What If: Eddie Guerrero At WrestleMania 22
Who would have faced Latino Heat?
Tomorrow marks the 15th anniversary of the death of a man who I consider to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Eddie Guerrero.
We here at The Wrestling Estate have a very fun edition of the roundtable coming on Friday discussing Eddie’s life and career in wrestling. One of the questions poses an interesting scenario: What would have become of Eddie Guerrero in the wrestling business had he lived the past 15 years?
I was 12 years old when we lost Eddie. As I’ve aged, I’ve pondered the possibility of what Eddie’s later career would have looked like. Using simulators such as Extreme Warfare Revenge and Total Extreme Wrestling (thanks, Adam Ryland!), I’ve been able to do just that. The way I always figured it, he couldn’t have had too much time left in the ring, especially given what we now know about the health problems he had stemming from a lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse. I know many wrestlers don’t even hit their stride until their mid-30s, but Kurt Angle, who has spoken in-depth about what it was like working with Eddie Guerrero in recent interviews, maintains that Eddie’s in-ring prime came and went while he was working for WCW, which is amazing to think about considering all the great memories and moments Latino Heat gave us in each of his WWE runs.
That said, Angle has a point. The explosiveness Eddie exhibited in the mid-to-late ‘90s is what sets him apart from the greatest in-ring performers of that era, and when you fast-forward four or five years, the same level of explosion just isn’t there. However, even if we’re to believe he passed his physical prime, he was still among the best do-it-all wrestlers in the company over the final three years of his life, slotting in just behind the likes of Angle, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho and do I even say it? Chris Benoit.
For that reason, I would have given Eddie Guerrero five more WrestleManias before transitioning him to a non-wrestler role. Then the question becomes, what do you do with him? Does he manage? Does he open his own wrestling school? Does he take over talent relations or some sort of behind-the-scenes creative job? Does he become a color-commentator in either English or Spanish? Or does he keep it simple and ride off into the sunset to spend the rest of his life among the people who love him most? The truth is Eddie would have been able to do any of these jobs and excel, which speaks to his greatness. We’ll have to use our imagination about which of these jobs Eddie would have been best fit for, as well as what the remainder of his 2005 heading into WrestleMania 22 would have looked like, but perhaps that’s why you’re here.
I’m going to lay out the year that never was: Eddie Guerrero and the Road to WrestleMania 22, taking into consideration three things my old history professor at Temple, David Farber, used to talk about: the known knowns, known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. Actually, I think he borrowed that from Donald Rumsfeld. I’m going to consider any and all elements regarding what we definitely know about the direction of Eddie’s character at the time of his passing, what we have heard in interviews from people like Batista, Randy Orton and his wife Vickie regarding the direction he may have continued heading in, and then from there I’m just going to wing it and work Eddie into modern WrestleMania history the best I can without taking too many liberties.
His presence in the new timeline is immediately going to be felt. If you recall, he had just won a spot on the Smackdown Survivor Series team in the final match of his career against Mr. Kennedy. However, with his passing having occurred just weeks before the show, he was replaced with Randy Orton. But what if Eddie hadn’t passed? What would Orton have done at Survivor Series? Well, we do know the plan was for WWE to come back to the Orton-Undertaker rivalry after Orton, with an assist from his dad, put The Deadman out of commission at SummerSlam. We also know there was supposed to be a World Heavyweight Championship match the night of his death. Was Eddie booked to win it? No. Batista discusses the plans for that night in his book Batista Unleashed. Batista notes that Orton was set to get the belt in a triple threat match against Batista and Guerrero that night, and although Batista lobbied for Eddie to get the ‘w,’ on a phone call with The Animal, Eddie noted that while he appreciated it, he told Batista that it was Orton’s time to shine and to trust Vince McMahon’s judgment. Orton confirmed this in an interview with The Sun.
So, let’s say Orton gets the title. What then? To have full clarity on what would have happened next, we would need to ask The Undertaker if he would have returned at Survivor Series, anyway, or if he would have held off had Eddie Guerrero lived. Unfortunately, we do not have that type of access (yet) so let’s assume Undertaker vs. Orton happens as planned, just at the Royal Rumble. Their feud didn’t really call for world championship involvement, so let’s use Armageddon in December as a means of taking the title back off Orton. It’ll also be a pivot point for the Eddie-Batista storyline.
After Survivor Series, Eddie and Batista put their friendship to the test against MNM and win the WWE Tag Team Championship on SmackDown. MNM invokes the rematch clause at Armageddon, however, World Champion Orton is given a choice of his Armageddon opponent. He can either face The Undertaker, or face Guerrero and Batista at the same time in the very same match he won the belt the month prior. Fearing the repercussions The Undertaker may have in store, Orton opts for the triple threat rematch, fulfilling Batista’s rematch clause.
At Armageddon, Eddie and Batista, who are double booked in the same pair of matches, first lose the tag team titles back to MNM after a miscommunication, then carry that tension into the main event. Thanks to an assist from a scorned Undertaker, Batista is able to hit Orton with the Batista Bomb, but before he can make the cover, Eddie comes back into the ring, mule kicks Batista from behind, throws him out of the ring and hits the Frog Splash on Orton to win his second world championship and first World Heavyweight Championship (gotta love WWE lingo in the mid-2000s).
A heartbroken Batista opens the next SmackDown asking Eddie why he did what he did, but after calling him to the ring, Batista is left hanging and attacked by MNM, setting up a handicap match for later in the night. Meanwhile, Cowboy Bob has a come-to-Jesus meeting with his son, basically insinuating that he needs to face his fear and deal with The Undertaker head on or The Deadman is going to continue to be a dark shadow over his career. As a result, Orton challenges Undertaker to a Casket Match at the Royal Rumble, now excluding them from the Eddie-Batista issue. In the main event, MNM disqualify themselves in an attempt to really stick it to The Animal, but Eddie runs in to make the save, leaving everybody perplexed as to what’s going on.
The following week, Eddie, world title in hand, opens the show. He says that normally he’d be happy as a pig in shit to be the world champion on SmackDown, and says the old Eddie Guerrero may have had a celebration with all the pomp and circumstance you can imagine. However, after winning the World Heavyweight Championship at Armageddon, the only thing he can feel is guilt. Yes, he’s the world champion again, but at what cost? Perhaps his friendship with Batista? The utter fact that Eddie could have severed his close bond with Batista makes him sick to his stomach. Coming off the very bitter, personal feud with Rey Mysterio, Eddie says he was lost, but not necessarily mentally or even emotionally. He says he didn’t know who he was anymore. When he looked in the mirror, he didn’t recognize the man looking back at him, and that ate him up inside. But spending time around a man like Batista gave him clarity. Batista showed him there’s more to this than what goes on bell-to-bell, and that’s something he lost sight of, but regained over the last three months.
But at Armageddon, like the addict he shuns to be, he relapsed. Frustration from earlier in the night boiled over and Eddie decided in that split second he was going to do what he had to do to not leave Providence, RI, empty-handed. So, he took Batista out of the picture and capitalized on Orton. He says that night should have been one of the greatest nights he’s had in a long time, but instead it left him with more questions than answers. He says he couldn’t face Batista last week, but wants him to know he is sorry and remorseful, and that if he is in the building to come on out and meet him man to man.
Batista comes down to the ring and says that last week, he was looking for answers himself, but that even though he didn’t get any, he thinks he has Eddie figured out. First off, Batista says he believes Eddie, but that doesn’t change what went down at Armageddon in either match. This is who Eddie Guerrero is. He lies, cheats and steals and makes no apologies about it. It’s what makes him one of the toughest outs on SmackDown and also one of the very best entertainers in the entire WWE. It also makes him impossible to trust. Eddie attempts to interject, but Batista cuts him off and asks him to let him finish. Batista says it’s not his fault and always knew he couldn’t trust Eddie, but didn’t think it needed to get in the way of them being friends and teammates.
However, at Armageddon, Batista says he took his eye off the ball and it cost him. The moment he gave Eddie an inch, Eddie took a mile. It’s the reason they are no longer tag team champions and the reason Eddie is the world champion, not Batista. But Batista says if Eddie is looking for answers, he need not look any further because the answer is right under his nose. THIS is the real Eddie Guerrero. Batista says he respects Eddie for the man he is and accepts his apology as the two share a handshake and then a hug. However, as Eddie goes to pull away, Batista pulls him back in and says that with that out of the way, it is time to put the pleasantries aside. He says Eddie has something that he believes is rightfully is and tells him to do the right thing and give him the first shot at the title. Eddie looks down, pulls the microphone to his mouth and kicks Batista in the groin before he can say anything. Eddie lets out his infamous grin, looks back at Batista and tells him he needs a week to think about it.
The next week, all the top contenders on SmackDown are in the ring and make their cases to challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship. Eddie comes out onto the stage and is about to announce his choice of who to face at the Royal Rumble, but Theodore Long interrupts him and reminds Eddie that it is HIS choice. As a result, SmackDown’s four top contenders are going to have a beat-the-clock challenge on that night to determine who will meet Eddie Guerrero at the Royal Rumble. The rest will just have to run the gauntlet in the Royal Rumble itself, but only if they’re able to win their challenge match. Of course, Batista comes away with the fastest time, so the date is set. The next week, Eddie reveals that in tonight’s main event, he and Batista will have to work together one last time against MNM. Whoever is able to get the fall will get to pick the stipulation for the big match at next week’s contract signing. However, should MNM win, Mercury and Nitro would be added to the world title match at the Rumble, adding unwanted obstacles for both men.
Sure enough, Eddie and Batista dominate MNM. Batista hits the Batista Bomb on Mercury and turns around to knock Eddie off the apron. Eddie flinches, but Batista restrains himself, tags Eddie in, smiles and goes to the adjacent turnbuckle to do Eddie’s signature pose while a very cautious Eddie goes to the top rope, hits the Frog Splash, checks back at Batista one more time and covers Mercury for the win. When the two are getting their hands raised, Batista, who basically ceded the right of stipulation to Eddie, smiles confidently while Eddie still has a flabbergasted look on his face, not entirely sure what just happened.
The Royal Rumble go-home show features the Batista-Guerrero contract signing. Batista starts by saying he is sure Eddie is wondering why he let him get the pin last week. Batista says it took every ounce of energy within him to restrain himself, but he did it because no matter what type of match their title match is contested in, he is confident he can destroy Eddie in a way nobody ever has. He says he has been observing Eddie very carefully since they began teaming and he knows every strength, weakness and tick. And no matter what type of match Eddie picks, Batista says he is going to tear him apart, but also wants him to know it’s nothing personal, especially because he’s confident that Eddie would have done the same thing in his shoes. Eddie says he’s not so sure about that because Batista’s words three weeks rang true. He says Batista is absolutely right that this right here is the real Eddie Guerrero, and the sad truth is, the real Eddie Guerrero doesn’t play nice with others.
Eddie says he is this way because he doesn’t have all the physical advantages Batista does. He never had the size, power and movie star good looks becoming of a main event star. He had to scratch and claw for everything he’s earned, bend every rule and like Batista said himself, take a mile when an inch is given. He adds that regardless of their issues over the world title, he believes, no, he knows their friendship was real. He points at Batista and tells the fans this is a good man, and one day he’s going to be bigger than Elvis and run every facet of this company. However, Eddie says Batista’s day will not come at the Royal Rumble and reminds him that he holds all the cards as to what kind of match he will have. Eddie builds it up, but goes on to say that the match they have will be… a standard match.
Not only that, Eddie says he is going to be giving up every championship advantage he has. Should he get counted out or disqualified, he will lose the belt. That’s because the man in him, the man Batista always believed in respects the hell out of what Batista did for him last week in spite of what’s happened since Armageddon. Eddie laughs and says it’s funny how accustomed we all get to seeing violence during contract signings but assures there’s not going to be any of that. No tricks. No surprises. All he wants to do now is shake Batista’s hand and let him know ‘may the best man win,’ but that if he thinks he’s going to run over him, just like how Brock Lesnar once thought he was going to run over Eddie Guerrero, then it’ll be Eddie who goes on to WrestleMania. He adds that as good as Batista was the night he beat Triple H and won the title, he’ll have to double it on Sunday. The two share a firm handshake and intense stare down as the credits roll.
The World Heavyweight Championship match at the Royal Rumble plays out a little different than Eddie Guerrero’s match with Lesnar did. In fact, Eddie dominates the first five minutes, using veteran tactics to get some early offense in. Eventually, Batista’s power earns him the upper hand for another five minutes as Eddie looks to adjust. The match sees Eddie turn to a more mat-based amateur style, working Batista’s limbs to limit the gravity of his offense. The match is also littered with ref bumps, each time tempting Eddie to cheat to win. But in each instance, he is able to shrug off his demons. While the belt does find its way into the ring like it did in the Brock Lesnar match, Eddie ultimately decides to kick it out, but as Batista gets Eddie up for one of his signature moves, Eddie is able to counter and plant The Animal with a Tornado DDT just like he did Brock Lesnar, except this time, Batista’s head hits the mat as opposed to the belt. As a result, the move isn’t able to keep Batista down, and The Animal counters the Frog Splash into a spinebuster for the win. After the match, Eddie has no problem shaking Batista’s hand, officially anointing him as the new face of SmackDown.
In this simulation, Randy Orton goes on to win the Royal Rumble, setting a match up against Batista at WrestleMania. Because the space-time continuum works in mysterious ways, Batista doesn’t tear his triceps and is able to continue on to WrestleMania 22 to face Orton in the SmackDown main event. The Raw main event remains intact as John Cena faces Triple H. So, you’re probably wondering who’s left for Eddie Guerrero to work with at WrestleMania? Typically, the Royal Rumble match itself serves as a catalyst for interpromotional feuds at WrestleMania. However, I’m not going that way with it.
Instead, Eddie comes out on the next SmackDown and tells the fans he’s never felt more comfortable in his own skin and that he wants to give back to them as a thank you for being patient with him all these years. He says the best way he knows how is with a match at WrestleMania nobody will ever forget. However, it seems he’s exhausted possible opponents on SmackDown. The world title match is set, The Undertaker is booked and his therapist said it’s probably a good idea to steer clear of Rey Mysterio for a while. As a result, he requests permission from Teddy Long to represent SmackDown in the annual interpromotional match. Long admits he and Eddie have had their ups and downs over the years, but even he can’t deny Latino Heat has been a model member of the roster since SummerSlam. In fact, Long says he believes Eddie represents the true essence of what SmackDown is all about, and as a result, is going to allow him to go over to Raw next week to interview potential opponents. Or, pick a fight, whichever he preferred.
On the 2/13/06 episode of Raw, a three-hour special, Eddie Guerrero interviews potential opponents in a series of comedy segments, with names ranging from Big Vis to Mae Young to Kerwin White. At the top of the third hour, Eddie comes out and says he’s stumped for opponents, so anybody looking for a dance partner at WrestleMania can feel free to show themselves and that he doesn’t even care who it is at this point. Sure enough, to the surprise of all the fans in attendance, the man to answer Eddie’s challenge is none other than the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels!
For years, I wagered a guess that an Eddie Guerrero vs. Shawn Michaels WrestleMania encounter would have been possible as early as WrestleMania 22. Michaels always felt sort of shoehorned into the feud with McMahon and this made more sense years later when it came to light that the original plan was to get Bret Hart in the door to have the match with McMahon. Much to my delight, both Bruce Prichard and Court Bauer have confirmed on their respective podcasts that as late as the final week of Eddie’s life, early plans were in motion to match the two Texas wrestling legends up at WrestleMania and there was so much appeal to this idea.
First off, the two had never touched, been on the same show or even in the same ring in their respective careers. Michaels was out of commission for nearly the entirety of Guerrero’s early WWF run, and when he did return in time for SummerSlam 2002, Guerrero had been drafted to SmackDown, so the only other time they could have interacted at that time would have been in the Royal Rumble. However, both superstars only ever competed in the same Rumble match twice. In 2003, Michaels was eliminated early by future rival Chris Jericho, and in 2005, Guerrero was eliminated approximately one minute before Michaels made his way to the ring. When you factor in the Texas roots of both men, similar builds and the propensity of both legends to steal the show on any given night, this kind of matchup constitutes a bona fide dream match.
At this point, Vince McMahon has been acting as the interim Raw General Manager after firing Eric Bischoff (but really taking out the trash) in December 2005. Vince is happy to make this match and happy to have Eddie Guerrero around on Raw. In fact, it turns out Vince sees everything in Eddie he used to see in Shawn Michaels: a brazen, charismatic individual who delivers in crunch time. But Michaels, McMahon says, has been on the WWE payroll since 1988 and is yesterday’s news. The 2006 version of the Heartbreak Kid is yesterday’s news and if anything, a more watered-down version of Mr. WrestleMania.
The new and improved Eddie Guerrero, however, is a superstar McMahon believes is worth backing and bringing over to Raw on a full-time basis. Even though McMahon claims it is in the best interest of the WWE to keep both Raw and Smackdown equally strong, he believes Eddie, not HBK, is the shot in the arm Raw needs now three months into its return to the USA Network. As a result, McMahon makes the declaration that while Eddie is contractually tied to Smackdown through the WWE Draft, he will always be welcome on Raw and that he will personally be backing Eddie against HBK at WrestleMania, putting a new spin on the Smackdown vs. Raw matches we’ve seen at WrestleMania over the years.
Michaels is nonplussed by McMahon’s declaration, at least at first. He runs down his vast list of accomplishments and rattles off all the great matches he’s had, particularly at WrestleMania, but says if proving he’s worthy of his spot is what he has to do, it’s what he’ll do because he is the Heartbreak Kid and there is no mountain too high for him to climb. The ensuing weeks between Raw and Smackdown involve Eddie and HBK playing a game of one-upmanship. That game comes to a head when Eddie becomes the last person to qualify for the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match, with the stipulation being that Eddie can introduce the World Heavyweight Championship into his match with HBK if he wins. Unfortunately, Eddie is the first to be eliminated in the match, but not before he has a fateful encounter with HBK backstage. The conversation is friendly, but HBK succeeds in putting doubt in Eddie’s head, even though an Eddie Guerrero win inside the Elimination Chamber means HBK gets to compete for a world title.
The next day on Raw, Guerrero, still feeling slighted, costs HBK an Intercontinental Championship match with Shelton Benjamin before hightailing it out of the building. The race to WrestleMania is on. Two weeks later, both men appear on a very special edition of Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel. Jericho, if you can recall, was still on hiatus at this point, but remarked in a quick hit via satellite the week prior that he felt obligated to come back and get to the bottom of the beef between HBK and Latino Heat because he’s known both men for such a long time. Guerrero says this started as a thank you to the fans for sticking by his side, but take it with a grain of salt, he can honestly say that HBK is responsible for all the animosity. Eddie remarks he invited Michaels as his personal guest at No Way Out, but that he didn’t have to seek him out backstage. Eddie says he made this match for the fans, and he wanted to get back the World Heavyweight Championship for the benefit of the fans, this match and Shawn Michaels himself.
HBK says if Eddie thought that would make him happy, he doesn’t know anything about the Heartbreak Kid. Michaels gives his usual spiel about having been there and done that and that world titles aren’t what fuels him anymore. Instead, moments of brilliance are what keep HBK going into his 40s; moments of brilliance and respect, which he seems to have lost if we’re to put any stock into what the man who signs his checks thinks. Michaels thinks the boss, as well as the fans, believe he’s gotten soft and at WrestleMania, he’s going to remind everyone what The Showstopper is all about. He also adds that he’s not like Batista. He doesn’t want the best Eddie Guerrero. He wants an Eddie Guerrero that is going to second guess himself so it makes his job easier. Eddie says he’s given the WrestleMania match a ton of thought.
Chris Jericho interjects. He says the story of he and Shawn’s match in 2003 was two careers that paralleled one another. Eddie and Shawn’s careers couldn’t be more different. Like Vince McMahon said before, Michaels came into WWE in 1988 and had a clear path to the top. Eddie, on the other hand, had to pay his dues in virtually every company that mattered in Japan, Mexico and America before finally coming to WWE, and that’s without even mentioning the other things he had to overcome when he got here. HBK cuts Jericho off and talks about the demons he had to overcome as well, pointing out that he and Eddie are more similar than different. As a result, Michaels is willing to let bygones be bygones heading into the big match. Eddie agrees. May the best man win. As they go to shake hands, Michaels crumbles to the ground in a seizure. Eddie smiles and reveals a prank buzzer in the palm of his hand. He hits Michaels with the Frog Splash, gets on the microphone and tells him they may have their similarities and their differences, but he made the mistake of screwing with Eddie Guerrero. And now, he’ll need to ask himself what he’s willing to do to win this match because there are no limits as to the lengths Eddie plans to go to at WrestleMania.
The match itself features a little bit of everything, much in the same way HBK’s match with Kurt Angle did the prior year. Meanwhile, it’s the technical masterpiece everybody dreamed it would be. Both wrestlers hit finishers of the other, beginning with Eddie teasing the Frog Splash, but instead hitting HBK’s elbow drop from the top. He also attempts the Sweet Chin Music. HBK, meanwhile hits the Three Amigos and even attempts the Lasso from El Paso, but Eddie sensing this pulls the same stunt he tried against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 20, with Michaels taking Eddie’s shoes instead of his legs. HBK, pushed to the brink, attempts to even cheat much in the same way Eddie would, swinging the ring bell Eddie introduced into the match when the referee was out. However, Michaels misses the foreign object shot and instead gets a dropkick into the turnbuckle for his trouble. The finish comes when Michaels hits a Sweet Chin Music from the floor when Eddie was looking for the Frog Splash. With Eddie stunned, Michaels is able to give Latino Heat another super kick for his trouble, keeping him down for the three count.
Coming out of WrestleMania, Michaels continued to feud with McMahon, who insisted his comments leading up to the match were a motivational tool for the Raw superstar, thus creating a rift between them that will carry them through the year. Meanwhile, Eddie Guerrero would end up moving to Raw after all in the WWE Draft, marking the first time since the start of the brand split he would be appearing as a regular on Raw. Maybe one day I’ll do another piece that touches on how I would have seen Eddie’s final four years going, but this should be more than sufficient for now and hopefully the definitive take on what direction Eddie’s career would have taken up to WrestleMania 22.
Feel free to chime in on Twitter if there’s anything in here you disagree with. Like the rest of you, I’m just a fan of this great thing we call professional wrestling, but without Eddie Guerrero, my fandom probably wouldn’t have been possible. I owe so much of it to him and I hope this piece did him justice.
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