Chavo Guerrero was tasked with one of the most difficult jobs in wrestling history when asked to play the Kerwin White character. Vince McMahon is known for having some absurd ideas that have crossed the line towards offensive territory, but this gimmick was a new low. Chavo hoped to turn his career around after treading water for years with an unusual character.

WWE came up with the idea of Eddie Guerrero’s nephew playing a white character who loved golfing and other "white people" stereotypes. The humor involved was meant to be the main source of entertainment, but everything just missed the mark. Fans showed no love to the gimmick, and it is considered one of the worst ideas in wrestling history.

The Character Change For Chavo Guerrero

WWE moved Chavo Guerrero in the 2005 brand split draft when looking to repackage him. Chavo had run his course as a member of the Cruiserweight division and did need something new to move forward. The move to Raw led to the drastic change of adopting the Kerwin White character with weeks of vignettes hyping it up.

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Chavo died his hair blonde and started wearing preppy clothes to imply he was now a white man. WWE had a few other problematic gimmicks in that time frame like Cryme Tyme robbing others or Rodney Mack’s “white boy challenge.” This felt even worse since fans were already used to Chavo for his own identity throughout the years.

The Failure Of Kerwin White

Chavo Guerrero tried to make the Kerwin White gimmick when debuting as a heel. Dolph Ziggler was the caddy of Chavo for the new act, but that just hurt them both to work such an awful gimmick. Chavo received the wrong kind of heat with fans disgusted and not caring enough to react with boos. The lack of crowd reaction during his matches showed just badly it was going.

Kerwin White

Chavo’s promos and character work featured him trying to commit to the full gimmick with negative results. The idea of someone denouncing their race as part of a wrestling character is bad enough on paper, but WWE essentially erased his prior identity by making Kerwin White a new character. Chavo expected the gimmick to run longer and was dead set on committing to it.

The Guerrero Legacy

Eddie Guerrero passing away shocked the wrestling world in 2005 in a way that changed multiple careers in WWE. Rey Mysterio won the World Championship and Vickie Guerrero getting signed were two of the bigger moments in the aftermath. The most immediate change was Chavo having to drop the Kerwin White gimmick for good.

Fans were heartbroken over the loss of Eddie, and no one was going to boo Chavo. The gimmick came off insulting to the fans of the Guerrero family, but it would have been a massive story if WWE continued having Chavo playing a white man. Chavo wrestled under his name for the Eddie tribute show against JBL and never turned back.

Chavo Guerrero

A short-lived face run would see Chavo ditching the failed act and leaving it in the past. WWE witnessed the failure becoming an all-time bust in every way possible. Chavo was viewed as a joke after years of credible work. The offensive thinking for the gimmick upset many viewers of color. Crowd reception featured apathy during matches and groans during promos.

Chavo almost ruined his career by taking the risk when asked to take on such a character change. Every metric of success for WWE was negative for the Kerwin White experiment. WWE pivoting to a family-friendly product made them embarrassed to show any proof this character existed. Few gimmicks will ever challenge it for the worst character in WWE history. For what it is worth, Guerrero has said on Chris Van Vilet's podcast that he was willing to fully commit to it, even draping himself in a white sheet. Let's be glad we didn't see that.