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 day.
As revealed in The Players' Tribune, many of those memories are still fresh in the mind of WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio, whose friendship with Guerrero spanned across multiple decades and wrestling companies. To honor him, Mysterio penned a letter to Guerrero, detailing their relationship.
According to Mysterio, he first encountered Guerrero in the late 1980s while traveling along the Mexico and United States border with his uncle Rey Misterio Sr for various professional wrestling shows. At the time, the teenage Mysterio served as an unofficial bag carrier for his uncle, who routinely entered venues with his wrestling mask on. Inside 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 put into words. But I think I'd say it like this: A lot of wrestlers, they work together in the ring, and then become friends outside the ring. Not us, though. We became friends in the ring literally in the ring. Through the art of wrestling itself.
"Of course, it started 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 outside looking in. Instantly I felt a connection. It was so obvious just from watching you that you were special ... that you'd mastered this presence, this way of movement, that was yours alone. But as I went through wrestling school, and began to study the craft of lucha libre, that's when I understood how you'd mastered the fundamentals as well."
From Mysterio's perspective, part of his friendship with Guerrero stemmed from their similar roots both hailed from iconic families of luchadores.
"One thing I always loved, that doesn't get mentioned enough (and probably isn't very well known), is how you came from a lineage of 'shooters' the not-f***ing-around type of wrestlers," Mysterio wrote to Guerrero. "The type who could (and might) break a guy's leg for real if they had to. So you were trained in all of that ... a legit, old-school tough guy. But you were never actually old-school. And you were never trying to be a tough guy. What you were, though, at your heart, was a genius and it's like you had this incredible drive to take that genius and push things forward.
"So as lucha libre evolved away from the shooters, to a more 'worker'-based style, and became more about performing with someone than against them, you embraced it. And you worked at it, and worked at it, until you became the best in the world at it."
What initially started as a one-sided friendship eventually blossomed 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 how he'd execute certain moves in the squared circle. Beyond the surprise, Mysterio believes Guerrero would then adjust his expectations of him in a positive way, which resulted in them gradually growing closer.
"It's like we each loved this thing......in a way that no one else could understand," Mysterio wrote. "So we almost had no choice but to understand each other."
Guerrero made his professional wrestling debut in 1986; Mysterio followed with his own in 1989.Across the next 16 years, they'd wrestle against and with each other in over 100 matches, with their final one taking place in October 2005. Their arguably most significant match, however, came in 1997.
"The truest moment of our friendship may have been from our very first American match together," Mysterio wrote. "This was in '97, so you'd already been in WCW for a year 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 proud of you. And then slowly but surely we started following in your footsteps. But I also think we knew the deal: We were there to be undercard guys, to pop the crowd with exciting matches ... but that's about it. They didn't really 'see money' in us. And they didn't always understand our culture.
"That was definitely the case when they told me I'd be wrestling you at Halloween Havoc for your Cruiserweight Title ... with my MASK on the line ... and I was going to LOSE. Man, I remember being so upset when I heard that. I was panicking!!! Like, I had just started to get over with the American fans and with my mask being such a strong part of my identity. So to lose it so early in my career, I knew that could be a death sentence. But what choice did I have??"
Initially, WCW officials planned for Mysterio to lose both 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, instead proposed the idea of him losing the match and the WCW Cruiserweight Championship attached to it. Admittedly, Mysterio doesn't know the exact words Guerrero used in his pitch to WCW officials, but they were enough to sway them to reverse the plans and allow Mysterio to keep his mask and momentum on television.
In 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 in the years following. In 2006, Mysterio even helped induct Guerrero into the WWE Hall of Fame.
