WWF Tough Enough 2: Introducing Trainer Chavo

Chavo Guerrero, Jr. (actually Salvador Guerrero III) was born in El Paso, Texas in 1971. Chavo definitely has wrestling in his blood, as he is from the third generation of wrestling Guerreros. In discussing Chavo, Jr. it is necessary to touch on the other members of his family.

Chavo’s grandfather, Salvador Sr., known as Gory Guerrero, is a legend in the world of lucha libre wrestling, and is credited with inventing moves such as the ‘Gory Special,’ (a hanging-backbreaker submission move) and the move known as the ‘Camel Clutch’ (a chinlock performed while sitting on your opponent’s back). Gory is best known to most Americans as the patriarch and teacher of his sons and grandson.

Three of Gory’s sons are all but unknown to many current wrestling fans, though they are also legends in Mexico and the Southwest. Chavo Sr. (Salvador Jr., our Chavo’s father) is the eldest and probably least-well known to American fans, wrestling mostly in California and Texas before becoming a history teacher. Mando wrestled for twenty years in similar areas, and is now a Hollywood stuntman.

Hector is known very well to many long-time wrestling fans, but probably not for the reason you might expect. Hector has the distinct dishonor to have played one of the least-favorite gimmicks in WWF history: The Gobbledygooker. Mere words cannot fully explain how horrible this gimmick was, but put simply, he was dressed in a turkey suit and emerged from a large egg at the 1991 Summerslam Pay-Per-View.

This should not take away from the fact that Hector is an extremely accomplished wrestler, having wrestled in nearly every major promotion in the world.

Gory’s youngest son is also the most famous. Eddy Guerrero was among the most promising wrestlers in the WWF until injuries and (rumored) painkiller abuse ended his WWF career in 2001. Eddy will be discussed more in-depth shortly.

Finally, we get to Gory’s Grandson and Chavo Sr.’s son, Chavo Guerrero, Jr. It should be noted that Chavo IS his real name, as Chavo (or Chavito) is a common shortening of the name Salvador. For simplicity’s sake, any further reference to the name “Chavo” can be assumed to mean Chavo, Jr.

Chavo made his wrestling debut in the mid-90’s, although exactly when and where is unclear. His first major tour was with New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1996, and went on to compete in the “Top of the Super Junior” tournament, considered a great honor for junior (as in lightheavyweight, not “sons of other wrestlers with the same name”) wrestlers. He only won one match, but made an impressive enough showing that he was brought into WCW.

Chavo was a jobber for a few months before getting into his first (and still, in my opinion, his best) big feud, with his Uncle Eddy. It should be noted here (as the WCW announcers pointed out endlessly) that Eddy and Chavo are Uncle and Nephew, yet they are only separated by two years and grew up together like brothers.

The angle was a classic one: Eddy had turned heel a few months earlier and had been running roughshod through WCW’s lower card (the upper card being in the iron grip of the New World Order angle). Eddy’s family, including Hector and Mando, came in to try to reason with Eddy since he was supposedly causing much distress and disgrace to the family name with such ruthless tactics. This was a ludicrous idea to anyone familiar with Guerrero wrestling history, but that was irrelevant to WCW at this point.

In March of 1998 the feud came to a head when Eddy and Chavo wrestled a match with some interesting stipulations. If Chavo won, Eddy would have to become a babyface and return to the clean, rule-abiding ways his family wanted. If Eddy won, then Eddy would become Chavo’s mentor, teaching him the “right way” to wrestle and Chavo would have to do whatever Eddy told him.

Naturally, Eddy won and began a period of abusing Chavo in the guise of ‘teaching’ him how to wrestle properly. Most of the ‘teaching’ was Eddy causing Chavo to lose matches and punishing him for it after the loss. Chavo also had to wear a T-shirt with “Eddy Guerrero is my favorite wrestler” printed on the front and “Cheat to Win” on the back. The shirt was even sold for a time by WCW but I unfortunately never bought one.

In any case, Chavo was reluctant to follow Eddy’s advice of Cheating to Win, and naturally lost a series of matches (usually while Eddy hid his head with a towel out of shame – see picture at right). After a few months of this, Eddy fought a wrestler known as Ultimo Dragon with the stipulation that if Dragon won, Chavo was freed from Eddy’s control.

Again, Dragon lost. Frustrated by the thought of more of Eddy’s abuse, Chavo snapped. He brutally beat Dragon after the match while Eddy looked on approvingly. It wouldn’t last, as Chavo became so enthusiastic about his ‘training’ (inviting Eddy to hit him, challenging Goldberg, that sort of thing) that Eddy actually started to fear him.

Eddy started avoiding Chavo, but when that didn’t work they decided to settle it with a hair-vs-hair matchup. I’m skipping a lot of great stuff (like the “Uncle Eddy trap”), but this is already going on far too long as it is, suffice it to say that if you can find a tape of this feud I would recommend checking it out. Anyway, the match ended with an Eddy victory and before Eddy had the chance to do anything, Chavo began cutting his own hair and laughing like a maniac. (See right)

This, naturally, led to Chavo riding a stick-horse named Pepe to the ring. Like Al Snow and Head, Pepe would give Chavo advice and helped him win matches (by Chavo whacking the other guy with it). Chavo and Pepe would team together on many occasions, until Pepe’s untimely death at the hands of wrestler Norman Smiley, via wood chipper in early 1999. Alas, Pepe, we hardly knew ye.

Unfortunately, this signaled the end for Chavo’s biggest push ever, and he was pushed back down the card to the role of “enhancement talent,” basically losing to bigger stars and only getting wins on lesser shows against much lesser talent.

Chavo’s next angle didn’t come months later, toward the end of 1999. Vince Russo had jumped to WCW from the WWF and planned to give “big pushes” to the underutilized talent like Chavo, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Jeff Jarrett, and the like.

Chavo was told (in the angle) that he was fired, and when he asked what he was supposed to do about making a living, Russo suggested selling Amway. This set up a “hilarious” series of vignettes where different wrestlers would need certain items, and Chavo would just happen to have exactly what they needed (in what we used to call his “magic briefcase”). Kind of like how Q always seems to know exactly what situation James Bond will encounter later in the movie and designs the perfect gadget for him, except not like that at all, really. Anyway, the Amway gimmick was just a setup for “bigger and better” things for Chavo.

Digression: It should be noticed that whenever I deal with Russo, I have to use a lot of sarcasm in order to prevent an expletive-filled rant about his idiocy. If you think I hated Temptation Island, you should see some of the stuff I’ve written about Russo. My TI2 reports are practically love letters compared to those. (And before you ask, those reports are no longer active on the web. I have them, but it’ll be a while before they see the light of day again, trust me.) In any event, when I say something like “hilarious” in reference to something Russo has written, you can be pretty sure it’s sarcasm.

That “great angle” (see, like that!) I refer to was none other than the military-themed MIA: Misfits in Action. The MIA consisted of a group of wrestlers frustrated by their situations (this was the on-camera angle, remember) and banded together to make their own opportunities. The group was led by Booker T, using the name “G.I. Bro,” and later (after wisely dropping that name and leaving the group) by another disgruntled wrestler with the unfortunate moniker “General Hugh G. Rection.”

You see why I hate Russo?

The Misfits in Action angle was a huge flop, of course, as they spent most of their time feuding with another faction, the “Filthy Animals.” Both groups were supposed to be anti-establishment troublemakers, and by fighting each other succeeded in making sure nobody cared about either group. Chavo (who was wrestling under the name “Lt. Loco” in the Misfits) did a whole lot of nothing, just like everyone else in WCW until the promotion died with a whimper in March of 2001.

Chavo was lucky enough to be one of the twenty-four WCW wrestlers who were hired by the WWF when the WWF purchased WCW. How much his hiring had to do with his talent and how much had to do with the fact that Eddy was a rising star in the WWF at the time is a matter of conjecture. The fact remains that many of the former twenty-four WCW wrestlers have since been let go by the WWF, while Chavo most definitely has not.

Chavo bided his time in the HWA, the WWF’s “minor league” training ground where Tough Enough 1 winner Maven also spent some time. Since he was brought up to the WWF in July of 2001 for the Invasion storyline, Chavo has mainly wrestled in tag matches or in the lesser weekend shows, without gimmick or push.

Obviously, Chavo was brought in as a Tough Enough 2 trainer because of his family’s legacy. I honestly have no idea what kind of trainer Chavo is, but I do know he has trained other wrestlers alongside his father and uncles (his Uncle Mando trained Ivory, in fact) and also participated in the training of many WCW wrestlers in their (now closed) Power Plant training facility. Just like Al Snow last season, I’m sure this will be a chance for WWF fans to see what a charismatic, entertaining wrestler Chavo Guerrero, Jr. truly is.

E-mail Mike at mikmaria@swbell.net.

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