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In the fall of 2002, Eddie Guerrero was moved to the Smackdown brand from Raw to be closer to his travel buddies of Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, and Chavo Guerrero. He felt he needed their support and supervision as he tried to keep sober.

"Being on a roster with Chris, Rey, and Chavito, guys that are my true family, made life a lot easier for me," Eddie wrote in his autobiography. "I was still struggling with my sobriety, and it was very helpful for me to be with people that I knew would always have my back."

When Eddie moved to Smackdown, he was instantly plugged into a feud with Edge, who was capable of wrestling a similar style to Rob Van Dam that I looked at a few days ago or Chris Jericho, who Eddie wrestled in ECW and WCW.

But, the feud with Edge started a little shaky. Both men were self-admitted perfectionists in the ring, but the action wasn't great starting with Summerslam 2002 in August.

"We had really high expectations because we both really respected each other and our ability in the ring," Edge says on the Eddie DVD. "We wrestled at Summerslam, and it was good. And then we wrestled on Smackdown throughout September, but we still felt it wasn't where it could be."

Eddie details one of the reasons why that might have been the case in his book. With so many wrestlers exposed to Eddie's past failures as a professional in terms of the excessive drug use and coming to the arenas far-less-than-sober, there were concerns with Eddie coming to a new locker room on Smackdown that he would be looking out for himself. Was it still the old Eddie?

"The two of us had never worked together before, and when our program was first booked, Edge's defenses went up," Eddie said in his book. "He didn't believe I was there to work for the match. He was worried that I was only looking out for myself. I don't blame him - he'd been around this business long enough to justify being cautious."

Once Edge and Eddie worked through a few of those "okay" or "just good" matches in August and September of 2002, they were ready to blow-off the feud. This led to an amazing four-star-level match on the Sept. 26, 2002 edition of Smackdown that is included on the DVD. It's definitely one of the must-see matches on the DVD.

"Once Edge realized that my only concern was putting the program over, his walls came down and we developed a nice friendship," Eddie said. "I already knew he was an incredible worker - he's also a very warm, genuine guy."

The match of all matches was a No DQ battle that went about 16 minutes on TV. It was the ultimate clinic on how to utilize props and weapons in a wrestling match without overdoing the gimmicks, but leading to epic highspots.

One of the epic highspots of the match was Eddie nailing a perfect sunset flip powerbomb off the top of a ladder. It was majestic and stands the test of time among the other 18,000 highspots before and after that point because the perfectionists in the ring built to that spot.

It wasn't the finish, though, as Edge eventually won the match with a second majestic highspot with Edge nailing his trademark implant DDT - the Edgecution - from the top of a ladder for the pin.

Afterward, both men received standing ovations, namely Eddie, who was working as a heel during the match. The crowd in San Diego loved the action and Eddie felt redeemed after his personal journey back to WWE seemed to peak.

"It was a great feeling because they were cheering me despite the fact that I was the heel," Eddie said. "I was flipping them off and they still applauded me!"

Shane McMahon took notice too. "When I got to the back, Shane McMahon shook my hand and hugged me," Eddie said. "That meant a lot to me. It let me know that my putting my ass on the line out there was appreciated."

"It was so gratifying," Edge said, "because it's really where we both wanted it to be. We were both perfectionists."

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 14 - Working with Jeff Hardy.
-- Day 13 - RVD match; Eddie overcomes personal pain.
-- Day 12 - Matt Hardy match; void in life unfulfilled.
-- Day 11 - WWE debut against Chris Jericho.
-- Day 10 - Personal tragedy with Vickie Guerrero's public commentary.
-- 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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