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CALDWELL'S MEDIA CLUB: Eddie Guerrero DVD review Day 21 - Eddie vs. JBL in the sickest WWE match ever Dec 15, 2008 - 6:00:43 PM
On May 16, 2004, WWE champion Eddie Guerrero and JBL engaged in a brutal, bloody, and "not in 2008 WWE" match that looked more like a bar room brawl than a wrestling match.
I remember this match very clearly, as I was at the Staples Center in Los Angeles when I was living in California. It was the sickest thing I had ever seen in-person, with Eddie Guerrero bleeding like mad and both men taking a total of three unprotected chair shots to the head.
"The chair shot I hit Eddie with was probably as hard as any chair shot in the history of this business," JBL says with conviction on the Eddie DVD. "Believe me, Eddie got me back."
The match also stood out because the undercard was a complete piece of crap, complete with the utterly forgettable debut of the Mordecai character (played by Kevin Thorn) after weeks of TV hype.
Then, the main event occurred and both men put on a performance that was a five-star fight. It was that good, dramatic, and gripping, but in 2008, would be viewed as a complete physical endangerment to both men, especially after Eddie bled heavily for a total of 15 minutes at the end of the match and during the post-match before collapsing and nearly passing out in the ring when the PPV went off the air.
"I had been in easier car wrecks and street fights than what Eddie Guerrero and I did to each other," JBL says on the DVD. "The match we had in the Staples Center - the very first main event we had - Eddie Guerrero nearly bled to death. They had to take him to the hospital; he passed out in the back."
At the time, Eddie was desperately trying to prove himself as a main eventer. All the time he put into the wrestling business itching and crawling for a chance in the spotlight in WCW, then when he debuted in WWE had finally put him where he felt he deserved, but business wasn't great.
Without quality opposition, Eddie was trying to do things on his own. That crappy undercard was a reflection of the Smackdown brand being a one-man band with Eddie trying to play the trombone, drums, piano, organ, and every other instrument.
Enter JBL, who cut his hair, dropped Ron Simmons, and was given the full rights to the top heel position on Smackdown by Vince McMahon. Eddie was driving himself mad trying to increase business as champion, but it was tough.
"No one gets the belt overnight. In my case, it took close to two years working nonstop since coming back to WWE," Eddie wrote in his autobiography. "By the time I actually became WWE Champion, I was already tired.
"You have to work so hard to get there that when you finally make it to the title match, you're exhausted. But you've got to keep going."
Eddie kept trucking along, trying to do everything he could to excite fans to attend shows and tune into Smackdown. He had the persona. He had the charisma. He had the in-ring. And with the JBL program, he had the babyface fire that made his matches with JBL that fun to watch, even if he was nearly killing himself bleeding like a leaky faucet that wouldn't stop.
"Getting in there with Eddie was something else," JBL says with a smile on the DVD. "You really had to check your body at the door and realize this was going to be brutal and there's a chance you're not going to walk out the same way you walked into this thing. Overall, I'd have to say working with Eddie was terrific."
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.
For those of you who watch on Friday nights and wonder about kissing
Khali, Kizarny, etc. thank your lucky stars if you didn't watch the show
four years ago. For every RVD, Eddie, Mysterio, etc. we had Booker T
seeking help from a voodoo expert to combat Undertaker, the aforementioned
Mordecai, Kenzo Suzuki, the legendary duo of Billy Gunn&Bob Holly, etc.
As for this specific feud, I remember how quickly the JBL character was
fast tracked into the main event scene just two weeks after the character
was even created and thinking it would be a hard sell since the last
version of the A.P.A. was midcard filler and suddenly Bradshaw was a world
title contender.
But they made it work when nobody gave them a chance in hell of doing so.
That was just the beauty of Eddie because he tried hard in every situation
and JBL hung with him.
Billy Bob Tweed
16 Dec 2008, 05:12
Brrrrr, I hate being reminded of the chairshots. Eddie took too many, and I
sometimes wonder if the last one that laid him out on the bathroom floor
with a toothbrush in his hand.
bill torres
16 Dec 2008, 09:14
yeah ive always wondered about kennedys chair shot.
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On May 16, 2004, WWE champion Eddie Guerrero and JBL engaged in a brutal, bloody, and "not in 2008 WWE" match that looked more like a bar room brawl than a wrestling match.
