DVD Review: Cheating Death, Stealing Life - The Eddie Guerrero Story
DVD Review: Cheating Death, Stealing Life - The Eddie Guerrero Story
Right off the top, the most notable thing about watching this DVD has nothing to with the production values of the DVD itself. Rather, it's that the DVD was produced and completed before Eddie Guerrero died. The overall theme of the DVD is so positive, and it's a story of overcoming addictions and keeping your family together. Watching it, all you can think about is the sad irony of how he died soon after it was produced as a result of damage to his body during the period of addicition, yet he was clean and sober at the time he died. I'd be a little surprised if, when/if a second edition is necessary, they don't update the DVD accordingly.
Overall, it's a good high-level overview of his career. There are interview clips with his brothers, his mother, his wife, and his kids. There are match clips. A lot of it is the interviewer talking to Eddie himself in various venues, such as driving by the house he grew up in. It was a lot "lighter" than I thought it would be, in that there weren't really graphic descriptions of how bad things were when he hit bottom. They talk about the car accident, the DUI, the drug addiction as milestones, but not in lurid National Enquirer-style detail.
I didn't watch all the matches, but I have a few notes on the ones I did:
- The first match on the DVD extras, from AWA Superclash III, features Eddie's three older brothers, and Eddie isn't involved in any way. It's an interesting historical match, but an odd choice. Mike Enos is the referee in that match. Apparently, he was a referee before he was a wrestler.
- The hair vs. mask match with Eddie and Art Barr vs. El Hijo Del Santo and Octagon was pretty good, although I was disappointed that the DVD only had until the end of the match...it didn't have the hair cutting. "Madonna's Boyfriend", aka Louie Spiccoli, was the second for Eddie and Barr. Sad that for the rudos, Eddie, Barr and Spiccoli, some 12 years after a match where all of them were in or before their prime, they are all dead.
- The ECW match was very good, but the way people had talked about it, I thought it was going to be a Match Of The Year candidate, and I didn't think it was all that great. I watched it with Eddie's and Malenko's commentary. Their commentary was a bit distracting, partially because Malenko is not a good talker and partially because the moderator with the two of them sucked. However, Malenko did have one really interesting comment. He was in ECW for a year, and had never spoken in a promo. The first, and last, time he was on a microphone in ECW was at the end of that match.
- The match between Eddie and Benoit for the finals of the US Title in 2003 was a very good match.
- The final match on the DVD, where Eddie battled Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title, was another good match. The commentary after the match (e.g. "He has exorcised his demons") was sadly ironic, given Eddie's passing.
- The Lie, Cheat And Steal promos are hilarious. I wasn't watching wrestling at the time they were shown on TV, so I hadn't seen them before. They are really funny 1980s-style promos.
If you are an Eddie Guerrero fan, the DVD is recommended. The story will be interesting to you, and the matches and extras are decent. However, if you are looking for something full of details of when he hit rock bottom (like Steven Regal's book had), you won't find them here.
As of May 2007, this DVD can be purchased new for $23.99 on Amazon. I got an incredible deal on it at my local used bookstore...I got it for two bucks. Given that, I wonder how much the person who sold it to the bookstore got for it.