10 Years Ago: Eddie Guerrero Wins First and Only WWE World Title

From John Cannon: It’s a scene that can tear up the mildest of underdog fans – David diving into a sea of fans after toppling over...

From John Cannon:

It’s a scene that can tear up the mildest of underdog fans – David diving into a sea of fans after toppling over Goliath. Lambeau Leap be damned, one of the greatest victory leaps in sports belongs to Eddie Guerrero.

Years after Guerrero and a group of cruiserweights introduced a whole new side of wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling, Guerrero took his spot across the ring from massive WWE World Champion Brock Lesnar and his manager – former ECW kingpin Paul Heyman – in what many thought was just a cushion match leading up to WrestleMania. What ended up happening shook up every notion of what fans had envisioned for WrestleMania.

Eddie Guerrero

On February 15, 2004, just over two years after being released from WWE following an arrest for drunken driving, which came after a stint in rehab for addiction to pain killers, the moves were set in motion to complete a stellar display of conquering of demons to once again regain his place in wrestling. Since his return he had already won his second Intercontinental Championship, the United States Championship, and three tag championships, but on this night at WWE’s No Way Out PPV at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, Guerrero was reaching for his ultimate dream – the WWE World Championship.

With his nephew Chavo Guerrero already bringing home family gold earlier in the eve by defeating Rey Mysterio to win the WWE Cruiserweight belt, it was now Eddie’s turn at bat. The result would shock the wrestling world and have the fans at the Cow Palace going nuts.

With the match pretty much even, Guerrero managed to pull off the impossible, dropping Lesnar for Guerrero’s patented Three Amigos triple rolling suplex, but missed with a frog splash, setting up Lesnar for the F-5, which not only took out Guerrero but the referee as well. Having realized the ref was out, Lesnar grabbed his championship belt, presumably to use on Guerrero, but it was intercepted when out of nowhere Bill Goldberg hit the ring and hit Lesnar with a massive spear, leaving both wrestlers and the ref lying in the ring. Guerrero finally came to for a pin attempt, but at the last minute Lesnar kicked out. Just as Eddie was setting up to use the title belt on the champ, Lesnar cut him off and set up for another F-5, which Guerrero reversed into a DDT onto the belt, creating an opening for another frog splash attempt which this time was dead on the mark for the pin and the championship.

Guerrero would go on to retain the title against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XX in another heartwarming ending. He would be a huge part of WWE programming until his unexpected death on November 13, 2005.

On April 1, 2006 Eddie Guerrero was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.