Bruce Prichard Explains Why Eddie Guerrero Was the Right Guy to Beat Brock Lesnar
In a recent edition of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard discussed the decision for Eddie Guerrero to win the WWE title from Brock Lesnar, Eddie’s chemistry with Lesnar, a fan interfering in Eddie’s ladder match against Rob Van Dam, and much more. You can read his comments below.
Bruce Prichard on a fan getting involved during Eddie Guerrero’s ladder match against Rob Van Dam on RAW: “Not cool. Scary as shit, man. The guy’s lucky he only got out of there with a couple of bruises. Not smart, and it was a different time in that if someone came into the ring – you have to understand, as a performer, especially when you’re a heel performer, that you don’t know if a member of the audience comes jumping into the ring to try and attack you, you don’t know if they have a knife or a gun or what the hell their skill level is or anything else. All you know is there someplace they’re not supposed to be in your world, and you have to defend yourself. In our world today, it’s gotten to the point where you can’t even defend yourself. So, yeah, back then it was scary and we used the guy as an example.”
On Eddie’s first match with Brock Lesnar and their chemistry in the ring: “I think it was the way that Eddie worked with Brock and the way that Brock worked with Eddie. They knew how to work with and for each other, so it was essentially the first time and looking at it going ‘Hmm, you know what, this could work’ because Brock was able to accentuate Eddie’s positives and vice versa.”
On Eddie winning the WWE title from Lesnar: “It was the absolute premier underdog victory in beating the big bad monster in Brock Lesnar and Eddie Guerrero overcoming everything. In addition to that, you look at the human being Eddie Guerrero and what Eddie had accomplished in his career and his life – the struggles Eddie had throughout everything and to now be the man. Not only that but to be able to perform at the level that Eddie was able to perform and kill it every night. I was proud of him and loved him to death and just so happy for him.”
On WWE’s decision to put the belt on Eddie with Lesnar leaving: “It was from a place of looking at who’s gonna be the next guy. Who are we gonna focus on to take us to another level hopefully at this point? Kurt [Angle] was discussed and all these different things, but we had never had a champion like Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was over and he was primed for the picking. Eddie was, when you looked at the roster, probably the least probably to be the champion but also the only real logical choice that you would choose to be the champion. He had it all, and I think a lot of people felt it was a bad decision and felt that Eddie was too small and the fact that he was Mexican – all these things like he’s a little guy – there was just opposition. In the end, I remember thinking he’s the guy. He was just the guy at that time, and I think Eddie needed that title.”