When Chavo Guerrero suffered a torn bicep during a dark match at the May 15th 2003 Smackdown taping the alarms bells must have been ringing. He was part of a major tag team with uncle Eddie, who were responsible for drawing crowds to Smackdown house shows (Los Guerreros frequently headlined). WWE had spent time and effort promoting Los Guerreros' impending ladder match with Team Angle at Judgement Day. They couldn't cancel or have Eddie wrestle without his partner, so they simply replaced Chavo with the most compatible racial stereotype, Tajiri. The team won the titles in the (underrated) ladder match and continued to feud with Team Angle for the next several weeks. Tajiri and Eddie were awesome in the ring. The matches were still great but Tajiri offered a different dynamic to Chavo. Within a month and a half of winning the titles the makeshift champs had dropped them back to Team Angle and Eddie had turned on Tajiri in a vicious angle where he put him through the windshield of his lowrider. WWE (and Eddie) wanted Eddie to be a heel, but the fans loved him and were responding to his and Tajiri's matches and promos. It wasn't long before the crowd forced WWE's hand and they had to turn Eddie back. He was just too damn entertaining. Regrettably, there'd be no more teaming with the Japanese Buzzsaw as Chavo returned from his injury. All told, Tajiri and Eddie only had a few televised matches as a team. They really could (and should) have had more.
