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CALDWELL'S TAKE
CALDWELL'S MEDIA CLUB: Eddie Guerrero DVD review Day 8 - vs. Ultimo Dragon; problems in WCW's front office Nov 21, 2008 - 4:30:27 PM
The end of 1997 marked a change in WCW. The Sting vs. Hulk Hogan feud culminated. Several "spin-off" storylines were developing from that. Meanwhile, in WCW's front offices, management was in an upheaval.
Today, I'm looking at the May 1998 match between Eddie Guerrero and Ultimo Dragon at the Slamboree PPV. The match was just "there," but the story at the time was WCW president Eric Bischoff losing his top assistant to WWE.
The writing was on the wall for the problems WCW would ultimately face going into 1999. In Torch Newsletter #520 from November 1998, the headline was "WCW showing signs of spiraling downward."
Salaries were out of control. Wrestlers were bickering for spots on the card. Management couldn't keep up with the cruiserweights trying to be heavyweights and the heavyweights trying to be cruiserweights. TV storylines were being written on the fly and wrestlers weren't sure if they were even going to be needed at TV each week.
Eddie Guerrero, if you remember from Day 5 of the Eddie DVD review series, wrestled Chris Jericho in a mid-card PPV match that no one seemed to care about.
After gaining success with matches against Rey Mysterio and Dean Malenko, Guerrero was back in the same slot at the Slamboree PPV about 14 or 15 months later.
Guerrero was becoming frustrated with the lack of main event opportunities. He was brought into WCW for a "spot" as a cruiserweight wrestler simply filling the gaps, but after putting in two years of hard work and show-stealing matches, there didn't seem to be upward mobility.
According to Torch Newsletter #520 at the end of 1998, the cruiserweight trio of Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Dean Malenko were each making $250,000 per year. Meanwhile, Big Show (The Giant at the time) was making $400,000. Rick and Scott Steiner were making $315,000 with offers for $500,000.
WCW was prepared to nearly double Eddie's salary, but they were also prioritizing upping the salaries of the Steiners and Big Show to keep them in WCW. Guerrero wanted security for his family, but making less money than the heavyweights showed where WCW's priorities were.
Guerrero was innovating; creating a style of wrestling that we see today, according to Chavo Guerrero on the WWE DVD. Guerrero's drive to create was pushing him to have great matches with the likes of Ultimo Dragon, but it seemed like his efforts were falling short in the eyes of fans.
Just like the Superbrawl match against Chris Jericho in early 1997, the fans just weren't into the Eddie vs. Ultimo match. Perhaps they had grown tired of seeing cruiserweight matches that held a slot, but weren't going to push for main event status when fans could truly buy into the men inside the ring as legit stars.
From Wade Keller's Slamboree 1998 report on Eddie vs. Ultimo: "Like the Benoit-Finlay match, there was great execution during the early minutes, and unlike the Benoit-Finlay match, the pacing was better although the crowd didn't pop for some of the spots designed to get a pop."
As we'll see going forward with two more WCW matches on the Eddie DVD, it was becoming clear to Eddie that his time in WCW was drawing to an end despite putting on great performances and showcasing his charisma as a wrestler.
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.
Torch VIP members can access past Torch Newsletters to read up on the time period. Who was in the main event of Slamboree 1998? Who opened the PPV? VIP members can pull up the Slamboree PPV report and so many other stories from past Torch Newsletters. VIP sign-up information.
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AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
