wrestling / Columns
The Shimmy 11.13.06: The Eddie Guerrero Report Card (Part One)
Greetings, everyone, to The Shimmy. No doubt if you have spent any time on 411 or any other wrestling website over the past two days, you have been reminded of the one year anniversary of Eddie Guerrero’s death. It was one year ago today that many of us logged on expecting to see spoilers that Eddie Guerrero would be the new World Heavyweight Champion, and instead found that he had died. There is no need for me to recap everything about Eddie now, but I will share with you what I wrote in the very first edition of this column:
January 1, 2006
If you’re reading this column there is one thing you must know: I LOVED Eddie Guerrero. I was the biggest Eddie mark around and not being able to share my memories of him after his death was hard. Well, now I have my forum. Now I can’t claim that I watched his entire career, and that I thought he’d be a World Champion based off what I saw of a fancam match of his in ECW. In fact, my first exposure to Eddie Guerrero was as a member of the (real) Filthy Animals in WCW. Eddie, Rey Mysterio, Konnan, and Billy Kidman is still one of my favorite stables as it was full of a lot of talented, and fun, superstars. While I enjoyed Eddie’s work and knew he could wrestle well, I didn’t feel any real sense of connection to him until his first days as “Latino Heat.” I still remember when he went to the prom with Chyna only to leave just in time to defend the European Title. While all of my friends were talking about Triple H vs. The Rock, I was enjoying Eddie Guerrero vs. Essa Rios.
The summer of 2000 Eddie Guerrero became my favorite wrestler, all the way up until he was fired by WWE in late 2001. When I heard the news I was very disappointed as I thought Eddie would have brought a lot to the post-Invasion WWE. Its funny, but even while Eddie was gone he managed to be linked to my wrestling memories; the night I attended my first WWE event someone handed me a flyer for a Maryland indy company that would be getting a show on local access. Featured on their first broadcast: Eddie Guerrero. I would try to follow Eddie’s brief indy career, never actually thinking he would return to WWE. Then, following the brand extension, my prayers were answered. He immediately entered a dream feud with RVD (more on this later). As time went on I was pleased to see Eddie enter into the upper mid-car/lower main event spotlight, receiving some pretty significant airtime. I loved how the fans took to Eddie, even as a heel. My 16th birthday fell on the same day that Eddie’s heel run in 2003 was abruptly ended because the fans just wouldn’t boo him, and I stayed home that night to watch him face John Cena in his hometown.
I never thought that Eddie would go on to become a WWE Champion, maybe get a title shot or a PPV main event, but they’d never actually get the belt. When he was booked against Brock Lesnar at No Way Out 2004 I figured it would just be a filler defense until Brock got to Goldberg. I think I marked out as much when they booked the Angle-Cena-Big Show number one contender’s match than when Eddie actually won the title, because putting two and two together, Eddie would be getting the belt. I was there live when Eddie defended the title against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XX, and was this close to meeting him the night before (If the security guard working his line at the Hall of Fame ceremony is reading this, screw you, dude). Likewise, I was also there live when Eddie dropped the belt to JBL in what I thought of at the time as a truly shocking move. There’s no need to recap Eddie’s recent history, other than the fact that I was overjoyed at the prospect of Eddie possibility getting to wear the big gold belt. On November 13 I got online to see if there had been any leaks regarding the Triple Threat Match scheduled for the SmackDown tapings. Instead I saw the tragic news of Eddie’s death. It took me almost a day for it to really sink in. I was saddened when I read it, but the true grief didn’t hit until Raw. As I sat and watched the tribute to my hero, my mother offered me an early Christmas present: an Eddie Guerrero legends action figure.
Eddie’s death shook me for most of the following week. By the time the second tribute rolled around, I was able to think about the good memories of Eddie and smile. I think I’m different from many wrestling fans online, because I don’t think any other wrestler’s death would have affected me as much. I’d be sad for sure, but not as deeply as I was for Latino Heat. In my time of grief, as I’m sure others can also attest, I learned to think about the good things about Eddie and enjoy their memories. The low rider with the hydraulics, the devilish smirks, and yes…the shimmy. This column is my tribute to Eddie Guerrero. I do not intend to represent Eddie in this column; instead I just want to ensure that Eddie is not forgotten. When someone reads this column, or even just sees the title on the main page, I want them to think of a man that brought us so many great memories. Thank you, Eddie. Viva la raza!
With that being said, I thought it was only fitting to add my contribution with the Eddie Guerrero Report Card. This week I’ll take a look at Eddie’s first WWE stint from 2000-2001. If there is any bias involved in the grading it will not be because Eddie is deceased, but merely because he was my favorite. Without any further ado, let’s get this show rolling.
Six Person Tag Team Match: Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, & Dean Malenko vs. Chyna & Too Cool (WrestleMania 2000)
Eddie was able to make his PPV debut at the biggest show of the year. This match was bigger than it sounds on paper now because Too Cool and Chyna were both pretty big deals at the time. The story here was Eddie and Chyna, just one night away from starting their “Mamacita” relationship.
My Grade: B-
European Title Match: Eddie Guerrero© vs. Essa Rios (Backlash 2000)
This is one of my forgotten favorites. The whole point of this feud was to focus on Chyna and Lita in each man’s corner, especially since Essa was little more than a jobber, but the match still ruled. They had another match the following night on Raw that was just as good, if not better. I think this is where WWE realized what they had with Eddie. I will they could have used Essa Rios better past this feud, but I guess we can’t have everything.
My Grade: A
European Title, Triple Threat Match: Eddie Guerrero© vs. Perry Saturn vs. Dean Malenko (Judgment Day 2000)
THE RADICALZ EXPLODE! This was a decent match, but it was more of a story than a real match. Eddie looked good here, and I think it was indicative of the WWE pecking order to see Eddie go over both of these “hot prospects.”
My Grade: B
King of the Ring Quarter-Final Match: Eddie Guerrero vs. Val Venis (King of the Ring 2000)
This is another forgotten gem. Eddie and Val worked really well together, it’s a shame to see Val fade away into jobberdom. Val was in the midst of a fairly substantial push at the time, and was going full steam towards his big showdown with Rikishi. I would have loved to have seen Eddie pull it out and win, but alas.
My Grade: A-
European Title Match: Eddie Guerrero© vs. Perry Saturn (Fully Loaded 2000)
This was the first entirely disappointing match of Eddie’s WWE run. The match was tacked on at the last minute, and it’s easy to see why. Maybe it was just Saturn, or maybe they were both off, but the match itself was forgettable and Eddie’s fun European Title run was now over.
My Grade: D+
Intercontinental Title, Intergender Tag Team Match: Val Venis© & Trish Stratus vs. Eddie Guerrero & Chyna (SummerSlam 2000)
This was a fun match, if not an overly technical one. It’s weird to see Trish being treated like she can’t wrestle, considering she would go on to become the greatest women’s wrestler ever. I was happy to see Eddie move into the IC division, even if Chyna overshadowed him here.
My Grade: B-
Intercontinental Title Match: Eddie Guerrero© vs. Rikishi (Unforgiven 2000)
“Here’s the door! Here’s the door right now!” The only thing I remember about this feud was Eddie humorously going off on Chyna and the lame DQ ending to this match. I almost forgot to even write this match down. I guess I shouldn’t grade it, eh?
My Grade: N/A
Eight Man Tag Team Elimination Match: The Radicalz vs. Billy Gunn, Chyna, Road Dogg, & K-Kwik (Survivor Series 2000)
The Radicalz reuinited to face a team that may as well have been called DX. Eddie didn’t play too much of a role here, despite having issues with two of the opposing team members. I believe Eddie was the second man eliminated from his team, although the match itself was probably the best of the night.
My Grade: C+
Six Person Intergender Elimination Match: Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko vs. Hardy Boyz & Lita (Armageddon 2000)
Eddie must have really felt important here. The first of his teammates eliminated, and by Lita no less. That still bothers me today. The match grade shall now suffer.
My Grade: C-
Intercontinental Title, Fatal Four-Way Match: Chris Jericho© vs. X-Pac vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (No Way Out 2001)
O’Dogg wrote about this in his Forgotten Goodness column a few months ago, and I agree completely. This was a fantastic match on a fantastic PPV. All three of the challengers had issues with Jericho, and Eddie and Benoit were starting to have issues as well. A great match with some great all around storytelling.
My Grade: A+
European Title Match: Test© vs. Eddie Guerrero (WrestleMania X-Seven)
Test is certainly no slouch, but I think it’s a testament to Eddie to have gotten this quality of match out of him. Especially considering Test got caught up in the ropes and we almost had a real trainwreck on our hands. Eddie once again won the European Title (thanks to a little help from his friends) and left the greatest PPV of all time victorious.
My Grade: B+
European Title, Triple Threat Match: Matt Hardy© vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge (Backlash 2000)
I hate to leave us on an indecisive note, but I have not seen this show, so I can’t comment. The booking still puzzles me, however.
My Grade: N/A
So there you have it, the first two years of Eddie’s WWE career. The Report Card will continue in two weeks as we look at Eddie’s work in 2002-2003. Feel free to send me your own thoughts!
A Reason For Bullet Points
Andy! Andy! At Last You Have Some Feedback!
Angelo Velotta’s Amalgam Backlash Report!
Backlash
The first match of tonights PPV is the Tag Team Iron Man Match. At ten minutes in Kendrick goes for this Special #2 finisher on Hernandez but Hernandez overpowers him and Border Tosses him for the pinfall. LAX 1-0. About five minutes later, Homicide hits the Gringo Killer on London for another pinfall victory. LAX 2-0. At the 25 minute mark London nails an impressive shooting star press on Hernandez for the pinfall making the score LAX 2-1. With about a minute to go London hits a corkscrew moonsault on Hernandez but he kicks out at 2. Kendrick hits his Special #2 on Homicide but for only 2. Kendrick goes up top and nails Homicide with a senton bomb for the pinfall tying the score at 2. Time runs out and we have sudden death. Konnan gets on the mic and wants sudden death to be no holds barred. London and Kendrick say fine. Konnan tosses two chairs into the ring and Hernandez and Homicide go to pick them up but Kendrick in the meantime gets Hernandez in a small package for the win!
Winners and still Tag Team Champions: London and Kendrick. After the match Konnan and Misterio enter the ring and the 4 members of LAX beat down on London and Kendrick.
The second match of the night is the X-Division Battle Royale featuring: Jay Lethal, Chris Sabin, Petey Williams, Jeff Hardy, RVD, Rey Misterio, Matt Hardy, Christopher Daniels, Alex Shelley and Super Crazy.
Petey Williams tosses out Lethal.
Misterio tosses out Super Crazy.
Shelley tosses out Matt Hardy.
RVD tosses out Jeff Hardy.
Sabin tosses out Petey Williams.
Daniels tosses out Misterio.
RVD tosses out Daniels.
Shelley and Sabin toss out RVD.
Johnny Devine comes out to ringside and distracts Sabin allowing Shelley to eliminate Sabin and win.
Winner: Alex Shelley
Johnny Devine brings out Nash and A1 who are all taking pictures of the victorious Shelley when they are blindsided by Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury with Melina. All of them brawl to the back.
The third match of the night is HHH vs Matt Bentley. HHH wins after hitting the pedigree. He goes to get his sledge and beats up on Bentley more. He calls out his DX now. The James Gang come out and HHH pedigrees both of them! HHH says it’s time for him to quit playing games and for people to start playing his.
A promo is cut for a returning Carlito. He says that him not being included as much of late is not cool. He talks about being robbed in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match. He is then attacked from behind by Christian with a chair. Christian knocks him down again and then sets up another chair and hits the Conchairto. Christian gets on the mic and talks about being robbed his whole life of his primetime. He whines and complains for a minute until Ken Kennedy shows up from behind and knocks him down with a dropkick. Kennedy takes the mic and says people have been forgetting his name as of late and he needs to change that fast. He wants to be main eventing every Raw and PPV for the next decade. Out of nowhere comes Randy Orton who RKO’s Kennedy down. Orton gets on the mic and says that if everyone wants to sit around and complain that’s fine. Or they could do something about it. He offers Christian, Carlito and Ken Kennedy a shot at his Money in the Bank Briefcase tomorrow night on Raw in a Fatal 4-Way.
The fourth match of the night is Rhino vs. Big Show in an Extreme Rules Match. Big Show chokeslams Rhino through a table but Rhino kicks out at 2. Later in the match Rhino hits a Gore on Big Show off the top rope! Rhino goes outside and brings in another table. He sets this table on fire! Rhino gets set up to suplex Show through the burning table when out of nowhere Paul Heyman comes out and lowblows Rhino. Show then goes to chokeslam Rhino through the burning table but Sabu comes out and kicks a chair into the head of Show. Paul Heyman looks to the back and out comes….Jeff Jarrett? Jarrett comes out and looks at Rhino. Jarrett sets up The Stroke on Rhino through the table with the fans booing crazily. Jarrett sets Rhino down. Jarrett gets Heyman in The Stroke through the burning table! Holy shit chants arise with fans cheering Jarrett. Big Show gets up and Rhino gores Big Show again getting the victory.
Winner: Rhino
The next match is the Dual Ladder Match between CM Punk, Kurt Angle and Gregory Helms. At the end of the match Angle and Punk are climbing up the ladder for Angle’s gold medals. Angle, Angle Slams Punk off the ladder and over the top rope and then grabs his medals and falls to mat lying their in his victory. With both of them out Helms easily climbs up and grabs the X-Title to retain.
Winners: Helms (X-Title) Angle (Medals)
The next match is between Taker and Joe in a Last Man Standing. At the end of the match Taker hits a Tombstone piledriver. Joe sits up at 7. Taker then hits the Last Ride. Joe sits up at 8. Taker goes for a chokeslam but Joe backs his way out and pushes Taker into the corner. Joe hits a HUGE Muscle Buster, but Taker eerily sits up at 9. Joe goes up to the top and hits a flying roundhouse kick on Taker and Taker sits up a 8. They get up and stare at each other. Joe hits a vicious running knee and an exploder suplex that keeps Taker down to 9. Joe goes outside and brings in a chair. Taker goes outside and brings in a chair too. Joe hits a running knee with the chair into Taker’s chair into Taker’s face for the victory.
Winner: Samoa Joe
The main event is between AJ Styles and John Cena for the World Title. Cena hits the 5 Knuckle Shuffle and then an FU on Styles for a 2 count. Cena goes to lock in the STFU but Styles makes it to the ropes. Styles hits a desperation springboard moonsault then hits a pelee for 2. Styles gets ready to hit the Styles Clash but Cena reverses it and hits another FU for the win.
Winner and still World Champion: John Cena
Steve takes issue with my comments about Cincinnati:
Andy,
As a longtime wrestling fan who was in attendance at Cyber Sunday, I’m sorry the show came off the way it did, but the crowd was pretty hot for most of the show. There may have been a few idiots yelling and booing as you suggested but the mainstream definitely was not. The crowd, from where I was, was very into the Hardy/Carlito match. It even seemed somewhat like an ROH crowd in the fact that the crowd was split and vocal. And for the main event, the crowd was HOT for Cena. he was getting cheered for the entire match, and there was BY FAR the least amount of booing for him that I have heard in a long, long time. The only match the crowd basically turned on was the Women’s Match, because well, it wasn’t very good.
So, if it came off as that way on TV, it wasn’t how it really was, so you can back off your so-called assessment of the city of Cincinnati. And when you can’t even spell the name of the city correctly in your column, you’re the one who looks like an idiot.
Steve – Dayton, OH, originally from Cincinnati
Steve, I appreciate your thoughts. You are right to assume that I looked like an idiot in spelling Cincinnati wrong. In fact, I have been spelling it wrong for a good many years, so you got me. You are also right in criticizing my comments on the crowd reaction. I wrote that after one viewing of the show, and quite frankly upon second viewing, I don’t know what I was thinking. The crowd was quite vocal for the main event, and even cheered Cena rather loudly. As for my comments about Cincinnati as a whole, the weren’t really meant as personal, as I have been to Cincinnati before and enjoyed it quite a bit. However, as a hardcore Pittsburgh Steelers fan, it is only natural for me to take a shot at the city that rejoiced in Big Ben’s motorcycle crash. I’m sure you understand.
500 Good Words w/ Andy Critchell
A Heel Turn for Batista?
On last week’s “500 Good Words”, I mentioned that we may be headed for a Batista heel turn what with his protection of Booker on two Fridays ago and his feud with tweener Finlay. By no means is this something bound to happen, but Batista has been kind of “blah” since his return and a heel turn may just freshen him up. I posed the question of a heel turn to my readers as well as the 411 forum and below are some of the responses I got. On with the show…
Andy Clark had this to say:
“A heel turn could work due to the fact that SmackDown is kind of thin with credible heels and a potential match up with Lashley or Undertaker could be money.
He had the Eddie Guererro summer ’05 heel look on Friday. Either that or he’s trying to be Ryan Atwood.”
Big Dave is indeed rocking the stubble and we all know that bad guys just don’t have the time to shave!
Landshark had these comments:
“A heel turn would be the BEST thing for Batista at the moment. He would be much much more interesting like that. Big powerhouse heels(not counting the big show, he’s a different story) are a lost art in the WWE. He can say that since he’s come back, he’s lost the fans support. It took him awhile to realize this but he fans have been holding him back to his true cause, the World Heavyweight Title. He can say it’s because of the fans that he’s been screwed time and time again and that he WILL take his title back. Then someone like Beniot or Lashley can come out and oppose him, and there you go, a nice interesting feud. Batista can sneak attack them backstage and do a REALLLY nice beat down that leaves them bloodied up. I believe Batista is VERY capable of that and due to his size it would look very believable.
As a Face, he’s not interesting anymore. He was before he lost the title, but now he’s a shell of his former self as a face. He’s never really been a heel except in evolution(doesn’t really count).”
Newbie Olympic Hero (Kurt?) threw this in:
“If he does turn heel he needs to improve in the ring. He just doesn’t look as devastating as he used to. His punched are terrible and he doesn’t use his size.”
Northsiderep disagrees:
“Now is not the time for a Batista heel turn. He has just started to get his fire back and is becoming more credible as the # 1 face every week.”
Mr. Darkness sees an alliance:
“Goatees = Evil. I think it’s about time Batista turns and becomes badass again and become another knight in King BooKAH’s court!”
All hail King Booker!!
DaveJuk is having déjà vu:
“Brock Lesnar was badass as a heel but was a laughable face because his entire look points towards him being a heel.
Batista is the same. He should just do whatever it takes to win. I am thinking he needs to attack the ref’s when they try and count him out or DQ him etc and use his size more.”
Jordan Williams chimes in with a plan:
“If they turn him heel they should just stick with the complete simple gimmick of Monster heel. They have all of this talk of Batista being the monster. Just let him pull an Umaga and come out and Batista Bomb someone every night, interrupt matches, cause a ton of DQs, otherwise become a “Damn Bully” and then have some plucky face try to stand up to him (Benoit) and then just let the feud go on from there.”
So there we go, it seems that the majority of people would like to see Batista be a heel. Needless to say, I could definitely go along with that, as long as they use Batista’s natural size and aggressive attitude to really start laying people out. At one time, Batista was just as popular as John Cena, if not more so. Big Dave definitely has “it” but he does need a little help to get back to being the ass kicking bad ass we all know and love. Here’s hoping that he comes back big and bad. If you have anything else you would like to add on this subject, feel free to email me at [email protected]
Until next time…
The Shimmy Likes It Raw!
What’s on tap for tonight?
Well that does it for this week. Next week we’ll actually take a break from the Eddie Guerrero Report Card as I look at the History of the Survivor Series Screwjob, from 1997 until today. Have a nice week everyone. Viva la raza! Clark…out.
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