Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio Jr (WCW, 10-26-1997)

WCW Halloween Havoc, Las Vegas, NV

This is a request via Ko-fi. It’s Eddie’s WCW cruiserweight title against Rey’s mask.

Guerrero had become a total motherfucker after coming to WCW as a vanilla babyface, leaning up to accentuate evil muscles, wet his hair, stopped wearing a singlet top, and became the true Eddie Guerrero, a mean son of a bitch and generally despicable human being. Rey was the little superhero of the division, which he had been since coming in.

Tenay is good at explaining this being “the real Eddie Guerrero,” going back to the young guy Mike saw for years in Mexico. Heenan calls Guerrero one of the most talented wrestlers ever. Say what you will about WCW Bobby Heenan, but goddamn did he love and go out of his way to put over some glass ceiling guys like Guerrero and Dean Malenko and (redacted) and Chris Jericho. Heenan, having been a small bump machine in the ring, could appreciate what they were doing and how far the deck was stacked against them becoming actual players, perhaps.

This is all action right away, with Guerrero getting nasty early with Mysterio on the floor, hurling him into the steps like so much garbage. Back in and Rey gets a moment, but Eddie catches him with a back suplex out of a handspring thing, then drops him with a brainbuster and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, both delivered with force as Tenay notes that Mysterio is 8-0 career in mask matches.

Guerrero starts tearing at the mask and goes into an abdominal stretch. Mysterio’s mask is built into his bodysuit, as they note, which means in theory that Mysterio can’t have the mask ripped off as easily, but really you just tear out his eyeholes and all that, and Eddie realizes that. Guerrero uses his body weight to keep Mysterio on the mat and wear him out as the crowd chants “Eddie sucks.”

Mysterio suddenly turns the tide with a wicked ass springboard backflip DDT deal, then dumps Eddie to the floor, but Guerrero slips back in during Mysterio’s attempt at a plancha, dropkicking Mysterio to the floor, then fires him into the guard rail, Mysterio taking it chest first at full speed, like Bret Hart in the corner.

Back inside, Guerrero grabs a camel clutch variation and tears open the left eye hole, exposing some of Mysterio’s face. Out of that and Eddie gets the Gory Special locked in. Mysterio spins out with an armdrag, but misses a dropkick, and Guerrero drills him with a dropkick to the back of the neck and then an over the shoulder backbreaker, then a modified bow and arrow submission as the crowd tells Eddie he sucks again.

The very abrupt explosions of offense from Mysterio are just good enough to make this seem at least a little competitive, or give the hope that Rey can win even though Guerrero is totally dominating him. Chops in the corner, Rey starts blocking punches and turns it around with three right hands and a chop of his own. Guerrero blocks an Irish whip and turns Rey upside down into the TREEAWOE, giving Guerrero a chance to grin sadistically and miss a baseball slide dropkick, with Mysterio bridging up and sending Guerrero sailing nuts-first into the ringpost.

Mysterio flies from the top rope with a plancha and has brought it back close to even, at least. Back in and a second attempt at a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker is countered by Mysterio, who takes Eddie over with a huracanrana for two. Guerrero stems the tide as quickly as he can with a lariat. Mysterio’s future 619 fake out deal turns into a headscissors that sends Guerrero to the floor, then a somersault plancha into another huracanrana.

When they head back in, Mysterio hits him with a corkscrew bodyblock for two. Guerrero gets knees upon a split legged moonsault attempt, then power bombs Mysterio so hard that your soul shakes just witnessing it. Guerrero grows slightly frustrated not getting the fall there, and lets Mysterio get back into it. Rey’s attempt at the springboard rana is countered with a backbreaker from Guerrero, who heads up top for the frog splash.

Mysterio moves, with Guerrero able to change in mid-air to a front roll. Up to the other corner, and Guerrero has Rey up a splash mountain from the second rope, but Mysterio counters with another rana for the win.

Rating: 5/5. There’s a tick in me that thinks this match is slightly overrated, but then I really analyze, and it’s not. The thing is, there have been a lot of matches similar in style to this one in the last two decades in WWE and WCW and ECW and ROH and TNA, and that’s in large part because this match helped influence a generation of young wrestlers in the United States, along with many other matches from these two and guys who are generally recognized as part of the same crew – Malenko, Benoit, Jericho, etc. 21 years later, of course the match has aged a bit and isn’t what it was in the moment, but it’s an incredible match, and deserves its reputation.