Last week marked ten years since the passing of WWE Hall of Famer and former world champion, Eddie Guerrero. For many fans, there's still a somewhat somber atmosphere when they reflect on the sudden death of one of the most popular stars in the history of the industry, but his career continues to be celebrated.
I still remember when I saw that Eddie passed, it was on the Yahoo home page and I immediately checked a wrestling news site to get further details. At 38, Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room as a result of an enlarged heart and it shook the wrestling world. The WWE dedicated that week's TV shows to his memory and the emotional broadcast featured many of Eddie's friends sharing their stories of him. Almost six months later, I sat in the Rosemont horizon and watched as Eddie's friends and family inducted him into the Hall of Fame. As much as it was an honor to see the legend that was gone too soon take his place in the HOF, it was still extremely sad because he wasn't on the stage to give the speech. However, the entertainment he provided to fans around the globe give reason to celebrate the life and the legacy of Latino Heat.
With pro wrestling in his blood, Eddie was born into a wrestling family as the son of legendary promoter, Gory Guerrero, who earned the nickname from the crimson that was often featured in his matches. His brothers Chavo, Hector, and Mondo all became professional wrestlers and as the youngest of the family, Eddie had to live up to his famous family name in the ring. As was featured in the WWE DVD release of his career, Guerrero had a wrestling ring in his backyard during his child hood and it would later be where he started training to join the pro ranks. Debuting in 1987, Guerrero originally worked under a mask for CMLL before making a "controversial" jump to the rival AAA promotion, where he shed the mask and proclaimed he would assume the family name for his in ring career.
Throughout the early 90s, Eddie was a staple of AAA and teamed with another second generation star, El Hijo del Santo to form a popular tag team until he turned heel in 1993. Guerrero would join a competitor from another wrestling family, Art Barr to become "Los Gringos Locos" and the American influenced stable generated tremendous heat among the proud Mexican audience. Sadly, because of limited exposure in the United States and a relatively short career since he died young, Art Barr is often forgotten about or simply unknown to many of today's fans. However, Barr was a great performer that had tremendous charisma and he actually used the frog splash before Eddie, who started to use the move as a tribute to him. The team peaked in November of 1994 when their feud with El Hijo Del Santo and Octagon culminated in a hair vs. mask match at "When Worlds Collide," the first lucha libre pay-per-view broadcast in America. Around this same time, Eddie was also wrestling in Japan as Black Tiger for New Japan Pro Wrestling and was gaining notoriety as one of the top cruiser weights in the world, which brought an opportunity to compete in the United States. The tag match at the lucha PPV received rave reviews and is regarded as one of the best matches in the history of lucha libre, and the buzz around the match led to Paul Heyman offering Los Gringos Locos a spot in ECW scheduled for early 1995. Art Barr passed away just weeks after the PPV event and the cause of his death still isn't disclosed.
However, Eddie did make his ECW debut and despite only working there for a few months, he had a great series of matches with Dean Malenko that are still talked about today. The Malenko series along with his previous accomplishments brought Guerrero a contract offer from WCW when they signed several cruiser weights to establish the division as a staple of Nitro. During a four year run in the Turner organization, Eddie won many different titles and had many memorable matches, including the match of the year with Rey Mysterio in 1997. Despite the solid in ring work and being over with the crowd, the political structure of the company kept Guerrero from reaching his potential as a more established star. The politics of WCW led to Eddie and a group of friends requesting their release from the promotion in 2000.
Just a few weeks later, the group known as "The Radicalz" debuted on WWE TV, but Guerrero was almost immediately sidelined with an elbow injury. Eddie remained on TV and returned to the ring for Wrestlemania. After a year of entertaining work in the WWE, Eddie's well documented demons caught up with him and he was sent to rehab. A few months later, Guerrero was arrested for DUI and released from the WWE. At a low point both professionally and personally, Eddie made the decision to get clean and rededicated himself to the industry. In 2002, he began working the independent circuit, including some of the early ROH events and a tour of New Japan. After six months of stellar matches, Eddie returned to the WWE and won the Intercontinental title. Guerrero returned to prominence and continued to rise in popularity, the pinnacle being when he defeated Brock Lesnar to win the WWE title in 2004.
On November 13, 2005 Eddie Guerrero passed away, but his legacy remains as one of the best performers to step into the squared circle. Eddie proved himself to be a champion in the ring when he won the WWE title and a champion outside of the ring when he became clean from substances. Eddie contributed many things to the wrestling business and he will always be considered a legend.
Until next week
That’s My Story and I’m Sticking To It
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