Wrestling fans stateside caught their first glimpse of Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko in the rings of Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1995.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
Both Superstars were second-generation athletes. WWE Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero, who passed away in 2005, was the son of lucha libre legend Gory Guerrero.
1 / 31
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
Malenko's father was the incomparable Prof. Boris Malenko.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"It was just greed of knowledge and they were trying to prove to each other the knowledge they had was better than the other," third-generation Superstar Finlay said of Guerrero and Malenko.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"It was just an amazing thing to watch."
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"Many times when you see two guys that are very technically gifted it can be non-interesting to a non-pure wrestling audience," Cesaro commented, before adding ...
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
... "Those two made it mainstream and they made it very entertaining and very awesome. That's what I'm doing today."
1 / 31
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"I'm very proud ECW afforded them the opportunity to ply their trade in front of an audience that to this day fondly remembers their state-of-the-art presentation all the way back to 1995," Paul Heyman said.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
Outside the ring, Guerrero and Malenko were dear friends who essentially spent the remainder of their careers together after meeting in Japan in the early 1990s.
1 / 31
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"As a kid, I was very small and I knew I probably wasn't going to sprout to 7-feet tall," Tyson Kidd said.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"Seeing those guys [in WCW] showed that there was room for that style, and they were the ones breaking the ground," Kidd said. "So if they failed, then I likely wouldn't be here."
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"It was just magic for me to see they made it cool to watch wrestling again, the actual wrestling wrestling," William Regal said.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
Chris Jericho described them as "kindred spirits."
1 / 31
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"When I first broke in, Eddie and Dean as rivals influenced me a great deal because those were two of the guys who brought this amazing hybrid style to the States," Seth Rollins said.
1 / 31
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
The Guerrero-Malenko rivalry ensnared several championships, including the ECW Television Title ...
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
Advertisement: Click the arrow to continue
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
... and the WCW United States Championship.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
Wrestling Guerrero "wasn't like a job," Malenko said.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"It was just going out there and enjoying the fruits of your labor with somebody who has the same passion and thought process as you."
1 / 31
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"They just had a perfect the chemistry for that certain style and it wasn't really cruiserweight style, it was just good wrestling -- chain wrestling; smart, inventive moves; great psychology," Jericho explained.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"They were two guys who'd been in the business their whole lives," Y2J added. "Similar size, similar move set. Eddie was a little more dynamic, Dean was a little smoother. But it's that rare chemistry that you don't see often."
1 / 31
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"If the younger generation of wrestlers wasn't inspired by that rivalry, then they don't need to be in this industry," Big Show said.
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"That was a technical master class of execution, of storytelling in front of a live audience," Big Show exclaimed. "They executed that to the fullest of its potential and put on a great show."
+ Show Caption
1 / 31
"In everybody's minds and in everybody's hearts, we see those two as masters of this game," Finlay said.