20 years ago today, WWE star Eddie Guerrero died of acute heart failure, just days after facing Mr. Kennedy on “WWE SmackDown.” In his wake, Guerrero left behind cherished memories and a legacy that lives on to this present day.
As revealed in The Players’ Tribune, a lot of those memories are still fresh within the mind of WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio, whose friendship with Guerrero spanned across multiple a long time and wrestling firms. To honor him, Mysterio penned a letter to Guerrero, detailing their relationship.
In response to Mysterio, he first encountered Guerrero within the late Eighties while traveling along the Mexico and United States border along with his uncle Rey Misterio Sr for various skilled wrestling shows. On the time, the teenage Mysterio served as an unofficial bag carrier for his uncle, who routinely entered venues along with his wrestling mask on. Contained in the Auditorio de Tijuana on a Friday night in 1987, Mysterio then saw Guerrero, whom he describes as a “shooting star.”
“There was something unique about our friendship……even going back to that night in Tijuana, before we had any friendship,” Mysterio wrote. “It’s hard to place into words. But I feel I’d say it like this: Plenty of wrestlers, they work together within the ring, after which change into friends outside the ring. Not us, though. We became friends within the ring — literally within the ring. Through the art of wrestling itself.
“In fact, it began as a one-way friendship. Me following my uncle around Mexico, then later training to be a luchador myself around Mexico, and crossing paths with you that way — from the surface looking in. Immediately I felt a connection. It was so obvious just from watching you that you simply were special … that you simply’d mastered this presence, this manner of movement, that was yours alone. But as I went through wrestling school, and commenced to review the craft of lucha libre, that is after I understood the way you’d mastered the basics as well.”
Mysterio Recalls Evolution Of His Friendship With Guerrero
From Mysterio’s perspective, a part of his friendship with Guerrero stemmed from their similar roots — each hailed from iconic families of luchadores.
“One thing I all the time loved, that does not get mentioned enough (and doubtless is not very well-known), is the way you got here from a lineage of ‘shooters’ — the not-f***ing-around sort of wrestlers,” Mysterio wrote to Guerrero. “The sort who could (and might) break a man’s leg for real in the event that they needed to. So that you were trained in all of that … a legit, old-school tough guy. But you were never actually old-school. And also you were never attempting to be a troublesome guy. What you were, though, at your heart, was a genius — and it’s such as you had this incredible drive to take that genius and push things forward.
“In order lucha libre evolved away from the shooters, to a more ’employee’-based style, and have become more about performing with someone than against them, you embraced it. And also you worked at it, and worked at it, until you became the very best on this planet at it.”
What initially began as a one-sided friendship eventually blossomed right into a deep bond once Guerrero and Mysterio shared the ring together. Mysterio specifically recalls Guerrero being surprised by the younger performer’s passion and the way he’d execute certain moves within the squared circle. Beyond the surprise, Mysterio believes Guerrero would then adjust his expectations of him in a positive way, which resulted in them regularly growing closer.
“It’s like we each loved this thing……in a way that nobody else could understand,” Mysterio wrote. “So we almost had no alternative but to know one another.”
Guerrero made his skilled wrestling debut in 1986; Mysterio followed along with his own in 1989. Across the following 16 years, they’d wrestle against and with one another in over 100 matches, with their final one happening in October 2005. Their arguably most important match, nevertheless, got here in 1997.
Guerrero Went To Bat For Mysterio In WCW
“The truest moment of our friendship could have been from our very first American match together,” Mysterio wrote. “This was in ’97, so that you’d already been in WCW for a 12 months or two by then. I mean, come on, you’d already wrestled Ric Flair for the U.S. Title on Pay Per View!!! We were all so happy with you. After which slowly but surely we began following in your footsteps. But I also think we knew the deal: We were there to be undercard guys, to pop the group with exciting matches … but that is about it. They didn’t really ‘see money’ in us. And so they didn’t all the time understand our culture.
“That was definitely the case once they told me I’d be wrestling you at Halloween Havoc to your Cruiserweight Title … with my MASK on the road … and I used to be going to LOSE. Man, I remember being so upset after I heard that. I used to be panicking!!! Like, I had just began to recover from with the American fans — and with my mask being such a powerful a part of my identity. So to lose it so early in my profession, I knew that might be a death sentence. But what alternative did I actually have??”
Initially, WCW officials planned for Mysterio to lose each the WCW Cruiserweight Championship match and his signature mask to Guerrero at Halloween Havoc 1997. Recognizing the importance of Mysterio’s mask and identity behind it, Guerrero, the in-ring veteran, as a substitute proposed the concept of him losing the match and the WCW Cruiserweight Championship attached to it. Admittedly, Mysterio doesn’t know the precise words Guerrero utilized in his pitch to WCW officials, but they were enough to sway them to reverse the plans and permit Mysterio to maintain his mask and momentum on television.
Within the match’s final moments, Mysterio countered Guerrero’s second-rope crucifix powerbomb attempt with a hurricanrana; the 22-year-old then pinned Guerrero for the win and the championship. Mysterio still sees this win as a “gift” from Guerrero, which he has tried to pay forward within the years following. In 2006, Mysterio even helped induct Guerrero into the WWE Hall of Fame.