Chavo


Chavo Guerrero Jr. turns 40 today.  He was one of my favorite mainstream television wrestlers for a while there in the 1990s.  Later, connections to steroids, Chris Benoit, and his uncle Eddie Guererro later made him seem a doomed and haunted figure, but the man still wrestles.

In his heyday, as a good guy or as a villain, Chavo's macho self-confidence and volatility kept me watching World Championship Wrestling--back when it was owned by Ted Turner, post-Jim Crockett, pre-Vince McMahon.

Unlike some of his close contemporaries at WCW--Billy Kidman, Evan Karagias, Alex Wright, and Buff Bagwell--Guerrero exuded smoldering intensity and built most of his persona and story through his actions in the ring, rather than through costumes and monologues at the microphone--two qualities that made him, for me at least, hotter than they were, even though admittedly they had handsomer faces and harder bodies.  The dark fire in this guy's eyes just eggs you on to fight him.


Comments

  1. Best WCW quote...

    Eddie: "You're loco"

    *pointing to self* "Nooooo...I'm Chavo."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow--I have a totally different opinion of Chavo Guerrero. Far from being a wrestler who defined himself through his actions in the ring, he's the ULTIMATE cheesy gimmick wrestler. His most notable runs in wrestling, before his uncle died and he became a mere charity case in memory of Eddie, was as a mentally challenged psycho who rode a toy pogo stick horse to the ring that he "believed" was real, and then as a wannabe white guy (literally named Kerwin White) where he cut dozens of promos doing things like playing golf and talking about country club living while making blatantly racist comments about Shelton Benjamin as a cheap attempt to build heat. He's just not remembered as having many gimmicks simply because he was so absolutely terrible on the mic and had no personality to speak of.

    I actually kind of resent Chavo. It's completely obvious to me that the only reason he has been allowed to make hundreds of thousands of dollars as a professional wrestler for nearly two decades when much more committed, talented and deserving wrestlers with bigger audiences have been cut over the years (Rene Dupree, Mark Jindrak, and even Alex Wright and Evan Karagias) is because of his last name. But, to each his own.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I haven't tuned into pro wrestling for many, many years, but the last time I did, Chavo was a major turn on. I considered him stunningly handsome in a way that made him stick out from the crowd that you mention, Joe. I loved Eddie, as well, though there was something disturbing about watching him seem to sprout bodybuilder-quality muscle overnight.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Archive

Show more