Guerrero Family History

[Hektik 0]

An excerpt from The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

 

A lot of history came together, as a member of one of pro wrestlings most famous families broke a life long size barrier to international superstardom in what is the countries oldest major wrestling arena, and among the business all time most historical buildings.

A few years ago, even though he was as talented as any wrestler in the business. Eddy Guerrero would have been about the last anyone would think would ever win a WWE heavyweight championship. Quite frankly, he wouldn’t have ever been considered as a possible main eventer due to his size, the same tag line that has been said literally since he was 19 years old wrestling in Juarez. And even with his new found popularity, Guerrero had never even headlined a PPV show until 2/14, the night he captured the WWE championship from Brock Lesnar at the Cow Palace.

The win capped 50 years since the first time a Guerrero had challenged for a world heavyweight title, when Eddys father, Salvador “Gori” Guerrero challenged Lou Thesz at Arena Mexico in 1954.

The Guerreros have a rich family history in wrestling, dating back some 67 or so years. Eddie’s father is generally considered one of the ten biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre. He got his name from being one of the pioneers of bloody matches and his heel tag team with El Santo, Los Parejas Atomicos (The Atomic Pair) is the most famous ever in that country. Eventually the two split up and started feuding. While Guerrero was of Hispanic descent, he was actually born in Kearney, AZ in 1921, and wrestled main events well into his 50s. During his career he held the world title in the welterweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight divisions. In the early 60s he settled in El Paso as NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion (a title stripped from him in Mexico when he didn’t return), became the local promoter for Dory Funk Sr’s operation, and raised 4 sons, all of which became top notch wrestlers. Although only 185 pounds in his prime, Guerrero and Blue Demon were renowned as the two great shooters of their time period. An innovator, Guerrero invented many moves inside the ring, the most famous being the camel clutch and an inverted surfboard like move called the Gori special. With the possible exception of Perro Aguayo, Gori Guerrero would be considered by most as the greatest non masked wrestler in the history of Lucha Libre.

His son, Salvador Guerrero Jr, began wrestling as Chavo Guerrero in 1973 in El Paso. He wrestled at 118 and 126 pounds at the University of Texas at El Paso, and was considered to small to be a star. In 1975, when Guerrero won the Americas title from Ernie Ladd, who was more than a foot taller and 120 pounds heavier, it was considered a joke, that they must be attempting to kill the territory. However, Chavo Guerrero vs Roddy Piper was the feud that made both mens careers as well known national superstars. Chavo drew numerous big crowds in Los Angeles when challenging Terry Funk and Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight title. Chavo became so popular that soon, brother Mando and Hector, as well as patriarch Gori, were the headline act in southern California. The 3 brothers had a lot in common. All were good wrestlers, as their father taught them that fads come and go in the business, but if you are a great wrestler, you’ll always be able to at least find work. But all were also small in a time when the heavyweight division ruled, and were also noted, at least in the case of Chavo and Mando, for having hot tempers, and were also fearless, and there were plenty of stories of them challenging people much larger than them to real fights. Even after retirement, Chavo nearly got into it with Vader at a post show party after a WCW PPV event in Los Angeles. Some considered Chavo his own worst enemy. He went in and out of the mainstream during the 80s and aside from Japan, was never that big of a star. All ended up very bitter about not garnering the long term superstardom that their abilities probably deserved, and it seemed the same fate was destined for the youngest brother.

Edouardo Guerrero was much younger than his brothers, and only 3 years older than Chavo’s son, Salvador Guerrero III (Chavo Jr). He was a good high school wrestler in El Paso, and wrestled in college in New Mexico, before starting his career in Juarez. Because of his name, he was picked on by the bigger wrestlers, but quickly earned his stripes and as early as 1987, the word came out of Mexico that he was going to be the most talented member of the family. But he’d never make it in the US or Japan because of his size.

In 1989, Terry Funk brought Eddy Guerrero to World Championship Wrestling as a squash opponent for a TV match. Guerrero did a plancha, at the time almost unheard of in the US, and he and Funk had one of the greatest squash matches of the era. A performance like that normally would have gotten someone a job. The feeling by everyone was that he was super talented, but far too small for US wrestling, and despite everyone raving about the match, was only used 1 more time by the company. He got a break under a hood as the original Mascara Magica in EMLL, the name because he was magic in the ring. At the same time, New Japan was looking for a new opponent for Jushin Liger, and Guerreros name was suggested. It was quickly rejected. They knew all about him. Great worker, but was only 175 pounds. Yes, he was considered too small to work with Liger in the junior heavyweight division.

Guerrero started making his name in Mexico in 1992. He caused a lot of controversy when he unmasked on his own, as opposed to losing the mask in the ring, a 1st in Mexican wrestling. He said he was the son of Gori Guerrero and shouldn’t go under an assumed name. He soon jumped to AAA, where he got his first main event push as a tag team with El Hijo del Santo. The two were put together as Los Nuevos Parejas Atomicos, as the sons of Mexicos most famous team. But the plan from the start was to turn him heel on Santo, like his father. At about the same time, another second-generation wrestler, Art Barr, was working under a mask as babyface Love Machine. An elaborate few weeks of angles saw Barr unmask, doing a double turn with Blue Panther in what was every bit as good as the more famous Bret Hart-Steve Austin double turn 5 years later at Wrestlemania. Love Machine and Guerrero became Los Gringo Locos, and whatever Guerrero lacked in charisma was made up for in spades by Barr. The 2 were tag team of the year in 1994, but it was a little known fact that dating back to 1992, Brian Pillman studied them and a lot of the 1993 Pillman & Steve Austin tag team in WCW, that years best team, came from spending hours at the WCW power plant studying their moves and mannerisms. New Japan by 1992 also changed its tune on Guerrero, not only bringing him in as a rival for Liger, but a year later, giving him the Black Tiger name, copied from Tiger Mask’s original top rival a decade earlier. When WWF officials watched 1994 “When Worlds Collide” PPV from Los Angeles, headlined by Santo & Octagon beating Barr & Guerrero in a double mask vs double hair match that was considered among the best tag matches ever at the time, they were so impressed that the lone wrestler they offered a spot to on the show was Louie Spicolli, who had juiced himself up to around 270 pounds.

Guerreros career in Mexico ended quickly. Art Barr, 28, died just 2 weeks after what he and Guerrero both had called their greatest match from taking a bad combination of drugs and alcohol. Mexico’s economy crashed, and the peso was devalued to the point that Antonio Pena could no longer afford to pay big money in dollars to foreign talent. Guerrero wrestled mainly in Japan. With no money in Mexico, he started with ECW, where he became an immediate star with matches against 2 Cold Scorpio, Dean Malenko and others. The ECW success broke the US size barrier issue, and when he, Benoit, and Malenko moved to WCW in 1995, he was a solid cruiserweight star. While he could work with anyone, he was considered too small for a headline spot, although he did win the cruiserweight and US titles.

Guerrero has said it is a daily battle for him, plus has suffered from regular battles with depression. Wrestling lore has it that his issues dated back to an auto accident on December 31, 1998, when he was thrown from his car and as he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, and nearly died. He didn’t want to lose his spot so he rushed back to the ring months before his body could withstand the punishment. In actuality it only made worse his existing problems. After jumping to the WWE in January 2000 with Malenko, Benoit, and Saturn, the problems got so bad that he was getting a bad reputation, but his work in the ring was, while fallen from his peak due to drug problems, still better than most. Finally, when he passed out in the dressing room one night in Minneapolis, he was sent to rehab. Just days after being released, he went out to drink, crashed his car, and the company really had no choice at the time but to fire him, even though he was well liked. He hit rock bottom, and his wife divorced him. However when he returned to wrestling, both in indies and Japan, the word was very different from other so called reform substance abusers who publicly claimed to be clean, but were anything but.

In 2002, Guerrero was rehired and cleaned up, and his wrestling returned to his previous levels. He started with Raw, but Paul Heyman, who gave him his first US mainstream break in ECW and was a fan of his dating back to Japan, maneuvered he and Chris Benoit to Smackdown when he was head writer for the show.

Guerrero was made a superstar really by the fans last year, and it wasn’t planned, nor did anyone see it coming. He was teaming with nephew Chavo Jr., and Chavo Jr. tore his biceps. This put him in a tag team with Tajiri, to feud with Haas & Benjamin one the WWE tag titles. The “lie, cheat, & steal” gimmick, with some promotional vignettes that were more than borderline racist, seemed to add a layer of character to his great wrestling. But it was his heel turn on Tajiri for messing with his ride, which in a sense backfired, as fans started cheering Guerrero like a cult superstar, and eventually the company caught on and turned him back face, and he came across as a genuine superstar for the first time. Suddenly, he became business. It first showed up in television ratings with his surprising spike in the ratings for segments not expected to do well. At first it was certain markets, like Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles. But soon they were national.

The Lesnar/Guerrero match drew a sellout crowd to the Cow Palace, which is likely the oldest legendary major building in the US that still houses pro wrestling. The paid attendance was about 9,000 with a record $450,000 house, shattering the old record of $310,974 set on February 22, 1998, for the SuperBrawl PPV headlined by Hulk Hogan vs Sting.

Guerrero is easily the smallest what I’d call major league World Heavyweight Champion in modern wrestling. While some can point to joke champions like David Arquette, or Mickey Whipwreck in ECW, as far as major league world champion, at 5’7 and 210 pounds, the guy once to small to be a viable junior heavyweight in Japan, or to even get work as a WCW jobber, may just be the best drawing full time performer in the country. Nobody of his size had ever been considered as a main eventer, let alone world champion.

 

This is part of the February 23, 2004 issue of the wrestling observer. This is really one of the first indepth look at the Guerrero family that I have ever seen. I remember on a Smackdown thread a while back that someone said Hart Family > Guerrero Family. It was right after Kurt said the Guerrero family was the greatest family in wrestling history. I have always thought that the Guerrero family was on the same level, maybe even greater, than the Hart family. So I posted this article because it shows that they were/are innovators and ahead of their time in Pro wrestling.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Truly a great story including an amazing comeback for Eddie.

 

 

Some dreams do come true.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Good stuff

 

Thanks for the info Hektik. I was hoping someone was going to post this up somewhere.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

That was interesting. Thanks. I watched Eddie vs. Malenko in their last ECW appearance tonight. It was great stuff, especially by 1995 standards. Joey Styles had a nice line: "For years, the pro wrestling industry has been dominated by heavyweights and super heavyweights. But I have no question these two men will be stars." At least he was partly right.

[Scroby 0]

There's something I wanna add into that article about the Eddie and Tajiri vs WGTT...Eddie was giving the fans what they wanted by cheating and the crowd was eating it up, their was 3 things he did, if I remember correctly.

 

1. He extended the tag rope to the middle of the apron and walked out to the middle of the apron looking for the tag from Tajiri and the ref was trying to shoo him back to the corner, but Eddie was showing him he was holding the tag rope.

 

2. The crowd started chanting "cheat", so Eddie went into the ring and hit Haas from behind, I think....not to sure about that one.

 

3. The crowd was chanting "cheat" again and Eddie shruged his shoulders and went into the ring and broke up the pin, the ref ran Eddie out of the ring, and Eddie got out of the ring and grabbed the ring rope and pointed to the ref he was holding it and telling him nothing happen.

 

So when Eddie did turn on Tajiri after the match, the crowd didn't care because Eddie gave them what they wanted. If anyone caught it and I've sorta noticed a lot of people didn't, even ol Jhawk didn't, I had to point it out to him, because he couldn't understand why Eddie was being cheered. Anyways if anyone caught it they cheered Eddie for those who didn't, didn't understand what was going on, but learned to love Eddie anyways.

[Enigma 0]

Regarding which is the better wrestling family, I don't think it's fair to say either is better. Wrestling-wise, I think they are equally as awesome.

 

However, if you are talking about which is the better all-around FAMILY, when it comes to family unity and longevity, the Guerreros have it all over the Harts.

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

I admire the fuck out of both the Harts and the Guerreros.

 

That's a great article, just like most of the stuff that Dave Meltzer, Brian Alvarez and Alex Marvez produce.

 

Because of this Brock Lesnar/Bill Goldberg feud, I keep thinking that Eddie will drop the strap at WrestleMania, or something, but then I remind myself - that is a completely different feud, and Eddie has no reason to.

 

Right?