With today’s horribly saddening events, there’s bound to be a bunch of Eddie Guerrero columns pop up. There’s been a couple before me and I’m sure there will be more after me. But the point of this isn’t to be something original or thought provoking, it’s just something I want to do to give thanks to a man who has given me so much entertainment. It’s a chance for me to remember a man who was almost impossible to hate as a person, especially once you knew all he went through to get where he was to this day.
Honestly, this whole day just feels like a bad dream you’re just dying to roll over and wake up from, pushing it to the back of your mind forever. I woke up to see a one of my MSN Messenger contacts have “RIP Eddie” in his name, but I really didn’t think anything of it at first. I did think of Eddie Guerrero when I saw the name, but Eddie couldn’t be dead. A few minutes later I made my way to the Oratory Forums and saw an Eddie appreciation thread from the index page, and my heart just skipped a beat. I prayed for a bizarre coincidence as I went into the WWE folder, but there it was. The words that made my jaw dropped. “Eddie Guerrero Passed Away”. It’s 9 hours later now and I can still read it, but it just won’t compute. We’re sadly fans of a business that loses too many people too early, but the only time I’ve been hit like this is hearing of Owen Hart. Eddy was one of my all time favorites to watch, and I can’t believe I won’t see him again.
My first memories of WCW involve Eddie Guerrero. I remember starting to watch WCW in mid 1997, and Eddie quickly became one of my favorite guys to hate. I loved his style in the ring and he always entertained me, but he was SO good at being that cocky bad guy that I always wanted to see him lose. His stuff with Chavo was outstanding, and Chavo shaving his own head in a hair vs. hair match is one of the funniest non-Jericho things I remember when I think of WCW. He was one of the guys that really got me hooked into wrestling that year when I was just starting to re-discover the world that is professional wrestling.
When the whole Radicalz angle came about in the then WWF, it was one of the hugest markout moments of my life seeing Saturn, Malenko, Benoit and Eddy all sitting ringside at a WWF show. They were 4 of my favorites in WCW, and here they were with my favorite company. The thing I feared is perhaps Eddy would get lost in the shuffle. Looking back I don’t even know why I thought this. He was outstanding in the ring and could play such great characters. Maybe it’s because I’ve only seen him as the cocky heel in WCW and I figured that’s all he could ever really play. I felt the other 3 were maybe a bit bigger stars and would catch on a bit more with the WWF crowd. I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong, as Eddie became arguably the biggest star out of any of the four.
Unfortunately, between his personal demons and untimely injuries, his first WWF run didn’t get up to the levels of excellence it could have been, and he ended up leaving the company to get his personal life in order. Once he finally got himself clean (and for good it seemed) we did get a little something extra along his path back, and that is help put Ring Of Honor on the map. I was just getting into the Oratory and the whole online wrestling community in general when ROH started up, and I really started paying attention when I saw they were bringing Eddie Guerrero in for a couple shows. Being unfamiliar with the promotion and indy wrestling in general at the time, I thought of them as just another small company until I saw one of my favorite wrestlers show up there. I started following ROH when he showed up there and to this day I haven’t stopped.
His return to the WWE brought on moment after moment of great wrestling and entertaining segments. From his outstanding heel promo against The Rock on Raw, to the hilarious vignettes with Chavo as Los Guerreros helped build the new Smackdown tag division, he was great at whatever character he played whether it be heel or face, comedic or serious. He was a huge part of what made Smackdown the superior show after the brand extension, putting on excellent matches every week and at every PPV. But for Eddie, the best was yet to come.
Heading into No Way Out last year, all signs pointed to Eddie finally winning the ultimate prize, the WWE Championship. The signs of an Eddie/Angle match were set, as well as Brock and Goldberg. All signs were pointing to Brock dropping the belt to Eddie, but I still couldn’t believe it. Mainly because it seemed too good to be true. I basically felt the same about Benoit winning at Wrestlemania a month later, it was a dream, but in wrestling dreams don’t seem to come true too often. But seeing Eddie finally win was just such an emotional moment, not for seeing Eddie the character win the belt, but knowing just how far Eddie the human being had come in his life. From down and out with personal demons to on top of the wrestling world.
As I said before, Eddie was great at whatever character his storyline called for him to play, at his latest heel run was perfect proof of that. Here’s a guy I’ve loved for years and years, and he was so good at playing the evil heel that even I wanted to see him get what he deserved. His series of matches and prolonged feud with Rey Mysterio was maybe overdone to some people, but I ate up every second of it, mainly from Eddie’s outstanding acting. And as I’ve said in my Smackdown reviews, the Eddie/Batista storyline is one of my favorite storylines in quite a long time. The two of them played off each other extremely well and it led to some of the more entertaining segments seen this year. The “odd couple” duo had me guessing where it was going to lead to right from the beginning/ I was worried that Batista’s injury would cut this story short from what it could have been, but today’s events far overshadow that injury or any sort of storyline.
I had the pleasure of seeing Eddie live twice. The first was Smackdown in 2001, I believe his last show before he was fired. It was the famous Benoit/Austin show from Edmonton and Eddie was in a six man tag with the Hardy Boyz against X-Factor if I’m not mistaken. Nothing too memorable, but it was a cool moment for me to finally see him live. I also saw him at a Smackdown house show last September in a triple threat with Kurt Angle and JBL. Very entertaining match as Eddie and Kurt did a ton of comedic spots and really sent the fans home happy. I went to the last Smackdown taping before this year’s draft lottery and the only thing I thought after the show was how disappointed that Eddie wasn’t on the card. Looking back today, I wish even more I got to see him one more time.
But overall when I think of Eddie Guerrero, I’ll always remember him being in my favorite moment ever as a wrestling fan at Wrestlemania XX. Seeing Chris Benoit win the title was just an incredible moment, only outdone by seeing two best friends embrace in the middle of the ring, a belt on each of their shoulders. I remember standing at a movie theatre here in Edmonton, tears in my eyes as Benoit and Guerrero celebrated, crying themselves the whole time. And even when I watch that again on DVD, I still feel the same tears fill my eyes, knowing why it’s so great to be a wrestling fan. But now, I know for a fact I’ll cry again next time I see that part, but it’ll be tears of joys mixed with tears of sadness, knowing one of the greats has left us way too soon. If I had to list my favorite wrestlers of all time, there’s no doubt in my mind Eddie is one of my top 5. And over the next few days, I’ll remember the fun times. The times he made me laugh, the matches he made me admire, and the characters that made me smile. Maybe I’ll watch the end of Wrestlemania XX tonight, maybe I won’t be able to for a couple days. But when I do, I’ll know that Eddie might be gone, but he’ll never be forgotten. Eddie, thank you for all you’ve given us fans. Our prayers are with your family on this day.
