Eddie Guerrero v Rey Mysterio (Judgment Day, 5/22/05) - EPIC
You'll be shocked to hear that this is a very good wrestling match. I may have mentioned a time or two that Eddie v Rey is my favourite match up in wrestling history, and I've possibly also mentioned that their '05 feud is my favourite of all Eddie Guerrero v Rey Mysterio. This was early in the feud, the first match after the Eddie turn where he gave Rey the disgusting brainbuster on the steps. It led to the best mic work of Eddie's career and maybe his best ever line: "I have your blood on my hands, Rey. At Judgment Day...I'll have your LIFE!" Rey walking out rather than springing from the floor already gives the match a different feel. It's a different Rey, a necessary shift to deal with a different Eddie. And you will not be surprised by this but I thought Eddie was amazing here. Well both of them were, but Eddie is sort of mesmerising. Cold, aloof, dead-eyed, a man with some issues deep in the psyche somewhere. There was one Mysterio fan over in the front row and Eddie would stare a hole in them a few times throughout the match, I think at one point hurling some abuse at them in Spanish. At the end, after he'd obliterated Rey with a chair, he turned to that Mysterio fan and his look suggested he'd have taken the chair to them next if he could get away with it. I know Eddie was almost cartoon villain-ish by the time they hit the Great American Bash, but he was still grounded at this point and that actually made him seem more dangerous, or at least more believable. Rey is super aggressive early and hits the best mounted punches of his career, then Eddie takes over and never really gives up control until the last few minutes. This is one of your classic dissections of a body part, a proper dismantling, first when he hits the spinebuster onto the table before going to work on the taped ribs. At one point he flashes a grin, only for about half a second, but it was enough where you knew he was enjoying what he was doing to the wee fella. I've said this a bunch of times before but there are very few people I'd rather see work a heat segment than Eddie. He works over the midsection with holds, impact moves, strikes, cutoffs that keep the ribs in focus, everything. He goes from a high-angled single-leg crab into an ugly SFT, wastes Rey with a big back suplex, works a nasty abdominal stretch where he clasps his own hands behind his back, just a bunch of great stuff. His Three Amigos are once again the best ever and it's mental how nobody ever learned how to swivel their hips when copying it, other than by god Logan Paul. I liked how there were still some flashes of Latino Heat, just less charming and good-natured, like when they were both throwing punches and Eddie kind of half shimmied the shoulders to get fired up. It was the early stage of his descent into MADNESS, still some of the old Eddie in there but gradually being pared away. The 619 around the post outside gives Rey his first real opening and from there they work a nice finishing run, albeit one where they were clearly saving stuff for further down the line. I loved Rey's aggression again though, like when he comes steaming out the corner with a fuckin big boot! There was one nearfall after a superplex where you knew Eddie had snapped just by the way he looked at the ref' before immediately covering Rey again, this time with the leg hooked tight. Shortly after that he goes for the chair and then we get the DQ finish. As far as DQ finishes go I liked it, although I would've liked it more if they'd got there there without Chavo being involved. As a first match in the series it did the trick though, and more than that it was a great first chapter in Eddie Guerrero's spiral. I remember reading about him being frustrated that some fans were still hesitant to boo him, but I think that was largely down to who he was to people the same way Negro Casas was never going to be booed in Arena Mexico or El Hijo del Santo pretty much anywhere or after a certain point Flair in the Carolinas, or I guess even Austin no matter what he did. It sure wasn't for the lack of trying on Eddie's part.
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