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CALDWELL'S MEDIA CLUB: Eddie Guerrero DVD review Day 13 - Eddie vs. Rob Van Dam; Eddie overcomes personal pain Dec 3, 2008 - 4:27:46 PM
Eddie Guerrero had put himself through a tremendous amount of personal pain and suffering in between his 2000 debut in WWE and his return to WWE in April 2002 due to his various drug addictions.
Even rehab couldn't help him. Reading through the chapters in Eddie's book detailing his long road of recovery, there are so many sobering and chilling moments in Eddie's life during this time period.
When Eddie was showing up at arenas completely wasted, his good friend Dean Malenko told him he didn't want to find Eddie dead in a hotel room one day. Unfortunately, that resulted at the end of Eddie's life, but at a time when he had cleaned himself up and was on the right path.
In April 2002, Eddie returned to WWE after nearly losing everything he held dear in his life. He had been wrestling in front of 25 people on independent shows, but through that experience showed him a renewed passion for wrestling.
"I don't care if there are twenty-five people or twenty-five thousand - I only want to give my best out there," Eddie said about his mentality at the time. "That's when I knew I still had the fire. That's when I knew I still wanted it. From that point on, I had one goal, to be the best wrestler I could be."
Eddie used that fire to help him personally, then parlay that into returning to WWE when Jim Ross and John Laurinaitis gave him a clean slate to come back. The first vote of confidence was giving him the Intercontinental Title.
The DVD has the April 2002 match where Eddie captured the title from Rob Van Dam in a stellar 12-minute match. Although Eddie was ridiculously jacked up and appeared to be 40-50 pounds above his ECW weight from earlier in his career, Eddie could still move and work and hustle in the ring. Jerry Lawler remembers that match at the April 2002 Backlash PPV.
"That match stood heads and shoulders above anything I had seen in a long time," Lawler says on the DVD. "It was almost like a great artist painting a really beautiful picture. It just worked. It was a memorable match. I'll never forget it."
For Eddie, the match outcome was a welcome sign for him after the long journey back to recovery. He wasn't all the way healed personally, but knowing WWE had confidence in him boosted his personal morale professionally.
"I got right back into the swing of things," Eddie said. "I won the Intercontinental Championship from Rob just three weeks after my return. It was the office's way of ending me a message: We believe in you."
So, when watching the Eddie vs. RVD match on the DVD, remember the journey Eddie went through to return to this point. A night in jail. Time in intense rehab. Almost losing his wife, Vickie. Losing his WWE job. Wrestling in front of a handful of disinterested fans on the independents.
"I knew that as far as WWE was concerned, I had not given the job my full heart and soul. To be honest, I didn't have much heart to give," Eddie said. "So I prayed for the opportunity to go back to WWE and give my heart. I wouldn't make the same mistake I'd made before. This time I'd give it my all."
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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