The Shimmy 12.04.06: The Eddie Guerrero Report Card (Part Two)
Posted by Andy Clark on 12.04.2006
The Eddie Guerrero Report Card returns as we look at "Latino Heat's" PPV matches from 2002-2003. You know you wanna read it, so click the link!
Yo, yo, yo homeboys, and welcome to The Shymmy. I hope everyone has had a good week and made it safely through December so far. I hear they are dismembering people this month. In any event, we're back to a regular sized edition of The Shimmy, with the return of the Eddie Guerrero Report Card. This time we will look at Eddie's matches starting off his second stint with WWE. How did the new and improved Eddie Guerrero stack up? Let's find out!
From the Whole F'n Report Card: Man I loved this feud. The two PPV matches were OK, but the blowoff Ladder Match on Raw is my favorite match. At the time I was disappointed in this match, and a bit shocked that Eddie won, but looking back and it made sense. They paced themselves through their series of matches and this was definitely the slowest of the three. Knowing what was coming next helps me with the grade.
This was an improvement on their last match, which really built well for the Ladder Match. This match was more fast paced then their Backlash encounter, and the end result came out nicely. This match was more of a true battle of frog splashes, and proves that this feud did indeed rock.
My Grade: A-
Eddie Guerrero vs. Ric Flair (King of the Ring 2002)
I'm certainly glad WWE decided to give Eddie a true main event push in 2004 otherwise I would still be incredibly pissed at Stone Cold Steve Austin for pulling out of this match. From a storyline perspective Ric Flair was a suitable choice, but the match itself wasn't that good. Outside of his match with Undertaker at WrestleMania X8, which admittedly was one of the best of the year, Flair had some pretty shoddy ringwork in 2002. He had no business beating Eddie in this match, even if it was off of Bubba Ray Dudley's interference.
My Grade: D+
Tables Match: Chris Benoit & Eddie Guerrero vs. Bubba Ray Dudley & Spike Dudley (Vengeance 2002)
This was certainly a unique matchup. Bubba Ray and Spike were passing the time until D-Von was brought back to Raw at Survivor Series, and this was a decent Dudley cover team. Benoit was just getting back into the swing of things at this point, and Eddie was trying to get some revenge from King of the Ring. This may be the only time a Dudley team has ever actually won a Table Match, too.
My Grade: B+
Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge (SummerSlam 2002)
This was a match I remember not being too fond of at the time, but watching it back this summer for the SummerSlam Roundtables I realized how great it was. There was great in ring action, great psychology and overall great chemistry. I still don't believe they let Eddie kick out of an Edgecution off the top rope. Very nice match here.
My Grade: A
Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge (Unforgiven 2002)
Why not let them go at it again? Sure, its parity booking so Eddie gets to go over, but this match was just as good as the first encounter. It's a shame we didn't get to see more of them in recent years.
From the Rey Mysterio Report Card: I think the elimination stipulation actually hurt this match here. It was a solid match to be sure, but it could have been much better if it were one fall to a finish. I think the outcome was fairly obvious because giving the belts to Los Guerreros would have spread the tag titles around to all of the SmackDown Six. Good match, but not as great as it could have been.
My Grade: B+
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (Armageddon 2002)
Is it possible to have an Eddie-Benoit match that underwhelms? Apparently so. I remember this match as pretty much a squash for Benoit, and considering Eddie was transitioning into a predominantly tag team wrestler I suppose it makes sense. These two would redeem themselves with their matches in the summer of 2003.
My Grade: C
2003 Royal Rumble Match (Royal Rumble 2003)
How many times have I graded this match? If you haven't heard it by now, I love this match. Unfortunately Eddie didn't play too big of a role here, but that didn't decrease the greatness of this match.
Some people bag on this match for being thrown together, but I like it. It took the three biggest teams on SmackDonw and put them against one another. What's wrong with that? Los Guerreros were really picking up steam as far as popularity goes, but Benoit & Rhyno were coming off of a "super-team" kind of push. Naturally that meant Haas & Benjamin would be forced to steal the match. The match itself was entertaining, but I think it could have done with a few more minutes.
Where I said Los Guerreros were picking up steam as fan favorites, here is a good example. I thought the WGTT and Los Guerreros had an incredible feud, which is something you won't hear me say about tag team wrestling often. Again the heels come out on top, but it only made you want to see the faces come out on top more. This was also the best match on a card that had the Rock-Goldberg dream match.
Chavo would get injured on a house show and need to be replaced by Tajiri. Tajiri was a nice replacement, but a bit of a letdown when Rey Mysterio was also available. I was really amazed with Eddie's performance in this match because it really looked like he was leading out there and managed to carry the match almost entirely on his own, and make it a very good match to boot. I think this may have been where WWE seriously considered giving Eddie a notable singles run.
My Grade: B+
United States Title, Tournament Final [vacant]: Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (Vengeance 2003)
This is probably my favorite Eddie-Benoit match. Eddie was perfecting the "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" gimmick, enough so that he would eventually be turned face shortly after he turned heel. Some dislike the Rhyno-ference in this match, but I don't mind as it fits Eddie's gimmick to steal the victory. Great match all around.
This was an action packed match. I had the opportunity to re-watch this match over the summer as well, and man was this fun. There were some very unique spots in this match, and all four men played well together. Eddie's run as a heel would end very shortly after this, as even got a nice face pop here, despite supposedly being the heel-iest of the four.
From the Big Show Report Card: I reeeeally didn't like this match. I had hope for a unique match up, but I just didn't dig it. I didn't help that they were playing up that fact that Eddie had injured ribs, so there were a lot of bearhugs. Although, I suppose when the defining moment of your feud is being sprayed with sewage then you can't expect but too much from the finished product.
The Bashams were still pretty green at this point, despite having one great match with Chris Benoit & Rhyno before they got shackled with Shanique. Am I the only one that likes to have one bland, young tag team on the roster? Los Guerreros were in the midst of having issues, which would eventually lead to a match at the Royal Rumble. The match here was pretty basic, and the Bashams got one of their biggest PPV wins.
My Grade: B-
That does it for 2002-2003. Next week we'll have Eddie's rise to superstardom as a true WWE main eventer. I look forward to finishing this out with a bang and I hope you will come back to join me.
Post-PPV Thoughts: December to Dismember
OK, so now this is where the WWE homer comes in an tells you what an amazing show last night's PPV was, right? Guess again. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the worst PPV of the year! This really was a two-match show, and those two matches weren't even that good. As for my favorite match, I'll give the nod to the Elimination Chamber due to the title change and the nice little RVD-Test spots, but even then I have my reservations. First you have the bait and switch with Sabu, which was disappointing because he no doubt would have done a bunch of crazy shit. Then you have CM Punk's involvement. Meltzer said he would be protected...what the fuck happened?! Protected would be getting thrown through the glass and then getting pinned by the 500 lb. champion. Not get your ass handed to you by RVD for most of the match. Who would have thought that Test would provided the spot of the night? By the way, I want one of those razor sharp tables Bobby Lashley used to CUT THROUGH CHAIN. Good to see Lashley win though, I just wish it would have been on a better show with a better audience. I'm sure someone will e-mail me and tell me how great the Augusta crowd was, but don't bother. They TRIED to be an old school ECW crowd, but they couldn't get themselves organized enough. Can't say I blame them for not being that great of a crowd, though, given the product they were watching. I will say the set design was nice and the pyro for Lashley's title win was pretty cool.
My second favorite match was the Hardys-MNM match. It was probably the best of the two matches, but I felt it went long just for the sake of going long, past where it's natural ending should have been. Maybe when I rewatch it I'll change my mind.
Tommy Dreamer vs. Daivari wasn't too bad, but unfortunately the preceding matches had my falling asleep during it. I'm glad Daivari isn't on the CW anymore because now we get to hear the kickass Muhammad Hassan music. I'm also really starting to dig seeing Khali destroy people.
The Mixed Tag I have conflicting feelings on. I still mark for Kevin Thorn's music and wardrobe, but the match sucked. The best part of the whole thing was Mike Knox leaving that worthless bitch Kelly Kelly out to dry. I'd do the same thing if my girlfriend was going around telling the whole world about how much she liked someone else. Way to go, Knox, I finally care about you. I just fear Kelly will go and leach off of CM Punk now.
The rest of the card just blew. I think I've finally made up my mind that I don't like Sylvester Terkay. I also don't find Elijah Burke nearly as entertaining as everyone else, although he didn't look bad in the ring. It was nice seeing Tony Mamaluke wrestle, but that was about it.
I'm not even going to talk about Striker-Balls. I'm glad they got themselves on the show, but that match was, well, balls.
I have a bunch of feedback that I wanted to get to this week, including Angelo Velotta's conclusion to the WWE-TNA Amalgam and some trash talking on my football preferences. Unfortunately, some combination of my computer and Yahoo is making it impossible to transfer my mail here, so I'll have to get to that next time. If you e-mailed me your stuff will get printed and you will get a response either in the column or back to you (probably in the column), so never fear!
500 Good Words w/ Andy Critchell
The King is Dead
First off, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am lucky enough to have a great family and a mom who is a fantastic cook so mine was pretty great. Anyway, this is a very busy time of year for everyone including those in the wrestling industry. I can't remember a time when there has been pay per views for 5 straight weeks and here we are in the middle of it. Speaking of pay per views, I thought I would touch on my thoughts regarding Survivor Series and the goings on in the WWE plus a shocking revelation about a wrestler I have not had any kind words about…until now!
In my last edition of "500 Good Words" I wrote about what the "regular" fans want to see, one of which was seeing the Undertaker dominate. Now my stance has not changed but I do think that the WWE was operating in a short sighted manner on this PPV. I believe Kennedy is a star in the making but I think his feud with the Undertaker is going to end up hurting him more than anything else. Kennedy actually looked pretty strong going into the match but he came out of the match looking like Undertaker's bitch. Oh, and take what I just said and substitute Edge & Orton for Kennedy and DX for Undertaker and its still true. The less said about that match, the better. Oh, and the championship match was terrible. Overall, I did not really feel like I got my money's worth for Survivor Series.
As for Raw, what can I say? It feels like they are just treading water on that show. DX was pretty funny but once again at the expense of young guys who could use a rub. Orton and Edge (the only real main event heels by the way) once again came out looking like they were scared of DX which helps no one. The rest of the show was kind of just there for me. Oh well.
ECW was a fun show but not much really happened. I'm not sure what they are going for with the December to Dismember PPV but I have a feeling it's going to be a real turkey.
I am writing this on Friday afternoon and I have not seen Smackdown yet but judging by the spoilers it won't be anything special. At least King Booker and Finlay are back together.
Now I am going to do something that I rarely do, talk about TNA. I'm just going to say it; I'm starting to come around on Samoa Joe. If you read my "Confessions of a Hater" column you'd know that I don't really think much of Joe or his work. Well, that's starting to change. Maybe it's just my inner mark talking but after he finally lost to Angle I started to soften on him. Maybe it's because he actually sold something for once, I don't know. I still think he is wildly overrated but only by virtue of some people calling him one of the best in the world. However, I'd definitely say he's one of the best in TNA. What it boils down to is that you're going to have to find yourself a new king of the Joe haters because I'm turning in my crown.
I bet by the title you thought I was talking about King Booker! I guess Vince Russo isn't the only one that can pull out some trickery.
The Shimmy Likes It Raw!
What's on tap for tonight?
How will DX respond to Ric Flair being hacked to death by Rated RKO?
Will the Hardys/Team Xtreme/Hardy Boyz reunite again? Will we finally find out what brand Joey Mercury is on?
Will we hear from Kevin Federline? Probably not, but I did want to point something out. You do realize K-Fed is going to beat Cena, right? There will be interference from Umaga of course, but K-Fed is going to pin the WWE Champion. Just figured I'd let you know.
That does it for this week, kiddies. Next week we will conclude the Eddie Guerrero Report Card, so you better show up. Until then, don't die. Clark…out.
