10 Years after the Moment

Eddie loosened his boot.  HE UNTIED HIS BOOT!  I remember thinking it was sheer genius, a great strategy to counter Kurt Angle's Ankle Lock submission.  Eddie Guerrero, then WWE Champion and in full swing with his "Lie, Cheat, Steal" persona, baited Angle into trying the move one too many times.  You can see the highlights of the match, as well as the finish, here:



He was a joy to watch, always doing things you haven't seen before, being crisp, effective ,and making the TV show wrestling look much more like the sport of wrestling, with some fun thrown in at the appropriate times.  After wrestling for over 20 years, and being praised as one of the very best "pound for pound" performers in the field, he was finally given the opportunity to represent an organization as their champion.
In a career that in many ways paralleled Guerrero's, Chris Benoit was given the same chance one month later.  Like Eddie, he had traveled the world, perfecting his craft.  Like Eddie, he was well respected, even appreciated by his peers, and looked to as a wealth of information and compassion.  And Like Eddie, for all these things, he was deemed too small, and too bland, to ever be given the top prize - the WWE/World Heavyweight Title.  This was typically given to men in the 6'3, 250 lb range, albeit men of great athleticism and charisma - like these guys:

So for guys in the 5'9 range, this was a rare treat, but very few would tell you they weren't deserving.  Chris Benoit has put on great matches in WWE, but hovered around the middle of the card (as opposed to the main event) for the majority of his time there, but was always great, no matter the opponent, or situation.  So a month after Guerrero's Title victory, it was Benoit's turn, as he defeated Shawn Michaels and Triple H (arguably the two biggest stars in the company at that time) for the World Heavyweight Title (WWE had so many top notch wrestlers at this point, they split the roster into two brands, each having it's own champion.  Highlights of his title victory are as follows:

It was a win for the little guy.  It proved that hard work, that dedication, and that a connection with the audience could do what genetics couldn't.  It also provided one of the most amazing visuals ever produced, close friends that had never been given that chance, center stage at the biggest show their profession.

For that moment, it was just perfect.  I was 18.  I didn't know about all the perils of substance abuse, or concussions, or the abnormality of 40 year old men all of a sudden carrying 30 extra lbs of muscle.  What I did know was that two guys that weren't the biggest, at least for a moment in time, were the very best in everyone's eyes.