Eddie Guerrero vs JBL (WWE - 5/16/2004)

This was for Eddie Guerrero's WWE Heavyweight Championship

This is the greatest match to ever happen in WWE history. An out of this world great bloodbath with the single greatest individual performance in wrestling history from Eddie Guerrero.

On paper, A match between these two in the main event of a WWE show in 2004 maybe doesn’t necessarily sound like the greatest thing ever but it still seems like a fun time. The big man vs little man dynamic already makes for an interesting matchup between these two but when added with the other elements this match has it makes for an all time classic.

This is a great match even before the absolutely harrowing bladejob from Eddie Guerrero, I mentioned Eddie Guerrero and how his performance is the best ever in wrestling history, but JBL absolutely holds his own in this one and is great as the big rough and tough brawler using his size to keep Eddie grounded for the first half or so of this match. Great heat segments from JBL, putting Eddie in rest holds trying to wear Eddie out and Eddie’s facials and selling in this first half are also obviously amazing. There’s also some good brawling on the outside between the two during this first half and Eddie’s small comebacks are just beautiful to see. During one of these small comebacks Eddie is giving some punches to JBL and goes to hit the ropes and runs into the referee, now the referee is knocked down and they both start brawling on the outside and Eddie throws JBL over the announce table. Eddie goes to check on the ref and when he turns around to get back on JBL, he gets the most wicked chair shot ever to the head from JBL.

THIS is when the brutal bladejob happens and the match really reaches the highest tier. From this point it’s Eddie Guerrero on the back foot and is fighting from underneath while losing more and more blood every second. There are literally puddles of it every time he is laying in one spot for more than 3 seconds. This is also when JBL really gets going and starts fighting meaner and meaner focusing his attacks mainly on the wound on Eddie’s head. Mean punches to the forehead opening Eddie up even more and sleeper holds causing Eddie to just pour blood from his forehead.

Every time Eddie is able to make a comeback from at this stage in the match it’s sort of a small miracle, it’s absolutely unreal watching this man lose a ludicrous amount of blood and still be able to move around somewhat and hit his moves. There’s a point in this where Eddie is able to get out of a sleeper with a back suplex and starts stumbling around the ring dazed and confused, when he fully gets his balance JBL starts hitting him in the back with forearm shots and each shot seems to give Eddie more energy and life, he then hits his signature dance while absolutely covered in his blood and it gives me chills every time I see it. It’s a moment in wrestling that I’ll never forget.

Eddie is finally able to get back on offense and starts punching JBL, but JBL scoops him up and looks as if he’s going to hit Eddie with a fallaway slam but that’s when Eddie counters with a DDT and goes for the frog splash and the crowd is going absolutely nuts for it all. JBL is able to move out of the way though and he leaves the ring and grabs the title belt and a chair, he throws the chair in the ring to distract the referee and bring the title belt in with him to hit Eddie with it. Eddie gets JBL with a low blow though and he grabs the title himself and right when the referee turns around after getting rid of the chair he hits JBL with the title belt and gets disqualified.

Eddie may have lost the match, but he wasn’t done with JBL yet. After the bell rings he continues to go after JBL, punching him, hitting him with the title belt again and hitting him with a chair shot. They both get back in the ring and we get the beautiful, yet almost nightmarish image of Eddie with the chair and JBL on his knees pleading for Eddie to stop and majority of the ring match coated in red from Eddie’s blood.

Eddie hits JBL with the chair again, goes up to the top rope and finally hits the frog splash. This is an absolutely classic match with a wonderful feel good post match. It has a great performance from JBL and an other worldly performance from Eddie Guerrero and tons and tons of blood. Eddie Guerrero may have lost the match but he was able to get the moral victory in the end.

*****