Eddie Guerrero - Remembering a Legend of Professional Wrestling

Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes, who is better known today by his professional wrestling name Eddie Guerrero, was born in 1967 into one of today's most well known and well respected wrestling families. The Guerrero's had left behind a legacy, and it was up to Eduardo to carry that legacy with him and make his family proud. Throughout his life, up until the day of his tragic and untimely death, Eddie Guerrero not only maintained this legacy but brought the Guerrero name to a whole new level.

While Eddie Guerrero's quick paced in ring style fit in well with Mexico's expectations for "luchadores", Eddie found himself at a disadvantage when he began to wrestle in the United States. Eddie found it difficult to find work in any of the major US promotions due to his being short and light as opposed to possessing the huge muscular physique that promoters were looking for. Despite this, Paul Heyman, owner of the now defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling, decided to give Eddie a chance in his company after witnessing his work in Japan.

With this chance, Eddie Guerrero brought a new style of technical wrestling and high flying lucha action to the United States. ECW's small crowds were wowed by Eddie's art-like performance. Fans of the more mainstream World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment began to pick up on this and demanded it from their promotions. It wasn't before long that World Championship Wrestling signed Eddie Guerrero as well as other luchadores to long term contracts.

Despite finding success and popularity in World Championship Wrestling, Eddie Guerrero had been one of many wrestlers who were frustrated at never being given a chance to be a main player in the company. He continually impressed audiences, but WCW's administration failed to give him the proper "push" and raise that he had wanted. Following an angle that saw Eddie form a group known as the "Latin World Order" (A mockery of the New World Order stable), he joined close friends Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, and Chris Benoit in leaving the company for a lucrative deal with the then World Wrestling Federation.

From the very beginning, despite playing a "heel", or bad guy, Eddie Guerrero won over the crowd. Known as "Latino Heat", Eddie Guerrero would assume the role of the Latin Lover of former Playboy cover girl Chyna. While this angle saw Eddie win some of WWF's better secondary titles, it would not yet be time for Eddie to claim the World Heavyweight Title. This is due to Eddie's being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol which subsequently saw Latino Heat being released from his contract.

Unfortunately for Eddie, this was not his first run in with drugs. Eddie had, in the past, been a heavy drinker as well as drug abuser. Eddie had obviously and admittedly taken steroids sometime before coming to the WWF, most likely to enhance his body with the hopes of getting a better position within the company. During his time away from the Federation, Eddie's wife left him and he seemingly hit rock bottom. Eddie began working for independent companies, back to the bottom of the barrel, entertaining gym auditoriums of maybe a hundred or two hundred as opposed to arenas of thousands. It was during this time that Eddie Guerrero found a new desire to become World Heavyweight Champion and defeat the demons he had found in drugs and alcohol.

Eddie would receive a second chance in August of 2002, a little less than a year after his initial release, when WWF resigned him to a new deal. Eddie's fans instantly took him back, and it seemed that Eddie had a new fire in his heart to make his family proud. Eddie got to work with his close friends Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle, won the Tag-Team Titles with his best friend Rey Mysterio and his nephew Chavo Guerrero, and, in 2003, adopted his "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" anti-hero gimmick that won over crowds. Also, during his second tenure with the WWF, Eddie's wife Vickie got back together with him. Everything seemed to be looking good for Latino Heat.

It looked even better on February 15^th, 2004, however, when Eddie Guerrero finally accomplished his dream. With the crowd completely behind him, Eddie soared through the air at the No Way Out Pay-Per-View event, crashing down on then World Champion Brock Lesnar. The referee counted to three, and within seconds, Eddie ran into the crowd to celebrate with the fans. Following the event, Eddie went backstage and on the other side of the curtain waited his closest friends, family, and his employer, Vince McMahon, who initially gave him the second chance. Eddie embraced his employer as the two began to cry, Vince telling him congratulations, "you finally did it".

In a shocking turn of events, two years after his amazing victory over Brock Lesnar, and more importantly, over addiction, Eddie Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room on November 13^th, 2005. This is an unfortunate common scene for those within the industry, but Eddie's nephew Chavo, who found him, was confident that Eddie had been sober and ruled out recent drug abuse as the cause for Eddie's untimely death at the young age of thirty eight years old.

It was revealed that Eddie had passed away from putting too much pressure on his heart, which just wasn't strong enough after years of steroid abuse. Eddie was two days away from reaching his fourth year of sobriety, and it was the night he died at which many people speculated to be his second World Title win when he challenged Dave Batista at a "Smackdown" taping.

The wrestling community was deeply saddened and shocked by the untimely passing of Eddie Guerrero. Almost every company that he had worked for as well of those he had probably never heard of ran tribute shows for Eddie, and he became, in 2006, the youngest inductee into WWE's Hall of Fame. Eddie is survived by his wife Vickie and daughters Shaul, 14, Sherilyn, 9, and Kaylie Marie, 3, and his nephew Chavo still wrestles for the WWF(E). Still, to this day, in arenas all over the world, chants of "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie" can be heard from all of the fans whose hearts he had touched during his illustrious career.