Rate The Gimmick: Eddie Guerrero - Stereotype Latino

[Ferbian]

It's time for another installment in the Rate The Gimmick series. The purpose of this thread is that I take a gimmick formerly used in WWF/E and you rate it between 1 - 10. 10 obviously being the best.

This week we're gonna be looking into one of my favorite wrestlers, and the gimmick contributed a lot to it.

Yes you'll have to live with this god awful picture. Google and it's pictures is screwing with me today!

The man who lied to us, stole our things and cheated his way to a world championship and many other accomplishments. Mr Eddie Guerrero.

This part of Rate The Gimmick will focus during the time where he did not use the Latino Heat moniker. But the lying cheating and stealing moniker. A moniker which he adopted, I believe around the time he moved to Smackdown and started teaming with Chavo as "Los Guerreros" in 2002.

Eddie Guerrero became quite a fan favorite through this moniker. He might very well have "suffered" from the Ric Flair syndrome of getting over through heel tactics. Nonetheless it worked for Eddie and he became quite an addition to Smackdown, feuding with the likes of John Cena, Chavo Guerrero, Rey Mysterio and others.

Eddie won numerous championships on there as well. A world title, a United States championship and a handful of tag team championships.

This moniker followed him through the rest of his career, until it was cut short in late 2005.

Now I ask you, to rate this gimmick / moniker between 1-10, and give your opinion to why you think this.

 

[Judah's Lion]

i don't know that i'd label this gimmick as "stereotype latino", although that may be what VKM was going for. i guess i'd just call this one, as opposed to his "latino heat" the "lie, cheat and steal" Eddie Guerrero.

but this is just a technicality and i get what this post is about. so my answer is this.

i'd give this gimmick an 8 out of 10. this could have easily been higher up, but for a few bad feud angles and for being cut short, i'm afraid Eddie will have to stick with an 8.

Los Guerreros were an amazing tag team and in fact, Eddie was an amazing tag team wrestler. i loved the feud between Los Guerreros, Edge & Rey and Benoit & Angle. these three teams feuded for the newly formed tag team championship and put on some true clinics.

the Chavo got injured in the middle of another great feud, against the World's Greatest Tag Team and Eddie teamed with Tajiri for a fantastic ladder match to capture another tag team title.

and then the feud with Chavo, which i will always regard as one of the most under rated feuds in recent WWE history. sure, they feuded in WCW, but that was terrible. this one, on the other hand, was written extremely well and played very well.

his teaming and eventual feud with Rey Mysterio, capturing yet another tag team title, was pretty amazing. my only complaint, and Eddie's subsequent loss of 1 point in my vote, is the whole custody of Dominic storyline. just a terrible piece of writing that, IMO, ruined an otherwise brilliant feud. great matches, including a ladder match at SummerSlam that was tainted by a really lame angle.

his WHC win over Lesnar was fantastic. my only complaint was the interference of Goldberg because i would have loved to see Eddie win clean here. but whatever, he won clean over Angle at Mania to retain the WHC, so that's good enough for me! and that feud with Angle was pretty freaking epic, so that's good enough for me.

and then finally, his last run with Batista was great. i remember watching and not knowing whether or not Eddie was heel or if he really was Batista's friend. i'll forever be saddened by his untimely death... viva la raza!

for the terrible writing of the Dominic feud with Rey Mysterio and for the untimely passing that cut this great gimmick short, i give this gimmick an 8 for 10.

honorable mentions to this gimmick: parking lot brawl with John Cena... surprisingly fantastic match that happened on Smackdown.

 

[Caitiff]

Honestly, I don't like this gimmick, at all. And, during the Los Guerreros portion of his career, that seemed to be exactly what they were going for. In fact, this is more or less how the WWE portrayed the Mexicools. So, the "Stereotypical Mexican" gimmick gets a 1/10 from me, frankly for being more than slightly racist. It's the exact reason that I have always hated Santino Marella's character.

However, Eddie Guerrero was smart enough to tweak the gimmick, and make it iinto a charming crook who just happened to be Latino. So, if we're going into that gimmick, which was the acual "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" aspect of Eddie's gimmick, I'd give that a 9, since that seemed completely natural for him. But, then again, that was NOT a WWE creation. Eddie was being booked into a similar character during his time with WCW. Granted, the character Edddie showed in WCW was, for the most part, the heel version of that giimick. But, his time with the Filthy Animals showed the face side of Latino Heat long before WWE finally understood the man's value.

And, Judah, he didn't "win clean" over Angle at Wrestlemania. His feet were on the ropes. Technicality, I know. But, that is how it happened. But, then again, I can't be mad at someone whos entire gimmick, at that point, was entirely about how creatively you can screw an opponent over for screwing his opponent over.

 

[Judah's Lion]

And, Judah, he didn't "win clean" over Angle at Wrestlemania. His feet were on the ropes. Technicality, I know. But, that is how it happened. But, then again, I can't be mad at someone whos entire gimmick, at that point, was entirely about how creatively you can screw an opponent over for screwing his opponent over.

touche. i just meant that at least he won without the help of outside interference. but yes, technically, it wasn't a "clean" win.

my other favorite, though i can't remember at which event it occurred, is when Angle applied the Ankle Lock and Eddie took off his boot and then rolled Angle up for the win. another classic "cheat to win" tactic that was perfect for the, as you stated earlier, tweaked version of this gimmick.

 

[CorkscrewBackElbowDrop]

i'll give it a 8 out of 10
i mean its so good JTG is trying to get in on it
its just fun to cheer on the bad guy and this guy is no exception
but my main reason for posting this is
FERBIAN, do kerwin white next, please

 

[kissfan85]

I don't see why it would be racist...
I think sometimes you just need to chill out and enjoy the entertainment.

I liked the whole Latino Heat era more, but Eddie no matter what he was doing was just entertaining and you could always watch his matches.

I'll rate 7/10

 

[Aether13]

I rate this gimmick an 8/10, I've always like this gimmick on Eddie because it never got stale, whether or not people thought it was racist, Eddie always found a new way to win and entertain the crowd. Plus eddie always had amazing match with everyone. It really sucks his career was cut short thought.

 

[SpoodBeest]

Eddie Guerrero's gimmick of being the crafty cheater was one of the more brilliant ones of the last decade. One of my personal favorites to watch when Eddie was still alive. This gimmick was as you said first brought in when Eddie and Chavo teamed up in the tag team that would be known ad "Los Guerreros". They got over with the fans basically by doing crafty maneuvers while competing in the ring. Such as pretending that their opponents had hit them with an foreign object such as a chair or a title belt were their most favorite to use. They would make a sound with the weapon toss it to their opponent(s) and fall on the ground and pretended to be unconscious. They would usually get a quick and easy disqualification victory this way. It always a lot of fun to watch, and the fans always showed their appreciation for them.

Then Chavo turned on Eddie, who was the more popular of the two and they feuded for a little while. During his time as a singles competitor Eddie was over enough to win the US title when it was first brought over to SmackDown's midcard and had a decent reign with the belt. One match in particular I remember was him using his "cheating" tactics on Matt Hardy to retain the US title by disqualification. Eventually Eddie was among one of the most over wrestlers on the entire SmackDown roster. So he got a main event run and feuded with Brock Lesnar over the WWE title and ended up dethroning Lesnar of the gold and won himself the "big one".

This trend remained for a year even after he lost the WWE title to JBL, and then he began what seemed like a "friendly" rivalry with Rey Mysterio. Only for him start a vicious heel run. When Eddie had his gimmick in the heel frame we saw in 2005 it was like he was a completely different person. He was evil, callous and cold. And he was so competitive he would do absolutely anything to win. However after his feud with Mysterio had ended Guerrero had reverted back to the fun loving cheater he was known for at the beginning of the year before he feuded with Rey. At the end of his career he had a friendly rivalry with Batista over the World Heavyweight Championship. And once again Eddie was as over as any member on SmackDown's roster. And was booked to become the new world champion only for his most sudden and tragic death to stop an absolutely fantastic career that could have been even more legendary.

This gimmick for Eddie Guerrero was great, and I as well as many other fans were alway entertained when he was on the screen. He was very diverse to in making the gimmick work differently when he was face and when he was a heel. We soon both of these sides of Eddie in his last year of 2005. A great gimmick that I will give a stunning 9.5/10 that sadly got cut short due to a very tragic death.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

I actually kinda cringe when I read 'Stereotype Latino'
I know it's true but I would just call him Latino Heat.

He was so brilliant in his antics; his heel promos, his comedy promos were legendary from day one and I remember how much the crowd loved him, so much so, that even when he was a sadistic heel and beating up a smaller guy to a pulp the crowd would still cheer for him.

His gimmick was one of the best of the decade and is just a damn shame I can never see anymore of it...

 

[InuJoshua]

At first, this gimmick really offended me. At the start, when it was just the Los Guerrero vignettes, they were mildly funny, but kept pushing the racist stereotype more and more as each new one debuted. When they first premiered in WWE with the low rider, that was ALMOST the last straw to me, since the history of stereotypical gimmicks in wrestling generally lead to a few cheap laughs by generalizing a race while burying the wrestlers at the same time.

Then, something changed...

Chavo and Eddie took the gimmick and morphed it into something special. As someone above me stated, they took it from a stereotypical Latino gimmick and turned it into wrestlers who would bend the rules in fun, entertaining ways who just happened to be Mexican.

When Chavo got hurt and Eddie broke out on his own, it only got better. Eddie kept finding creative ways to incorperate the gimmick into his matches, and always kept the audience guessing as to how he would pull off the win. This creativity and the excitement that it created finally lead to a championship run, one that was long deserved and long overdue.

The gimmick itself was doomed to fail at first glance, but due to the talent, creativity and skill of Eddie Guerrero, (and Chavo to some extent,) I would give the gimmick a 9/10. Less for the gimmick and more for the execution. RIP Eddie. You were one of the best.

 

[youngbullzeye]

Viva La Raza!!!!! Once you heard those words you knew that only one man was going to come out and he would lie,cheat,and steal to win.That man was Eddie one of the best wrestlers ever to me.I think his gimmick was really the best for the years he used it i think the only other gimmick that was big during that time was "The Next Big Thing" which was Brock Lesnars.But for eddie's gimmick i gotta go with a 9 could be a ten if only he would still be here

 

[ForzaItalia]

I would give the gimmick a 9/10 just because the character Eddie played was so entertaining, had that Mexican style wrestling, and he was able to play the gimmick so well it seemed very believable. The gimmick he played made me laugh because of all the stunts the gimmick was able to accomplish. Best of all you did not know what Eddie Guerrero was going to do next. The gimmick had numerous catch phrases and was able to get a reaction from the crowd good or bad. I give this gimmick a 9 most importantly because Eddie had such a strong passion for the wrestling business and he loved to make us laugh, which is why this gimmick was so successful in the first place.

 

[Stevo]

I'm giving it an 8.

It was damn entertaining.Who can forget Eddie's promos where he'd have auctions, or stole Kurt Angles stuff. His quick wit and fun attitude and jokes were fun and funny.

He got over as a face using heel tactics.You don't see that too often, my wrestling knowledge base is limited and the only person at the top of my head who did this was Flair. But Eddie got the job done.

It blended in well with a lot of his feuds.Like his feud with JBL, who was a racist bully, remember when he made fun of the Japanese with the God Zilla blow up doll, or that time he attacked those Mexicans. lol