September 2 - The Legend Of Chavo Guerrero

Quick content warning: the video for this song contains disgraced pro wrestler and abuser Joey Ryan.

There's no nostalgia like bittersweet nostalgia, and John Darnielle is the source of some of the most bitter and some of the most sweet. The surface level of this song is a delightful romp through memory of Chavo Guerrero, a tremendous but relatively secondary figure in the days of the southwestern territories. These days he's largely known because of the tremendous success of his son (Chavo Jr) and his younger brother (Eddy). Eddy Guerrero is widely considered to be one of the greatest wrestlers of his generation and could have gone so much more were it not for his untimely death about 20 years ago. Chavo was no slouch himself, deeply talented, but only achieved national fame through work with his son (and taking the wonderful name Chavo Classic).

Anyway, that's the first level.

On the second level we see the beautiful but sad branches of the sunset tree once more. John loved Chavo as a child, lacked heroes and justice in his life, and this lack was embodied in his stepfather. Who tried mocking Chavo to get under young John's skin. And doesn't that flash of bitter make the rest of it more sweet?

Chavo Sr passed away in 2017 of liver cancer. He was 68, and lived long enough to see his family gain a reputation as one of the most important in Mexican-American wrestling history.

It's real sweet to grow old, but it's also sweet to be remembered well.