I love(d) them both. Both are great talens, great characters and great people.
Now let me compare them.
Rey is a great wrestler, but really the only style he pull off legitimately was and is lucha libre/high flyer. He's great at it, but that's really about it, he does know how to be technical, but he's not to good at it and it doesn't seem believable to me. He can't brawl, he tries too, but unless it's against someone his own size, which is rare, it looks assinine. Eddie could work many styles, ranging from Luch Libre, to fantastic technical wrestling, and he could brawl. He could take you apart with holds, or just ground and pound if he choose too, so my nod goes to Eddie for wrestling ability. He can just do more in a ring that Rey can.
Let's move on to mic work. Eddie definitely trumps Rey in this aspect of sports entertainment. Rey's not bad on the mic, he has a lot of emotion when he talks which is good, but all in all I find him rather dull and boring on the mic. Now Eddie could work the mic and work it well, he could hold the crowd in the palm of his hand. So without a doubt, Eddie steals the mic work portion hands down.
Charisma.... both Eddie and Rey have a lot of it, but Eddie is the complete charismatic package. His expressions, his tones, body language, appeal worked on many different levels. His lie, cheat and steal gimmick was met with tremendous cheers and the fans ate it up like candy. You could not help but love to hate this guy. Where as Rey, well he is captivating in the ring with his moves, but that's about it, if you really think about it, he really isn't that charismatic. So again Eddie gets the nod.
Now as far as playing a character, Rey plays the inderdog character very well, because he truly is an underdog, but picture Rey as a heel, can you actually picture it? I can't, because Rey's size, the way he has been portrayed, and his appeal oozes fave his whole career. If he tried to turn heel, I do not think it would work. I think the fans would crap on it and boo him, not because he is a heel, but because it would almost be a joke for him to try it. Rey can only ever play one thing, the lovable underdog. Now Eddie... Eddie Eddie Eddie... he could play the viscious heel that could have you hating him more that anybody. He could spit venom at the fans on the mic and could make you believe he was a heartless, ruthless, arrogant bastard. Then in the next breath if he so choose, he could have you cheering him like crazy, with that little smirk he did and that cheating to win. Eddie was a master at playing his role, which he could play many. Rey can't, so Eddie takes this piece of the puzzle as well.
As far as passion... there is no question, Eddie and Rey are very passionate guys and both eat, sleep, eat and breath wrestling. No debating this, that the passion they both had/have is a tie.
Work a match. They can both work their asses, and they can both put people over and make them look good, however the only downfall and this isn't Rey's fault, but it makes his opponents look weak and pathetic, is when Rey cleanly beats men way way way bigger than him. It's not believable, however with that aside, they can put on fantastic matches. So it's pretty much a tie there.
So if you put all the pieces of this puzzle together, you can plainly see or at least I can, that even though Rey is a tremendous talent and is one of the best, Eddie just tops him in most catagories, and you have to give the nod to Eddie as the better of the two.
Throw into the mix, the achievements both men have had in this business and the nod still goes to Eddie, so Eddie all the way, no doubt about it.
