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Yesterday, I reviewed Eddie Guerrero's match against Juventud Guerrera in August 1998, which came right before Eddie walked out of WCW in a storyline that had was based on his personal frustrations with not getting a main event push in WCW.

Eddie's "worked shoot" promo on the August 17, 1998 Nitro was an eye-opening moment in the Monday Night Wars era and re-defined "blurring the line" of reality vs. fact in wrestling that both WWE and TNA try to exploit to this day.

The key to this time period in Eddie's life was that he was desperately searching for professional fulfillment. At times, that led to reckless abandon and drug use to cope with the professional frustrations and night-in and night-out pain from wrestling a hard style in the ring.

"They were daring. They wanted to see what they could do next (in the ring) with getting higher and faster," Vickie says on the Eddie DVD. "Eddie had no fear in the ring. He wanted to go faster and higher. That's how I would describe him."

Bigger, faster, stronger was obvious with Eddie. He was bulked way up from his ECW days to where it was obvious he was "enhancing" his body to look like a main eventer. When that didn't seem to be enough to warrant a main event push, he left WCW for a time as part of the storyline feud against Eric Bischoff.

Shortly thereafter, Eddie nearly died in a car accident on New Year's Eve just before 1999. Recovering from the car accident was just as tough as anything Eddie dealt with in the ring based on his personal issues at the time.

"It was during his drug-using days and that was a really dark point for our family," Vickie says. "He wasn't happy. He thought drugs were going to solve it, but it didn't."

Like most wrestlers, sitting at home became a curse because that's all he knew. Without much time at home during a regular working schedule he was on throughout his wrestling career, especially going back to when he arrived in WCW in 1995, Guerrero only knew wrestling.

"Wrestlers don't like to get hurt because they just sit at home and let injuries heal," Vickie says. "So they become very irritable, mad, and just depressed."

The car accident could have changed Eddie's demeanor or outlook on life at this time to be more careful or depend more on his family rather than wrestling for personal fulfillment. Randy Orton said in a recent interview that he used his recent motorcycle accident to pause and enjoy his family. For Eddie, at the time, it didn't bother him at all.

"This accident wasn't even an eye-opener for Eddie," Vickie says. "It didn't scare him because he survived."

Picking up the DVD review with the Day 10 match from June 1999, Eddie returned to WCW following the angle with Eric Bischoff and the near-death accident to wrestle Psychosis on Thunder. It wasn't officially his first match back, but fans were still getting acclimated to Eddie.

The match itself was just a standard Cruiserweight match with plenty of flips, dives, and other moves that almost become commonplace by this time in mid-1999. Eddie was seemingly trying to remember how to work in the ring while also not completely satisfied with his "Thunder spot" of doing the same match he had done countless times before.

One thing is quite obvious about the match, which is the last WCW match included on the Eddie DVD. Eddie had bulked up tremendously and he was still trying to be "bigger, stronger, and faster" than before his injury to pursue that main event slot he wanted. Eventually, that led to an elbow injury that sidelined him yet again.

But, WWE was on the horizon. While still dealing with drug issues, depression, and finding his calling in pro wrestling, could Eddie rebound to start 2000 in WWE? I'll look into that in the next installment of the DVD review.

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 9 - Battle with Juvi; personal issues bubbling below surface.
-- Day 8 - WCW front office issues and vs. Ultimo Dragon.
-- Day 7 - Eddie the in-ring Technician vs. Dean Malenko.
-- 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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