Chavo Guerrero Sr.

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[KrisZ]

Chavo is someone who is hurt by not having a real high profile singles run in the States although he had some damn good matches in Japan for the various Jr. Titles.

 

What we do have in abundance is Chavo working in tag/trios matches and he is such a damn good performer in those but again his bouncing around territories not to mention taking lots of time off at different points in the 80's hurts him in my eyes.

[goodhelmet]

Chavo has been solid in almost every territory he has been in. Lack of footage hurts a little but we have enough from everywhere that demonstrates he was pretty good everywhere. I'll try to dig up a listing of matches we have nominated for the 80s sets.

[Eduardo]

I remember after Chavo Guerrero Sr. was released from the WWE for missing several shows in 2004, his first gig was wrestling at Bruce Tharpe's IWF promotion. I think they had a connection stemming back from the old Florida territory. The announcer for his promotion, Mando Sanchez, told me Guerrero Sr. showed up drunk for his IWF debut. Under the influence, middle aged Guerrero Sr. was still surprisingly decent.

I've only seen it once, many years ago, but I remember loving Chavo Guerrero Sr vs Tatsumi Fujinami. Seen a little bit of his 1980's work, but I really would love to see more.

[Timbo Slice]

Is there much footage of his LA stuff? The Piper stories he tells when he went up against him make me really want to see that stuff.

[JerryvonKramer]

There is LA stuff from Olympic shows from 82-3, look complete to me.

 

There are also Chavo matches on the South West TV footage that's out there and buried here and there on TV from all over the place . I've seen his name come up in all sorts of random stuff but it's piecemeal and buried on obscure comps.

 

There is a match from 85 vs DiBiase that took place in San Antonio for All Star that is a holy grail of mine because it does exist on tape and some people speak highly of it.

 

Chavo has been a bit hit and miss for me after impressing in that match vs Mr. Olympia in Mid South. Sometimes he's great, sometimes not.

[Beast]

Didn't know where else to put this, but is it widely known Chavo wrestled about 11-12 matches for WWF in the summer of 1987? Mainly against Jose Estrada and Haku (!).

 

Plus a handful of taped appearances where he didn't show and was replaced by Outback Jack, Steve Gatorwolf, and Lanny Poffo.

 

Was looking up something else on The History Of WWE and I was shocked when I noticed that.

[JerryvonKramer]

His thread links to Jr.

 

Pete, how much has Chavo been helped by Houston stuff on NWA classics?

[shoe]

I feel the Houston stuff has helped with Chavo. It gives him a lot more matches to look at. I think he has a lot more stuff in the vault that 5 years from now will help him even more.

[Jetlag]

Chavo feels like a guy tailor made for this list. A guy who looks rugged and tough as hell, and at the same is a really graceful wrestler. One of the few guys where the "complete package" tag truely applies: tremendous babyface. Really good at being a stooging and bumping heel. Throws a beautiful punch (especially in the few LA clips), can go on the mat, fly like the best of the 80s guys, and he shows up in all kinds of places - Mid South, Japan, Mexico - and belongs. Also, he has that masterpiece with Mr. Olympia, which is stone cold locked in my personal canon of all time favourite matches. He shows up in mat based junior matches, workrate matches, heated brawls and lucha trios aswell as legend nostalgia stuff or random indy appearances.

 

The rest of his Mid South resume ain't too shabby either. These matches all placed in DVDVR's Top 100:

 

5.) Mr. Olympia vs. Chavo Guerrero ( 6/24/1983 ) - 9953 points

26.) The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (Mexican Death Match) ( 1/24/1986 ) - 7991 points

29.) The Fantastics vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 10/12/1984 ) - 7959 points

39.) Rock N Roll Express vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 2/13/1985 ) - 7320 points

54.) Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. The Fabulous Ones (Texas Tornado Cage Match) ( 2/28/1986 ) - 6612 points

64.) The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 12/29/1985 ) - 6019 points

68.) The Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero ( 12/27/1985 ) - 5801 points

81.) Chavo Guerrero vs. Buzz Sawyer ( 6/13/1986 ) - 5474 points

84.) Buddy Landel, Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. Brickhouse Brown, Bill Dundee & Jose Lothario (Elimination Match) ( 11/16/1984 ) - 5386 points

97.) Chavo Guerrero vs. Steve Keirn (no DQ loser is painted yellow match) ( 1/31/1986 ) - 4756 points

 

Other notable appearance include:

 

NJPW

Chavo Guerrero vs. Kengo Kimura (11/3/80)

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chavo Guerrero (5/9/80)

Chavo Guerrero vs. Kengo Kimura (9/30/80)

 

AJPW

Chavo Guerrero vs. Masa Fuchi (8/31/83)

Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. Mighty Inoue & Gran Hamada (9/12/84)

Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras vs. Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Steamboat (9/6/81)

Mighty Inoue vs. Chavo Guerrero (2/26/84)

 

Texas

102.) Chavo Guerrero, Iceman King Parsons & Kerry Von Erich vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Penalty Box Match) (4/29/83) - 2,787 points

 

 

 

 

He also shows up in that 1990 trios with Dandy, Azteca, Cruz and Rocca. He is not that outstanding in it, altough that would be impossible with all the ultra talented dudes in their prime right there. Still another entry in my canon of super classics. Guerreros vs. Brazos trios from 1991 is really great and has Chavo locking up with Porky, and it is really cool to see him as a master tangling on the mat with a beast. After that there's not much to be found of his career, but there's stuff like him showing up in 1993 WAR and looking really cool, or that PWG legends battle royal where he has a really fun performance for a 100 year old guy.

 

NWA Classics has unveiled some more stuff where Chavo looks excellent. He is always doing neat stuff in singles matches and the tag stuff is a blast. At times he looks a Gran Hamada placed in there with these big heavies.

 

All that and I have to say Chavo doesn't have the kind of tremendous career I feel he should have. Maybe it's that he's not consistent, maybe it's just lack of opportunity. But regardless of that he is a very strong contender in my eyes.

[JerryvonKramer]

I was blown away by the Olympia match first time round but then terribly disappointed by it on the rewatch for my 80s thread.

 

I think we are missing too much Chavo for him to rank and he ended up not making my list despite a decent score. I also think he has too many performances in different settings that are disappointing for one reason or another. Didn't like his NJ match vs. Fujinami. He's frequently underwhelming in AJPW. Jetlag might love all that stuff but I've honestly thought it is a case of diminishing returns with Chavo.

 

His best stuff seems to be in the tag setting, especially with Hector, and especially when they are working heel and Chavo gets to flex a bit of his offensive chops.

 

But based on what we've got, and I hate to say this, I think he flatters to deceive as a realistic candidate.

[Jetlag]

What exactly is it that you find disappointing about him? I think Chavo is really outstanding as a junior worker.

 

vs. Kengo Kimura (NJPW 9/30/80)

 

I like Kengo and his 1980 match vs. Fujinami a lot, but this is the Chavo show. Top notch contest. Really great snug work on the ground, which I like a lot more than the boring shit you'd see in AJPW. Chavo is really sinking into holds. When they stand up, Chavo is just beating the shit out of Kengo, elbows and knees to his face, punches him in the nose etc.

 

vs. Atsushi Onita

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS2avPQAtHc

 

This was really great, why wasn't this on the 80s set? Lots of beautiful wrestling and I loved the tricked out, dramatic finishing run. Onita looked fantastic aswell, this is way better than the Fuchi match (which is good).

 

vs. Mighty Inoue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSvfc7txR2k

 

Chavo once again looks like a world class pro wrestler. I loved him viciously elbowing Inoue's face while on the ground and him showing off some lucha craziness on the ground aswell as flying. Going to work on Inoue with chairs etc. was sweet aswel. The structure wasn't as good as in the previous matches but I liked that Chavo seemed to try everything he knew until Inoue just caught him. Should also mention that Chavo is really great at selling defeat which is a major plus for me.

 

Add in the Fujinami match, and you get a really impressive resume. It seems like Chavo got a little slept on in the 80s polls as he was buried under workers with more exciting feuds. Should also mention that he looked better than Bockwinkel in their singles match on classics. Along with his impressive tag resume this makes a really good case. The only thing I don't like about Chavo is his hip attack move.

[JerryvonKramer]

I'll drop in my Chavo reviews soon, need to move to a PC to do so. I actually did like that Fujinami match, turns out I was thinking of the Tiger Mask one. I frequently confuse Fujinami and Tiger Mask matches from that early 80s NJ junior scene.

[KB8]

I had Chavo Sr. at 68 in 2016, perhaps a wee bit too high, but he was pretty dang awesome and being the second best wrestler in his family is nothing to shake a jaggy stick at. I'd sort of forgotten his stuff from Japan before reading the thread again, but I liked a bunch of that and it's a cool - and very different - supplement to his run in the US. He also has some great stuff in Mexico, including the pair of wonderful trios from 1990 CMLL that Jetlag mentions. Brilliant in tags and singles matches and the Guerreros team, as brought up in the Hector thread, is one of my favourite tag teams ever and I loved them trotting out all sort of wild bits offence for 1985. He also has a couple absolute corkers of singles matches to his name, so that always helps. 

 

CHAVO GUERRERO SR. YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Kengo Kimura (New Japan, 9/30/80)

v Nick Bockwinkel (Houston, 2/25/83)

v Mr. Olympia (Houston, 6/24/83)

w/Hector Guerrero v The Fabulous Ones (Houston, 1/24/86)

w/El Dandy & El Texano v Angel Azteca, Americo Rocca & Javier Cruz (CMLL, 3/9/90)

[concrete1992]

I've said it plenty on Twitter but going through a smattering of 82-83, Chavo is the most watchable wrestler out there, plain and simple. I essentially never skip a match he is in beause I am damn near guaranteed that he's going to do something in any given match that tingles my brain. Sometimes that involves having a great match and other times doing an athletic spot that boggles my brain in 2022. Or he will just lay it the heck in.

Jetlag points to an Onita match (dead link RIP) but everything they do in 82 is so intense. One of the great pairings of that year where in tag matches they will also scrap it up. I wish I could find the 11/4/82 match easily accessible as the match is great, some of the tightest grappling. I'm left a little cold by the 80s NJPW grappling of folks like Fujinami but this is at a different level.

Chavo also has a Jesse Barr match in Houston which is a hoot and hollering good time as well as a fun little time capsule. Seemed to always get some good showcase opportunities in Houston.

Still trying to put together the whole picture on Chavo (probably going to be a little bit) but as is, he's trending towards getting a nice solid spot on my list.