Chavo Guerrero Sr.

Salvador Guerrero III[1] (January 7, 1949 – February 11, 2017),[1] better known as Chavo Guerrero or Chavo Guerrero Sr., and also known during the 21st century as "Chavo Classic", was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his work in Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), American Wrestling Association (AWA) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and for being the father of third generation wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. He was the oldest son of Salvador "Gory" Guerrero, and part of the Guerrero wrestling family. He was the oldest WWE Cruiserweight Champion.

This article is about Chavo Guerrero Sr. For his son who also competes as Chavo Guerrero, see Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Chavo Guerrero Sr.
Chavo Guerrero in a wrestling program from October 7,1977.
Birth nameSalvador Guerrero III
Born(1949-01-07)January 7, 1949[1]
El Paso, Texas, U.S.[1]
DiedFebruary 11, 2017(2017-02-11) (aged 68)
El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Cause of deathLiver cancer
FamilyGuerrero
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Chavo Guerrero
Chavo Guerrero Sr.[1]
Chavo Classic[1]
Billed height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[1]
Billed weight229 lb (104 kg)[1]
Trained byGory Guerrero[1]
Debut1970[1]
Retired2010

Professional wrestling career

Early career

In 1970, Chavo competed for NWA Western States. Guerrero later moved his family to California so he could compete in Los Angeles's NWA Hollywood Wrestling[2] and San Francisco's Big Time Wrestling. In NWA Hollywood, he feuded with Roddy Piper for the NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship.[2] Between 1975 and 1980, he held the title 15 times.[2]

Various Territories

He spent the early 80's splitting his time between All Japan Pro Wrestling, Mid South Wrestling, CWF and Houston Wrestling.

In 1982, Guerrero feuded with Atsushi Onita over the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship in All Japan Pro Wrestling.[3]

In 1983, he feuded with Gino Hernandez in Mid South Wrestling. The feud resulted in Loser Leaves Town matches, Texas Death Matches and a Mexican Chicken Match.

In 1984, he teamed with his brother Hector Guerrero in Championship Wrestling from Florida. They had rivalries with The U.S. Express, from whom they captured the NWA United States Tag Team Titles from and The Breakdancers of Brickhouse Brown and Mark Ragin.[3]

In 1985, Hector and Chavo then traveled back over to Mid South Wrestling, where they feuded with The Rock 'n' Roll Express. They then engaged in a rivalry with Ted Dibiase and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams over the UWF Tag Team Championship. In 1986, they wrestled The Fabulous Ones on multiple occasions for Mid South.[3]

AWA

In 1988, Mando and Chavo stopped in the AWA. They went after the AWA World Tag Team Championship held by Diamond Dallas Page's team of Badd Company (Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka). However, they were unable to capture the titles in multiple attempts.[3]

EMLL

In 1990, Chavo teamed with his brothers Mando and Eddie in EMLL. He competed with his brothers in multiple trios matches.[3]

World Wrestling Entertainment (2004)

In 2004, Guerrero began working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), joining his son Chavo Jr. in a feud with his younger brother Eddie.[1] While with WWE he competed as Chavo Classic and became the oldest WWE Cruiserweight Champion in history,[4] defeating Chavo Jr. and Spike Dudley in a triple threat match. On the April 1 episode of SmackDown!, Classic and Chavo Jr. lost to Spike Dudley and Rey Mysterio. On the April 22 episode of SmackDown!, Classic and Chavo Jr defeated John Cena in a 2-on-1 handicap match. On the May 13 episode of SmackDown!, Chavo Classic defeated Jacqueline thanks to outside help by Chavo Jr. On the June 3 episode of SmackDown!, Chavo Classic retained the Cruiserweight Title against Funaki, thanks to outside help from Chavo Jr. He eventually lost the title to Rey Mysterio less than a month later. On June 15, 2004, he was fired by WWE for no-showing multiple SmackDown! house shows.[4]

On the November 15, 2010, "Old School" episode of Raw, Guerrero returned as Chavo Classic, driving Alberto Del Rio to the arena.

Lucha Underground (2016)

Chavo Classic first appeared on Lucha Underground talking with Rey Mysterio about the upcoming match of the latter against his son Chavo Guerrero Jr. in a Loser Leaves Lucha match. During the match, Classic, who was in the attendance, turned on Mysterio, helping his son win the match, but Dario Cueto ordered to restart the match, and Mysterio hit the 619 on Classic and defeated Chavo Guerrero, leaving Lucha Underground without the Guerreros.

Personal life

Chavo was the son of Gory Guerrero and the older brother of Mando, Hector, and Eddie Guerrero.[5] He grew up in El Paso, Texas[5]

He had two children, wrestler Chavo Jr. and daughter Victoria.[2][5] and he was the brother in-law of Vickie Guerrero.

In July 2016, Guerrero and his son were named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE.[6] Over a year after his death, US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant dismissed the lawsuit in September 2018.[7]

Death

On February 11, 2017, Guerrero died of liver cancer, at the age of 68.[8]

Other media

In 1978 he co-starred with Henry Winkler in the movie The One and Only as a wrestler called Indian Joe.

He is the subject of the song "The Legend of Chavo Guerrero" by The Mountain Goats and is featured in its music video.[9]

The 2017 Netflix series, GLOW has its 7th episode dedicated to Chavo Guerrero Sr.

Championships and accomplishments

Notes

1When Chavo Guerrero won this championship, it was still officially recognized and sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and was primarily defended in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, an NWA affiliated promotion in Mexico. After the promotion's withdrawal from the National Wrestling Alliance, they kept the title and continue to use the NWA initials. However, the NWA no longer recognizes or sanctions it.
3Defeats Al Madril to claim Madril's part of the championship, though he quickly surrenders the titles on the same day.

Footnotes
  1. "Chavo Guerrero Sr. profile". Online World Of Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  2. Guerrero, Eddie. Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story, p. 16.
  3. "Chavo Guerrero". Cagematch. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  4. Kapur, Bob (November 27, 2007). "Chavo Classic still loves 'that feeling'". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
  5. Van Der Griend, Blaine (January 28, 2010). "Discrimination was always a part of Chavo Guerrero Sr.'s life". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
  6. "WWE sued in wrestler class action lawsuit featuring Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka, Paul 'Mr Wonderful' Orndorff". FoxSports.com. Fox Entertainment Group (21st Century Fox). July 18, 2015. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  7. Robinson, Byron (September 22, 2018). "Piledriver: WWE uses 'Hell in a Cell' as springboard to future shows". Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  8. "Chavo Classic passes away". www.wwe.com. Archived from the original on 2017-02-17. Retrieved 2017-02-17.
  9. Merge Records on Youtube (20 May 2015). "The Mountain Goats "The Legend of Chavo Guerrero" (Official Music Video)". Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018 – via YouTube.
  10. NWA International Junior Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  11. NWA United States Tag Team Title (Florida version) history Archived 2009-02-22 at the Wayback Machine At wrestling-titles.com
  12. "Independent Wrestling Results - March 2006". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  13. NWA Americas Tag Team Title history Archived 2008-09-08 at the Wayback Machine At wrestling-titles.com
  14. NWA World Light Heavyweight Title history Archived 2010-11-30 at the Wayback Machine At wrestling-titles.com
  15. SCW Southwest Junior Heavyweight Title history Archived 2008-09-07 at the Wayback Machine At wrestling-titles.com
  16. SCW World Tag Team Title history Archived 2009-05-30 at the Wayback Machine At wrestling-titles.com
  17. Texas All-Star Wrestling USA Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  18. SCW Southwest Tag Team Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  19. "2014 Vendetty Awards". Vendetta Pro Wrestling. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  20. WWA World Trios Title (Mexico) history Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine At wrestling-titles.com
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References
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