3. Rey Mysterio Takes Eddie Guerrero’s Place And Wins World Title At WrestleMania 22
Would Rey Mysterio have become a World Heavyweight Champion in 2006 if Eddie Guerrero didn’t pass away in November of 2005? That’s a question that nobody can really answer except for Vince McMahon, but the general feeling is that it would have been unlikely. We all know how much WWE values wrestlers that are bigger. Mysterio was the smallest guy on the roster. They could justify it by saying he was really popular and sold a lot of merchandise, but it’s not like they had to push him that far.
Mysterio went on to dedicate the 2006 Royal Rumble to his late friend Eddie by wearing an Eddie shirt along with the “EG” arm bands. He went from bell to bell as the second entrant in the match and has the all-time record for time spent in a Royal Rumble at 62:12. They must have mentioned Eddie’s name 30 times during the match as Mysterio became the underdog winner. In the buildup to the WrestleMania match, Randy Orton used Eddie’s name to get heel heat. Mysterio went on to beat Orton and Kurt Angle to win the World Title in a match that was too short for a World Title match (about ten minutes), but was still very good.
When Rey was the World Champion in 2006 he was booked terribly. They had him lose non-title matches far too often. It was as if Vince wanted to make a point that he didn’t really believe in the guy, but it was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up so at least he did put the World Title on him for about three months.
In 2010, Mysterio won the World Title again although that reign only lasted one month since he was a transitional champion that took it from Jack Swagger before dropping to Kane. Then there was the really brief WWE Title run in 2011 that didn’t even last one night.
While Mysterio can be considered one of the most popular WWE stars ever, it’s hard to know if he would have ever been World Champion if not for the tragic death of his friend Eddie Guerrero.
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