Steven Regal vs. Eddie Guerrero: Something That Basically Never Happened

ER: The other day I saw that Regal had tweeted "What a fortunate lad I was to be able to wrestle, in my opinion, the best all rounder our job ever saw. Over 22 year gone so quickly." He was referring to Eddie Guerrero as the all rounder, and to a Nitro match between the two of them which is now over 22 years old. When I saw that I realized that "Eddie vs. Regal" was not a match-up I had any memory of seeing, and two of my all time favorite wrestlers going against each other sounds like something I would remember. And it turns out, they really were not in a match together very often. They were in three different WW3 battle royals together, but those matches were so stupid that I just need to dedicate an entire week of posts to those atrocities. Throwing out any matches involving three rings, these two matched up together less than 10 times. That feels impossibly low. So I figured I'd seek out all of them and take a look at this non-feud between two legends.


Eddie Guerrero vs. Lord Steven Regal  WCW Nitro 1/8/96

ER: My god what a start. Based on this match alone, Regal would have likely been my favorite wrestler in the world in 1996. He just ate Eddie's lunch in this match. Eddie got swallowed whole and got a fluke roll up on the other side. This was arguably Eddie's biggest kayfabe win up to this point in WCW, and he had to go through a helluva hazing to get there. I love Eddie. Love him. But Regal was just the total show here. Regal gave an 8 minute tour de force of nasty palm strikes, peace signs winked to the camera, hard knees, kicks to the body, disgusted smirks, just not letting Eddie up for a second. He took a couple nice headscissors, but a lot of this was Eddie getting wiped around the mat and then getting various parts of his body attacked in new and violent ways. I've never seen Regal throw this many palm strikes in one match before. He must have thrown at least a dozen of them, some out of a headlock, some while Eddie was slumped in the ropes, some on the mat, every single one of them nasty. 

Before that we got a bunch of fun mat stuff, with Regal trying old WoS tricks like trying to kick kick at the back of Eddie's knees, and Regal has the best facials in the biz when it comes to selling an arm wringer (we can probably just shorten that to "best facials in the biz"). I loved Regal doing his turtle spin to kick out one of Eddie's arms to seamlessly set up a gorgeous one-legged monkey flip. But Regal as a savage was what this devolved into, and the devolving was GREAT. Regal was so merciless that at one point he chopped Eddie right in the freaking temple, just backhanded knuckles right into the side of Eddie's head; left elbow to the left temple, pause for a beat, right chop to the right temple. Vicious. Earlier Eddie was attempting to get up from the mat just as Regal dropped a short elbow on him, so Eddie basically sat up into Regal's full weight getting dumped on his head. Eddie got smothered and for his part ran face first into hard back elbows, took a bunch of snap bumps to the mat, and paid for his win in bruises. I've seen every time Regal has matched up with Finlay, and Regal was as mean here as he was in any of those matches. No hyperbole.

PAS: This certainly felt like the start of a vicious feud that never happened. It feels like the blowoff should have been Eddie bleeding like one of those JBL matches. I love how Regal takes armdrags and headscissors, he hesitates a bit to try to stop it and then just flies over with such force and torque. Eddie reversing the double underhook suplex into an armdrag was totally off the charts. I am sure Regal didn't mind losing to Eddie, because he is a pro who respects talent, but man it felt like he was pissed at putting him over. Parts of this match felt like Kevin Sullivan working a jobber, that backhanded slap to the eye was uncalled for stuff, as was that elbow drop on the side of Eddie's neck. You get asskicker Regal and base god Regal all in the same match, can't ask for more then that.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Lord Steven Regal  WCW Main Event 7/7/96

ER: Leave it to WCW to never capitalize on that previous match. Eddie gets an important pinfall and Regal beats the crap out of him, and we get the follow up match 6 months later on their D show. Is it too short? Yes. Does it have a lousy finish? You betcha. Is everything awesome before that? Well of course. Regal looks so damn good here, with he and Eddie doing all sorts of cool grapples and take downs. Eddie lands on his feet after a monkey flip, hits a cool armdrag off a Regal butterfly suplex attempt, Regal starts lacing in elbows and then Eddie takes a super fast bump to the floor off a Regal toss. Weirdness ensues when Regal fakes a knee injury, suckers Eddie in for a double leg for what you think is going to end it. But something weird happens as Nick Patrick just stops counting at 2, even though Eddie didn't kick out. It looks like Regal was supposed to have his feet on the ropes, but he never puts them there, so Patrick just has to stop the count for zero reason instead of stop the count after witnessing the cheating. The Eddie just rolls up Regal for the win. Folks you won't see a finish worse than that one. But god that first 90 seconds of the match was all the stuff you want in pro wrestling.

Eddie Guerrero/Dean Malenko vs. Steven Regal/Rey Misterio Jr.  WCW Nitro 11/3/97

ER: Only 4 minutes, but as you might expect, a really fun 4 minutes. Nobody in the match likes each other, Eddie has fully been absorbed into the awesome Eddy Sucks era with his chopped and wet mullet and cool red/black/gold tights. Regal comes out with Misterio, to Misterio's music, doing his great shoulder shrugs on his way down the ramp. Dean comes out with Eddie, to Eddie's music and they're scowling at each other the whole time, and I have to pause it because I ended up laughing too hard: Behind them, just off camera, Wildcat Willie was watching them scowl, and stood there with his arms held out in reconciling shrug, like "Guys, come on, put your differences aside, come on." He does not understand these complex human interactions.

This is cool as Regal works more face (towards the end of the match he even does this cool crossbody into a hot tag, which I'd never seen him do), and Eddie works outright heel, and I always loved how Eddie's bumping was slightly different as a heel, snapping even faster to put over opponent offense but with a hint of stooging. Regal and Eddie tangle, with Regal taking some nice armdrags, pasting Eddie with an uppercut, Eddie getting splatted with a flapjack. Rey and Dean have some fast exchanges, I loved Malenko just outright shoving Misterio to the mat, and late in the match Dean catches a springboard rana and basically RUNS to the ropes to opt to take it all the way over the top to the floor. Nutso. Eddie takes a nice rana from Rey for a tight nearfall, and we got a fun ending filled with miscommunication as Rey accidentally springboard dropkicks Regal, Eddie plants Rey with a nasty powerbomb and heads up for the frog splash, while Dean tags in and taps Rey immediately with the Cloverleaf. Everybody looked great, this easily could have been a 15 minute WCW classic.

PAS: This was a fun short Parejas match with all the partners feuding with each other. This is a match full of guys who work really well with each other, the Rey vs. Eddie stuff especially is done with such speed and crispness. I love that Regal and Eddie seem to have a signature spot built around the reversal of the double underhook, it is crazy that guys that wrestled less the a half a dozen times have a signature spot. While the early Nitro match got plenty of time, this was a classic WCW truncated TV match, given 12 minutes it could have been incredible, instead it was more of a tease.

Eddie Guerrero/William Regal vs. Spike Dudley/Rob Van Dam  WWE Raw 4/15/02

ER: A briskly paced tag that didn't totally feel like a WWE match, comprised of teams who didn't really ever team up. This is smack dab in the middle of the peak "everybody on the gas" era WWE, as Regal is slender and ripped and Eddie is downright hulking. It feels like RVD and Regal crossed paths a LOT during this era of WWE, so it feels downright criminal that he and Eddie never did. It makes no sense how little they were put together. Spike works a lot of this tag, really gets to show off all his offense and it's cool seeing him work somewhat even with these guys. He throws a hard clothesline for someone who is my size, and I always like the smoothness of his rana that always ends with a nice snap (some people quit halfway through their headscissors and ranas and leave it up to the base to take it, his follow through is always primo). Spike mostly pairs with Eddie, meaning Regal gets paired with RVD. The RVD matches I remember liking from his WWE run were on paper style clashes, like against Regal or Scott Steiner. But RVD was sloppy and his hot tags were all lousy. He managed to fall on his own head doing a crossbody, so that's something. Regal crazily dropped Spike with a very vertical drop half nelson suplex at one point, a spot that looks even more insane in the middle of a random Raw tag. Spike took a nice beating the whole match (not a shock), and I like how after Eddie stuck Spike with a gorgeous frog splash, Regal saved Eddie from RVD's frog splash. Regal and Eddie walked up the ramp with arms draped over each other, genuinely acting like they'd be a legitimate team going forward. They teamed together one more time.

PAS: This was really brutal for a random PPV set up RAW tag. Spike gets absolutely murdered on a half nelson suplex, it was as neck traumatic as any nutty current NJ bump. RVD meanwhile was unleashing spuds, a couple of times I though he legit split open Regal with his kicks and he totally crushes him with the rolling thunder, full weight right on the ribs. Eddie's brainbuster and frog splash combo was always breathtaking, and it especially looks good on an all time bumper like Spike Dudley


Eddie Guerrero/William Regal/Chris Benoit vs. Spike Dudley/Bubba Ray Dudley/Jeff Hardy  WWE Raw 7/15/02

ER: Damn Damn DAMN kind of a lost little era classic with everybody in this working as if their job depended on it. It's an elimination match, and that first team looks like it was thrown together to make the specific little part of the wrestling internet that I frequented in 2002 collectively pee themselves. You don't get more DVDVR internet favorite than Eddie/Regal/Benoit in 2002. And it's not misguided, as Eddie was just otherworldly during this era, such a mover, really feels like a Bill Hader/Phil Hartman type that can just run into the ring at any moment and completely save any kind of akward situation. Hardy throws a kick that doesn't totally connect? Eddie is going to make it work.  I liked how they mixed up eliminations, getting Spike believably out of the way early and then going on a long tear with nobody getting eliminated. We only get a Spike/Eddie interaction but it's really good, and it's with a cool struggle over a small package that I very much buy as pinfall worthy. Bubba would have been the big surprise when this happened, as this was right around the time where his work really bumped up to the next level. 

Once Spike is eliminated he comes in with absolute intensity, sends Eddie's pelvis crashing up through his neck with a nasty seated full nelson slam, hits an awesome spear, takes a Benoit German at a really high angle, just really impressive work. Eddie felt like he was a part of every piece of the action, no matter if he was in the ring or not, at one point charging in for a double team and eating a high and fast backdrop to the floor. It was totally unnecessary, but added such excitement to the babyface comeback that you knew that guy knew exactly what he was doing. Jeff is all floppy ragdoll limbs, which doesn't always work when you need him in a specific position, but is fun to see against pros like Eddie/Regal/Benoit. He would always fold spectacularly, and was good at getting muscled into offense. I loved Regal grabbing a downed Hardy's arm and casually dropping a perfect knee right on his temple. Hardy plants Regal with a swanton, Eddie and Benoit punish Hardy once Eddie is eliminated, really this match was in no danger of losing steam when they ended it. I remember there being a lot of fun TV classics during this era, but hadn't remembered this match. Add this one to the list for sure.

PAS: This was really good stuff, I would have really loved to see the Regal, Benoit and Eddie trios run wild on the WWE at this point. I loved all of the horseshit they did to set up the final pinfall, with Eddie running in to to distract the ref, Regal sneaking from under the ring to blast Hardy with knucks and Benoit feeding on the scraps with the crossface. I hadn't seen Spike in a while, it was really jarring to see how skinny he was, especially compared to the juice monsters Benoit and Eddie. If that guy had a job, there was no reason to look like Road Warrior Hawk. Bubba was shockingly good, that spear on Benoit was awesome, and he was a big fat dude to take a german like that. This was close to the peak of Jeff Hardy's overness, while he wasn't as crisp as the other guys in the match, he was great at taking a beating and timing his comebacks, really good stuff.

ER: Well, I have no idea how Regal and Eddie didn't share more matches together - teaming or against each other. They were regularly working for the same companies, were always regarded as great wrestlers, and as evidenced by these matches they were clearly good teammates and good dance partners. And yet, we have nearly twice as many televised Funaki/Albert matches than matches with Regal and Eddie even in the ring together. Life makes no sense sometimes. And now I'm going to write up a dozen Albert/Funaki matches.