JBL was driven to the El Paso city limits by police after giving Eddie Guerrero’s mother a storyline heart attack, and was told not to come back because they believed he would be killed.
The angle took place at a WWE live event in El Paso in May 2004, on Mother’s Day weekend, with Guerrero honoring his late father, Gory Guerrero, and presenting flowers to his mother, Herlinda. JBL, then the challenger for Guerrero’s WWE Championship, interrupted and put her down.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, JBL said the idea came from the Guerrero family.
“The whole thing with Chavo, Chavo Senior came up. I don’t know if it’s Chavo Senior or Eddie came up with the idea of his mother having a heart attack in El Paso, but it was a great story because we’re backstage and we’re not selling any tickets at Staples Center. People aren’t buying me yet.”
The pitch was made in a room with three Guerreros.
“It’s just me, Chavo Senior, Eddie’s brother, not his nephew, and Eddie. And they tell us this idea. We’re in El Paso on Mother’s Day weekend. We’re going to honor our father, Gory Guerrero, and it’s Mother’s Day. We’re going to give mom some flowers. We want you to give mom a heart attack.”
Chavo Guerrero Sr., Eddie’s older brother, wanted to go further and used the conversation to wind Eddie up.
“Chavo goes, then you can get like a little heat on mom. But he’s only saying that to stir up Eddie, and Eddie goes, Chavo, I’ve told you, he’s not going to touch mom. Mom’s 70-something years old. And he goes, no, no, no, big John’s a good worker. He can just hit with a little clothesline or something. And Eddie goes, Chavo, no. John’s not going to do anything to mom. He’s going to hold her while she goes. He goes, no, no. Okay, how about just a boot? And mom gets a little color.”
He described what actually happened in the ring.
“When Eddie’s mom went down, what happened was I grabbed her like that, and what I did was I was allowing her to grab my hand and go down. It looked like I was manhandling her, but I was allowing her. I’m gonna take care of her. I’ve got Eddie Guerrero and every brother in the world backstage. I’m not worried about these 10,000 fans. Guerrero brothers, I was worried about.”
He also rated her performance.
“I remember sitting there and thinking, there’s not a Guerrero that can’t work. She looked like she had a heart attack.”
He said the building went quiet before it turned.
“I’ve got her down, and the whole place was kind of heat. And all of a sudden the place just gets silent. You could have heard a pin drop in the building.”
There were extra state troopers around the ring. Because it was not a television taping, the footage had to be captured on the night to be usable, which JBL said was the priority.
“We had cops going, John, you’ve got to. Because you could feel the place was about to riot. And we got to get it on camera. There’s no reason to do it if you don’t get it on camera.”
“They got me to the back, and the place is literally, you could feel it bubbling. By now they’re starting to get loud, and they’re getting ready to come over the rail. And these cops are trying to get me out of the building. They got me in my car, and my car is running.”
Police took him to the edge of town.
“They took me to the city limit sign, and they said, ‘ Do not come back. We think you will be killed. They said drive all the way to Odessa, which we had planned anyway. I drove all the way to Odessa to fly out.”
He said the reaction lasted.
“Two years later, we worked there, and they wouldn’t book me there. They thought I’d be killed. They thought something would happen to me. I had that much heat.”
JBL worked with Guerrero for most of 2004, taking the WWE Championship from him in a Texas Bullrope match at The Great American Bash on June 27.
“Eddie loved the JBL character,” he said. “He was a groomsman in my wedding. Ron was my best man.”
Guerrero died in November 2005 at the age of 38.
