[2005-04-03-WWE-Wrestlemania XXI] Rey Mysterio vs Eddie Guerrero

[Makai Club #1]

This is a decent introduction for the feud’s first match. This is still a battle between two friends, two WWE Tag Team champions in fact. After Chavo Guerrero planted some resentment in the mind of Eddie towards Rey Mysterio, as well as some miscommunication leading to Eddie lose against Doug Basham or Rey to take victories away from Eddie inadvertently in tag matches, they are full force into the feud. They started the match like you'd expect these two to start. Mysterio trying to move fast and hit an aerial move with Eddie keeping Rey close via a knuckle lock or taking him to the ground. Both Guerrero and Mysterio took big bumps early on, Rey landing big on the back body drop to the outside floor and Eddie went flying across the ring on a monkey flip. There was a nice sounding thud to the bump as well. Eddie Guerrero spent a ton of this match on top. He hit some lovely tiltawhirl backbreakers but mostly it was Guerrero wasting time aimlessly locking on holds - one of which was a really bad looking STF with Eddie not even attempting to squeeze on the head with it. Although, I liked Tazz’s call here with him saying that the move could just be a base for him to do anything he wanted, not just the STF. The match had its magic moments when Rey was on offence and they were going back and forth. The seated senton attempt into the powerbomb is always an awesome spot and it was in this match as well. Everything else was just kinda empty. The last time I watched this match, I wasn't really into it that much because of the reasons stated here but the big moments were still fun and it told the story well. However, it was more of a story suited to Smackdown not WrestleMania. I can take comfort in that they have more matches than this. **1/2

 

[cactus]

One could make an argument that this felt like an exhibition and they wouldn't be completely wrong, but this was two of the best ever going out there and putting on a flawless showcase of lucha-styled moves. Eddie works over Rey's back and serves as the heel for this match, he hits his perfect corkscrew backbreaker which was a direct callback to their Halloween Havoc classic. Rey's high-flying stuff still looks incredible. These two had better matches before and after this together, but this was still a fantastic way to open up the show and it served it's purpose of laying out the groundwork for their epic feud which would dominate the majority of 2005. 
★★★¾

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a decent opener but far from their best match in the WWE. They played off the fact that Eddie had fallen pretty far down the ladder since the last WrestleMania while planting the seeds for their feud. Definitely agree that it was TV quality, but that also says something for the improvement in the TV match quality.