A Wrestler Who Can Literally Control the Crowd

[Corkscrewed]

I was watching some Eddie Guerrero videos and then thinking about some recent things I've said about The Rock. And I realized (or maybe re-realized) that Eddie was the last WWE superstar would could really--and I mean REALLY--get the audience to just eat out his hand and react in whatever way he wanted.

Now, The Rock had that same electricity as well, and to an even bigger degree. Certainly, he wasn't perfect all the time, but in terms of fan control and reaction, The Rock was probably the best, and the only person who could rival his reach was Hulk Hogan (to be honest Hogan probably controlled the crowd even better than The Rock, but I hate Hogan, so yeah...).

Anyway, after The Rock went to Hollywood, I think the mantle of "super hot superstar" actually fell on Eddie's shoulders. Now, he didn't have the mainstream exposure that Rocky had, and his pops weren't quite as severe. However, compared to everyone else, they were leagues above the norm.

I remember when Eddie came out with Rey's bloodied mask and cut a wordless promo. It was all facial expressions and body language. And he got ENORMOUS heat. I remember being in disbelief at how Eddie had the audience completely at his control, hating his guts, and he didn't even have to say a word.

But he was equally effective as a face, getting the crowd to chant his name very often and getting massive pops with his "lie, cheat, and steal" character.

Not a lot of people can pull that off. I mean, when's the last time we've had the audience enthusiastically and unitedly chant a wrestler's name? CM Punk at Survivor Series? But does that even compare to the chants Rock and Eddie got?

I don't really think so.



I've long maintained that the WWE really started to go the bollucks when Eddie died, because that triggered an avalanche of effects that killed SD's main event for half a year, forced transfers from RAW, led to scenarios that got some workers unhappy, and is still being felt today in the form of overpushed main eventers who've been rushed to fill the main event void created by the domino effect of the changes that happened last year.

Call it bias, fandom, or whatever, but Eddie held the WWE together. Even though the company was well into a down period, he was the one guy who could be counted on to sell seats (this especially with the Hispanic appeal). He was the closest thing to a mainstream superstar the company had.



Anyway, the point of all of that is that the WWE's high turns have pretty much always coincided with the emergence of a central character with that "it" factor who could command the presence of the crowd. A character who made you want to tune in, even if the rest of the show sucked. With Eddie, the rest of the show kinda did suck. With some of the others (Rock, Austin), the rest of the show seemed to benefit from the high created by the main players, and the show enthusiasm infected everyone, who worked harder to put on a better show.

I don't think the WWE will truly go back on an upswing until they find a wrestler who can be like a Rock or Austin or Hogan or Eddie, and not shove him down our throats.

So I guess the discussion question is whether you see that happening anytime soon. The catch is that while there are people who can fit that category (Cena pre-supermanification and arguably CM Punk), we have to also account for the shoving-down-our-throats aspect of booking that the WWE seems to love to do, especially lately, because they're so desperate to create that new star who can command people's attention.



And if that discussion doesn't work (I don't think I've been very coherent in this post compared to my usual ones; I'm kinda rambly, most likely because it's late), then consider this an Eddie Guerrero appreciation thread.

Seriously. Who's the last wrestler who routinely had the crowd doing whatever he wanted and literally buzzing with excitement? It was Eddie.

These days, the closest we have is The Undertaker. Or Triple H, I suppose.