Post by Emanuel Melo on Nov 14, 2005 16:06:17 GMT -5
This was taken from the wrestling newsletter, (W365) Issue 556: Remembering Eddie Guerrero, 1967 - 2005:
Eddie Guerrero: October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005
"Out of my whole life, there were maybe four months that I thought I don't want to be a wrestler. But I knew what I wanted to do all my life. I grew up watching my dad and older brothers do it. This is a dream for me." -- Eddie Guerrero in a 2003 interview with the El Paso Times.
Eddie Guerrero (Eduardo Gori Guerrero) was born into a legendary wrestling family. His late father, Gory Guerrero, is considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers in Mexican history and the founding father of Lucha Libre. His three brothers Chavo Guerrero, Hector
Guerrero and Mando Guerrero all followed in their father's footsteps and became wrestlers. Eddie's nephew, Chavo Guerrero, Jr. also became a wrestler. Eddie's uncle Enrique Llanes and cousin Javier Llanes are also popular wrestlers in Mexico.
Eddie was raised in El Paso, Texas and attended the University of New Mexico as well as New Mexico Highlands University on an athletic scholarship, where he wrestled collegiately, before returning to El Paso
to train as a professional wrestler. He debuted in 1987 in the Mexican Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre promotion. He became a star in Mexico long before he main evented in the United States.
In 1993, Eddie began wrestling in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he was known as Black Tiger II. In Mexico, he wrestled mainly for Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion, teaming with El Hijo del Santo as the new version of La Pareja Atómica (The Atomic Pair), the legendary tag team of Gory Guerrero and El Santo. After Eddie turned on Santo and allied with the late Art Barr as La Pareja del Terror (The Pair of Terror), the duo became arguably the most hated tag team in lucha libre
history. Along with Barr, Konnan and Madonna’s Boyfriend (better known as the late Louie Spicolli), Eddie formed Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans), a heel stable.
Eddie and Barr's first break would come when they were noticed in late 1994 by the owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling, Paul Heyman, and were approached about wrestling for him in 1995. However, Barr died before he could join ECW with Eddie. As an homage to his fallen friend, Eddie adopted his friend's finishing move, the Frog Splash.
Eddie won the ECW World Television Championship on his debut and went on to have a series of acclaimed matches with Dean Malenko before they both signed with World Championship Wrestling later that year.
In WCW, Eddie found considerable singles success, winning the United States Heavyweight Title in late 1996 and two World Cruiserweight titles in 1997.
Despite Eddie's success and popularity, he was one of many wrestlers who were frustrated at never being given a chance to be main event stars in WCW. This lead to Eddie getting coffee thrown all over him by when he requested of then WCW President Eric Bischoff for his character to pushed or asked for a raise in his pay for family reasons, and thus Eddie constantly and angrily responded by asking for a release in his WCW contract (which he did on a live episode of WCW Nitro). To make matters worse Eddie was involved in a heroin sting in which he was buying heroin. Eddie then left the company for a couple of months, angry at Bischoff for what he had done. However, Eddie would return to WCW, thus leading to beliefs that maybe Eddie's angry speeches against Bischoff were actually worked. Eddie would later rebut this on WWE's DVD Monday Night War claiming that he tried to put aside personal differences aside for the good of the company, yet found himself angry and outraged once more because of Bischoff's continutity of lowering him and other stars down.
Eddie responded to Bischoff's actions by forming the Latino World Order (or LWO), which was seen by the fans to be a mockery of Bischoff's nWo stable. The group was an answer to Bischoff's refusal to push the
Latino wrestlers in spotlights that they deserved to enjoy. The group eventually grew to encompass almost all the Mexican wrestlers working for WCW at that time. Eddie was involved in a serious car accident in 1999 of which he was expected to die. The accident effectively cut short the LWO angle. Eddie managed to survive the accident and in a matter of months he returned to wrestling.
After his return, he continued to be displeased with WCW management and signed with the WWF in 2000 along with top WCW stars Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn. It was a move that Eddie wouldn't regret.
Eddie and the other WCW wrestlers debuted in the WWF on January 31, 2000 as part of the The Radicalz. In March 2000, he began pursuing the affections of Chyna, who he referred to as his "Mamacita". Chyna
initially rejected his advances, but allied with him, declaring that she couldn't resist his "Latino Heat".
Eddie won his first WWE title by defeating another former WCW wrestler, Chris Jericho for the European Championship. He and Chyna began a feud with Essa Rios and Lita, which culminated in a European title defence at the 2000 Backlash PPV, which was also billed as the night of Eddie's prom (he was said to have just earned a GED). Eddie defeated Rios after arriving at ringside in a 1957 Chevrolet. He went on to successfully
retain the title in matches against Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko before finally losing the title to Saturn on July 23.
Over the next few months, in the storyline friction began to build between Eddie and Chyna. Chyna was upset when Eddie pinned her to advance in the King of the Ring Tournament. On August 27, Chyna won the
Intercontinental Championship. Eddie claimed to not mind and then begged Commissioner Mick Foley to let him take part in a title defence between Chyna and Kurt Angle, claiming he was afraid that Angle would injure
Chyna. After Angle knocked Chyna down with the title belt, Eddie "accidentally" pinned her while trying to revive her.
Chyna became visibly uncomfortable as Eddie began to cheat in order to retain his title, while Eddie was upset that Chyna was posing for Playboy Magazine, even trying to invade the Playboy Mansion to stop the
photoshoot. Just when it appeared that Chyna would leave Eddie, he proposed to her and she accepted. The engagement was called off when Eddie was caught showering with two of The Godfather's hos claiming
that "Two Mamacitas are better than one!". Eddie turned heel once again as a result of the incident and was later defeated for the Intercontinental Championship by Billy Gunn.
The Radicalz reunited in late 2000, assisting Triple H in his match with Steve Austin at Survivor Series. In early 2001, Eddie feuded with Test, winning the European Championship for a second time at WrestleMania 17
with help from Saturn and Malenko. Eddie eventually left the Radicalz, siding with the Hardy Boyz and Lita. Around this point, it's belived that Eddie developed an acute addiction to pain medication stemming from his 1999 car accident and in May 2001 was sent to rehabilitation. On November 9, 2001 he was arrested for drunk driving and was subsequently released by the WWF three days later.
Eddie then appeared with numerous independent promotions, including Ring of Honor, World Wrestling All-Stars ,as well as IWA Mid-South. Following a number of highly acclaimed matches including a series of matches with C.M. Punk, he was rehired by the renamed WWE in March 2002.
Eddie returned to Raw on April 1, 2002, attacking Rob Van Dam and reuniting with then heel Chris Benoit. On April 21 at Backlash he defeated Van Dam for the Intercontinental Championship. He lost the belt back to RVD a month later in a highly acclaimed Ladder Match. Eddie then started a feud with Steve Austin, but Austin left WWE before a match could take place. Eddie then went on to feud briefly with The Rock.
On August 1, 2002, Eddie and Benoit began to wrestle exclusive for WWE's Smackdown brand. With Benoit starting to focus on Kurt Angle, Eddie aligned himself with his nephew Chavo, forming the successful tag team Los Guerreros. In contrast to a previous WCW storyline with his nephew, Chavo fully adopted his uncle's policy of "Lie, Cheat and Steal" to win matches. The duo entered an 8-team tournament for the new WWE Tag-Team Championship and began a feud with the newly formed tag team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. In one of the group's signature moments, Chavo
told Benoit that his former friend Eddie was assaulted by his tag team partner Kurt Angle. Benoit ran to make the save, only to have himself locked inside a room. Eddie, assaulted Benoit with a steel chair.
Benoit and Angle managed to overcome their differences and eventually defeated Eddie and Chavo in the tournament semi-finals. Later on, Benoit and Angle won the WWE Tag Team Titles. Benoit and Angle then fought for a trophy for being the first WWE Tag Team Champion. Eddie and Chavo helped Benoit win this match, to Benoit's surprise.
Los Guerreros would then be given another shot at the WWE Tag Team titles and the new champions, Edge and Rey Mysterio. At Survivor Series 2002, Eddie made Rey Mysterio submit to The Lasso From El Paso. With
this victory. Los Guerreros started their reign as the WWE Tag Team Champions. Eddie and Chavo would lose the Tag Titles to Team Angle. Prior to Judgment Day, Chavo tore his bicep. This forced Eddie to look
for another partner. He chose Tajiri. They won the Tag Titles at Judgment Day in a Ladder Match. In the following week, Eddie and Tajiri managed to retain their titles by cheating. In addition, they also defeated the legendary Roddy Piper and his protegè Sean O'Haire. After Eddie and Tajiri lost the titles to Team Angle on July 1, Eddie then turned on Tajiri, slamming his partner through the windshield of Eddie's low-rider truck.
In mid-2003, Eddie competed in a tournament for the WWE United States Championship. He managed to advance to the final round, defeating Ultimo Dragon in the process, where he would meet Chris Benoit. In this match, Eddie turned to his cheating tactics, hitting Benoit with the belt at one point in the match. Eddie tried to get Benoit in trouble by placing the title belt on top of the unconscious Benoit. It didn't work, however, since he knocked out the ref earlier with a belt shot to the kidneys. The match ended with interference by and a Gore from Rhyno.
At SummerSlam, Eddie retained his title by defeating Rhyno, Benoit and Tajiri. He turned face again by engaging in a rivalry with John Cena. Eddie challenged Cena to a "Latino Heat" Street Fight for the U.S. Championship, which Eddie won. Chavo made his return in this match, assisting Eddie in executing his Frog Splash on Cena. Eddie would go on to lose the U.S. Championship to the Big Show after a feud which involved Eddie poisoning the Big Show with some laxative laced burritos and then later spraying the Big Show with a sewage truck.
As Eddie's popularity grew, he began seeking the WWE Title. In a storyline, Eddie's singles success made Chavo jealous and Chavo broke from the team.
During the summer of 2003, Eddie had begun driving a customized lowrider to ringside as part of his ring entrance. Guerrero would also capitalize on his "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" anti-hero image by brazenly using
illegal tactics behind the referee's back to win matches on occasion. These actions however not only increased his popularity, as fans enjoyed his comical antics but also made the fans laugh. He was well known for
hitting someone with a steel chair and then pretending to be knocked out himself, or using illegal weapons during the match, and then claiming to have wrestled fairly. Regardless, this made Eddie not only popular, but
beloved- even on the occasions as a heel.
On February 15, 2004 Eddie won the WWE championship at WWE's 2004 No Way Out PPV, defeating Brock Lesnar. He would enjoy many months of success as champion, which included a win against Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania XX as well as victories over Big Show and Rey Mysterio. He would later lose the title to John "Bradshaw" Layfield, due to Kurt Angle's interference.
At SummerSlam, Kurt Angle made Eddie submit to the Angle Lock. Eddie then allied himself with Big Show, who also despised Kurt Angle for firing him while Angle was still Smackdown general manager.
Each week Angle and his new allies Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak began targeting Eddie and the Big Show. General Manager Theodore Long booked a Survivor Series Elimination Match between a team led by Eddie and a team led by Kurt Angle. Eddie's team consisted of himself, Big Show, Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam.
Eddie was forced to find another member for his team because Rey Mysterio had just been given an opportunity to regain the WWE Cruiserweight championship. Eddie selected John Cena, who was feuding with Carlito, a member of Angle's Survivor Series team. At Survivor Series, Eddie landed the Frog Splash on Kurt Angle for the victory.
Eddie, along with Booker T and The Undertaker, then challenged John "Bradshaw" Layfield for a WWE Championship rematch. Along the way, Eddie
found a partner in Booker T. At Armageddon, Eddie and Booker worked as a unit, taking down both Bradshaw and Undertaker. The two broke away from the team and made it clear that it was every man for themselves. Eddie would then be taken out by Undertaker. Afterward, Eddie and Booker briefly made an unsuccessful run to gain the tag team titles.
On February 20, 2005, Eddie once again became a tag team champion, this time with long time friend and sometimes rival Rey Mysterio when they defeated the Bashams at No Way Out.
Many expected the new champions to defend their titles at WrestleMania 21, but after encouragement from Chavo, instead Eddie challenged Rey to a one-on-one match so they could "bring the house down." The two
wrestled a match at WrestleMania with Mysterio getting the win. Although visibly frustrated, Eddie congratulated his partner.
After several mishaps in the weeks following WrestleMania, the growing tension between Eddie and Mysterio finally erupted when they lost their tag titles to new team MNM on the April 21 episode of Smackdown.
Although they received a match to regain the titles, Eddie turned heel once again by abandoning his partner, who he had dubbed "his family" earlier in the show.
Eddie then adopted a new, somewhat sociopathic gimmick. During this time, has also stopped driving his low-riders down the ring and walked to the ring with a frown on his face. At the end of one edition of Smackdown, he viciously and emotionlessly beat up his former tag team partner, leaving him bruised and bloody after suplexing him onto a set of steel steps. At Judgment Day 2005 on May 22, Eddie lost to Mysterio
by disqualification.
After the match at Judgment Day, Eddie threatened reveal a secret about Rey and Rey's son Dominick. The storyline grew to involve the families of both men, which both sides pleading for Eddie not to reveal the secret. Rey defeated Eddie at the Great American Bash, a match with a stipulation that if Eddie lost, he would not tell the secret. Yet Eddie revealed the secret any way on the following episode of Smackdown - telling Dominick and the audience that Eddie was his real father. The following weeks had Eddie revealing the details of the secret in a series of what he called "Eddie's Bedtime Stories", which was said to
be based partly from events in Eddie's real life. He claimed that had a child out of wedlock while his marriage was going through hard times. He claimed he then allowed Mysterio and his wife, who were having
troubling conceiving, to adopt the child as their own.
At SummerSlam 2005 Eddie lost a ladder match over Dominick's custody to Mysterio. Their emotional feud ended at the premiere of Friday Night Smackdown, where Eddie finally gained a victory over Mysterio in a
steel cage match.
Following his feud with Rey Mysterio, Eddie became the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista at No Mercy 2005. Despite this, Eddie quickly proclaimed himself to be
Batista's friend. However, Batista was wary of Guerrero and a series of matches with MNM only supported his suspicions, as Eddie appeared to be back to his cheating ways. In response to Batista's suspicions, Eddie helped Batista win a match against Eddie's tag team partners John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Christian.
Batista defeated Eddie at No Mercy to retain his World title. During the match, Eddie struggled with a decision about whether or not to use a steel chair to secure the victory. However, he decided against it and lost the match as a result. Though the two showed mutual respect after the match, Eddie seemed displeased at the loss.
Eventually, Batista and Eddie would become allies against Randy Orton, Bob Orton and Ken Kennedy. Eddie would tell Batista that he realized how low he had sunk since being WWE Champion in 2004, having attacked his best friend Rey Mysterio. Guerrero told him that Batista shaking his hand at No Mercy had returned his respect to him.
On the November 11 edition of Smackdown, Eddie wrestled what turned out to be the final televised match of his career, a victory by disqualification using his hilarious trademark cheating tactics over Mr.
Kennedy.
On November 13, Eddie died in his hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Marriott City Center Hotel. He was just 38-years-old. On the day of his death, he was set to face Batista and Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship. It's highly speculated that he was to win the title that night and hence walk out once again World Heavyweight
Champion.
Eddie Guerrero will be remembered as one of the greatest technical and most charismatic performers of all time. He is survived by his wife, Vickie, and three daughters -- Shaul, 14, Sherilyn, 9, and Kaylie Marie,
3. He is also survived by his mother, Herlinda Guerrero, three brothers, and sisters Linda Rodriguez and Maria R. Guerrero.
Eddie Guerrero: October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005
"Out of my whole life, there were maybe four months that I thought I don't want to be a wrestler. But I knew what I wanted to do all my life. I grew up watching my dad and older brothers do it. This is a dream for me." -- Eddie Guerrero in a 2003 interview with the El Paso Times.
Eddie Guerrero (Eduardo Gori Guerrero) was born into a legendary wrestling family. His late father, Gory Guerrero, is considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers in Mexican history and the founding father of Lucha Libre. His three brothers Chavo Guerrero, Hector
Guerrero and Mando Guerrero all followed in their father's footsteps and became wrestlers. Eddie's nephew, Chavo Guerrero, Jr. also became a wrestler. Eddie's uncle Enrique Llanes and cousin Javier Llanes are also popular wrestlers in Mexico.
Eddie was raised in El Paso, Texas and attended the University of New Mexico as well as New Mexico Highlands University on an athletic scholarship, where he wrestled collegiately, before returning to El Paso
to train as a professional wrestler. He debuted in 1987 in the Mexican Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre promotion. He became a star in Mexico long before he main evented in the United States.
In 1993, Eddie began wrestling in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he was known as Black Tiger II. In Mexico, he wrestled mainly for Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion, teaming with El Hijo del Santo as the new version of La Pareja Atómica (The Atomic Pair), the legendary tag team of Gory Guerrero and El Santo. After Eddie turned on Santo and allied with the late Art Barr as La Pareja del Terror (The Pair of Terror), the duo became arguably the most hated tag team in lucha libre
history. Along with Barr, Konnan and Madonna’s Boyfriend (better known as the late Louie Spicolli), Eddie formed Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans), a heel stable.
Eddie and Barr's first break would come when they were noticed in late 1994 by the owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling, Paul Heyman, and were approached about wrestling for him in 1995. However, Barr died before he could join ECW with Eddie. As an homage to his fallen friend, Eddie adopted his friend's finishing move, the Frog Splash.
Eddie won the ECW World Television Championship on his debut and went on to have a series of acclaimed matches with Dean Malenko before they both signed with World Championship Wrestling later that year.
In WCW, Eddie found considerable singles success, winning the United States Heavyweight Title in late 1996 and two World Cruiserweight titles in 1997.
Despite Eddie's success and popularity, he was one of many wrestlers who were frustrated at never being given a chance to be main event stars in WCW. This lead to Eddie getting coffee thrown all over him by when he requested of then WCW President Eric Bischoff for his character to pushed or asked for a raise in his pay for family reasons, and thus Eddie constantly and angrily responded by asking for a release in his WCW contract (which he did on a live episode of WCW Nitro). To make matters worse Eddie was involved in a heroin sting in which he was buying heroin. Eddie then left the company for a couple of months, angry at Bischoff for what he had done. However, Eddie would return to WCW, thus leading to beliefs that maybe Eddie's angry speeches against Bischoff were actually worked. Eddie would later rebut this on WWE's DVD Monday Night War claiming that he tried to put aside personal differences aside for the good of the company, yet found himself angry and outraged once more because of Bischoff's continutity of lowering him and other stars down.
Eddie responded to Bischoff's actions by forming the Latino World Order (or LWO), which was seen by the fans to be a mockery of Bischoff's nWo stable. The group was an answer to Bischoff's refusal to push the
Latino wrestlers in spotlights that they deserved to enjoy. The group eventually grew to encompass almost all the Mexican wrestlers working for WCW at that time. Eddie was involved in a serious car accident in 1999 of which he was expected to die. The accident effectively cut short the LWO angle. Eddie managed to survive the accident and in a matter of months he returned to wrestling.
After his return, he continued to be displeased with WCW management and signed with the WWF in 2000 along with top WCW stars Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn. It was a move that Eddie wouldn't regret.
Eddie and the other WCW wrestlers debuted in the WWF on January 31, 2000 as part of the The Radicalz. In March 2000, he began pursuing the affections of Chyna, who he referred to as his "Mamacita". Chyna
initially rejected his advances, but allied with him, declaring that she couldn't resist his "Latino Heat".
Eddie won his first WWE title by defeating another former WCW wrestler, Chris Jericho for the European Championship. He and Chyna began a feud with Essa Rios and Lita, which culminated in a European title defence at the 2000 Backlash PPV, which was also billed as the night of Eddie's prom (he was said to have just earned a GED). Eddie defeated Rios after arriving at ringside in a 1957 Chevrolet. He went on to successfully
retain the title in matches against Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko before finally losing the title to Saturn on July 23.
Over the next few months, in the storyline friction began to build between Eddie and Chyna. Chyna was upset when Eddie pinned her to advance in the King of the Ring Tournament. On August 27, Chyna won the
Intercontinental Championship. Eddie claimed to not mind and then begged Commissioner Mick Foley to let him take part in a title defence between Chyna and Kurt Angle, claiming he was afraid that Angle would injure
Chyna. After Angle knocked Chyna down with the title belt, Eddie "accidentally" pinned her while trying to revive her.
Chyna became visibly uncomfortable as Eddie began to cheat in order to retain his title, while Eddie was upset that Chyna was posing for Playboy Magazine, even trying to invade the Playboy Mansion to stop the
photoshoot. Just when it appeared that Chyna would leave Eddie, he proposed to her and she accepted. The engagement was called off when Eddie was caught showering with two of The Godfather's hos claiming
that "Two Mamacitas are better than one!". Eddie turned heel once again as a result of the incident and was later defeated for the Intercontinental Championship by Billy Gunn.
The Radicalz reunited in late 2000, assisting Triple H in his match with Steve Austin at Survivor Series. In early 2001, Eddie feuded with Test, winning the European Championship for a second time at WrestleMania 17
with help from Saturn and Malenko. Eddie eventually left the Radicalz, siding with the Hardy Boyz and Lita. Around this point, it's belived that Eddie developed an acute addiction to pain medication stemming from his 1999 car accident and in May 2001 was sent to rehabilitation. On November 9, 2001 he was arrested for drunk driving and was subsequently released by the WWF three days later.
Eddie then appeared with numerous independent promotions, including Ring of Honor, World Wrestling All-Stars ,as well as IWA Mid-South. Following a number of highly acclaimed matches including a series of matches with C.M. Punk, he was rehired by the renamed WWE in March 2002.
Eddie returned to Raw on April 1, 2002, attacking Rob Van Dam and reuniting with then heel Chris Benoit. On April 21 at Backlash he defeated Van Dam for the Intercontinental Championship. He lost the belt back to RVD a month later in a highly acclaimed Ladder Match. Eddie then started a feud with Steve Austin, but Austin left WWE before a match could take place. Eddie then went on to feud briefly with The Rock.
On August 1, 2002, Eddie and Benoit began to wrestle exclusive for WWE's Smackdown brand. With Benoit starting to focus on Kurt Angle, Eddie aligned himself with his nephew Chavo, forming the successful tag team Los Guerreros. In contrast to a previous WCW storyline with his nephew, Chavo fully adopted his uncle's policy of "Lie, Cheat and Steal" to win matches. The duo entered an 8-team tournament for the new WWE Tag-Team Championship and began a feud with the newly formed tag team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. In one of the group's signature moments, Chavo
told Benoit that his former friend Eddie was assaulted by his tag team partner Kurt Angle. Benoit ran to make the save, only to have himself locked inside a room. Eddie, assaulted Benoit with a steel chair.
Benoit and Angle managed to overcome their differences and eventually defeated Eddie and Chavo in the tournament semi-finals. Later on, Benoit and Angle won the WWE Tag Team Titles. Benoit and Angle then fought for a trophy for being the first WWE Tag Team Champion. Eddie and Chavo helped Benoit win this match, to Benoit's surprise.
Los Guerreros would then be given another shot at the WWE Tag Team titles and the new champions, Edge and Rey Mysterio. At Survivor Series 2002, Eddie made Rey Mysterio submit to The Lasso From El Paso. With
this victory. Los Guerreros started their reign as the WWE Tag Team Champions. Eddie and Chavo would lose the Tag Titles to Team Angle. Prior to Judgment Day, Chavo tore his bicep. This forced Eddie to look
for another partner. He chose Tajiri. They won the Tag Titles at Judgment Day in a Ladder Match. In the following week, Eddie and Tajiri managed to retain their titles by cheating. In addition, they also defeated the legendary Roddy Piper and his protegè Sean O'Haire. After Eddie and Tajiri lost the titles to Team Angle on July 1, Eddie then turned on Tajiri, slamming his partner through the windshield of Eddie's low-rider truck.
In mid-2003, Eddie competed in a tournament for the WWE United States Championship. He managed to advance to the final round, defeating Ultimo Dragon in the process, where he would meet Chris Benoit. In this match, Eddie turned to his cheating tactics, hitting Benoit with the belt at one point in the match. Eddie tried to get Benoit in trouble by placing the title belt on top of the unconscious Benoit. It didn't work, however, since he knocked out the ref earlier with a belt shot to the kidneys. The match ended with interference by and a Gore from Rhyno.
At SummerSlam, Eddie retained his title by defeating Rhyno, Benoit and Tajiri. He turned face again by engaging in a rivalry with John Cena. Eddie challenged Cena to a "Latino Heat" Street Fight for the U.S. Championship, which Eddie won. Chavo made his return in this match, assisting Eddie in executing his Frog Splash on Cena. Eddie would go on to lose the U.S. Championship to the Big Show after a feud which involved Eddie poisoning the Big Show with some laxative laced burritos and then later spraying the Big Show with a sewage truck.
As Eddie's popularity grew, he began seeking the WWE Title. In a storyline, Eddie's singles success made Chavo jealous and Chavo broke from the team.
During the summer of 2003, Eddie had begun driving a customized lowrider to ringside as part of his ring entrance. Guerrero would also capitalize on his "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" anti-hero image by brazenly using
illegal tactics behind the referee's back to win matches on occasion. These actions however not only increased his popularity, as fans enjoyed his comical antics but also made the fans laugh. He was well known for
hitting someone with a steel chair and then pretending to be knocked out himself, or using illegal weapons during the match, and then claiming to have wrestled fairly. Regardless, this made Eddie not only popular, but
beloved- even on the occasions as a heel.
On February 15, 2004 Eddie won the WWE championship at WWE's 2004 No Way Out PPV, defeating Brock Lesnar. He would enjoy many months of success as champion, which included a win against Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania XX as well as victories over Big Show and Rey Mysterio. He would later lose the title to John "Bradshaw" Layfield, due to Kurt Angle's interference.
At SummerSlam, Kurt Angle made Eddie submit to the Angle Lock. Eddie then allied himself with Big Show, who also despised Kurt Angle for firing him while Angle was still Smackdown general manager.
Each week Angle and his new allies Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak began targeting Eddie and the Big Show. General Manager Theodore Long booked a Survivor Series Elimination Match between a team led by Eddie and a team led by Kurt Angle. Eddie's team consisted of himself, Big Show, Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam.
Eddie was forced to find another member for his team because Rey Mysterio had just been given an opportunity to regain the WWE Cruiserweight championship. Eddie selected John Cena, who was feuding with Carlito, a member of Angle's Survivor Series team. At Survivor Series, Eddie landed the Frog Splash on Kurt Angle for the victory.
Eddie, along with Booker T and The Undertaker, then challenged John "Bradshaw" Layfield for a WWE Championship rematch. Along the way, Eddie
found a partner in Booker T. At Armageddon, Eddie and Booker worked as a unit, taking down both Bradshaw and Undertaker. The two broke away from the team and made it clear that it was every man for themselves. Eddie would then be taken out by Undertaker. Afterward, Eddie and Booker briefly made an unsuccessful run to gain the tag team titles.
On February 20, 2005, Eddie once again became a tag team champion, this time with long time friend and sometimes rival Rey Mysterio when they defeated the Bashams at No Way Out.
Many expected the new champions to defend their titles at WrestleMania 21, but after encouragement from Chavo, instead Eddie challenged Rey to a one-on-one match so they could "bring the house down." The two
wrestled a match at WrestleMania with Mysterio getting the win. Although visibly frustrated, Eddie congratulated his partner.
After several mishaps in the weeks following WrestleMania, the growing tension between Eddie and Mysterio finally erupted when they lost their tag titles to new team MNM on the April 21 episode of Smackdown.
Although they received a match to regain the titles, Eddie turned heel once again by abandoning his partner, who he had dubbed "his family" earlier in the show.
Eddie then adopted a new, somewhat sociopathic gimmick. During this time, has also stopped driving his low-riders down the ring and walked to the ring with a frown on his face. At the end of one edition of Smackdown, he viciously and emotionlessly beat up his former tag team partner, leaving him bruised and bloody after suplexing him onto a set of steel steps. At Judgment Day 2005 on May 22, Eddie lost to Mysterio
by disqualification.
After the match at Judgment Day, Eddie threatened reveal a secret about Rey and Rey's son Dominick. The storyline grew to involve the families of both men, which both sides pleading for Eddie not to reveal the secret. Rey defeated Eddie at the Great American Bash, a match with a stipulation that if Eddie lost, he would not tell the secret. Yet Eddie revealed the secret any way on the following episode of Smackdown - telling Dominick and the audience that Eddie was his real father. The following weeks had Eddie revealing the details of the secret in a series of what he called "Eddie's Bedtime Stories", which was said to
be based partly from events in Eddie's real life. He claimed that had a child out of wedlock while his marriage was going through hard times. He claimed he then allowed Mysterio and his wife, who were having
troubling conceiving, to adopt the child as their own.
At SummerSlam 2005 Eddie lost a ladder match over Dominick's custody to Mysterio. Their emotional feud ended at the premiere of Friday Night Smackdown, where Eddie finally gained a victory over Mysterio in a
steel cage match.
Following his feud with Rey Mysterio, Eddie became the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista at No Mercy 2005. Despite this, Eddie quickly proclaimed himself to be
Batista's friend. However, Batista was wary of Guerrero and a series of matches with MNM only supported his suspicions, as Eddie appeared to be back to his cheating ways. In response to Batista's suspicions, Eddie helped Batista win a match against Eddie's tag team partners John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Christian.
Batista defeated Eddie at No Mercy to retain his World title. During the match, Eddie struggled with a decision about whether or not to use a steel chair to secure the victory. However, he decided against it and lost the match as a result. Though the two showed mutual respect after the match, Eddie seemed displeased at the loss.
Eventually, Batista and Eddie would become allies against Randy Orton, Bob Orton and Ken Kennedy. Eddie would tell Batista that he realized how low he had sunk since being WWE Champion in 2004, having attacked his best friend Rey Mysterio. Guerrero told him that Batista shaking his hand at No Mercy had returned his respect to him.
On the November 11 edition of Smackdown, Eddie wrestled what turned out to be the final televised match of his career, a victory by disqualification using his hilarious trademark cheating tactics over Mr.
Kennedy.
On November 13, Eddie died in his hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Marriott City Center Hotel. He was just 38-years-old. On the day of his death, he was set to face Batista and Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship. It's highly speculated that he was to win the title that night and hence walk out once again World Heavyweight
Champion.
Eddie Guerrero will be remembered as one of the greatest technical and most charismatic performers of all time. He is survived by his wife, Vickie, and three daughters -- Shaul, 14, Sherilyn, 9, and Kaylie Marie,
3. He is also survived by his mother, Herlinda Guerrero, three brothers, and sisters Linda Rodriguez and Maria R. Guerrero.
