WWE executive reveals why Eddie Guerrero was chosen to beat Brock Lesnar at No Way Out 2004
Eddie Guerrero won his first WWE Championship at the No Way Out PPV in 2004, beating Brock Lesnar to win the title. The finish of the match saw Eddie counter the F5 to plant Lesnar with a DDT right onto the title belt. Eddie then finished Lesnar off with his signature Frog Splash to pick up the win.
WWE executive Bruce Prichard recently discussed Eddie Guerrero's first world title win on his podcast, Something To Wrestle. Prichard called Eddie's win the ultimate underdog victory:
It was the absolute premier underdog victory in beating the big bad monster in Brock Lesnar and Eddie Guerrero overcoming everything.
Bruce Prichard on why Eddie Guerrero was chosen to beat Brock Lesnar
Bruce Prichard also discussed why Eddie Guerrero was the Superstar chosen to beat Brock Lesnar. He revealed that Kurt Angle was also discussed as someone who could go over Brock but in the end, Eddie was the one they went with:
It was from a place of looking at who’s gonna be the next guy. Who are we gonna focus on to take us to another level hopefully at this point? Kurt [Angle] was discussed and all these different things, but we had never had a champion like Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was over and he was primed for the picking. Eddie was, when you looked at the roster, probably the least probably to be the champion but also the only real logical choice that you would choose to be the champion. He had it all, and I think a lot of people felt it was a bad decision and felt that Eddie was too small and the fact that he was Mexican – all these things like he’s a little guy – there was just opposition. In the end, I remember thinking he’s the guy. He was just the guy at that time, and I think Eddie needed that title. H/T: 411Mania
Brock Lesnar ended up leaving WWE a little while later following WrestleMania XX where he lost to Goldberg in a match that was terribly received. Eddie Guerrro went on to retain the WWE Championship against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XX.