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THE BEST OF WWE: The Best of Eddie Guerrero

• ECW World Television Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Dean Malenko – (ECW Hostile City Showdown, 4/15/95)

While these two had wrestled in Japan, I believe this is the first time they had met on US soil. Great armlock exchange to start. They trade boot scrapes across the face. When it’s Eddie returning the favor, Dean hits the floor. A heavily choreographed segment brings the crowd to their feet for a standing ovation. It ends with both guys taking turns with a headscissors and delivering dropkicks at the same time. Eddie takes Dean to the mat with a cross armbreaker. Apparently part of the crowd is chanting “boring” while the other side in front of the hard camera is chanting “throw him out”. Just another day in ECW. Meanwhile, Eddie and Dean are bridging over knucklelocks. Eddie hits a Uranage out of that and a Hilo gets two. Dean backs Eddie into the corner to escape a chinlock and delivers a double-arm suplex. Malenko dropkicks the knee and stays on that like a shark that smells blood and any other wrestling cliché you can come up with on your own! Malenko applies this crazy hold with an Indian deathlock and then pulls back on the arms like you would for a surfboard! He rolls Eddie over into a pinning combination for a few nearfalls. How you going to lift your shoulders off the mat in that kind of hold? Dean takes Eddie to school and then posts the knee a few times. Back in, Dean grapevines the leg a bunch with Eddie fighting for his life. He does a great job of making Dean’s offense believable and something to be feared. Eddie gets a temporary break with a snap suplex. Powerbomb and the Tornado DDT gives Eddie a pair of nearfalls. Eddie hits the Hurracanrana out of the corner, but slams his knee on the way down. Slow cover gets two. Eddie tries what Dean did with the Indian deathlock into a surfboard, but can’t get him up and grabs an STF instead. They brawl out to the floor where Eddie gets flipped over the top rope into the guardrail. Eddie needs to suplex Dean into the ring, but Dean counters with a suplex of his own to bring Eddie down on the concrete, which does more damage to the knee! Guerrero sidesteps a pescado, causing Dean to jam his knee. Eddie climbs up top and splashes Malenko. Back in, Malenko has the advantage with a Brainbuster. Eddie blocks another one and gives Dean a Brainbuster this time. FROG SPLASH! Cover, 1-2-NO! Eddie misses a corner charge and takes a Northern Lights suplex for two. Malenko makes several attempts for the Texas Cloverleaf, but Eddie fears it like the plaque and thwarts them all by lunging for the ropes. Eddie turns the final counter into a small package for 1-2-NO! Eddie clasps onto Malenko’s hand and springs off the ropes with a hurracanrana for 1-2-NO! Pumphandle backbreaker gets two. Eddie applies the Gory Special into a pinning predicament that leads to a rollup sequence. STANDING OVATION! Eddie gets caught up on top for a possible Super Electric Chair Drop, but Eddie counters it into a sunset flip powerbomb! Unbelievable! That gets two. As both men get to their feet, the bell rings because have reached the 30-minute time limit. (25:54) That’s how long the match went in real time. Wrestling time is usually a little faster for some reason. One of the greatest matches in ECW history and a definite MOTYC in 1995. These two would continue to have a stellar series of matches throughout the summer of ’95 that maintained a level of consistent greatness every time they went out there. ****½

• Ladder Match for the WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Syxx – (nWo Souled Out 1997)

Syxx stole Eddie’s US title belt to set this match up. The belt just hangs from a meat hook, which is kind of cool. Syxx nails Eddie with a series of KA-RA-TE punches and a spin kick. Eddie comes back with a tilt-a-whirl headscissors and sends Syxx to the floor after a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Guerrero wipes out Syxx with his signature dive from the top. PEEP HOLE CAM? That’s different. Back in, Syxx shoves Eddie off a hurracanrana attempt in the corner, who does a back flip onto his feet, and comes off the second rope with a spinning heel kick. Syxx hits the Bronco Buster, but Eddie flips out of a backdrop and dropkicks Syxx to the floor. Syxx counters a suplex off the apron and brings Eddie down hard to the floor. Syxx finds the ladder and slams it into Eddie up against the apron. They get into a tug-of-war over the ladder, which Eddie manages to hotshot the ladder up into Syxx’s face! In the ring, Guerrero smashes the ladder down on Syxx and leans it up in the corner, but Syxx counters the corner whip and Eddie eats the ladder. Syxx stomps the ladder on Eddie and gives him a lift into the air to come crashing down onto the ladder. Syxx tries a possible legdrop off the ladder, but Eddie meets him at the top. Syxx jabs Eddie in the balls through one of the rungs and shoves Eddie down to ride the ladder down on top of him like Shawn Michaels did many years ago (which Eric & Ted translate as Scott Hall teaching Syxx the move). It doesn’t work though as Syxx takes too much time and dropkicks the ladder to crotch Syxx on the top rope. Eddie brings Syxx down with a superplex and sets up the ladder. Syxx does a nasty dropkick off the ladder on Eddie to send them both crashing to the mat. Back up the ladder, Syxx punches Eddie down into the ropes as he bounces back and knocks the ladder over. One more climb up and they both get a hold of the belt. Eddie manages to smash the belt back in Syxx’s face. Whoops, Eddie drops the belt as Syxx falls to the mat, so he climbs down and picks it up for the win. (13:49) Even if you look at prior examples such as the two storytelling HBK/Razor ladder masterpieces and all the stuff WWE has done since this match over the last ten years, this could hardly hold up to the test of time. Also, it’s another reason as to why WCW didn’t do more ladder matches – without blatantly ripping off Shawn Michaels or Razor Ramon, they couldn’t put too many ladder matches together that anyone would care about. ***

• No-DQ Match: Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge – (WWE Smackdown, 9/26/02)

The Eddie/Edge feud just kept getting better and better with matches at SummerSlam and Unforgiven, but here they had the ultimate opportunity to outshine those two other great matches. I remember this being one of the all-time best episodes of Smackdown too. Not only did it have this match, but also the Benoit/Angle/Rey triple-threat match in the main event. Edge monkey flips Eddie, but gets backed into the corner as Eddie takes over. Eddie uses the ropes to cover Edge after a hotshot. He can, because it’s NO HOLDS BARRED! Eddie enziguris out of an armbar and hits a suplex for two. Edge elbows out of a chinlock and hits a powerslam. Eddie meets him at the top and gives him a superplex! Slow cover, 1-2-NO! Eddie tries to rana Edge, but he’s caught up on his shoulders and dropped down throat-first on the ropes. Clothesline puts Eddie out on the floor. Edge follows him out and whips out a ladder from underneath the ring. This is NO HOLDS BARRED! He tries to ram Eddie with it, but Eddie ducks and the ref gets creamed. That’s what the ref gets for being out on the floor. Eddie grabs a chair and smacks Edge in the back with it. Back in, he brings the chair with him to beat on Edge’s ribs. Eddie’s feelin’ froggy, but Edge moves out of the way as we go to commercial. During the break, Edge got a nearfall after a spear as a new ref ran down to count. After the break, Eddie controls with a sleeper. Edge breaks loose and hits a half-nelson bulldog for two. Edge heads up to the middle rope, but Eddie ranas him down for two. Eddie walks the ropes and tries to spring off for another rana, but Edge counters with a powerbomb. Edge brings the ladder into the ring and Eddie dropkicks it back in his face. Now Eddie brings a second ladder into the ring and ladder sandwiches Edge for a Hilo! Both guys obviously hurting – Eddie takes too long to cover and only gets two. Eddie sets up a ladder in the corner and looks to FROG SPLASH Edge off it, but Edge meets him at the top. Eddie starts slamming Edge’s face into the top of ladder and then delivers a SUNSET FLIP POWERBOMB! Another slow cover gets 1-2-NO! Eddie props Edge onto the ladder in the corner and charges, but Edge backdrops him into the ladder! Edge sets up the other ladder in the corner and climbs up, but Eddie meets him at the top again. Edge slugs at Eddie and slams his face on the top of the ladder before giving Eddie an EDGECUTION OFF THE LADDER! Cover, 1-2-3! (16:44) Holy crap. How can you not love this match? ****¼

• WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Eddie Guerrero – (WWE No Way Out 2004)

Eddie won a 15-man Royal Rumble match on Smackdown a few weeks prior to set up this match. Champ enters first, because San Francisco LOVES them some Eddie Guerrero. Lesnar overpowers Eddie and yells “You ain’t nothing, Eddie!” I’m only guessing the University of Minnesota doesn’t have a strong English program. Brock’s mind games doesn’t seem to bother Eddie, so Lesnar takes action and kicks him down in the corner. The “Eddie” chants get him going for a moment, but Lesnar buries a knee and takes back control. Brock runs into a boot in the corner and Eddie tries a rana, but Brock catches him for a modified giant swing. Lesnar delivers a pair of Release Belly-to-Belly Suplexes and hits Eddie with a running knee in the corner. Cole and Tazz have already given up on Eddie five minutes into this thing. Another Release Belly-to-Belly Suplex puts Eddie out on the floor to gain a breather. Brock keeps knocking Eddie off the apron until Eddie goes low and hotshots him so he can wrap Lesnar’s leg around the post. Eddie breaks the count, but rolls back out and gets yanked into the ringpost. Back in, a delayed fisherman buster gets 1-2-NO! Brock grabs a rear naked choke + body scissors. Eddie manages to jawbreaker out and then slips out of a guerilla press to dropkick Brock in the knee. Oh! Just like that, Brock drills Eddie with a clothesline. Lesnar hits a release German and goes to work on the mid-section in the corner. Lesnar goes for another running knee in the corner, but this time Eddie moves out of the way! That causes Lesnar to go flying out to the floor! Eddie uses almost all of his energy for a pescado on Brock. Both guys barely make it back in at the nine-count. Eddie kicks away at the knee and then delivers a back suplex. Eddie charges at Brock, but gets launched into the air for a hotshot. Slow cover gets two for Brock. He then sits on top of Eddie and continues with the trash talking, so Eddie grabs a leg and starts twisting until he locks into an STF. Holy crap that was great. Brock powers out, but Eddie stays on the knee. He tries a figure-four, but Brock’s legs are too big! Brock kicks him off after a few more attempts and then gives Eddie another Release Belly-to-Belly. Eddie flips out of a suplex and hits a tilt-a-whirl headscissors. He dropkicks the knee and finally gets that figure-four locked in. Brock makes the ropes, but my gosh Eddie is persistent with breaking down the knee. He hooks on a deathlock and then changes over to the STF again! Once Eddie lets Brock get to his feet, he explodes with another release German. Eddie runs into a spinebuster for two. Brock reverts to the rear naked choke + body scissors hold. Eddie makes it to his feet and crashes Brock’s face into the middle turnbuckle to escape the choke. He heads up top and tries a missile dropkick, but Brock completely avoids it. He follows up with a suplex and screams “Just die, Eddie!” Sad. Brock grabs a gutwrench on the mat and once Eddie’s to his feet again, he tosses him away. Back to the gutwrench. Eddie talks to God and gets out of the gutwrench! He dropkicks Brock in the knee and then the head. Another tilt-a-whirl headscissors connects. Lesnar misses a corner charge – setting up the Three Amigos! Eddie calls for the FROG SPLASH and comes off the top, but there’s nobody home. Uh oh, F-5! Lucky for Eddie, the ref got kicked in the head during the move. The crowd looks to the entrance ramp and expects Goldberg to do something. Lesnar grabs his belt and HERE COMES GOLDBERG! Spear! Have a great night, Bill. The crowd feels a title change is imminent. Eddie slowly covers for 1-2-NO! With the ref still kind of out of it, Eddie grabs the belt to nail Lesnar, but he ducks and hoists Eddie up for the F-5! No! Eddie counters and DDT’s Lesnar on the belt! Sort of! Eddie gets rid of the belt and climbs up top for the FROG SPLASH! The ref wakes up again and counts 1-2-3! Eddie wins his one and only WWE championship. (29:52) The most gratifying moments in wrestling that keep you watching is when you see your favorites get their due and this was definitely one of those moments. I don’t even feel like the Goldberg interference ruined anything because it didn’t lead directly to the finish, yet it was booked perfectly to pay off the earlier confrontation in the night and continues a major feud right into WrestleMania. It’s simple thinking ahead booking. Excellent match with a great finish to boot. ****½

• WWE Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Kurt Angle – (WWE WrestleMania XX)

I really liked this feud. Angle needed the WWE title, so he brings up Eddie’s pill-popping past to say that he isn’t a respectable champion to really piss him off and get his title shot. Without making light of Eddie’s own passing, the ironic thing about the feud is that Angle would be released from WWE for that very same pill-popping problem in 2006. Angle underestimates Guerrero’s mat skills to start as Eddie manages to hang with the Olympic champ. Eddie counters an ab stretch and starts up the Three Amigos, but Angle cuts him off and flips Guerrero out to the apron the German Suplex That Never Happens. Eddie dropkicks Angle down and dives off the top, but lands chest-first on the barricade. Back in, Angle goes to the ribs with a body scissors. Eddie fights up to his feet, but gets hung out to dry for a count of two. A pair of overhead suplexes earns a nearfall for Angle. Guerrero jabs Angle’s temples to get out of a bearhug. He shoves off a belly-to-belly superplex and shoves off the Pop-Up Superplex, but then misses the FROG SPLASH. Angle unloads, so Eddie starts up the rope-a-dope to get his LATIN TEMPER going. Angle flips out of a suplex and hits a German suplex, but Guerrero counters a second one into a victory roll for two. Eddie armdrags out of the ANGLE SLAM and hits a tilt-a-whirl headscissors. Eddie hits two of the Three Amigos and then Angle blocks the third with a heel trip into the ANKLELOCK! Guerrero kicks him off and catches Angle for a dropkick. FROG SPLASH? Nope. Angle gets the Pop-Up Superplex after all for 1-2-NO! DOWN COME THE STRAPS! Back to the ANKLELOCK, but Eddie counters into another victory roll for 1-2-NO! Angle drills Eddie with another German suplex and goes for the ANGLE SLAM again, but Eddie counters *again* this time with a DDT. FROG SPLASH connects for 1-2-NO! Angle heel trips Guerrero again for the ANKLELOCK and just when Eddie looks like he’s about to tap, he rolls Angle off out through the ropes. Crowd ~ “EDDIE! EDDIE! EDDIE!” Guerrero starts untying his boot from his injured foot. Angle sees Eddie grabbing his foot, and Eddie looks at Angle and goes “Oh Shhh!” Angle charges at Eddie as he tries to get away and reapplies the ANKLELOCK! With Angle having hold of the untied boot, Eddie manages to come out of his boot and catch Angle charging at him with a small package for the 1-2-3! (21:10) Fantastic match to put Eddie over and solidify him as the new champ of Smackdown. His title reign was cut WAYYY too short though. ****¼

• Cage Match: Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio – (WWE Smackdown 9/9/05)

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

• World Heavyweight Championship: Batista (c) vs. Eddie Guerrero – (WWE No Mercy 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

Final Thoughts: Do you really need more of what I think? CHECK THIS ONE OUT. Eddie Guerrero is easily a top five worker and there’s so much to like here. Easy thumbs up for “The Best of Eddie Guerrero” premiering on the fifteenth anniversary of Eddie’s passing.