Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Chavo Guerrero on Chris Benoit's final text to him, Eddie's legacy, original plans for Kerwin White
Episode Date: October 29, 2020Chavo Guerrero Jr. sits down with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Orange County, CA. He talks about why he started his new podcast called "Suplexes and Cervezas", his current Hollywood job as a fight... coordinator, the original plans for his Kerwin White character, favorite matches in WCW, WWE and Impact Wrestling, his thoughts on the last text that Chris Benoit sent to him, why his Uncle Eddie Guerrero's legacy is so strong, the meaning behind the phrase "Viva La Raza", why Lucha Underground came to an end and so much more!Support the show by supporting our sponsors: INDEED- Get a $75 credit to boost your job post by going to http://indeed.com/BlueWire BETONLINE- Get a new sign up bonus by using the promo code BLUEWIRE at http://betonline.ag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This podcast episode is brought to you by Coors Light.
These days, everything is go, go, go.
It's nonstop hustle all the time.
Work, friends, family.
Expect you to be on 24-7?
Well, sometimes you just need to reach for a Coors Light because it's made to chill.
Coors Light is cold-loggered, cold filtered, and cold package.
It's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies.
It is literally made to chill.
Coors Light is the one I choose when I need to unwind.
So when you want to hit reset, reach for the beer that's made to chill.
Get Coors Light and the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart.
Celebrate responsibly.
Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado.
There's a lot of wrestlers that had addiction problems and went to rehab or whatever.
And just that was it.
Eddie talked about it.
That became part of his life.
And Eddie had this very unique ability to connect through the TV to,
the people.
It's Chrysomania, brother.
That's a great question.
Look at you, man.
With the powerful questions.
Woo!
This is the Chris Van Vleet Show.
Chris Van Vleet Show.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Chris Van Fleet!
All right, my friends,
welcome back to the Chris Van Fleet Show.
This episode is brought to you by Indeed
and Bet Online.
And I've been chatting with Travel
Guerrero for a while now, trying to figure out the right time to do this interview.
And now that he's launched his podcast called Suplexes and Servaises, now feels like the perfect
time. So wherever you're listening to this, you can also find Chavo's podcast. So make sure to
subscribe to him. If it's your first time here, make sure to subscribe to my podcast as well.
And take a screenshot. Tag us on Instagram. Let us know that you're listening. And tag us so we can
say hi. I'm at Chris Van Fleet.
Chavo is at Chavo Giro.
And thank you for these reviews that keep coming in.
A lot of reviews last week.
Really appreciate that.
And I'm going to keep reading one out on every single episode of the show,
shouting you out for free, by the way.
Unlike some other shows, the shoutouts here are free.
Well, they're not free.
You have to leave a review, but leaving review is free.
But, yeah, leave a review, and we'll shout you out on the show.
The goal is to hit 2,000 reviews by my birthday, by May 19th,
which I'm going to be honest, as I sit here in October, talking to you right now,
and we have 1,221 reviews, and I'm looking ahead seven months from now, can we get 779 more reviews?
Of course we can.
But, yeah, I can't do this alone, though.
So, and I look at the numbers.
I know how many people are listening, but haven't left a review.
So if you have a few seconds sometime this week, just scroll down on.
on the podcast page, click those five stars and write a few words or write a few emojis.
I mean, that's good enough.
This one comes from Vince AEW All Elite, who says amazing interviews.
Chris is absolutely great at interviewing and getting everything out of any guest.
I've watched and listened to every podcast.
And I encourage everyone else to do the same.
Every podcast.
My goodness, Vince, thank you.
Wow.
And thank you.
Thank you for that review.
And thank you to everyone.
for helping to make this one of the top wrestling podcasts in the world.
I still can't believe Vince has listened to every single podcast.
I haven't even listened to every single podcast.
I mean, it was there when they happened, but, well, with that said,
I really haven't listened to any of these podcasts then.
It's kind of listen to the conversation.
We edit it and put it out into the world.
So look, I appreciate you guys for doing everything that you do
to help spread the word about the show and help to make this, you know,
such a popular show.
So thank you, thank you.
Chavo Guerrero is an absolute legend,
and he comes from an absolutely legendary family with the Guerrero family.
We talk about what it was like growing up with his famous father,
Chavo Guerrero, Sr., and his uncle, Eddie Guerrero.
We talk about what Eddie meant to him and the legacy that he left behind.
We also get into his friendship with Chris Benoit
and the last words that Chris Benoit texted to him.
And I was really curious about his run as Kerwin,
white. And what the long-term plans were that were for that, because you might remember,
they completely abandoned that thing right after Eddie's death. So we talk about, it was actually
very interesting where that character was headed. We also get into his role in Luch Underground,
both on camera and behind the scenes. And speaking of behind the scenes, he is a major player
in Hollywood now when it comes to doing stunt coordination and fight coordination. But you know
what, I'll let him tell you all about that. So please, put your hands together for Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
Chavo, it's such a pleasure to be chatting with you. Thanks, man. This is for having me, Chris.
I'm on the show, the infamous Chris show. I feel like I should start off by saying, ooh, Chavo.
Dude, that is so funny because when that first came out and they brought that to me, Kevin Dunn brought that to me,
that song, I was kind of like, well, I don't know, should I, is this all right? It's a good.
but since that, I mean, everybody still to this day will say,
I'll be driving down the road and I'll hear, ooh chavo.
That's so funny.
Well, it's a hit, right?
It's that thing that like, when you hear that,
you instantly know who's going to come through the curtain.
Exactly.
And there's, you know, there's a handful of theme songs that have that.
You know, I can't say one, two in real life without saying,
is this on like Triple H's theme.
Yeah, yeah, we hear broken glass.
It's always, it's always stone gold, right?
Right. Anytime I'm at a restaurant and someone drops a glass, I'm like, Stone Cold's here.
Yeah, exactly. Right. You're going to get a three, or in time we used to see a 316.
I mean, we'd joke about that in WCW and we'd see 316. And I'd say, check it out.
He'd look three 16th and then we'd give him like a stunner.
Do you know the woman that sang Uchavo?
Yeah, that's, that's Liz Pena. Liz Pena.
And Liz Pena worked for WWE for a long time as she was backstage in a bunch of things.
So that's the girl.
Then she worked with us on Lucha Underground.
But now she's involved with some stuff with seven bucks, I believe.
Oh, wow.
Well, that's a pretty good company to be in with them.
Yeah, really.
I still keep in touch with her.
She's awesome.
But I always say that's the U Chavo girl.
Oh, no way.
So that's her claim of fame.
So for anybody who's just listening to this, Chavo doesn't just sound good because he has a good microphone.
Chavo is a fellow podcaster. So congratulations to you on that.
Yeah, man, thanks. I'm just breaking in a little bit. I have, you know, a few episodes under my belt and more to come. I got a lot more actually recorded. But suplexes and surveases with Chavo Giro Jr. and jump on it and a little different, little fun and check it out.
Well, you've got two, I mean, as we record this right now, you've had two pretty great guests. You started off with The Undertaker. It's pretty much all downhill after you have The Undertaker, I feel like.
Right.
And then the Good Brothers right after that.
Yeah, for sure. And then I just released today, Josh Barnett, part one of two series,
UFC champion, Josh Barnett, good friend of mine, MMA champion,
UFC champion, but also pro wrestler, you know. So if you listen to the podcast,
we went about three hours talking to his house because we were drinking his bourbon
and drinking my cervases, my Los Guerrero's loggers. So by the end of the second podcast,
we're a little, we're slurred a little bit.
I'm surprised it didn't happen with the good brothers.
With the good brothers, it did a little bit, we were on Zoom.
Those guys like to drink.
Those are my boys, man.
I love those guys.
Those guys, you know, I helped break in, break in gallows.
So still, to the day, they figured it out.
They figured out just having fun, you know what I mean?
And they're just having a good time.
And that's what wrestling's about.
That's what wrestling was for so long.
And I feel that it's almost being lost to now.
It's almost like these guys are, they're playing wrestling at times.
and they're not actually having fun.
Like, it's a lifestyle, you know, I don't know.
Maybe that's just my opinion.
No, it's a really interesting thing to dive into
because there's this whole concept now in 2020
that we all know this is fake.
K-Fabe is dead.
Where do you sit on that?
Okay, so being a wrestler, it's not fake.
That's the taboo word.
Entertainment, absolutely 100%.
but we get in the ring,
dude,
we hit hard and hard places.
And if I don't like you,
I'm going to kick you in the face.
And you'll see how fake it is.
You know,
I may lay down for you at the end,
but you're going to work your ass off for it.
So we always say it's entertainment.
You know,
we hit hard and hit safe places,
but the F word,
I just,
I got,
I just can't.
Still to this day,
can't stand it.
Being brought up in the business.
Sure.
And knowing these guys and how tough they actually were.
You know,
one thing about wrestling that we kind of figured out was that it's,
entertainment. Any dollar you make for any sport is not a sport anymore. It's entertainment. If people
aren't watching, that sport's not around. I use the WMBA sometime. WMBA, these women are
incredible athletes. They're so good. Each one of them can outschool me. And I played a lot of
basketball in my day. And they're incredible. But if they don't have the eyes on it,
some of these girls on the off season, they have go to Europe to pay bills. So that just shows
you right there, you know, the best MMA fighters in the world.
aren't necessarily the riches.
Connor McGregor, great
MMA fighter.
Is he the best?
Not, I guess he's been kind of, you know,
proven that he's not at the,
right now, he's a great one.
Yeah, sure.
But he's such a great entertainer
that people pay money to see him.
That's what we figured out in wrestling.
We figured out that, hey,
there's no money really in doing it for real.
When you can tell a story,
that's what,
That's so that's what I'm kind of getting at there.
But the idea of K-Fape being dead in the world that we're living in now.
I mean, when you got into the business was very different.
Yeah, for sure.
You know, definitely.
I always, I compare it to magic.
So Chris Angel, you know, all these other guys.
David Blaine.
Copperfield.
They're going to say it's illusions, but they're not going to tell you, this isn't real.
They're going to say it's an illusion.
So at the same time, when you're watching magic, we all know that it's, it's an illusion.
It's not real, right?
But when you see Chris Angel float, you're like, whoa, what's going on?
How's he doing that?
Oh, my God.
And they got you.
But the second you see that string, you're like, oh, okay, okay, change a channel.
Okay, whatever.
And it's the same in wrestling.
They know that it's entertainment, that they're not really, they're fighting.
They're out putting on a show.
But this, and once we can get those people to go, I think that's not real, but those
guys are really, those guys are really hitting once then I got them. But the second that they see the
string, which is like the, the pro wrestling punch or something that just that's, that's, that's corny,
that doesn't really look real. Then people change the channel. So we always say when I'm resting,
don't let them see the string ever. They want to lose themselves. And they're watching a movie.
I want to lose myself in this movie. But the second I see that boom, Mike, above you, that takes me right out of
the scene. Or if I see like something that's not period correct, let's say, you know,
a car, it's a 1960s movie and I see a 1985 car in the background way in the background. I'm like,
oh, dude, you lost me. So it's the same thing. Don't ever let them see that string. And that's
the name of the game. So the idea with your podcast thus far is a lot of road stories. And I think that
nobody tells stories better in the ring or on the podcast than you do. And you have so many
stories to tell. Yeah, you know what? That's kind of why I started this podcast. I've been getting asked for
years to start a podcast and I'm like, I don't want to. I mean, everybody's is doing it right now.
And I just, I always want to do something different and not kind of follow in the same path.
And this was probably three, four, five years ago that people were asking me. And I'm like,
no, I'm, I'm just not going to do it. And then speaking about Luke Gallows, I was at his house doing,
I think it was the, uh, uh, talking, talk a talk of talking shop. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe.
maybe right before that, I went out there with my wife about a month before and me, him,
his wife, Luke Gall, Mike Knox and Haley, his wife, we all kind of all just party her butts
off for, you know, all the COVID, the quarantine, but we were all in the same house and we just did.
It was awesome. But they were like, dude, you know, now you're in Hollywood. You know people in
Hollywood. You know everybody in wrestling. You've got stories that, you know, you have been around for
so long from different generations. You build things. You're working out all these different things.
And I'm going, yeah, I guess maybe, maybe I should start a podcast. They're like, you're,
you have to. Like just some of the stories you're telling us, you know, you know, you know,
Rip Flair intimately and the stories about your dad and Rick Flair and the way he broke in different
things. I was like, yeah, I guess maybe you have your own beer out. You can have, you know,
all these different things. They convinced me. I jumped on the, on the train and, and there you go.
man. When I do something, I don't do it half-ass. I do it like 100%. So that's where I'm at doing it.
Well, I've noticed that in everything you do in your life, not just in the ring, but like I see you
promoting this beer. And I'm like, you know, you're not going to, you're not going to create a beer
if it's not something that you're all the way in on. That's something that you've got to like
be drinking yourself. A hundred percent. Anything I do is full board. Like I'm really big proponent
and saying that what you do is you're putting your name on.
anything you do, whether I'm washing my own car or if I'm, you know, building a house. I'm putting
my name on it. So if I can't do it like a pro or better than a pro, then I'll just hire
a pro. I won't do it. But usually I can figure it out and figure out how to do it like a pro.
So my beer, for instance, you know, I teamed up with this brewery called a Loster
brewery, a Laster Brewing Company in West Covina, California. And they have this incredible master
brewer that was kind of the first to do a lot of the home brewing in the 1980s.
So he's been around. So I was tasting their beers. I'm like, wow, this beer is incredible. These are great. I'm a beer drinker. I love it. You know, so then they ended up, you know, we went back and forth about a year. We came up with this really awesome recipe. You know, I was really involved in trying it and different things. And, and there you go. So, you know, Los Guerrero's Mexican Lager from Lasor Brewing Company. I'll put it up against any Mexican lager out there. I don't care of it. Stosecchi's Corona, Kraft Brew. It doesn't matter. This thing, in my opinion. And everybody else is a little.
other opinion that it's pretty damn good.
Where can I find it around here?
So go to either a loss of brewing company.com,
but can send it to you in California or Kraft Beer Kings.
Craft Beer Kings is a very big,
it's not as big as like a Bevmo,
but it's a big retail outlet, I want to say.
So they'll, you could buy it there, depending.
It sells out all the time.
That's the thing with the craft brew.
What's cool about it is that it does sell out.
What sucks about it is that it sells out.
Do you feel like growing up with a last name, Guerrero,
you had only one career path that you could possibly follow?
You know, I've been asked that question a lot.
And I think that's all we ever wanted to do, me and Eddie,
we grew up with a wrestling ring in our backyard.
So literally we learned to walk in a wrestling ring.
And I can't remember ever not being involved in wrestling.
So it wasn't like they said you have to be a rustler, but it's like we, that was a family
business back then.
We, you know, live, braved, ate, slept wrestling.
Yeah.
So it's kind of, you know, I can't say that they pushed me into it because they didn't,
but that's all we ever wanted to do.
We'd just be like them.
Yeah.
So who was your father to you when you were a kid?
And who did your father end up becoming to you as you got older?
So my dad, Chavo Guerrero Senior, Chavo Classic, as I knew him in WWE.
My grandfather, Gore, was the original wrestler.
He ended up meeting my grandmother because she went to the rest of matches to see her brother, who was a wrestler.
And they ended up meeting.
So I'm kind of third generation on both sides of the family, which is- Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So then my grandfather had my father, my uncle Mondo, and my uncle Hector, and then 18 years later had Eddie.
We'd always joke me and Eddie would joke because we were both mistakes.
He was the late mistake of my grandfather and I was the early mistake of my dad.
So even though Eddie was technically my uncle, we were three years different, you know,
so we grew up as brothers our entire lives.
But my dad, man, he, you know, growing up was my idol.
That period, you know, I wanted to be just like him.
Anything he did, I just wanted to be just like him.
To have a superhero type dad, you know, was pretty cool, you know.
I always won the argument.
well, my dad can beat your dad up. I always want that one. Yeah, I would guess so. Yeah. But,
you know, you get older and you start realizing that your father, your family, they're,
you know, they're human. And you start seeing flaws and chinks in the armor. So as I got older,
it helped me kind of see my dad as a human, as a person. And you see his flaws and mistakes and
things that I didn't want to replicate, you know, so he was really good about that saying,
look, don't do these mistakes that I've done, you know, live as I say, not as I do.
Was there ever a point, like obviously you grew up in wrestling, you got into it very young,
was there ever a point where you went, maybe this isn't for me?
No, never.
That's all I did my entire life, amateur wrestling, you know, working out since I was, you know,
12 years old, you know, any sport I did, whatever, it was just for wrestling.
I never wanted to said, I don't want to be wrestling.
I was always, I want to be wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, that's it.
And then, you know, doing that, doing it for almost 20 straight years and then leaving
WWE when I did, I never didn't want to not be a wrestler.
I think I just needed a break and didn't like the direction was going.
And there's times that, you know, you just, you need to step away.
and I did
and then
you know
kind of went back
to wrestling
a little bit
and then
morph from wrestling
into Hollywood
which is still
kind of doing what I'm
doing is wrestling
but it's doing
in a Hollywood sense
yeah
you know
so I'm still involved
in it
I'm just not
you know
getting punched in the face
every day
yeah for those
people who might not know
you're on glow
now gorgeous
ladies of wrestling
and you also
do a bunch of stuff
behind the scenes for them
yeah
yeah
anything wrestling
goes through me
on that show
but
it's such a
It's such a great show to work for.
And we're in the middle of shooting season four right now, but with COVID, it's shut down.
So I was kind of just sitting home.
I was actually doing a whole other show, too.
I was doing heels from Stars, that was the Stephen Amel show.
It's a brand new series coming out.
I was actually doing that one also, and that's shut down.
Since that has come back to film, but I have another very big project on the horizon here that I'm getting ready to go film,
that I will be dropping later once I can start talking about.
So you've got your, I think people from the outside looking in go,
Ah, Chavo does a little bit of stuff with Glow.
And of course, we saw him on Lucha Underground, but that was still wrestling.
No, you're like, you're in this Hollywood world.
That's all I do now, man.
All I do is Hollywood stuff and podcast.
I'd build a house and now and then, you know, drink some beer.
But yeah, that's it, man.
Basically, that's it.
Here and there, I'll do an appearance, a wrestling appearance or something like that.
But for the most part, I'm not, I now make a living, you know, the Screen Actors Guild and
coordinating shows and TV shows and movies.
That's exciting.
Congratulations to you on that because I think that most people just see Rock, Sina,
and Batista doing that, not knowing that there's people like you that are also doing this.
Yeah, man.
You know, and I had a really good compliment from Eric Bischoff, my ex-boss, of course,
and I still, you know, keep in touch with them.
and we do a couple different projects here and there, you know.
But I was on the Jericho cruise last year,
and I was sitting there having a beer with Eric.
And Eric goes, man, he goes, you're doing it right.
What do you mean?
He goes, you have some others that are in front of the camera doing stuff.
And that's awesome, but that very short-lived.
You can only do it a certain amount of time.
He goes, you're sitting there behind the camera creating.
He goes, you can do that forever to your 90, you know.
So it's like, I guess maybe you're right.
And he's actually, he goes, he asked me,
are you tired of, you know, being on in front of the camera?
And I said, no, you know what?
I just, I did that.
I did it for so long.
I love creating.
I love being involved and being behind the camera with a director and seeing our vision come to life.
I really like that.
I'm not saying that I'll never be in front into the camera.
You're always, once a wrestler, you're always a wrestler, you know.
But I just, I really like creating, man.
I want to end up directing.
I want to do all that kind of stuff.
I've re-produced a couple of different things.
Lucha Underground, of course, I was a producer on.
But Dark Side of the Ring, those two episodes with Chris Benoit and Eddie, I was a supervising producer on that.
So I've kind of dipped my foot into producing, too.
So in Hollywood, you kind of got to be a jack of all trades to kind of make it a little bit.
Right.
So what has the wrestling world taught you that you've now been able to carry over to the Hollywood world?
Oh, God, I couldn't do it without what I learned in wrestling.
stuff that I learned from
Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn,
and all so many people at
at WWI got me
my foot into the door
in Lucha Underground being a producer on that
and that morphed into glow
and then that being behind the camera
morphed into a couple other things.
So it just kind of just started snowballing, but really
it started from learning
camera and
TV from Vince.
But what's exciting about this for me
is I'm watching
you do this kind of later in your career. And I think there's a lot of people who are watching this
listen to this right now that are going, oh, man, I'm, I'm 33. And, you know, I guess I'm going to have
to stay with this job for the rest of my life. You've, like, reinvented yourself. Yeah, man, they say that
you're supposed to have at least three different careers in your life from what I, well, from what I hear,
you know, so I'm case I'm probably on my second career here. But, you know, it's, I was a late bloomer,
man, I was always a late bloomer.
You know, I didn't really, you know, get strong and tough and whatever until later in life.
Some people do it at 17, 18.
Man, it took me, it took me long until I really didn't start wrestling professionally full time until I was 25.
You know, that's late for a third generation pro wrestler.
Yeah.
You know, and everything just kind of came later for me.
So I'm, you know, 49 pushing 50 here very soon.
and I'm in the best shape of my life.
I feel great.
People are telling me I look, you know, I look 48.
You look great.
Yeah, so I, you know, I'm still just, you know, pushing.
So I'm just a late bloomer, man.
And for me to be doing this later in my career, it's still kind of early in my career, to be
honest.
Do you feel better now that you, you know, you're not in the ring very often at all anymore
now?
You were obviously younger when you're with WWE, but you're on the road in the ring all
the time. Do you feel like you're in better shape now than when you were in WWA?
Yeah, for sure. You know, and WW, you're expected to, at least then, and I don't know how it is now.
I'm sure it's probably very similar. But I was, you're expected to perform at such a high level,
you know, 250 plus days a year at all times. I was always hurt. I was never not hurt. So it just
depended how hurt I was. Really, the only times I wasn't hurt is, is,
When I got hurt and I went home for four months and came back and then I was kind of healed and then right back to being hurt again.
So now, you know, I still wrestle.
I'm always in the ring doing something, whether it's, you know, training actors or, you know, doing extra scenes or, you know, doing a stunt doubling.
I'm always still in the ring doing stuff.
So it's not like I'm not in the ring.
I'm just not doing it, you know, for a big major company and wrestling like that is much.
So I still keep, you know, involved in it because if you don't use it, you lose it. But that's why I still keep my, you know, my wits, my senses, my reflexes going strong at all times. You know, I still have gone out and sprint and do agility drills and stuff. So it's like you just got to stay on top of it.
Well, and you build your workouts into your day, which I think is a really important thing. In fact, we are doing this interview right now in between workouts. You were like, this is my free time. I'm going to work out either before or after.
Well, I did cardio and then I'm doing this podcast and then I'm going back to go lift some weights.
Man, you're a beast.
You know what?
Just got to stay on top of it, man.
It's like, what else I'm going to do?
Set on the couch?
I'm going to do that or play golf.
Yeah, that's it.
Do you feel like the version that we saw of you in WWE was a more accurate depiction of who you are
versus who we saw in WCW or maybe a little bit later on in Lucha?
Yeah, I know for sure.
for WWE, you know, they let you definitely explore your character and and refine it and evolve it.
And then you were wrestling so much.
You know, I was so wrestling, you know, at the pinnacle of my career was really there.
WCW.
I was still learning and still kind of trying to find that, that spot.
And then now, you know, at WWE, you're just, you know, you had that stride and I was just going and going and going.
So that was awesome.
But you can only do that for so long.
And it's either do you bow out.
you know, kind of when you're still good or do you, I didn't want to be that guy that was still
coming in and still working. You're like, well, you know, he's missed a step. I didn't want that.
Yeah. Look, not only are you Chavo Classic's son, but you share the same name as him. So at what point
in your career do you feel like you were able to step out and go, no, no, no, I'm my own man here.
You know, once you start getting really confident of yourself in the ring, you know, wrestling
is an art form. It took me, I'm third generation pro wrestler with a wrestling in my backyard and
lived and breathed wrestling my entire life. And it took me three years, at least three years,
wrestling at, you know, almost 300 matches a year. So you're looking at, you say, more like
five years, not three, about five years. So you're looking at 1,500 matches before I really
felt like I knew what I was doing. And then another five years till I had people like Rick Flair,
Stone Cold Steve Austin coming up and going, hey, man, great match.
Man, you guys tore it down in tonight.
That's 10 years in.
That's 3,000 matches.
Wrestling at the highest level of wrestling, that's how long it takes to master.
I mean, you never really master it, but to get really good at this art.
It takes, it's very, very tough.
And, you know, guys like Kurt Angle that came in and, you know, we're good in two years.
It's unheard of.
It's unheard of.
Like, he's just a phenom.
People like that, it's like, it's insane.
And even he will tell you, I just did a commercial with him, him and Mike Tyson,
Veter Belfort, a couple of others doing.
Yeah, smart cups.
For smart cups, yeah.
I just saw that.
Yeah, yeah.
So we just did that.
And Kurt was, he even told me, he goes, man, he goes, you and Eddie led us.
You let us, you know, the first time that we were, the first three months that me and
Ben, while we were rusted you guys.
And I'm like, really?
I go, we felt like, you guys were leading us.
He's like, no, you guys, you were leading us.
So, you know, and he goes, I really didn't get hit my hit his stride until he says about five years in.
And he was already WWE champion.
Yeah.
This is that whole idea that Malcolm Gladwell talks about of the 10,000 hours.
It's like you needed to put in those 10,000 hours until you were able to master this.
It's true.
It really is.
My grandfather used to tell us that you have to do a move 1,000 times before you can do it seamlessly in a match without thinking about it.
I just feel like just the reaction, just to react to it.
And I was like, oh, man, that's a lot of times.
But I know what he's talking about now because now that I've done things that many times,
there's times that I was wrestling that I was just reacting so fast and then leading somebody else in the ring and leading the referee and playing to, you know, the camera without thinking about it.
And next thing you know, like, I was like, wow, how the heck did we do that?
You know, and then hung over, you know?
So it's like, oh, man, it just, it just was just, it just came to say.
I didn't even have to think about it anymore.
Now it's a little bit different because I'm a little rusty, but being in that ring,
bad, though, just I wouldn't think about it.
It wasn't like, okay, I should I do this?
I just knew.
I knew what the match needed.
I knew what the fans wanted.
I knew what was going to make my opponent look good and make me look good.
It's second nature to you.
Yeah.
So if we look at your career, 10 years in when you really started hitting your stride,
which matches would it have been, which feud would it have been?
probably right after Los Guerrero's
when me and Eddie were doing his stuff
you know that was that was such a great time in my life
but a great learning experience also
to be able to tag with Eddie
and just see how seamlessly and flawless
that we could move together without even thinking about it
but then going off on our own
so I would have to say probably my feud with Ray Mysterio
that's when really started
getting that stride and then going on to CM Punk going on to Chris Benoit,
going on to people like that.
That stride really started coming, you know.
It just took so while.
It takes a while.
Just because you start wrestling a new guy and you're at that point, you still have to be
able to gel with him.
It took me and Chris, you know, a month or so before we really started, I mean,
we felt like we were, people thought we were having good matches, but he and I knew that
we were such perfectionist that we could do better.
And then it would come to the point to where we got out of the ring and we would just go like, man, that was awesome.
Oh, dude, that was so great, you know.
So it takes time, man.
Did you feel like, you know, you were obviously tagging with Eddie, did you feel like when you guys did split up and do your own thing?
Because you were together as a tag team, because you share the same last name, that there were comparisons like you to Eddie, Eddie to you?
Yeah, well, for sure.
There were always compared to each other.
you know, my grandfather, my father got, always got people hating on him saying, well, you'll never be as good as as your father. Eddie got it.
You'll never be as good as your, you know, your brothers. I got it. You'll never be as good as Eddie.
So Eddie wants to me, he goes, hey, man, just be you. He goes, I've heard it. I've known. I won't be as good as him. You won't be as good as him. You can't. They're just one of that person.
Yeah. Just be you. Be the best child of girl. That really kind of helped me like, oh, you know what? Kind of screw everybody else. Go out there and just do your thing.
Yeah. With the legacy that you have in your family, with the legacy of just the Guerrero name,
what was the conversation like when they pitched Kerwin White to you?
There was no conversation. I got off the plane in Japan and it was a guy came to, came to Raw.
And I had Vince McMahon looks at me and goes, oh, hello, Kerwin. And I'm like, okay, what is this?
So what's going on? Well, today you're going to, you're going to denounce your Hispanic heritage and you're going to become a white guy.
And I was like, all right, I have two options.
You either say no and possibly go back on the back burner for a while or get fired,
or you say, all right, let's do it.
And at the time, the political climate was different.
And I literally told Vince, I go, if we're going to, I had a meeting with him,
I said, we're going to do this.
Let's do it right.
I'm supposed to be a brown guy, playing a white guy, saying, this is how you white guys are.
And they're saying no.
So I had the, the Hispanics hating me because I was denouncing my.
Mexican heritage. I had the whites because I was making fun, kind of making fun of them. And they're like,
that's not how we dress. I'm like, oh, yes, you do. And then I told, you know, and I was saying,
you know, if it's not white, it's not right. And, you know, I had Caucasians going, you know,
that's not the way we are. That's exactly how you are. So I had everybody hate me and a true
heel wants everybody to hate them. And then I told Vincent, look, at the end of the day, I want to
come out on a white sheet. And he was like, oh, yes. I love.
love it. Now, of course, we never, never end up doing that. It got, that's got too
risque, a little too racist for a network. Like a KKK sheet? I wanted to. Absolutely.
Wow. I wanted to come out. I was like, I grew up from in the time of, of wrestling that the more
heat, the better. I wanted to fight my way back to the, to the, uh, dressing room every night.
I wanted to have to sneak out the back window. I wanted to be in the streets and people, yeah, we
hate you because that's heat that's what i wanted i don't want them going hey look there's chavo hey what's up
an autograph i want them to look at me and go god we hate you and still to this day and that was i was a heel
that's what you have to do was a heel yeah yeah still to this day i'll have people on instagram social
media contact me and say you know what i really hated you when i was younger when you made ray mysterio
quit i hated you and they're like i get it now and i'm like well thank you that i was doing my job
And they said, I understand now.
But at the time, they're like, I hated you so much.
I'm good.
That's what I wanted.
I wanted people to hate me.
That was my job.
So, you know, it was, if I was going to do it, I was going to do 100 percent.
Like I do anything.
So, you know, we never got to that point.
But I was ready.
I would have.
How long did you end up?
I mean, it was pretty short lived.
But how long were you, Herman White?
Not long, man.
I was probably about six months.
I was Kerwin White until the day Eddie died.
Yeah.
Eddie died.
We had that, we had, we were in Minneapolis for a super show, uh, raw and Smackdown show
because the whole crew was going overseas to Europe the next, that night, I think, or maybe
the next morning.
And, um, after Eddie passed, you know, Vince, actually Vince, Triple H.
John Michaels all came to me at Eddie's hotel room.
And we're in the hallway and they're like, what do I do?
Vince goes, do I cancel the show?
I'm like absolutely not.
Eddie would never have wanted you to cancel the show.
The show must go on.
So they left this decision to you.
Well,
I can't say that I made the final decision.
They wanted my opinion on it.
Wow.
You know,
that,
you know,
whether he would have taken it or not,
it's up to him.
It's his show.
But I told him,
no,
you don't do that.
Absolutely not.
Whether you do a tribute show or whatever,
we,
the show goes up.
And I want to wrestle.
And he was like, all right.
And I came out that night with the as Chavez
we were with Bondhair.
Wow.
How difficult was it to wrestle that match that night?
Um,
you know, I was guided.
I felt that like Eddie was there with me and I was guided through it.
Uh, then I, plus I had JBL,
but wanted to wrestle me and put me over.
Um,
so,
you know,
he's a guy that loved Eddie.
You know,
I loved Eddie.
We all did.
Um,
so,
you know,
the fans were behind you.
It was like I couldn't do anything wrong that night.
I looked back at that match.
It was just super special, man.
Super special.
Just getting that ring and just performing.
Mick Foley, I think maybe a couple weeks afterwards.
He wasn't even with the company.
But when I saw him somewhere, he goes, Chavo, he goes,
when you climbed up for that frog splash at the end of that match and you hit that
frog splash one, two, three.
He goes, that was such a special moment.
And I was like, wow.
I was like, I did, I was just.
You know, you're on autopilot, man.
And, I mean, that really changed the direction of your character, for sure.
You know, you went from Kerwin White to instantly, not just Chavo, but like almost, almost this like, it was like you were paying tribute to Eddie and to your family name as well.
Yeah, for sure, man.
I mean, that's when I adopted, you know, using some of Eddie's moves, you know, before you, I would do them as, you know, as a dig, like, you know, to get heat.
Yeah.
anytime, you know, anybody else who does a, you know, if you do a pedigree, the first people, time people think is they're going to think Triple H.
You know, if you do a, you know, people's elbow the way he does, you can think it's, you know, it's a rock.
You know, RKO, Randy Orton, you know, took him a while to not have the diamond cutter, you know, as DDP.
But you can think RKO, right?
But so you don't want to think, you don't want to do the move and have them think of another wrestler.
but with in this case with Eddie's moves,
the three amigos and the frogs,
I want them chanin Eddie.
Still this day, they'll, they'll do it.
Every match I have, I get an Eddie Chan.
Every single match.
Even though sports may have taken a little bit of a break in 2020,
your business didn't.
You have to keep moving,
and that makes hiring more important than ever.
Indeed is here to help.
Indeed.com is the number
one job site in the world because Indeed gets you the best people fast. Unlike other sites,
Indeed gives you full control and payment flexibility over your hiring. You only pay for what you
need and you can pause your account at any time and there's no long-term contracts. Plus,
Indeed provides powerful tools to make your search that much easier. Like sponsored jobs,
which are shown to be three and a half times more likely to result in a hundred
hire. With 73% of online job seekers visiting Indeed each month, Indeed is going to get you the
important hire that you need, just like they have for over 3 million businesses. And right now,
Indeed is offering listeners of our show a free $75 credit to boost your job post, which means
more quality candidates will see it fast. Try Indeed out with a free $75 credit at Indeed.com
Bluewire. This is their best offer available anywhere. So go right now to Indeed.com
slash Bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. Offer valid through December 31st. And the weight
is over, my friends. We finally have football again. Now, you may not be at a game this year,
but you can still be in on the action at Bet Online. Bet Online is going the extra mile
to make sure that you can get in on every possible chance to win this season.
From game spreads and totals to team, player, and coaching props,
Bet Online gives you more options to wager than anywhere else.
You can get in on their season opening bonuses today
and start off by wagering on wins, division, and championship futures.
You can do it all day, every day.
So head to Bet Online today and take advantage of all the great sign-up bonuses.
Don't forget to use the promo code BlueWire at betonline.ag.
That's Blue Wire, all one word.
Bet Online, your online sportsbook experts.
There's been lots of wrestlers that have left us, but Eddie has left this legacy.
What do you think it is about him that people still 15 plus years later are still talking about him?
Great question.
You know, Eddie was an incredible performer.
Sure, we get it.
Great wrestler.
Awesome.
But the thing that Eddie had is that Eddie was, he was a, he was a, two,
two-dimensional character.
And when he was just Eddie Greil, guy and a little rider coming out, okay, whatever, you know, doing his Hispanic type thing.
But then when Eddie got fired from the WWE for addiction problems and lost his wife and, you know, end up really hit rock bottom, lost his job, lost his family, lost his house, lost everything.
He hit rock bottom.
And for him to make that comeback, he was, he became this three-dimensional character, this character that people would look at him and wasn't just some wrestler.
now and I was like, hey, I'm him.
I have those problems too.
I have those.
And it was very open about it.
And even on his promos and stuff would talk about that.
It wasn't like he, there's a lot of wrestlers that had addiction problems and went to rehab or whatever.
And just, that was it.
Eddie talked about it.
That became part of his life.
And Eddie had this very unique ability to connect through the TV to the people.
He wore his hard in the sleeve.
And you saw that.
So when Eddie was on camera, on TV, you felt his passion.
And it's very difficult to do and not very many people can do that.
And I don't know if Eddie could have done it if he didn't have all of what, all the stuff
that happened that went through him in his life.
But that's my opinion, why Eddie is still so beloved.
And remember, he's like the most likable bad guy ever.
He does every, he does every heel thing.
He lies.
He cheats.
He steals.
We're not supposed to like him, but it's hard not to like him.
Yeah, man, people saw how good he was, you know, and, you know, they just saw the passion
that he had for wrestling and for life and for family and for everything.
And that resonated through the TV.
Is there anything that Eddie taught you or words that he said that stick with you every single day?
So much, man.
So much in and out of the ring, you know.
my my Christianity for sure just just every like life lessons you know family um wrestling you know things
that you still remember to this day like you know he would say hey man keep going because
I remember I remember one time he and I were tagging and I was upset about something and he goes
look man he goes I was you because when I was tagging with art bar and we were Los Gringos
Locos in in Mexico. He goes, this guy was more over than me. He goes, I was weird. I was their
second generation pro russ or whatever. This guy was getting all the praise. He's like, man, I was
mad. He goes, cream always rises to the top. Just keep going and keep pushing your ability.
From what he said, your brilliance, your your charisma, it will come through. And sure enough,
It did, you know, whatever.
But he was like, you just stick with it, man.
He was like, I know because I was there.
Yeah.
You were so close with Eddie.
You were obviously so close as well to Chris Benoit.
So close to both of them in their final days and on their final day.
Did Eddie's, because he was a family member,
did Eddie's hit that much harder than Benoit's?
That's a great question.
And I don't know if Eddie's hit harder.
He's harder because he was my, you know, my brother.
But, you know, Eddie sometimes had the weight of the world on his shoulders and he felt that.
So when he passed, you know, I was like, okay, like, that's all.
It was almost like, you know, he was called home.
When Chris passed, it was just a different story.
The circumstances behind that was very, I'm just struggled with that one to this day.
It's still, I mean, still, still tough.
And if you guys saw, you know, Darkshy the Ring at all and kind of see how it affected us, man.
It affected, it was so just tragic, you know, the circumstances behind it just was, you know, they were just both different.
But, man, the thing with Chris is just something that still bothers me.
Do you think about those texts that he sent you?
Because I guess, you know, you were one of the last people that he communicated with or at least attempted to,
Do you think about what those might have meant or what would it happen there?
I know exactly what happened, I think.
You know, I think that he's texted me after everything really happened.
Everything went down after the passing of his, you know,
and I'm trying to say it as PC as possible.
Sure.
Passing between his wife and his son.
He was texting me going, hey, this is how you can find me.
I think he texted me probably right before he committed to his son.
said. So I had his son, I had David on the show earlier in the year and I feel he was very
therapeutic for him to like speak about this because he kept it bottled up other than dark side
of the ring in this conversation. He hasn't talked about it a lot publicly. He's looking to
get into wrestling. What do you think about David wanting to follow in his father's footsteps?
I want him to. I would love for him to do that. It's tough because he looks so much like his father.
and it's something that, you know, like, man, it, it sucks for him because he just got played
just a raw hand, you know, he didn't do anything wrong, but yet he still suffers from the
consequences of his father and the circumstances that surrounded his death.
And it's such a poor guy, man, he still, you know, he still gets it.
And, you know, he's probably like me, he just wanted to be a wrestler too, you know.
With him, it's something that it's kind of,
the balls in his court, he's going to, if he wants to, he's going to have to, you know, we lived,
breathe wrestling. That's all we did. Any job I had was to be a wrestler. You know, I could have
passed, I passed the time doing stuff and making some money as a bartender or waiter or whatever,
but it was to be a wrestler. That was it. It wasn't like, oh, I'll see if this happens. No,
it was like I was training in all the time, still working out, still in the ring, doing stuff like that.
I feel like, unfortunately, it's a tough, it's an uphill battle for him. Number one, obviously,
because of the last weekend of his father's life.
But number two, Chris Benoit was one of the greatest wrestlers of all times.
So he has such huge shoes to fill in terms of his actual wrestling prowess.
Yeah, he'll never fill those shoes.
You can't fill shoes of Chris Monroe, of Brett Hart, of Ashad Michaels, of Anetti Guerrero,
of Ray Mysterio.
You just, you just can't.
You can just be you.
You know, look at Dominic Mysterio right now coming out.
Is he Ray Mysterio?
No, you know.
But he's kicking butt.
He's Dominic.
And I tell him the same thing.
You just, man, just be you.
Be you.
He's being sheltered right now.
He's being, you know, led and protected in WWE.
There'll be a time that he won't have that protection around him, that he's going to have to be himself.
You know, just be himself.
Be him.
Did you know that Dominic was going to get into the family business, if you will?
Yeah, you know, I saw him, you know, even as a kid, he really loved wrestling and he did some stuff with us in Lucha Underground.
And I saw him training.
You know, he was doing the training thing.
Where that went, you know, who knows?
You know, sometimes you have all the best intentions and, you know, circumstances happen.
But he did it, you know, he kept, kind of kept at it and the right time, right place.
And, you know, Ray was back in WWE.
It's perfect.
And I think that he's not going to get as many of the same comparisons to his father because,
I mean, there's an obvious difference in stature there.
Well, yeah.
you got Ray Mysterio at 5 foot 4.
You have Dominic at 6.2 plus.
So it's impossible to do Ray Mysterio stuff.
If Ray Mysterio was too much taller, he wouldn't have been Ray Mysterio.
If he was two inches shorter, he had the perfect blend, you know, the per combination to be who he was.
I always hear like, you know, the next Ray Mysterio, no, there's one.
There's one and that is it.
He's one Ray Mysterio and he's super special.
So now you have a son coming out without a mask.
So right now he's going to be a little different right there.
So he'll find his way.
It took time, you know, when I first started, you know, I was doing the moonsault like my father
and doing some of my father's moves.
You know, just be yourself, man.
You'll get there.
Yeah, you mentioned Lucha Underground and I was a huge fan of what you guys did in Lucha Underground.
At what point did you realize this thing's officially done?
Because it kind of like petered out and then never got.
picked up again. You guys were all in limbo for a while. At what point did you go? Yeah, this is,
this is done. You know, gosh, man, after the first season, I was like, gosh, this is incredible,
man. I was so happy how we kind of changed, didn't change Rustin. We changed the direction that we
were going in Rustin. We went a different direction that nobody had gone before. And still to the
state, people use some of the techniques that we used in New York Underground and applying them to
their shows, which is a great compliment. But, man, you know,
guy, second season was great, was right away.
Third season, man, we took about a year off.
I'm like, hmm, you can't, you know, take your season off, you know, a few months and come back.
I get it.
But you just can't do that.
You're going to lose people.
And then by the fourth season, I started seeing like the writing on the wall going, you know,
when you get too many billionaires involved in a project, the reason why billionaires are
billionaires is because they don't like to spend any of their own money.
They like to spend other people's money.
So it's like, man, I've just seen how this thing, I was like, man, we have such a great product here, something totally different.
It's an hour.
We have storylines.
I mean, we kill, it's TV show.
We kill people on TV.
You can't kill wrestlers and we killed them, you know?
But it just was, these, just so many guys were just, it was too many chiefs and not enough Indians you want to say, you know?
And I hate that stereotype and, you know, nothing against me.
Too many cooks in the kitchen.
Yeah, there you go.
Nothing against my, my, my native brothers.
But it's kind of, you know, it kind of was, you know, you got too many bosses.
And they were, they, you know, arguing about this, didn't want to agree about this.
And, you know, didn't come back at certain times.
And people just forget about you real fast.
Even though it was a TV show was still wrestling, the wrestling fan you had to, you know,
if they would have found something else.
Yeah, it was, it was special, though.
It was really special, like you said, because it was.
it wasn't just a wrestling show.
It was a wrestling TV show.
I went to a taping, and it didn't feel like a wrestling show at the taping.
It was like, we were audience members, which was so cool.
How amazing was that, right?
The taping and the fans, it was so amazing, like, just that.
And it was only 400 people there, you know, if that 380 plus, but it's just the electricity
in there was a mess.
The fans were so great.
There was just such a great part of it.
and they all wanted just to be a part of that product.
So if we look at your entire career, can you pick out your favorite match in each stage?
So we'll start with WCW.
Gosh, that's so tough.
We had so many matches, so many great people.
WCW, you know, was it something with me and Eddie?
Was there something with me and Ray?
Was there something with me and, you know, Gregory Helms at the time, Shane Helms?
Sugar Shane Helms.
Yeah, God, you know, that's, that's tough.
I hadn't hit my stride yet, so, you know, that's a tough one on that one.
But if you start going to WWE.
Yeah, we'll go into WWE then.
I'm sure it's the same people, though.
Yeah, yeah, but, you know, I, there's so many different people that stood out,
you know, Russ and Kane, Undertaker, C.M. Punk, Eddie, you know, all the top, the top of the top.
But I think Eddie and I, when we were kids, we wanted to be the tag team champions of the world.
We didn't talk about being the heavyweight champions or the, you know, the cruiseway champions.
We always pretended that we were the tag team champions and we would be in the backyard
wrestling ring with, you know, my dad's and one of his brothers' belts, you know, the tag team
belts and we'd pretend that we were the champions and, you know, you know, a role play that
back there.
So when we became the WWE tag team champions at Madison Square Garden of all places, Survivor
series against Ray Mysterio Edge and Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle, the Smackdown 6th,
what they should call us.
You know, that was super special, man.
That was something that we kind of achieved that goal.
After that, we made other goals.
We made other, like, aspirations that we wanted to be, wanted to be heavyweight champions.
We had to move up and change, and we both achieved that, you know.
So I think that was probably the pinnacle.
I mean, I went different places for sure on that,
but just super special was that, you know.
What about, I mean, you didn't spend a ton of time in impact,
but do you have any memorable matches there?
Yeah, tagging with Hernandez was fun, man.
Impact was tough because I came into a, you know,
organization that I thought had one of the best rosters in the world.
And I thought,
I really thought we could compete with WWE.
But then when I really saw what impact was about,
and this is impact then.
I don't know impact now,
but back then Dixie Carter's impact,
it was a play toy for Dixie Carter.
It wasn't meant to compete with WWE.
So it was very frustrating.
We really wanted to do well.
And I could see how people like, you know,
Frankie Cazarian and Christopher Davis were disgruntled.
and frustrated and in the back, you know, because they felt it too.
They felt that we could really do something great and we weren't allowed to.
Our hands were tied.
So with impact, man, I don't know.
Some stuff with, with, I just had fun tagging with with, with Hernandez.
Okay.
Yeah, what about Lucha Underground?
Lucha Underground, man, was cool.
I loved just being behind the scenes in Lucha Underground.
There was a time when I was agenting and I was running.
running around that place, especially the first season.
I'd be stretching for my match with headsets on,
calling the match and telling the director what the match is going to be
and watch this switch.
And then, okay, hold on a second.
Take the headsis off, run out to my match, go Russell, come back,
sweaty, put the head feds back on and go right back to Agent.
Wow.
Yeah, man.
So that was awesome.
You know, stuff with Ray.
I think Ray and my dad was kind of cool when he came in and, you know,
hit me with a chair to get me disqualified.
and Daria Queda would continue the match.
And, you know, it was like a loser leave Lucha Underground match.
That was, I think, probably the best.
Look at us.
I had a match with RICOchet.
He was Prince Puma the time.
And we were just getting into it.
And I ended up tearing my hamstring.
So that was like a, man, a what-if match.
I thought we could have really torn it down.
Look at all the stars that Lucha Underground made.
It's mine.
I mean, Rickettysh and Cage and Sammy Callahan
and, I mean, the list goes on.
Lucha brothers, you know, Cobb, Jeff Cobb, Lucha Brothers,
you know, Pentagon and Phoenix, you know, guys like Matt Cross, guys like, you know,
basically the whole roster.
Yeah, it was, it was incredible.
A Thunder Rosa, yeah.
Yeah, always, we had so many people there that were just so good and were so raw at the time.
You know, I remember getting, you know, like Pentagon, Phoenix and Drago, those guys,
and going, hey, guys, how long have you been wrestling for?
God, I'm resting 10 years.
Okay, well, hold on a second.
Do you know we're supposed to play that camera right there?
And they're like, no one ever taught us that.
I said, guys, stop, slow down.
The camera is chasing you.
Stop.
Go to that camera.
Make that camera shoot you.
I go, we have the luxury of editing here.
Like, you know, and spice it together.
You guys go to WWE, and I always talk about that because I know where the pinnacle was of
wrestling was.
I go, when you guys make it to WWE, it's live.
You have to stop.
And I remember having this conversation with Shane Strickland,
but do you,
you have to tell the camera where to shoot you.
And they're like, wow, I didn't know, you know.
So having a little, among others, you know, Conan, Vampiro,
but having a little bit part in helping those guys,
find themselves.
I see them now on AW, just killing it.
And it's so awesome to see him, you know.
I have to admit Chavo, as a kid growing up in Canada,
my first real exposure to Spanish was through you and Eddie.
Yeah, man.
Orale.
I didn't know what Viva La Raza meant, but I said it all the time.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, it's funny.
We got, you know, all these.
It's really started with in WCW with Conan.
He'd say, Arriba la Rasa, which means like, like, like, translate, like raise the race.
But we'd say Viva, like live the race, which means it's like a, you know, in America,
it'd be like, you know, remember the Alamo or something.
and like, you know, Viva la France.
It's kind of what it means, you know, but for Spanics.
But, yeah, we'd say that all the time and just we'd have everybody, you know, say Viva Rosa or Carlos Beaners or something.
It was great.
It was awesome.
Ola, leos.
Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean, we would do our Spanglish versions, you know, for sure.
It was great.
I didn't know what these meant, but I appreciate it because I didn't get, you know, Canada is very multicultural, but I didn't get like a real introduction.
to that except for you guys. It was like it was really nice to see that. Yeah, you know,
I still to this day, I have people coming up to me like in other Hispanics and going, Chavo,
thank you for doing what you did for, for Hispanic, for our culture. You know, we, we don't have a lot
of people out in sports or in Hollywood or whatever. And we had you guys, you as an, you and Eddie,
your family. Thank you for representing us. So when I, when I started getting that, when
Eddie started getting that, man, we like had to change our decisions. And we were,
like not just representing like making decisions for ourselves. We're kind of making decisions for
big fall in like a race, you know, in a sense. And so we definitely, we had to, you know,
step back and say, okay, we, we have to be role models. I didn't plan on being a role model.
I just wanted to be a wrestler like my family. But to be a role model and have people look up to you.
It's like, all right, it's a responsibility. It's great, but it's definitely been responsibility.
Well, I mean, I don't feel like you, you didn't have to be a Mexican wrestler. Like, sure, you were from Mexico,
but you didn't have to be a Mexican wrestler.
You could have just been Chavo,
or we could have given you another wrestling name.
How important was it for you to play into your heritage?
Very, very important.
You know, growing up in first El Paso, but here in Southern California,
you know, man, as a kid, I wanted to be a white guy named Mike.
I really remember telling my mom, going, Mom, how come I don't have blue eyes, you know?
But then as I got older and I saw how.
awesome it was to be, you know, Mexican-American. And I said, I embraced it. I really embraced the
heritage and the being proud of it. You know, then I saw my, my, you know, white Caucasian friends
and they say, where are you from, America? I said, no, where are you from? Well, I think we're
German or something. I'm not sure. And I'm like, what do you mean you're not sure?
Yeah. I'm Mexican, you know, I mean, Mexican-American. I'm American, I'm American 100 percent,
And I was born here. I'm like a fourth generation, you know, American, but we still embrace our heritage, you know, where we came from. And they're like, oh, wow, I didn't know that, you know. And so I saw how really cool it was to kind of really embrace that heritage. So that was very important to me to represent them, embrace that in wrestling. And still to this day, if you see the stuff that I do, you know, it's still, it's still, it's still representing them.
Well, it must be easier, though, like you not only you tied to your heritage, but you also speak a different language.
I think for someone whose grandparents, great-grandparents might be from Ireland or Germany or something, they just don't feel like they have that same connection.
You speak Spanish.
Yeah, well, you know, it's something that my family was very big on continuing, you know, making sure you did it.
You know, in my house, my household with my mom and dad, we spoke English, but I get around my family.
grandmother and it was just Spanish, you know. So definitely being introduced that really,
really helped being, you know, bilingual. And I just think that that the culture, I loved it.
I loved, you know, just the family, the very strong family ties in that. So it's something that
I just embraced and still to this day, love it. Do you speak Spanish with your kids?
Not really. My kids are pretty white. They're pretty white. You know, they have
the grill last name, but they're, you know, they're blue-eyed and, you know, they got the dark
here, but they kind of had the best of both my, me and my wife. My wife's like an Irish-German.
But, so they're, you know, they're Orange County, these poor guys.
Like the real housewives of OC.
That's where I live. I live in those, those cities. I see them around all the time.
My goodness. Yeah, that's kind of funny, right?
You know, I kind of just migrated South, South Orange County a little bit.
And it just, I live in that OC bubble, we call it.
Look, it's been so great catching up with you, chatting with you.
I said at the start, but it's so true.
You are such an incredible storyteller.
And that's what suplexes and surveises is all about.
So wherever people are listening to this right now, they can find suplexes and surveases.
And, man, you've got many more guests on the way.
Oh, yeah.
man i got some big ones coming up here you know i got a raymond studio in the future uh right now
josh brinnett part one got got released um i won't spoil too many but i got some i got some good
ones in there you and ray is going to be epic oh yeah man that's that's a good one you can see the video on
my patreon which is patreon slash chavreiro uh i'm sorry no we do that just patreon slash suplexes and
cervases uh that's where i put all the videos on there but um yeah man i just having fun doing
that podcast right now. You guys can check me out on Instagram at Chavgaro Jr. on Twitter at
Mex Warrior and, you know, check at my beer at a loss of brewing company, Los Guerrero's Mexican
Lager and Supervisor podcast right now. I'm a big brew, a big beer guy, big craft beer guy. Is this a
brewery that I can actually go in and like they would serve me a beer? Yeah. Absolutely. There's not many of
those in California. Well, so no, that one, that one's a great one because they have all their great beers on tap
and it's they and they revolve they revolve seasonal for sure you know uh but yeah you can go on there
for they have two different locations and one in wuscovina one's outside of wuscovina
uh but depending on what you know the covid restrictions are right now um yeah you'll be
able to go in there and and have coldie and they're great man tell my sent you i will chavo
guerrero thank you so much chris thanks for having me brother appreciate it and uh i'll push this
on my my social media to you and push your stuff man
Thank you, brother.
Appreciate you.
All right, man.
God bless.
Thank you.
And Viva la Rosa.
Well, there we go, my friend.
Chavo is awesome.
And right after we recorded this,
I was part of a secret project with him
about a week later that you'll be seeing,
I'd say, relatively soon.
And I'll be able to talk more about it then.
But for now, we'll call it the secret project.
And as soon as you see it, it's like,
ah, that's the thing that he was talking about.
Snap a screenshot.
Tag us on social media.
we know that you're hanging out with us on this one. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. Chavo is at Chavo Giro,
Jr. And you know, I often get asked which wrestler I'd love to interview that isn't with us
anymore. And the answer is always two people, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. And it's crazy
to think that Chavo was the closest person to both of them. So I kind of feel like interviewing Chavo,
I mean, it's obviously the closest we can get to interviewing them now. That's kind of how I feel. And
I also get so nostalgic anytime I talk to someone who was part of Lucha Underground, because I think
they had really, like they had something so special there. And we've talked to a bunch of people
from Luch Underground recently, like Sammy Callahan and John Morrison, I guess most recently. I mean,
we've talked to a ton of people from Lich Underground. But every time I talk to someone from that,
I'm like, ah, man, it was good.
It was so good.
And if you haven't watched you yet,
I'm sure you've heard all about it from people that have watched it.
But I highly encourage you to just check out a few matches.
And you'll be blown away.
It was something so, so special.
I'll leave you with this.
As Walt Disney famously said,
first think, second dream,
third, believe, and finally, dare.
Be great.
Be grateful, my friends.
Enjoy your weekend.
see you next week.
Jim Rome takes on sports.
Why? Because I have a job to do.
With rapid fire takes.
So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today.
No idea what you're talking about.
You're complaining more than you like to breathe air.
It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media
about things that you don't even understand.
He's the spitfire of sports smack.
Take advantage of it, but get up in here.
The Jim Rome Show podcast.
What's your beef?
Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
You've been warned.
