WWE: Viva La Raza – The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero – Disc Three
Released: 11/11/2008

This one’s for you, TPWW’s Mr. Slackalack!

Rey Mysterio – True Champion: Eddie enjoyed every single moment of being champion and he was always doing something that made him a true champion. He wishes Eddie was still here.

• WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio – (WWE Smackdown! – 3/18/2004)
  

This is the Smackdown after WrestleMania 20 where Eddie had an amazing match with Kurt Angle. Now he’s here to defend the title again. They shake hands at the bell. Rey shows signs of an arm injury towards the beginning after he snaps off an armdrag on Eddie. Eddie doesn’t go after it though and controls with a headlock. Mysterio escapes and gets a few nearfalls with ranas. A tilt-a-whirl headscissors puts on Eddie on the floor. Inside the ring, Mysterio makes the universal “I want the belt” sign. That doesn’t bode well with Eddie, so he hops back in the ring and shoves him back. Rey gives him a slap and goes for a wheelbarrow bulldog, but Eddie shoves him off into the corner and goes after the arm with hammerlocks and armbars. Rey finally gets away from him with a flying mare and a monkey flip. He dumps Eddie on the floor where Rey gives him a Top Rope Asai Moonsault. After the commercial break, we come back to see Eddie giving Rey a superplex. Eddie delivers the always sick tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to Rey for 1-2-NO! Eddie’s getting frustrated and applies a hammerlock lift where he hoists Rey up on his shoulders like he was going for Splash Mountain. Pretty cool hold that I’m sure somebody does and has a name for it. Mysterio winds up flipping out of it into a small package for two. Eddie doesn’t let up on the arm and gives Rey a keylock bridge. I believe George Hackenschmidt would be proud of this match. If only it had some bearhugs. Mysterio tries the springboard moonsault DDT we saw at Halloween Havoc 1997, but it fails as he crashes on top of Eddie. After a Springboard Seated Senton, Rey goes for a standard moonsault DDT. Eddie catches him, but Mysterio manages a swinging DDT anyway for 1-2-NO! Eddie goes for the Three Amigos, but Mysterio slips out of the third one into a neat rollup for 1-2-NO! Eddie delivers the third suplex anyway and heads up for the FROG SPLASH, but misses. That leads to the 6-1-9! Here comes the Springboard Legdrop, but Eddie moves out of the way and a modified La Magistral cradle gets the win. (13:38) Much different than their previous matches. I liked the story with Eddie getting more ticked than usual that his friend would actually come right out and say that he wants his belt. I mean, what did Eddie expect? Anyways, good stuff as always. ***¾

JBL – Heated Rivalry: Because JBL was so hated by the Latino market, he had to be escorted by the police all the way from El Paso to Odessa, which is a lot farther than you think. Traveling from town to town always is in Texas.

• WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL – (WWE Judgment Day – 5/16/2004)
  

JBL would say just about anything to get heat, as he cuts an anti-Latino promo filled with stereotypes. Eddie controls the brawl to start by beating JBL all around ringside. Once the ref gets in Eddie’s way, JBL starts to leave. Eddie stops him and brings him back into the ring. Back to the floor, JBL reverses a whip into the steel steps and takes over and slams Eddie’s face onto the SAT. Back in, Eddie fires back, but runs into a boot. Headlock on the mat by JBL. Eddie finally escapes with an armdrag that puts JBL on the floor. He follows him out with a pescado, but JBL catches him in mid-air for a Fallaway Slam on the floor! Eddie unloads again on JBL, but takes a backdrop on the SAT. That poor Spanish announce table. They make it back in the ring just in time as JBL delivers a swinging neckbreaker for two. Eddie wins a slugfest, but charges into a weird backdrop as he lands on his stomach. JBL grabs a bearhug. Eddie fights out of that and slowly goes for the Three Amigos, but JBL knees out of the third one. Eddie ducks a CLOTHESLINE FROM HELL and then punches out of a Powerbomb. He goes to run off the ropes, but ends up running ref Brian “So what if my dad sells WWE t-shirts out of his car.” Hebner over by accident. JBL gets dumped on the floor and sent flying over Cole and Tazz’s announce table so Eddie can check on the ref. When Eddie goes back over to pound on JBL, he receives the chairshot and the bladejob of a lifetime. We’re talking Muta/Hase stuff here, folks. The Muta Scale is BACK! With the ref still down, JBL pounds away on Eddie and hits him in the head with the steps. In the ring, the CLOTHESLINE FROM HELL connects. Hebner is still down though, as ref Charles Robinson runs in and counts 1-2-NO! Eddie moves once JBL comes off the ropes and now Robinson is wiped out. Powerbomb by JBL! He covers as Hebner finally wakes up and counts 1-2-NO! Now JBL grabs a sleeper with a bunch of Eddie’s blood pouring all over JBL. Eddie escapes with a back suplex and starts to NO-SELL JBL’s blows. He fires away on JBL and just when it looks like he’s lost his steam when JBL catches him off a crossbody to go for the Fallaway Slam, Eddie counters into a DDT. Guerrero goes to the top to hopefully finish JBL off with the FROG SPLASH, but JBL moves out of the way. JBL grabs the chair and the WWE title. Hebner sees the chair first and takes that away from him, which leaves JBL an opportunity to bash Eddie with the belt. Eddie sees it coming and kicks JBL in the balls and nails JBL with the belt instead. Too bad Hebner sees that and calls for the bell to award JBL the match by DQ. (23:11) Afterwards, Eddie continues to beat the crap out of JBL, including a couple vicious chairshots of his own to bust JBL open from ear to ear and a Frog Splash. A little too much reliance on the restholds in the middle, but the rest of it was one crazy brawl, which is something you don’t expect from Eddie Guerrero. I remember this match getting a lot of heat at the time mostly because JBL was merely Bradshaw only a few months before still doing the APA tag team. People were calling it a MOTYC and others couldn’t care less for it. I liked it and I think it’s easier to like it even more now that JBL’s a character we all know and can appreciate a little more than we could maybe in its infancy. JBL would go on to beat Eddie for the WWE championship in June at the Great American Bash in a strap match. If I remember correctly, the finish was very similar if not exactly the same as the Sting/Vader strap match at Superbrawl III. ***¼

JBL – Wrestling A Live Wire: Wrestling Eddie Guerrero fulfills the fantasy of having a great match. After wrestling some of the top Mexican superstars of the last 25 years, he calls Eddie the best Mexican wrestler of them all.

• WWE Champion JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero – Cage Match – (WWE Smackdown! – 7/15/2004)
  

This is the rubber match to close out the feud. JBL blocks a couple cage shots and instead gets leveled with a back suplex. Eddie ducks a big boot, but can’t avoid being sent head-first into the cage. JBL’s already had enough and starts to climb out. Eddie pulls him back in, but runs into a fallaway slam. JBL climbs up the cage again, but no way is Eddie done just yet. They slug it out on the top rope until Eddie smashes JBL’s face into the top of the cage, sending him crashing to the mat. The crowd wants to see a FROG SPLASH, but JBL moves out of harm’s way. JBL tries another climb, but Eddie crotches him on the top rope for two. Cole ~ “JBL just managed to kick the shoulder out.” Three Amigos! JBL meets Eddie on the top for a superplex. Commercial break! We’re back and JBL is in control. Eddie cuts off a CLOTHESLINE FROM HELL with a dropkick. Then Eddie kicks JBL square in the balls for 1-2-NO! JBL slows Eddie down with a spinebuster for two. Eddie then prevents JBL from climbing out the cage with a Russian legsweep from the top rope. Eddie breaks loose from a sleeper by sending JBL crashing face-first through the ropes into the cage. Eddie sends JBL again into the cage. That gets two. They trade blows, leading to a CLOTHESLINE FROM HELL! Cover, 1-2-NO! We break for commercials one last time. After the break, JBL wants to fallaway slam Eddie into the cage like he was an Irish bastard midget or something, but Eddie counters with a DDT! Eddie starts to climb and hangs from the top of the cage rim, but JBL pulls him back in just in time. Jackknife Powerbomb follows. That gets two and JBL can’t freakin’ believe it. They both fight on the top turnbuckle for a bit. Eddie kicks JBL down to the mat – making it easy for him to just climb out and win the belt. Instead of climbing out like a normal person, Eddie turns around and sees JBL lying there set in perfect position for a FROG SPLASH OFF THE CAGE! Awesome. Jimmy Snuka would be proud. The impact hurts Eddie as well and takes him a while to cover, so he only gets two. The crowd starts to boo. Both guys now climb up to the rim of the cage. They start to trade blows as Eddie’s so-called buddy the El Gran Luchadore climbs into the cage and grabs hold of Eddie’s legs so that JBL can climb down to the floor and retain his title. (21:10 shown) This had an old school Muraco/Snuka feel to it with the one high spot which will be the only thing people will probably remember from the match. Otherwise though, a very good brawl. El Gran Luchadore turns out to be the then-current Smackdown GM Kurt Angle – leading to Angle being fired as GM and Angle/Guerrero II at SummerSlam. ***½

Michael Cole – Entertaining: They show a bunch of clips of Eddie’s lyin’, cheatin’, stealin’ ways. Michael Cole talks a lot about Eddie’s smile. Kind of weird. He calls Eddie auctioning off Kurt Angle’s stuff as one of the top ten Smackdown segments of all-time. Yeah, lots of Eddie smiles in that one, huh Michael?

• Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle – (WWE Smackdown! – 4/14/2005)
  

This match was a part of a series of matches to determine the #1 contender to Cena’s newly won WWE championship which also included JBL, Big Show and Booker T. At the time, Eddie and Rey were tag champs who were having some little issues. As a matter of fact, MNM debuted on this very episode and already made a challenge to them for next week’s show where they would win the tag belts. Anyhoo, onto the match. They trade armholds to start. To tell you who gets the better of the exchange, Angle has to take a powder on the floor. Eddie escapes a headlock so he can go back to working an armbar. Eddie blocks a German suplex and goes for the Three Amigos. He goes for the kill with the FROG SPLASH. When he sees Angle rolling away to the floor, Eddie rolls through on the mat as we go to break. We come back to see Angle in total charge of Eddie with forearms. Angle gets the Belly-to-Belly Suplex and goes for the ANGLE SLAM, but Eddie slips out and takes Angle over with a headscissors. That gets two as Eddie lands on the ref from the kick out. Eddie goes out and grabs a chair. He and Angle play hot potato with it while until Angle has enough of that and tosses the chair aside. What sucks for him is Eddie’s down on the mat telling the ref that Angle hit him with a chair. Angle denies hitting Eddie, but the ref doesn’t believe a word he says. Eddie sneaks over and rolls Angle up for 1-2-NO! Hmm, and all is forgotten about the chair. Angle slows Eddie down with a release German suplex and grabs a body scissors down on the mat. Eddie elbows out, but misses a corner charge and takes another release German suplex for 1-2-NO! Super Angle Slam gets shoved off. Angle still manages to lift up his knees to block the Frog Splash. That gets two as we go to another commercial break. And we’re back. Angle has hold of Guerrero with a reverse bearhug. He tries for another Angle Slam, but Eddie counters with a DDT! Eddie wins a slugfest and tries the Three Amigos again, but Angle slips out of the third one and finally gets the ANGLE SLAM! Cover, 1-2-NO! Down come the straps. It’s business time. Eddie pulls Angle in for a small package for 1-2-NO! Another rollup gets two. Now Angle gives Guerrero the Rolling Germans no matter how hard Eddie struggles to stop it. Cover, 1-2-NO! Eddie counters another Angle Slam into an armdrag and gets those Three Amigos after all. FROG SPLASH! Cover, 1-2-NO! Nobody can believe it. Eddie kicks off an ANKLELOCK and pulls Angle’s tights down when he tries a sunset flip. Angle charges into a small package for 1-2-NO! ANKLELOCK is on for real this time. That is until Eddie rolls Angle off into ref Jimmy Koderas, knocking him to the floor. With the ref now down, Angle brings a chair into the ring. Rey Mysterio saves and clears Angle of the ring with chair in-hand. Eddie turns around and thinks Mysterio’s going to nail him, but he has no intention of doing that. With Rey holding the chair up, Angle runs Mysterio into Eddie, causing Eddie to eat the chair. Angle gets rid of the evidence while the ref hops back in the ring and counts 1-2-3. (19:31 shown) Fantastic TV match from two guys who never had a bad match. ****

Rey Mysterio: Born with Charisma: Eddie was born to do what he accomplished in life. Whenever they wrestled, it was magic. More of the same comments from Rey.

• Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio – Cage Match – (WWE Smackdown! – 9/9/2005)
  

We’ve got a Palmer Cannon sighting! You remember him, right? The guy from “The Network” which was a parody of a UPN executive. Anyways, he’s hanging out with Smackdown GM Teddy Long up in the skybox. What started out as a great rivalry, became a custody battle over Rey Mysterio’s child that would be settled in a ladder match. Whoever was booking in the first half of 2005 did a great job, but the second half sucked for the most part – especially this feud in particular. Right now though, Mysterio is 7-0 against Eddie Guerrero in 2005. Big brawl to start until Eddie smashes Rey’s face into the cage. Eddie lifts Rey up in a powerbomb position and leans back as Rey gets his face slammed on the steel. Rey comes back by springing off the ropes into an armdrag and a monkey flip. He sets up Eddie for the 6-1-9, but you can’t do that in a cage! Rey dropkicks him from the side anyway for two. Eddie stops Rey from climbing out, but takes a sunset flip powerbomb from the top rope. That gets two. Rey starts another climb, but Eddie wrenches his knee in the ropes as he brings him down. After the break, Rey stops Eddie from climbing out. With both guys on the top rope, Eddie delivers a Russian legsweep to Rey. Now Mysterio charges Eddie and gets launched onto the top rope to make for an easy escape. They fight to the top of the cage! Both guys tease a fall to the floor. They both head back inside the cage where Rey dropkicks Eddie off the top rope. They fight to their feet as Eddie blasts Rey with a DDT. Rey pulls Eddie back in to prevent him from walking out the cage door for a wheelbarrow bulldog. Once again, they fight to the top rope where Mysterio headscissors Eddie down and hurting his knee pretty badly this time. Even with a hurt knee, Mysterio climbs to the top of the cage, sees an opening for a highlight reel moment with a flying bodypress, and completely whiffs it. Eddie thinks about just walking out the door and down the steps, but comes back in and puts Mysterio away with the FROG SPLASH. (11:07 shown) A feud like this doesn’t really work inside of a cage. Mysterio needs the ability to fly and he’s not big enough to make the cage spots look as good as they would with somebody bigger. Since they can’t do blood on free TV and Rey’s wearing a mask, there wasn’t really too much they could together but do more of what they had already been doing all year, except with the disadvantages of being inside a cage. That really keeps it from being a classic. **¾

Batista – Losing A Friend: Eddie never once made Batista feel inferior to him. He appreciated Eddie showing him the ropes. They were actually in the same hotel that Eddie died in. Batista’s wife let him know what happened. Much like Edge said at the Benoit tribute show, Eddie Guerrero was one of the few guys he could go to if he needed to talk.

• World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Eddie Guerrero – (WWE No Mercy – 10/9/2005)
  

No one can say Eddie didn’t go out on top by getting a PPV main event title shot as his last PPV match of his life. This is during the period where Eddie Guerrero was blurring the lines of being face and heel in their attempt to turn him face again. Eddie tries to ground Batista to work him over on the mat. When that doesn’t work, they get into a test of strength where Eddie gets backed up into the corner only to be slammed to the canvas, so Eddie takes a breather on the floor. Back in, Batista grabs a headlock. Eddie finally breaks free, but runs into a shoulderblock and a slam to put him back on the floor. Eddie picks up a chair and instead of reacting immediately, he thinks it over and puts the chair down. Batista doesn’t like what he sees and grabs Eddie through the ropes by the throat. Eddie snaps Batista’s neck on the top rope and delivers a FROG SPLASH to the lower back. Cover, 1-2-NO! With Batista now down on the mat, Eddie’s able to grind the injured back with his knee while he pulls back on a chinlock. Batista winds up getting to his feet with Guerrero on his back and squashes Eddie in the corner, but then Eddie pops up and dropkicks Batista in the lower back to set up a half crab. Batista makes the ropes. Eddie unties a tag rope as he tempted to possibly choke Batista with it, but thinks better of it and throws it aside. Instead, he hooks on a chinlock/body scissors on the mat. Batista ends up twisting around inside Eddie’s legs (that’s what she said) and stands up into a bearhug position. Eddie ear claps out and catches an angry charging Batista with a drop toehold. He wants a Texas cloverleaf, but Batista’s legs are just too dang big. Batista counters into a small package for 1-2-NO! Eddie trips himself up after a floatover out of the corner into ref Nick Patrick. Eddie DDT’s Batista and with the ref down, he goes to the floor and brings a chair into the ring. Again, Eddie gets into a moral struggle with himself and decides against blasting Batista with the chair. Doesn’t matter to Batista, he’s still pissed about it. Batista delivers the shoulders to the gut in the corner, followed by a running clothesline. Spear to Eddie! Batista shakes the ropes for the DEMON BOMB, but Eddie sunset flips over. Batista’s lower back is killing him though, so there’s not much he can do but lift Eddie to his feet for a Spinebuster. Slow cover though only gets two. Elbow drop hits knees, allowing Eddie to deliver the Three Amigos to lead into the FROG SPLASH! Batista moves and Eddie rolls through, but charges into a Spinebuster that gets three. (18:42) A little slow for my tastes, but a brilliant performance from Eddie made this one memorable. Eddie sticks out his hand for a shake and Batista cautiously obliges. ***¼

Special Features

Chris Jericho Meets Eddie for the First Time: When Jericho was working for CMLL and Eddie for AAA down in Mexico City, they were staying the same hotel so Jericho went to meet him in his room after he had had one too many cocktails. Even though Jericho had heard about what a nice guy Eddie was, Eddie was pretty rude to him pretty much told him off. The next day at breakfast, Eddie approached him and apologized for whatever it was he said to him and they became friends after that conversation until the day Eddie passed away.

• Eddie Guerrero vs. Mr. Kennedy – (WWE Smackdown! – 11/11/2005) Eddie’s Final Match
  

After the great Eddie/Rey feud that turned horribly bad by SummerSlam with the Dominic custody battle and then the building of the friendship with Batista, Eddie was finally turning around and coming back to being the lovable “lyin’, cheatin’ and stealin'” lovable babyface that everyone had been missing. This was the last match of Eddie Guerrero’s life. Maybe it’s just because I know that it is his last match, but it sounds like the crowd is cheering just a little bit louder for him tonight. Even Cole notices it. Winner of this match joins the Smackdown team against Raw at Survivor Series. Basic stuff to start. Kennedy then fakes a handshake and smacks Eddie across the face. Eddie laughs it off and then pokes Kennedy in the eye. His ‘Latino Heat’ acts up – causing him to go nuts on Kennedy in the corner. Kennedy yanks Eddie into the corner and hits the Running Face Wash. That gets two. Eddie delivers a back suplex to escape a hammerlock and connects with a pair of clotheslines. Three Amigos! Kennedy flips out of the third suplex and the ref gets bumped. Eddie smirks because it’s cheatin’ time! He grabs a chair and when he notices the ref is about to get back on his feet, he smacks the chair against the mat, tosses it to Kennedy, and sprawls out on the mat. The ref heard the noise and sees the evidence in Kennedy’s hands, so he DQ’s him to give Eddie the win! (5:01) Apparently the unwritten rule that says “the ref can only call what he sees” is thrown out of the unwritten rulebook. Since he’s blamed for what happened anyway, Kennedy goes ahead and WHACKS Eddie with the chair for real. While his life was truly cut short, I think this was a great way for Eddie to go out.**¼

Final Thoughts: A great addition to the first Eddie Guerrero DVD that was released in 2004. He deserved another set and even after three discs, there’s some great matches that were overlooked and not included for whatever reason. In any case, it’s a definite buy for Eddie fans. This set gets an easy thumbs up from me.