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WCW Starrcade '97 was the peak of the Hulk Hogan vs. Sting storyline that built and built and built and built for months and seemingly years during the Monday Night Wars era.

Some wrestling fans believe it was the beginning of the end with WCW because they had nothing following Hogan vs. Sting as a major concept to keep the company's momentum after the WCW vs. NWO storyline peaked.

After ordering that PPV 12 years ago, I still remember the feeling of let-down when the show concluded with Sting as WCW champion following one of the worst-booked PPV main events of all-time, simply because the hype was so great and the pay-off was so poor.

What opened that show in Washington, D.C. was a sneak peek at what could have been the next concept to help carry the WCW brand. Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko was a psychological masterpiece in the ring, and the fans were buying into the action. 10 months earlier at Superbrawl, fans weren't buying Eddie vs. Jericho. They were buying into Eddie now, though.

Eric Bischoff wanted to keep the cruiserweights in their slot. He described the thought-process last week in the In Your Head radio interview we published a few days ago - keep the heavyweights in their slot, and keep the cruiserweights in their slot. Keep 'em separated.

Yet, the cruiserweights were catching steam despite being opening card acts or pushed to the Nitro fill-in-the-blank quarter hour where the announcers classically talked about everything except for the match in the ring.

WCW had its next concept of cruiserweights in the main event positions to be rotated in and out with the heavyweights and storylines focused on the WCW vs. NWO and/or Wolfpack feud going into 1998.

In the opening match of Starrcade '97, which WWE thankfully included on the Eddie DVD release, Eddie Guerrero demonstrated his under-estimated psychologically awareness of how to put together a wrestling story.

Working with Dean Malenko certainly aided things, but Eddie has always been forgotten as one of the great in-ring technicians of the most-recent generation of wrestlers. Simply because his charisma became his calling card over time, Eddie isn't thought of as a great wrestler. This match will give wrestling fans a second look at that.

"Eddie was probably my favorite opponent to ever be in the ring with," Dean Malenko says on the Eddie DVD. "Every time I got in the ring, I tried to create different holds and moves. It kept me thinking."

Malenko was challenged to come up with new offense, which earned him the label of having 1,001 moves in his bag of tricks. Eddie was key for that.

"Every great side of being in the ring with Eddie was being innovative and being creative," he said. "He had a great creative mind for usage of holds, counters, and the aerial attack. It's very rare that you can go in the ring and close your eyes."

Earlier in the review series, I looked at Eddie and Dean's relationship back in ECW when they gained national exposure on the way to creating innovative match stories that still stand the test of time more than a decade later.

But, the key to Eddie and Dean was continuing to adapt to the fans. If they wanted to remain on TV, they had to keep listening to the fans and adjusting. Dean says on the DVD that they were doing the same ECW matches their first year or so in WCW, but they continued to grow and innovative on the national stage.

"I think Eddie would agree me that there were times when I knew what Eddie would do two, three moves ahead of time, and vice versa," Malenko says on the DVD. "It was magical for that era, for that time, even for today's standards. He's the one guy when I stepped in the ring with, I knew every night that I had chemistry with him and we were definitely going to put on a show."

We know Eddie by his charisma. We remember him for that, but after watching the Eddie vs. Dean match from Starrcade '97, you'll see a more technical side of Eddie that is often-times forgotten in the big picture of Eddie's career.

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.

EDDIE GUERRERO DVD REVIEW ARTICLE LIST

-- Day 6 - Rey Mysterio classic and character adjustment.
-- Day 5 - vs. Chris Jericho and no one cared.
-- Day 4 - Rubbing shoulders with Ric Flair.
-- Day 3 - Stealing the show at Starrcade '95.
-- Day 2 - Breakthrough in ECW - Eddie vs. Dean Malenko.
-- Day 1 - influence of Art Barr; Eddie vs. 2 Cold Scorpio.
-- Intro on DVD review series.

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