Appearing on AEW Unrestricted Vickie Guerrero has revealed that she thought about leaving the wrestling business following her husband Eddie’s death.
Through the middle part of 2005 Vickie had begun appearing on television alongside Eddie, as part of a storyline where he was claiming to be the father of Rey Mysterio’s son, Dominik. Eddie would sadly pass away on 13th November of that year, but Vickie continued to appear on television as Rey Mysterio embarked on his quest to become World Champion. Mysterio would of course be successful, winning the World Title at WrestleMania 22. The night before his famous win Eddie was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Speaking to Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone, Guerrero explained that following Eddie’s induction into the Hall Of Fame, she thought that was the end of the road for her in wrestling. When asked by Schiavone if she had contemplated leaving wrestling altogether, she revealed that it had been her intention at the time.
“I did. After we inducted Eddie into the Hall of Fame, me, my girls, Chavo, there was Chris [Benoit] and Rey, I thought this is it,” Vickie admitted. “This is the extent of where I’m supposed to be in the wrestling family so to speak, and I left for some months just to, first, take care of my girls because we were going through so much at home, but to be able to just kind of step away, I don’t think I was really paying attention to the wrestling business that much just because it’s just personal.
However, Vickie wouldn’t be off WWE television for long as only a few months later she received a phone call from John Laurinaitis asking her if she was interested in returning to the company. Guerrero went on to explain that while she was open to a return, she only wanted to come back for two months.
“But when Johnny (John Laurinaitis) called me, it probably was August and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to bring you in just for a few months just to help with some of the storylines and keep Eddie’s name and keep his memory alive.’ And I told him, ‘Just two months,’ because I have the girls. We were living in Phoenix, and I was trying to sell my house to go to El Paso. And he’s like (Vickie does a Laurinaitis impression), ‘Sure, that’s fine.’ Two months and I was memorizing promos, and I was doing really well. And they’re like, ‘Hey, we’d like to extend you another year and see how it goes in a year. It ended up being 10 years, and so I sit back still amazed that I was able to go that long as a Superstar.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Schiavone would comment on his time working with Eddie in WCW, recalling his drive for perfection in everything that he did.
“I know what you’re talking about because Eddie would have, when I worked with him in WCW, some of the most sensational matches ever, and I would go backstage at the end of the night,” Schiavone recalled. “And if he was still back there, I would make it a point to let him know how great it was, and he will go, ‘Yeah, I don’t know.’ It’s like, ‘Would you stop it? You’re the best performer here!’ And he was like, ‘Well, there was one thing.’ So he was a perfectionist, beyond perfection.”
The storyline following Eddie’s death which saw Mysterio win the World Heavyweight Championship was one of the most heart-warming in memory, but also saw WWE court controversy along the way. In the run up to facing Mysterio at No Way Out 2006, Randy Orton infamously delivered a promo in which he said that Eddie was in hell, a promo which didn’t sit well with fans, or even with some inside the company as Jim Ross recently explained on his Grilling JR podcast. However, not even this misstep could remove the shine from one of the most feel-good moments in WWE history.
h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.