In a recent interview on Talk is Jericho, former WCW star Juventud Guerrera spoke about losing his mask in WCW and also commented on “The Juice” gimmick he had with the company in the last years of the company’s existence. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Juventud Guerrera on how his ‘The Juice’ moniker started in WCW: “Everything started with Juventud – nobody could say it. Everybody was like, ‘It sounds stupid, how do we say it?’ Somehow, someway, somebody just started calling me Juvi. From Juvi, I think Konnan was the guy who said Juvi Juice. ‘Give me some of that Juvi Juice.’ Then from there, The Juice came along. The Rock was doing his name, and then it was like, you’re gonna be The Juice. Later on, it was like the imitator compared to him.”
On his reaction to losing his mask in a match with Chris Jericho: “That was shocking because when I started my career, no wrestler wanted to lose his mask. You always wanted to have it. My dad still had his. So, for me to lose it and be in the position of losing the mask was not something I really wanted to do. In a way, something was telling me, maybe you can do it. I was just happy to be there. I just went with the flow. But yeah, it was shocking. I didn’t know how the people were going to respond or how they were going to feel about me. I always tried to look good and have a good look, but when you have a mask, you’re a little bit shy. But when you took my mask, it was perfect. I remember I was trying to pull the mask little by little. We didn’t have this planned. Then you just came and took it away. Little by little, I started to show my face. I looked straight to the camera and I was like, ‘Well, this is me.’ I went into the corner and I pulled my head out. I now had this gimmick of ‘Juice’ without the mask. I think people really started to like it a lot with my personality without the mask and the charisma. I think it was a little bit better without the mask.”
