Chavo Guerrero Talks Potential WWE Sale, The Rock As A Potential Buyer, Vince McMahon's Return, MJF In The Iron Claw, & More - Exclusive

The world of professional wrestling never sleeps, and neither does WWE and WCW legend Chavo Guerrero Jr. Between his work as a the wrestling coordinator for Dwayne Johnson's "Young Rock," producer for Vice TV's "Tales From Territories" and "Dark Side of The Ring," and the occasional appearance for AEW, Guerrero is a busy man. All of his success in Hollywood has, of course, come in the wake of his nearly 30 years as a professional wrestler — Guerrero held multiple titles in WWE, including the WWE Tag Team Championship on two occasions with uncle, Eddie Guerrero; the ECW Championship; and the Cruiserweight Championship, which he won in WWE years after he had already captured it twice in WCW and helped to define the division.

In this exclusive interview with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman, Guerrero discusses his multiple Hollywood projects, Vince McMahon's return to WWE, a possible sale of WWE, and more!

[You're] obviously right back from filming the second half of"Young Rock" season three ... why are you filming while the season's still going on?

So we've been doing that. We kind of started doing that and every season's kind of... Season one, it aired as we were filming the last episode. Then season two was a little bit different. It aired, and we were on the ninth episode, eighth episode. Well, season three started airing, man, it started airing while we were number one, aired while we were on number five.

Sure.

And that's completely up to the networks and how we want to get it going. And that's kind of how it works. So my understanding is that we got a call, okay. We're starting filming in, I think, it was early November, maybe late October. My timeline's probably a little off, but it was like a rush because the network was like, "Okay, we're going to start airing this in" ... December or whatever it was. Sort of like, "Oh my god, we got to get going. Hey babe, I'm going to Memphis for five months." And she's like, "When?" I'm like, "In four days." She's like, "What?" I said, "I know."

Well, I'm excited. I love all the "Young Rock" episodes.

Let's talk "Iron Claw" ... Everybody's buzzing about it. I'm not going to give away too much stuff. But everybody's buzzing about it. And now we have Jeremy White, who's playing Kerry Von Erich, just winning the Golden Globe for "The Bear." We got some steam coming in right now. People are starting to start to buzz about it. So that's something that... This is an A24 movie you just saw. They were sweeping the Globes. They got a bunch of nominees on at the SAG awards. So I believe this is going to be a very good movie.

When you say it's getting a lot of attention, it it like, people are seeing snippets of it in Hollywood right now and they're like, "Man, this is knocking my socks off"?

Everybody's talking about it, man. Everybody's starting to talk about it and starting to buzz about it. And coming from the actors, a specific actor told me, he goes, "Hey, I do a lot of movies. I don't always feel this way. I feel this is going to be a very good movie." So it's pretty cool. And I really hope it is, because it's the story, not only the Von Erich family, very true to my heart, close to our family, but for wrestling in general, I really hope it's something that pays homage to the whole wrestling industry. And the director, Sean Durkin, when he first approached me, we sat down and had a meeting and he told me, he goes, "I want to make the best wrestling movie ever made." So when I came on to talk to him, I agreed to do it, and that was my thing. I said, "Hey, I will help you make this movie and I'll make my part hopefully the best you've ever seen."

Not to compare things, because everything is different and art and all that, everybody loved the movie "The Wrestler." Can we expect something kind of as heavy and dramatic and real and Oscar-buzzy with "The Iron Claw" like what we got with "The Wrestler?"

I definitely think you're going to see something very Oscar-worthy ... The same feel as "The Wrestler," [it] obviously could be, because of that story. That story could be very tragic, and we could just totally just harp on that. Or you can play both sides. So this is really up to the director, Sean, how he wants to edit that, which, I believe I will be helping him edit the wrestling scenes. We'll have to see on that. I'd love to give you an answer. I can, but as far as Oscar buzz, Oscar-worthy, critically acclaimed, I believe that's exactly what it's going to be.

Is MJF a big part of this movie? I know all things MJF are kind of like close to the vest here, but how much MJF can we expect in this film?

We'll see what happens after the cutting room floor, man ... That's kind of out of our control in a sense, because once you get to the end, sometimes they cut things out, they add things, reshoots. I don't know, man. I would love to be able to tell you yes or tell you no, but this is something that's up in the air.

You bring up the Golden Globes, I don't know if you saw, but Paul Walter Hauser is trotting his Golden Globe out onto AEW TV this week.

That's cool. And because I was flying, actually I was finishing filming and then yesterday I was flying, I started seeing all everybody's posts about Justin Roberts, and there was some big time stars there, man, Ken Jeong was there, and I just, I talk to Ken all the time. He's a huge MJF fan. So he's been congratulating me on all the wrestling projects. Freddie Prinze, like you said, we have Golden Globe winners there. Go,d there was so many people were at that place.

What's your deal with AEW? Any chance we see you back in the fold any time soon, or no?

I'm on good terms with them. I'm on good with terms with Tony [Khan]. You never know. I always say never say never. With me, it's just very hard, because it's hard for me to commit for long periods of time, because the fact that I'm busy doing other projects and behind the camera, which was cool. I enjoyed that.

Tell us about "Territories."

That was my creation. Yeah, I mean, that one's really cool, man. If you check that one out, that's a story that I've been trying to tell for a long time that's been up in here. And every time, I would tell my friends or tell people in the business Ric Flair stories, or Andre the Giant stories, or stories of that era, they wouldn't believe me because they were so Wild West. They're like, "There's no way that happened." I'm like, "I swear it happened."

So my wife and I are driving in a car one time and literally just brainstormed about it, "Oh God, we got to get this out there" ... We all hook up after a show or WrestleCon or WrestleMania, and we all get together, all a bunch of people, we end up telling these stories ... So I originally had it everybody drinking beers and stuff, but more PC version, we put everybody around the round table and drink whatever's in that cup. I think it was mostly coffee and water.

Alison Brie the other day said she wants a "GLOW" movie, but she doesn't hold her breath about it. Is there any talk about putting a button on "GLOW?" I was so upset that the last season got canceled.

That's funny you say that, because I had recently, within the last week, maybe three or four people have kind of asked the same thing, because they went back and watched it or they started watching it with their wives or whatever, and they're like, "Oh my God, why did it finish? We got so invested in the characters, we want to see what happened." And my response to them was always like, "Well, season four, our final season, we were tying up all of those stories." And we had already filmed a couple episodes, that's when the pandemic hit and we ended up having to pull the plug. But man, I'd love to see it. I don't know if it's going to happen, hopefully down the line, I guess if the fans really want that, it would happen ... Mark Maron's talked about it. We've all talked about, we would love to just button it up. That was such a big family environment, and we never got to say goodbye. We basically said, "Hey, well, this weird thing is shutting things down, I'm not sure if we're going to shut down." Sure enough, next day we ended up shutting down for a week, and then a month, and then two months, and then six months, and then eight months, and then they pull the plug. So we never got a goodbye. We never got the hug, we never got the after party with all of us crying and hugging and stuff. And we just never got that. And I know that's something that everybody would love to do. And if you see the Instagram posts of a lot of the actresses, they still do things together or work together, and it's that "GLOW" family. It really is.

Now I'm upset about it. I'm going to write Netflix now.

Write Netflix.

What's your reaction to Vince McMahon returning to the fold here?

Well, if you think about this whole timeline of everything ... You remember when Hunter, this last year, having this heart attack and then getting — I don't want to say let go, but kind of sent home, and then you have Stephanie stepping down from the company, things were just fine. And then all of a sudden the stuff that happened with Vince with the payouts and different stuff like that, and then he's gone, and then all of a sudden Stephanie's back as CEO, and Hunter's back, and everything's back to where it was and everybody's happy, and the way the company's going now, that new direction. And then out of the blue, Vince goes, "Hey, no, no, no, I'm back." Why is he back? Because he needs to sell the company, which is crazy to me. Would you ever think that WWE would've been sold somebody?

I'm much more interested from your perspective. It sounds to me like you didn't see this day coming, and truthfully, do you really think Vince is going to sell the company?

Gosh, that's a great question. I wish I could tell you yes, no. I would never have believed it five months ago. Now I'm like, all these offers, and Saudi and then Disney ... the Khans maybe buying it, which I would not want to see because it'd be back to a monopoly of one person. I love the fact that we have two companies and two different CEOs, and it's better for wrestling, it's better for the fans, it's better for the wrestlers. I think wrestling had never been bigger than the Monday Night Wars. The ratings were so huge and everyone was buzzing about both companies. I'd love to see it get back to that part again. I love the fact that Jericho and the Jericho Appreciation Society showed up in LA at one of those shows. What was that? PWG or one of those? I was like, "He's a smart dude," that was very cool to see Tony Khan to let them do that. I mean, it was genius, it's awesome. I love it. Some of the people are wrestling in Japan. It's such a cool dynamic. Remember back in the day, you would see the WWF Champion, Bob Backlund, wrestle NWA champion Harley Race ... in a different country. You would see that stuff. You don't see it anymore. That'd be amazing to see MJF versus Roman Reigns ... It'd be pretty cool.

So man, I want to tell you that I knew something more than what you guys know, but I would never have believed it ever. When they said that Vince was coming back to get the company sold, I was like, "There's no way he's going to sell the company." Because he built this thing, he took it from over from his dad, but completely changed the structure and the business model of wrestling. He completely changed wrestling. So I didn't think it'd ever be sold until he died. But now it's crazy to see him finally wanting to actually let go. Now another question, is he going to let go, or is he going to come in as a figurehead, like a Ted Turner, and then eventually, they'll phase him out? Who knows? I'm excited with you guys! I'm reading your Wrestling Inc. every day, every morning, checking up, see what happened.

You brought up the Saudi rumors, and some people are really upset about that, reports that guys or women would both would be leaving the company...

And not selling to an American company. They're so "America, America, America," and selling to somebody outside of America, people are upset about that as well.

So do you see any silver lining or benefit to a possible Saudi sale or would you be against it? How do you feel about it, I guess?

Look, Vince is a businessman. I've always said it. He's the guy that's going to put a lot of personal issues aside. It may take him a minute, but eventually he does, when he sees green. It's about putting the dollars in the bank. So you got that Saudi investment fund that's supposedly worth, I don't know, around $417 billion. So three, four, five billion dollars to them is really not much. It'd be like me having $417,000 and spending a $5,000 check. That's nothing. To them, it's like, great, awesome. What happens when they take it over? They take it over and is it just a play toy to them? Do they just not care, they just play around with it? Are they really serious about actually making money off this thing?

I was talking to a former writer, producer the other day who was talking about how it would be an unusual acquisition because of how many moving parts are in WWE. You're talking about coming in and having to run three live television shows each week. You have a touring model, you have independent contractors. What happens to them if they get purchased by a bigger company? It's not a traditional kind of acquisition where it's just like, "Hey, I bought a paper company. I'm going to start printing paper tomorrow" or whatever.

You've seen that so much though. You see it, Disney acquiring "Star Wars" and now making a theme park, and it's just, there were so many moving parts to that brand.

But "Star Wars" isn't doing live light saber battles. There's not audio producers on the road and things like that. So as I think about, it would be interesting to see what a non-wrestling entity does with WWE.

The other big one that's out there that does know wrestling, that a lot of people kind of fantasy buzz about, is The Rock, is Dwayne. Could you foresee a scenario in which he pulls together some investors to do kind of what he did with the XFL and pull it under the Seven Buck Production brand?

I'd love it, because I'd probably have a job there! ... I think everybody would benefit from that, because you have Dwayne Johnson, a third-generation pro wrestler who still holds true to his pro wrestling background, even after as big as he's gotten in the wrestling world and the business world, and always goes back to his wrestling roots, and when he talks about everything, you know that it would be done right. It would be treated right, it'd still be wrestling. It'd probably be even better than it was now.

WWE put all those blue lightning bolts all over the Royal Rumble poster. Should fans get ridiculously attached to the idea that The Rock is going to come back, win the Rumble, and face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.?

Man, we planted that seed in season two, which was such a cool buzz that I loved so much. I'd love to see it. And I work for Dwayne. I'd love to tell you, "Oh, well, hey, stay tuned." We don't know. No one's even talked about it. I think a lot of times when it's so far off, it's easy to plant a seed, but when it starts getting closer to that time, it's harder to pull that trigger too. But who knows? I mean, I'd love to see it. It'd be huge. I'd tune in for that, for sure.

If it were to go down, would you have The Rock go over?

As a booker, thinking booking style, it's not absurd to have Dwayne win it. It'd be absurd to have Dwayne there for a long period of time with all the other things he's got going on here. So I'm not saying that he wouldn't win it, but he probably wouldn't keep it for very long.

Fair enough.

But there's ways to do that to where it still keeps Roman strong. You can have Roman get beat and then all of a sudden you can have Roman drop Dwayne at the very end, cheating style, heel style, and go off from that ... Look at this scenario. Rock wins straight up, great back-and -orth battle, awesome, up, down, Rock wins. Holding that title up, and then Roman beats the living crap out of him with a chair or whatever and breaks Rock's leg, and now he's out, and you have Roman saying that he's now the interim world champion until someone comes back ... That's just off the top of my head, something's so quick, but really it's awesome. That's why I love wrestling.

I love how you vividly describe Roman Reigns just going unhinged ... Because as interesting as Roman Reigns is as this unbeatable two-year champion, when he loses that title, the unhinged murderous rampage he goes on to get that title back is going to be just riveting television.

Look, you got Roman Reigns, he's Polynesian, man. He's those guys you don't mess with. They used to say to people starting off in the business like, "Hey, don't ever cross the Samoan family, or the Polynesian family," because of the fact that you're not just going to fight one, you're going to fight all of them. They're all going to kill you.

Well, talking about family, not direct blood family, but obviously a family you're tied to is the Mysterios. Dominik Mysterio is getting huge praise, it seems unilaterally, from people backstage and fans at home. He's got this "Prison Dom" thing going on right now. He dresses Konnan all of a sudden. What do you think of the work that Dominik's doing right now?

As long as he doesn't wrestle like Konnan, I'm cool with it.

Wow. Okay.

I'm kidding. [Konnan], I love you. Just give you a little shot here and there. But really, hey, Dominic's been doing this entire life. He's been involved in wrestling his entire life. He's been backstage, he's been involved with Eddie when they were doing "I'm Your Papi," all of that stuff. It's in his blood, and he's doing a great job. I'm so happy to see Rey kind of go back and kind of pave the way for Dom to come back, and Dom to kind of take off a little bit. It's really cool. And he's only going to get better. This is such a great, first real story run for him. I love it.

We brought up the Rumble and The Rock possibly being in it. You gonna be in The Rumble?

Great question, man. I'm definitely not opposed to it. Like I said before, it's very hard for me to commit for long periods of time or anything, because of the fact that, just the projects I'm doing in Hollywood. I hate saying that because you sound like a douchebag. But we're always wrestling. We're always tied to wrestling. I'm always in a ring, training actors or doing stuff. Yeah, in a second. I'd do it in a second. Come on, come on. Who wouldn't?

Not me. I get blown up, I'd kill somebody. When can I get Los Guerreros Mexican-style lager in Chicago?

That's a great question. So as y'all know, it's brewed by Alosta Brewing Company in West Covina. Well, Alosta Brewing Company is really worried about their brewery. That's what they're pushing. And they've got some great, awesome beers. Well, so many people want Los Guerreros Mexican lager that it's just kind of too big for them right now. So we're kind of in the talks of about actually acquiring all of it and me just completely taking it over. And then if I do that, I'll try to blow it up much bigger.

You're talking about buying Alosta Brewery? The whole brewery?

Not the brewery. So if when you look at Los Guerreros lager, my beer, well, there's certain things that I own of it and there's certain things that Alosta owns of it. It's looking at me just completely looking to take over the brand completely and kind of going from there.

Because I'm pretty close to being able to get Steve Austin's beer in Chicago.

Right, right. I have a lot of interest, and I have a very big distributor that wants to do something with my beer. So as of right now, it's just kind of what they want to do. It's just too big for that brewery because the brewery's worried about their brews and their brewery. And I totally get it. We'll see if I take it over and we'll kind of grow it ... We'll see if I'm Sammy Hagar one of these days.