Link: No Disqualification Match: Edge vs. Eddie Guerrero | Smackdown Sept. 26, 2002 (WWE won’t let this video be embedded)
In 2002, nobody was expecting much out of these two. Eddie Guerrero was still pretty new to the WWF, having joined in March of 2000 and immediately getting injured, then being released in March of 2001, before coming back in May 2002. Meanwhile, Edge had spent the last few years tagging with Christian (Cage) and putting on some spectacular ladder and TLC (Tabbles, Ladders, and Chairs) matches against the Hardy brothers and the Dudley Boyz. Edge had just split up with Christian thanks to the WWE “Brand Split” (where the wrestlers who appeared on Monday Night Raw and Thursday night Smackdown were to remain exclusive to each show) from earlier in the year, and was just getting his singles career going.
Eddie Guerrero was a “Heel” (wrestling villain) during this time, so he comes out to boos and causally-racist signs. Also, Eddie had been wearing his hair longer in the back for years, and was one of the last celebrities to rock the mullet hair style — Leading to several “Mullet Guerrero”-style signs.
This match occurred during the time period where Edge was using Rob Zombie’s song, “Never Gonna Stop Me” as a theme, from the album The Sinister Urge. The video on WWE’s YouTube channel has his previous theme, “You Think You Know Me” edited in, along with fake crowd cheers. It’s unfortunate, but I understand WWE not wanting to pay licensing fees for a song that they aren’t promoting anymore.
Lots of fast action to kick things off, with Guerrero eventually getting the upper hand and locking Edge in a rear chinlock. Edge battled out, getting a snap power slam, leveling the playing field. Edge went for something off the top rope, but Eddige countered with a top-rope superplex, which led to a 2-count. Eventually, Edge knocks Guerrero outside the ring, and then Edge went for a ladder — The crowd pops, as Edge was known for being in several high-profile ladder matches (Wrestlemania 2000, Summerslam 2000, and Wrestlemania X-Seven in 2001 amongst them) for the last few years.
The referee gets KO’ed by a whiffed ladder shot, and Guerrero grabs a chair, laying Edge out. Guerrero goes for his finishing move, the Frog Splash, but Edge moves out of the way. After the commerical break, we get a new referee and Guerrero is stomping Edge in the corner, and then applying a sleeper hold, transitioning back into the same rear chinlock hold that he’d used to slow the match down earlier. We see a replay of what happened during the commercial, where Edge hit Guerrero with one of his favorite moves, the Spear, but with the referee knocked out, he couldn’t win the match. Back to live action, Edge gets a near-fall of a faceplant, but Guerrero gets a frankensteiner off the top rope, which leads to another two-count.
It’s storytelling 101; The villain should always be one step ahead. The reason they lose is because they make a mistake and the hero is able to take advantage. This very basic element of storytelling is often lost in wrestling matches in the last decade or so — It’s why the audiences turn on characters like John Cena or Roman Reigns. If it never feels like the hero is in peril, it betrays what audiences expect from literally every other form of entertainment they watch.
As the two competitors climb the ladder, it FEELS like Edge is finally going to get the upper hand because he’s had such success in ladder matches. But Guerrero flips over Edge and hangs onto his hips, powerbombing Edge off the ladder in one of the biggest, most dangerous spots you’re gonna see on a free TV match.
Some more back-and-forth action involving the ladders eventually lead to Edge hooking Guerrero on the top of the ladder, and hitting what was his finishing move at the time, the Edge-Acution (See, it’s like “execution,” but it’s by Edge), from an elevated height.
I remember watching this match “live” (Smackdown was taped on Tuesday and aired on Thursday at the time), and thinking, man, who could have expected this match to be that good?
I mean, 20 years later, sure. We lost Eddie Guerrero in 2005, and his legend has grown his legacy much bigger than it ever was when he was alive. I don’t say that disparagingly — Eddie was great, he just wasn’t recognized as being as good as he was by most wrestling fans until after his passing. And Edge has recently come back from a career-ending neck injury to add on to his legacy. While I haven’t seen much of what he’s up to these days, what I have seen is worlds better than his average output during his first run.
So where the hell did this match even come from?
I can only speculate, but I think it was both men trying to prove themselves. Guerrero needed to prove that he belonged in WWE as he’d only been back for a few months, and Edge needed to prove that he could be a singles star. Wrestling fans who were a little less-casual knew how good Guerrero could be, but we hadn’t really seen it since he left WCW. And, if I may say so, I don’t know that we’d ever seen anything from Edge that indicated how good he’d end up being.
Paul Heyman was on the writing staff for Smackdown at this time, and he saw Edge has the next big babyface in wrestling — Heyman has said he wanted Edge in 2002 to be what Sting was for WCW in the early 1990s. And he knew how good Guerrero could be, even though the rest of WWE management didn’t see it yet. And if you’re going to have good heroes, you need them to have good opponents.
So, between having Paul Heyman motivating them, and the two being hungry, a pretty great free TV match was executed (edge-acuted?), and it’s one that I still remember, 20 years later.