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CALDWELL'S MEDIA CLUB: Eddie Guerrero DVD review Day 4 - Eddie vs. Ric Flair; the importance of the U.S. Title Nov 17, 2008 - 4:10:02 PM
The significance of the U.S. Title is lost on today's generation of wrestling fans because it's been placed in the position of a mid-card title belt not worthy of PPV time. Shelton Benjamin is your current U.S. champion in WWE, but he hasn't been booked on PPV cards to defend the belt.
The U.S. Title dates back to the Mid-Atlantic territory in the mid-1970s when a single U.S. Heavyweight champion was determined in the form of Harley Race. The belt then bounced from Race to Johnny Valentine to Terry Funk before settling on Ric Flair for a short while in 1977.
The belt was considered one of the top titles in the territory era of pro wrestling at the time, then eventually became the second-most important belt in WCW behind the World Title to carry on the territory lineage.
In 1996, Ric Flair was once again the U.S. champion and defending against Eddie Guerrero at Hog Wild '96. Eddie knew the significance of facing Ric Flair for the U.S. Title, even if the belt's rich history wasn't exactly a talking point on WCW broadcasts at the time considering that Bobby Heenan was too busy trying to pronounce Guerrero's name.
On the Eddie DVD, Flair said about Eddie's knowledge of the belt, "Eddie knew what it meant. Eddie knew what it meant to wrestle for it." Built by tradition with his family background, Eddie was a student of the game and wanted to wrestle a high-energy match against Flair in their PPV battle for the U.S. title.
Flair was also glowing in praise for Eddie talking about their in-ring battles and this match in particular. He called him one of the top 10 or 20 wrestlers that he's ever been in the ring with, and Flair was in the ring with hundreds, if not thousands, of wrestlers over a four-decade career. That's significant praise for Eddie as an in-ring wrestler.
What you'll want to look for in the Flair vs. Eddie match on the DVD is Flair trying to elevate Eddie. As I've touched in throughout the Eddie DVD review series, Eddie was trying to get his break on the national scene. He wasn't flashy or the ultra-charismatic performer he developed into during his WWE run.
Eric Bischoff told him what his role would be: a role-playing cruiserweight delivering awesome athleticism to balance against the heavyweights. But, that didn't mean Eddie had to simply settle for having good matches. He wanted to have great matches.
Flair knew that. Flair knew how much Eddie's career could advance working against him on PPV, even if Flair wasn't positioned as one of the top guys in the company with Hulk Hogan running around with the newly-formed NWO.
Flair vs. Eddie was exactly the kind of contrast to the NWO that WCW needed at the time. While Bischoff wanted to bring in new viewers with the red-hot NWO angle following Hulk Hogan's heel turn, they also wanted to deliver the athleticism and pro wrestling-centered content that would keep fans tuned in.
As a result, Eddie was leaned on to provide a new brand of athleticism to help WCW upgrade its "pro wrestling" offering. Flair knew the importance of that, and Eddie being just moments away from a title victory before Flair pulled out the classic skin-of-his-teeth victory was enough to continue building Eddie as a marketable wrestler on the WCW roster.
Over the course of 25 days, I will be reviewing the "Viva La Raza" Eddie Guerrero DVD recently put out by WWE. I'll be looking at the significance of each of the 25 matches on the DVD as well as establishing the context of events that were occurring at the time of each match.
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