RIP: Eddie Guerrero. 1967-2005

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/6760/gue4ky.jpg http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/628/eddy28od.jpg

Eddie Guerrero had breakfast this morning with Chavo Guerrero and at least one other wrestler, then returned to his hotel room. When he didn't come out of his room in the expected amount of time, friends went looking for him and found him dead.

Guerrero has a long history of battling pain pill addiction, a struggle that was chronicled in a UPN special last year which is now on DVD. There is no firm confirmation, though, at this time, that his death was related to his lifelong battle.

and coverage from WCCO in Minneapolis

http://img.viacomlocalnetworks.com/images_sizedimage_317111400/lg

I really can't post this enough:

http://www.insidepulse.com/columnImages/image17751.jpg

http://www.fanboyplanet.com/chair/images/artbarrneddyguerrero.jpg

I really need to track down some of their matches from AAA.

OK, yeah, I kinda understand now how people on ILM or whatever feel when "their" musician has died. Because Eddie Guerrero was "my" wrestler. There's so much that he did in his career, so many boundaries he crossed, walls he pulled down... you've got that tag team with Art Barr. Nobody got heat like those two. Literally nobody. They had battery acid thrown at them, guns pulled on them, death threats were a daily routine... they were just so perfect at getting the crowd going. And then he came to the States... he brought back the Hispanic face for the first time since Morales nearly 20 years earlier. And he did it perfectly. He could wrestle, he could talk, he eventually developed the look... he made stars. Everyone from as far down as Silver King or El Dandy, going through Perry Saturn and Chavo, all the way up to John Bradshaw Layfield and Chris Benoit... everyone Eddie worked with got elevated. Everyone.

It's just a fucking shame that he never conquered those demons that have, we can only assume, have led to him being taken away from us far too fucking soon. This is a sham and a travesty. I'm fucking crying here.

God better watch out for his wallet, because Heaven's gonna have a shit load more of lying, cheating, and stealing going on now. RIP Eddie.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/vyce/37.jpg

Well, Vince always claimed that since those deaths (and more like them) didn't happen on "his watch" (the performers weren't working for him any longer), then the problem could be swept under the rug. If anything positive results from this, then maybe the business will become a tiny bit more vigilant.

Hell, thank God Kanyon got help and went on meds, at least.

Kids and Heros
I ain't nobody. I'm just some Punk rock kid with a big mouth and an opinion. I'm just some kid...

Eddie Guerrero was a hero of mine. I was fortunate enough to work with him many times, and he helped me more then I could ever put into words.
Eddie was my friend. He still is. Maybe i'll be back on here to tell some stories when I clear my head, right now is just too hard.

I remember Eddie Guerrero.

Cheat to win.
XpunkX

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=4597

A lot of is even worse than just the WWE turning a blind eye....In Eddie's case, it sounds like it was pain pills, a lot of that stuff is fucking MANDATORY for those guys, coming up, if you don't work, you don't get paid and they'll drop you like a bad habit the minute you can't work 300 shows a year...I can't imagine any of those guys could even get to where they were in wrestling without serious pills.....I'm sure the WWE is all like "We discourage the abuse of pain medication" as a front, and on the backside are basically forcefeeding them to those guys, or at least implicitly encouraging their use...

That wasn't all WWE's doing, though. I think he bulked up even more dramatically in WCW while recuperating from his car accident.

eddie i miss you already holmes :-(

OTM, sadly.

I like the idea on that DVD-R thread of a Benoit/Malenko match.

Beautiful.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/guerreroconf

The Chavo Jr/Vince McMahon press conference is up here now. They're doing a tribute show tonight and showing it over Raw and Smackdown next week. Chavo's going to wrestle, apparently. Other than that it's just journalists who apparently didn't know who he was.

"How is his wife handling it?"

This might be my new favourite pic:

http://www.wwe.com/superstars/smackdown/eddieguerrero/photos/01.jpg

Eddy's father is Gory Guerrero. But there might have been another Eddy somewhere else in the family tree.

I just realized that I never saw Eddy wrestle live ... I was supposed to go to Summerslam 2004 but had to sell my ticket when I had to attend an out-of-town conference instead. Yeah, there were other oppurtunities too ... damn.

yeah that's the thing - the Eddie in L.A. wrestling was suppoed to be Chavo's brother I thought, Chavo's dad is Gory too ain't he? but all the stories I'm reading have Chavo Sr. being Eddie's uncle

The show started up with the crowd chanting "Eddie, Eddie." Many fans in the building have signs dedicated to Eddie Guerrero. On the stage, as a tribute to Eddie, they have his car set up. Lilian Garcia opened the show by saying this would be a special tribute show for Eddie Guerrero. There was no pyro, and no special introduction of any of the announcers.

(1) Mr. Ken Kennedy defeated Val Venis in about five minutes. Kennedy got major heel heat for being from Green Bay and playing that up quite a bit while in the midst of Viking Country. This was apparently either a dark match or a Heat match.

Afterwards, all the wrestlers came out. Chris Benoit was crying from the moment he came out of the curtain, and was perhaps more emotional than anyone. Vince McMahon then said some words about Eddie: "Eddie Guerrero has passed away. Eddie was in the prime of his life, in the prime of his career. Tonight we celebrate the life of Eddie Guerrero. He loved the business. He had a passion like no one else. Whether cheered or booed, he loved to perform for the fans. Eddie Guerrero's goal every night was to steal the show. He would want the show to go on. And so we shall."

They had a 10-bell salute for Eddie, and the crowd was silent for it. After this, they aired a tribute video set to Johnny Cash's rendition of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt." When the video was done, Vince said, "Viva La Raza!" Pretty much everyone was out for this, including Shane McMahon, who was crying as well. The fans chanted "Thank you, Eddie!"

John Cena then had some words about Eddie: "Eddie was a father figure. Eddie was a man of faith, but selfishly, we'll all miss him."

(2) Big Show & Kane defeated MNM in about four minutes. This wasn't technically a squash match, but it was pretty close to it. The finish came on a chokeslam. Before the match, they showed the angle where Eddie sprayed Big Show with raw sewage from a past Smackdown show.

(3) Kurt Angle defeated Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin got a near fall with a wicked looking back suplex off the top rope. Angle was able to kick out of that and apply the anklelock for the submission victory.

After that, they showed a bunch of old Eddie and Chavo comedy skits from over the years. Chavo on the big screen then gave an emotional speech about how Eddie was like a big brother to him. He talked about how much he looked up to Eddie and how much teaming with Eddie meant to him.

It was confirmed that Joey Styles, Jerry Lawler and Jonathan Coachman are doing the commentary for the Raw show. The show is being presented in such a way that there are no angles whatsoever. It's simply matches and video segments.

(4) Rey Mysterio defeated Shawn Michaels in about 10 minutes. Michaels went for the sweet chin music, but Mysterio was able to avoid it. Mysterio then hit the 6-1-9 and dropped the dime to get the pinfall victory. During the pin, Michaels' legs sort of flailed about, but they still counted the pin. After the match, Mysterio and Michaels hugged. It should be noted also that during the course of the match, Mysterio paid tribute to Eddie by doing his little celebratory dance, which was a nice touch.

The announcers (Styles, Lawler, Coach) were shown talking, but the fans live in the arena could not hear what they were saying.

(5) Melina (from MNM) won a diva battle royal. All active divas on the roster, excluding Lita, participated in the battle royal. Maria was said to have done very little during the match, and spent most of her time in it avoiding physical contact.

(6) Eugene defeated Simon Dean. Eugene won it with the Rock Bottom.

They then aired a video of Chris Benoit and Eddie together. Benoit gave a speech about how close he and Eddie were. He broke down during the speech, as this was clearly a very emotional time for Benoit. He said, "Thank you for everything you've given me. I'll never forget you. I love you."

After this, Triple H gave a speech about Eddie. This was an inopportune time for Hunter to give his speech, following Benoit like that. It would have been hard for anyone to match Benoit's raw emotions, and so following him would have been a difficult spot for anyone. Hunter said Eddie was well liked by everyone in the locker room, and that no one had a bad thing to say about him.

(7) Ric Flair defeated William Regal. The finish came when Flair made Regal submit to the figure four leglock. Flair had an Eddie Guerrero arm band on, and played it up for the crowd and got a nice ovation for it.

They then aired clips of Eddie Guerrero and his relationship with Chyna, and things that went on during that time period.

(8) John Cena defeated Randy Orton by disqualification. The finish came when "Cowboy" Bob Orton interfered on his son's behalf. The match was said to have been not very long and not very good.

Overall, the best match of the taping was Rey Mysterio vs. Shawn Michaels, but in general the focus was on Eddie Guerrero, and in no way would that be considered a match of the year candidate. There were no promos (other than the tribute speeches for Eddie) and no angles whatsoever. Just video packages and matches.

Afterward, Benoit said, "Eddie was a man who walked through every possible valley you can imagine. Eddie was a true inspiration to every life he touched. We'll always love you and miss you." The crowd didn't leave until Benoit's speech was over, as they were very interested in what he was saying.

God, this is impossible to watch. Just seeing the tribute package set to "Hurt" is wrenching. Triple H is crying, and Benoit looks destroyed. Rey Mysterio Jr has his contacts in. Also, Shane McMahon now has grey temples.

When Owen Hart died, I had just begun watching wrestling again, and was really new to the WWF crew. With this, i don't know, man. Eddie was one of the reasons i watched wrestling for as long as i did.

Also, I never realized how much the Big Show w/ facial hair looks like Nick Frost.

here's a recap from the MSNBC show about Eddie.

But with Eddie, there are a ton of guys in the WWE who knew and worked with him for 10-15 years, in one (but often more) of Japan, Mexico, WCW, ECW, and WWE. In that respect, it was especially devastating to hear those guys talk about him.

It's sad to say that Owen was going nowhere fast in the business when he died, and was only a main eventer when he worked with Bret. In WWE today, you have guys like Cena, JBL, and Edge who were made into main eventers in large part by Eddie. His program with Batista looked to be the best one either had been involved in for months. His death leaves a gaping hole in WWE in all aspects of the business: in the ring, backstage, you name it.

viva la raza holmes x x x