Eddie Guerrero vs Charlie Haas
Date: December 9, 2003
Location: Sports Arena in San Diego, CA
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Armpit reader Nathan
Eddie Guerrero, like the rest of his family, had a hot temper to go along with his incredible in-ring talent and charisma. He, along with Chavo Jr and Sr, had a reputation for starting fights with men much bigger and tougher than they were. One example was Eddie starting up with Road Warrior Hawk in Japan, only to get knocked out.
It all started during a WWE SmackDown taping, pitting a match between Eddie and Chavo Guererro vs Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. During the match, Eddie suffered what he first thought was a separated shoulder, although in reality it was a hyperextended elbow. He tried to communicate this to Haas, who apparently didn’t receive the message.
Haas worked over the arm, but didn’t lighten up as Eddie had asked him. Because of the injury, he was hurting from even basic working of the arm by Haas. Watching on television, nothing seemed wrong, as it looked like any other basic arm work. The announcers even sold the elbow injury, saying Eddie had damaged it thanks to a maneuver executed by Benjamin.
After the match, Eddie was screaming at Haas about how he didn’t lighten up. He felt Haas wasn’t respecting his body, and Haas didn’t like the way he was being spoken to (being screamed at). Chavo got involved too, on Eddie’s side, further yelling at Haas in front of the boys.
There are two versions of what happened next. One is that Chavo shoved or struck Haas, and Haas shoved or hit Eddie back in return. Bill DeMott then broke it up. The other is that Haas blew Eddie off, not liking the way he was being spoken to. This caused Eddie to go after him, and Haas took him down over a table, injuring Eddie’s eblow even more before DeMott broke it up. Benjamin was not there when this all happened.
Either way, Jim Ross and John Laurinaitis got the two tag teams in a room to hash it out. Haas and Benjamin contended they did not know about the elbow injury, and they ended up all shaking hands.
Eddie worked the house shows that week, but was depressed because he always put immense pressure on himself to perform at a top level, and wasn’t able to do so.
Some wrestlers in the back sided with Eddie, feeling he was a veteran who deserved more respect than Haas was giving him. Others felt Eddie got way too upset over it. Haas appeared to have gotten more blame from management, though nobody was punished or reprimanded.
While Eddie was a fiery guy, Haas was younger and had extensive experience in amateur wrestling in high school and college. Had it gotten out of hand, Haas would’ve likely taken him down and probably held him until it was broken up. Luckily it never got that far, and thankfully both teams worked it out quickly.
