it’s classic Eddie and it’s actually fitting that was his last match.
On Silvervision.co.uk and I believe in at least one store in the US, this DVD comes with a fourth disc featuring the Raw and SmackDown Eddie Guerrero Tribute Shows. I didn’t watch them again to be honest, but from what I do remember the opening scene of Raw with the ten-bell salute really got to me, as did Rey removing his mask and crying in his pretaped tribute message, and the ending of Raw where John Cena lays down the WWE Title belt on top of an I’m Your Papi t-shirt as the show fades to black. SmackDown has a really fun match where Chavo Guerrero beats JBL by doing Eddie’s old lying, cheating and stealing trademark stuff. I remember seeing that at the time and it actually helped me out a lot that I could be entertained by wrestling still and it was a bit more of a light-hearted show than RAW, which was very heavy and emotional.
Overall I think this is an excellent DVD set, we get some famous matches and some rare matches in just about the right combination, the comments from the people used for interviews really helps too, both for the stories behind the specific matches and memories of Eddie.
If you’re in the UK you can pick up a copy of this DVD today via Silver Vision.
Source: http://www.ifight365.com/2008/12/dvd-review-viva-la-raza-the-legacy-of-eddie-guerrero-part-three/