Scott,
I was randomly reviewing some of your rants from 2003 and was interested in following the progression of Eddie Guerrero from summer to Wrestlemania. In the SummerSlam rant, you said he was crazy over and they needed to do something with him right them. By early 2004 (No Way Out) they had the WWE Title on him. However, along the way, they didn't seem so sure about Eddie's push, as he worked midcard feuds, jobbed to Big Show, and did another PPV match as los Guerreros against the Bashams. It didn't seem like they were all that sure until they finally pulled the trigger. So my question: was Eddie's title win the long-term plan all along or was it a relatively last-minute decision? He certainly wasn't getting the typical rocket push from summer on or anything.
Related question: How far out was Benoit's title win planned? Did they always intend to have Eddie & Benoit leave Wrestlemania XX as champs, or were there other plans for that show?
Thanks Scott
Eddie was absolutely the long-term plan all along. As I've noted before, I was basically told months in advance "We're putting the World title on Eddie at No Way Out because it's in a heavy Hispanic arena and it'll be awesome." That was right after Brock won the title back from Kurt Angle in the iron man match on Smackdown, so there was clearly a plan in place.
I was randomly reviewing some of your rants from 2003 and was interested in following the progression of Eddie Guerrero from summer to Wrestlemania. In the SummerSlam rant, you said he was crazy over and they needed to do something with him right them. By early 2004 (No Way Out) they had the WWE Title on him. However, along the way, they didn't seem so sure about Eddie's push, as he worked midcard feuds, jobbed to Big Show, and did another PPV match as los Guerreros against the Bashams. It didn't seem like they were all that sure until they finally pulled the trigger. So my question: was Eddie's title win the long-term plan all along or was it a relatively last-minute decision? He certainly wasn't getting the typical rocket push from summer on or anything.
Related question: How far out was Benoit's title win planned? Did they always intend to have Eddie & Benoit leave Wrestlemania XX as champs, or were there other plans for that show?
Thanks Scott
Eddie was absolutely the long-term plan all along. As I've noted before, I was basically told months in advance "We're putting the World title on Eddie at No Way Out because it's in a heavy Hispanic arena and it'll be awesome." That was right after Brock won the title back from Kurt Angle in the iron man match on Smackdown, so there was clearly a plan in place.
Benoit I don't know for sure about, unless he was with-holding the info to keep it as a surprise for me. You would have to assume that it was also the long-term plan, especially since they did the angle where Benoit lost his last title shot and thus would have to win the Rumble to get another one.