Ultimo Guerrero has issued a statement following a recent match against Kazuchika Okada that did not go according to plan.
The legendary luchador faced off against the Continental Champion on the June 22nd episode of AEW Collision. With the show being taped ahead of time, reports from those in the venue at the taping stated that the match with Kazuchika Okada was “a total mess” and was not well-received according to those in attendance. The former CMLL World Champion also wrestled in a mask for the match against The Rainmaker, despite the fact that he has not worn one since being unmasked back in 2014.
Assuming that he would be competing in the match unmasked, Guerrero issued a statement on his Facebook page where he revealed that he did not bring a mask with him to the taping and praised a member of the AEW team for making him a mask on short notice:
a story to tell I came to the dressing room of the recording location for AEW at the collision function unforeseen for me from one day to the next where I had to fight with mask and it turns out I have no masks arriving at the location they realized there is no mask immediately a company worker was ordered to make an unusual mask he made it as he could reflecting the loyalty he has to his work within an hour or so checking and worrying why I looked good.
everyone criticizing why he pulls out that mask and I’m thinking about the sacrifice of this person my respect because it’s the work of a great working man of AEW represents my sacrifice and that’s why I put it on and went up with it. sometimes many people do something for us and we do not take them into account with pride I will keep this mask
The match that was broadcast on Collision saw Guerrero needing to adjust his mask on numerous occasions and saw the mask removed entirely shortly before the finish, where Okada hit the former CMLL World Champion with a Rainmaker to win the match.
Ultimo Guerrero Mask Issues Caused Multiple Edits
Discussing the match that took place on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that Guerrero informed Okada that numerous spots in the match could not be performed as the mask was likely to come off as a result and the match was heavily edited to compensate for this:
“So here’s one of the problems, he puts the mask on and he realises that he can’t wrestle in it. So they lay out a match and he basically told Okada, I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this, because the thing’s gonna come off. So it still came off, but they did a very simple match. I don’t know how many times the mask came off because they edited a lot out, but it did come off at the finish. And they couldn’t edit that out because it was the finish.
The reason they didn’t have a good match was because the guy was afraid of his mask constantly falling off, which it did the entire match. So he was so tentative,and he already turned out a bunch of spots for that same reason. So it’s like just redo the match and go out and have a good match. If it was live show obviously you can’t do that but that’s one of the beauties of a taped show.”
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