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#4 Eddie Guerrero and JBL's bloody war
Eddie Guerrero's WWE Championship reign ran into a roadblock when he was challenged by John Bradshaw Layfield. At WWE Great American Bash 2004, thanks to General Manager Kurt Angle, Guerrero lost the title to JBL. However, their previous title bout wound up being one of the most brutal matches of that era.
At Judgment Day 2004, JBL defeated Eddie Guerrero via DQ after a hellacious 23-minute affair. It was, by definition, a bloodbath. Guerrero was bleeding like a stuffed pig, to the point that the canvas was more red than white. At the half-way point in the match, Guerrero was cracked with a steel chair, which led to one of the nastiest moments in WWE history.
Guerrero bladed, but ended up going a little far, sending an everflowing waterfall of blood from his forehead. Seriously, this is a content warning if you're not used to this kind of stuff. The tweet below shows one of the most devastating chair shots in WWE history and some nasty carnage.
Near the end, Guerrero had JBL down on the mat and began hammering him with lefts and rights. The referee tried to pull him off, but Guerrero refused to stop. This led to a disqualification victory in favor of JBL. However, this also showed a killer instinct that had not been seen from Guerrero in quite some time.
It showed a new edge to his character, something that we'd see more of the following year.
#3 Eddie Guerrero slays the Next Big Thing
We talked about Eddie Guerrero's phenomenal promo, talking about his addiction to wrestling. We've got to follow that up with the actual match and Eddie Guerrero had the house rocking. At the Cow Palace in California, Eddie Guerrero challenged Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship.
As great as Eddie was, he was against someone that was more than twice his size. Brock Lesnar was young, nearing the end of his first stint with the company, and was terrifying. The Next Big Thing, as he was called at the time, ran through some of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time. The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Big Show, and even future 16-time champion John Cena.
However, Eddie Guerrero made everyone believe that he could slay The Beast Incarnate. And that's exactly what he did. It was a fantastic David vs Goliath match, with fans going crazy every time Guerrero was on offense.
Still, Lesnar's strength advantage was undeniable, and he seemed to be running right through Guerrero to WrestleMania. However, when the ref was laid out, Lesnar would eat a spear courtesy of Goldberg.
It wasn't enough to put the WWE Champion away. Eddie Guerrero managed to then counter an F-5 with a tilt-a-whirl DDT onto the championship. The Frog Splash heard around the world connected, and Eddie Guerrero left the Cow Palace as the new WWE Champion.
This list isn't one of Eddie Guerrero's best matches or best feuds. Still, his bout with Brock Lesnar had to be here because it showed that the WWE Universe was fully behind him as the face of the brand. At that moment, Eddie was WWE. Eddie was wrestling.
Teddy Long snaps when Swerve Strickland's race is brought up HERE
