Gone Too Soon: Deaths That Changed Wrestling Read online

  EDDIE GUERRERO

  (October 9, 1967 - November 13, 2005)

  When your whole family is built around the business of professional wrestling, it’s hard to avoid it. Like Owen Hart, Eddie Guerrero was the last son of legendary Mexican wrestler Gory Guerrero. With all of Gory’s three prior sons, Chavo, Mando and Hector, all having broken into the wrestling business, you can see what was waiting for Eddie as he grew up.

  Although promoted as a Mexican, Eddie was actually born and grew up in El Paso, Texas, before going to college in New Mexico. Prior to that, Eddie started off his career performing during the intermissions of his father’s wrestling shows, often at the El Paso Coliseum, Eddie’s first matches would involve his nephew Chavo Junior.

  Eddie’s first serious break into the wrestling business would come in Mexico in the early 90s, working for a promotion called AAA. Originally teaming with the son of another Mexican wrestling legend, El Hijo del Santo (translated literally, the son of El Santo), as part of La Pareja Atomica (The Atomic Pair), Eddie would turn heel and form an alliance with an American by the name of Art Barr. Barr had previously wrestled in the North West of America, as well as for WCW, before heading to Mexico - and became the centre piece of a tag team known as La Pareja del Terror (The Pair of Terror). Through time, Guerrero and Barr would remain a tag team, but would adopt the name “Los Gringos Locos” (the Crazy Americans) as part of a group that included, amongst others, Konnan and Louie Spicolli (known then as Madonna’s Boyfriend, and later best known under his real name and as WWE’s Rad Radford).

  It was this team with Barr that would be responsible for Eddie’s first exposure in the United States, as they were booked on a pay-per-view that was jointly promoted between WCW and the AAA promotion. La Pareja del Terror were booked in a traditional lucha libre-rules match - best two out of three falls - against Octagon, and Guerrero’s former tag team partner, El Hijo del Santo, in a match where the losing team would have to complete a forfeit - Santo and Octagon would lose their masks, whereas Guerrero and Barr would be shaved bald.

  The hair vs. mask match was held on a show called “When Worlds Collide” on November 6, 1994, in front of 13,000 fans inside the Los Angeles Sports Arena, and a pay-per-view audience. Art Barr won the first fall with a frog splash, before going on to lose via submission to level things up. Octagon was stretchered out of the match, leaving La Pareja del Terror with a two-on-one advantage. Of course, El Hijo del Santo was never going to be unmasked, especially when he had unfinished business with Eddie Guerrero - and as luck would have it, Guerrero was beaten by El Hijo del Santo, forcing La Pareja del Terror to shave their heads.

  The performances jointly put on by Guerrero and Barr had caught the eyes of all three of the major national promotions in the US. However, despite appearing on a show that was jointly promoted by World Championship Wrestling, WCW didn’t jump at the chance to sign either Barr or Guerrero. As the World Wrestling Federation chose not to sign them either, that left Paul Heyman’s fledgling Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) group as the only suitors left for Guerrero and Barr. Sadly, barely two weeks after the When Worlds Collide show, Barr was found dead at his home in Portland, Oregon, after having suffered a suspected heart attack.

  In spite of Barr’s death, a move to ECW did materialise for Guerrero - although his time with the Philadelphia promotion was fleeting at best. Still, Eddie accomplished a lot in his brief spell there, defeating Too Cold Scorpio for the ECW Television Title on his first night in in April 1995, before defending the belt in a series of matches against Dean Malenko. Guerrero would drop the title back to Too Cold Scorpio just four months later, as he moved from Philadelphia to Atlanta. Despite his short run, he had attracted the attentions of World Championship Wrestling.

  Although Eddie left for WCW, he didn’t make his television debut immediately, leading some to think that he would be coming in as a character. During his time in Mexico, Eddie had made several appearances for New Japan Pro Wrestling, as the masked Black Tiger character. As the second iteration of the character (following English grappler Mark “Rollerball” Rocco), Guerrero achieved some fame in the Orient against the likes of Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit - names whom would closely follow Guerrero throughout his career. Sadly, Black Tiger didn’t make his way to WCW, as Guerrero finally made his debut in March 1996 under his real name, and without much of a character to speak of, save for a pretty stereotypical mustachioed Latino persona.

  His WCW tenure started with some challenges for the company’s United States title, losing to Konnan at the Uncensored pay-per-view in March 1996, before being beaten by Ric Flair in another title match at August’s Hog Wild event. A feud with Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) followed, originally over DDP’s nickname of “Lord of the Ring” - but it was this feud that eventually led Guerrero to the United State championship, as he ended the year at December’s Starrcade pay-per-view beating DDP in the tournament finals to claim the belt that had been vacated following an injury to Ric Flair.

  Entering 1997 as the US champion, Guerrero would go on to defend the belt in high profile matches against Scott Norton, Syxx (Sean Waltman, best known as “X-Pac” in the WWE), and Chris Jericho, before dropping the belt to Dean Malenko at the Uncensored pay-per-view. Following that defeat, Guerrero changed tack and focussed on WCW’s specialised cruiserweight division, beating Jericho for the title, before embarking on a career highlight feud with Rey Mysterio. Their match at WCW’s Halloween Havoc was highly rated by fans and wrestling historians, and although Guerrero lost in the title vs. mask match, Eddie would regain the belt a few weeks later. Eddie wouldn’t end 1997 as WCW’s Cruiserweight champion though, dropping the belt to Ultimo Dragon on the year’s final edition of WCW’s flagship television programme, Monday Nitro.

  Having started his career wrestling against his nephew Chavo, Eddie’s next step in WCW would be another family affair, as he spent several months bullying Chavo in an ongoing storyline. In a bid to “teach him a lesson”, Eddie forced Chavo to act as his own personal slave. This weird relationship morphed from partnership to rivalry, with the Guerreros gunning for Ultimo Dragon’s Cruiserweight title, before ending the summer of 1998 in a feud that resulted in a hair vs. hair match - a bout that Chavo would lose, before willingly shaving his head in front of his baffled uncle. After taking the hollow victory, Guerrero would depart WCW for a few months - with word going around that Eddie had thrown a cup of coffee at WCW boss Eric Bischoff in a row over a push and a pay rise (a story that was later confirmed as fabrication) - Guerrero took time off before the “hot coffee” story was weaved into a storyline... a storyline that would culminate in the formation of the Latino World Order.

  Unfortunately, this being 1998, WCW was in a period where all they could do was create spin-offs of the popular New World Order (nWo) faction. Despite starting as a group of three - Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash - the nWo storyline resulted in the creation of similar groups such as nWo Hollywood (Hulk Hogan’s splinter group of the nWo), nWo Wolfpack (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash’s group), the One Warrior Nation (oWn - the Ultimate Warrior’s spoof), the nWo Elite, the nWo Black and White (aka the “B-team” made up of non-main event wrestlers), nWo 2000, nWo Japan, and... the L... W... O.

  Yes, Eddie Guerrero wound up in charge of a group of largely forgotten Latino wrestlers - a role that he was handed after WCW moved Konnan (the originally planned leader) into another arm of the nWo. The LWO would have a version of the nWo logo, in the Mexican red, white and green colours, although aside from Eddie, Rey Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera and Psychosis, the LWO wasn’t much of a threat, with La Parka, Silver King, Villano V, Hector Garza, Cicolpe and El Dandy also in their ranks (but as Bret Hart quipped, who are you to doubt El Dandy?)

  As the world celebrated the start of 1999, Eddie would spend New Year’s Day in hospital, after being involved in a serious car accident which saw him flung through the sunroof as the car was totalled. Much like the car accident that involved Brian Pillman
in April 1996, Guerrero wasn’t wearing a seatbelt; but that ended up saving his life, as he would likely have suffered even worse injuries had he been strapped into the car. In spite of that, the injuries acquired would have ended most wrestlers’ careers - a broken pelvis, a punctured lung, in addition to numerous cuts and bruises. Somewhat miraculously, given the injuries he sustained, Eddie was back on television, barely seven months later, returning to Monday Nitro in a match against his former LWO stable mate, Juventud Guerrera. With Eddie still not truly 100% after his remarkably-quick comeback, he was thrust into another stable, alongside Konnan and a now-unmasked Rey Mysterio: the Filthy Animals.

  It was around this time that Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera jumped from the World Wrestling Federation to WCW as head writers - and with the pair charged with the task of reviving WCW’s flagging fortunes, Guerrero’s position in the company remained somewhat unchanged, despite the Animals being booked by Russo and Ferrera to supposedly be WCW’s facsimile of WWE’s D-Generation X stable.

  A brief feud between the Filthy Animals and a rival faction known as the Dead Pool - Vampiro and hip-hop act the Insane Clown Posse - lasted for a few months, before they moved onto a storyline with another group: the Revolution. This would be Eddie’s final storyline in WCW before taking part in a revolution of his own. Following a loss in a six-person elimination match at WCW’s Mayhem pay-per-view in November 1999 - where the Animals’ team of Guerrero, Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson were beaten by the Revolution’s Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko and Asya (WCW’s rip-off of Chyna, get it?), Guerrero was slowly phased out of the storyline as the first incarnation of the Filthy Animals were disbanded.

  Eddie Guerrero missed the Starrcade and Souled Out pay-per-views, as his character was put on the back burner whilst WCW entered a new millennium. At the same time, the winds of change started to blow through the company. The writing duo of Russo and Ferrera weren’t producing the instant results that was expected of them, with WCW still a distant second behind the WWE in terms of television ratings. Even worse, WCW was shedding fans, as a result of inane storylines and endless (blank) on a pole matches; something which was a staple of Vince Russo’s booking formula.

  Everything came to a head in January 2000, just days before the Souled Out pay-per-view, when WCW were forced to change the card after losing Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett to injuries (Hart was forced to retire due to concussions, and would not wrestle again for over ten years; Jarrett also missed the show due to a concussion, but he was able to return to action). With Sid Vicious needing a new challenger, various names were thrown around as to who would face - and ultimately beat - the self-named “Millennium Man”. With Vince Russo suggesting Tank Abbott - a former UFC fighter who was at the time barely on the company’s radar - Russo was removed from power and replaced by former wrestler Kevin Sullivan.

  It was this change of power that prompted Guerrero, and several other WCW wrestlers, including Shane Douglas, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Konnan, to ask for their immediate release, feeling that Sullivan would do nothing for their careers. To try and placate the unhappy wrestlers, Sullivan booked Benoit to win the WCW title from Sid Vicious - supposedly to show that he would be taking that group of performers seriously. The move didn’t work, and when push came to shove, Guerrero - along with Benoit, Saturn and Malenko - asked for, and received their releases from WCW. Barely two weeks later, the four-some had a new home.

  Debuting on Monday Night Raw on January 31, Guerrero appeared alongside his friends, with the group being labelled the “Radicalz”. They appeared at the start of the show, sitting in the front row, with commentator Jim Ross repeatedly labelling the quartet as free agents. Before too long, the Radicalz got in on the action, jumping the rail and beating down on the New Age Outlaws, before they hit the ring, laying out the “Road Dogg” with a Dean Malenko suplex and a Chris Benoit swandive headbutt.

  In the very next segment, it was revealed that they had arrived in the WWE on the request of Mick Foley, rather than as contracted wrestlers. Indeed, the Radicalz got their chance to earn contracts on the same week’s episode of SmackDown, as Triple H - and his DX - supposedly in charge of the company ordering a best of three-series, with the Radicalz earning contracts if they won the series. Dean Malenko would take on X-Pac, Chris Benoit would face Triple H, whilst the team of Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn would face the New Age Outlaws. DX would win all three matches, but Guerrero would dislocate his elbow whilst performing his trademark frog splash during his match, ruling him out of storylines for several weeks. As Guerrero recovered, the Radicalz turned on Mick Foley to “earn” contracts - upon his return, he would be repackaged as a new character. Thankfully, not with a new name, Eddie’s character would be that of an over-the-top Latin lothario. Eddie would become “Latino Heat”.

  Although the Radicalz were now disbanded, the Latino Heat character would provide a springboard for Eddie’s first major push in the WWE, and probably his first true push in a major promotion in North America. Unfortunately, in some people’s eyes, this also meant that Eddie had to form an on-screen relationship with Chyna - an overtly muscular female wrestler (later Playboy model, then porn star) who preferred wrestling against men as opposed to women. Referring to Chyna as his “mamacita”, the relationship was the first time that Guerrero was able to show any sort of character, and gave him another feather in his proverbial cap. A brief run with the WWE’s European title, beating Chris Jericho for the belt, before dropping it to former Radicalz stable-mate Perry Saturn, was followed up with a rather unique role in Chyna’s more conventional Intercontinental title run.

  Chyna had previously held the Intercontinental championship as a “co-champion”, after a double-pinfall finish in a match when she challenged then-champion Jericho. This time around, Chyna won the title in an intergender tag team match, with Guerrero and Chyna beating Trish Stratus and Val Venis in a match where the Intercontinental title was on the line. That run only lasted two weeks though, before dropping it to Guerrero in a three-way match with Kurt Angle, with the finish seeing Chyna “knocked out” when Angle hit her with the title belt, before Eddie “accidentally pinned” his on-screen girlfriend whilst trying to revive her, in order to win the belt.

  After winning the Intercontinental title, the on-screen relationship between Guerrero and Chyna quickly became strained - Chyna upset at Eddie’s underhanded tactics, whilst Guerrero was himself visibly upset (in storyline, at least!) to the news that Chyna was to appear in an issue of Playboy magazine. To try and keep his girlfriend sweet, Eddie proposed to Chyna - who said yes - but the engagement was called off after “hidden camera” footage caught out Eddie cavorting in the shower with two “Hos” (prostitutes bought from the WWE’s resident wrestling pimp, the Godfather).

  Turning heel as a result of this, the Radicalz were quickly reunited and began feuding with another reformed group - DX. Unlike the group’s initial storyline in WWE, the Radicalz got the upper hand over DX, before the group splintered off again to concentrate on singles titles, with Eddie winning the European championship once again, beating Test at WrestleMania X-Seven in Houston, Texas (yes, that was WWE’s way of writing WrestleMania 17 - a mish-mash of Roman and traditional numerals!). Eddie held the title for a matter of weeks, before dropping it to Matt Hardy - someone he would later align himself with, but all storylines involving Guerrero ended up being put on ice as external forces took their toll.

  Still feeling the effects of the car accident on New Year’s Day in 1999, Eddie had found himself addicted to painkillers, and after Dean Malenko spoke out about his concern, WWE chose to send Guerrero to rehab. After completing the course, WWE didn’t rush to bring Guerrero back to television, perhaps learning the lessons that WCW hadn’t in that time - somewhat coincidentally, before his departure for rehabilitation, WWE had purchased WCW - and by the end of the year, his former employer had been killed off for good after “invading” the WWE.

  Whilst waiting to be called back to t
elevision, Eddie was sent to the Heartland Wrestling Association in Cincinnati - a company used by WWE in a farm league-style to develop young wrestlers. He later appeared on WWE’s internet show, “Byte This”, and was interviewed about his spell in rehab, claiming that he had beaten his addiction, and was feeling good for the first time in years. Guerrero claimed that his joints “used to ache when it was cold outside but not anymore. I’m not even wrestling with a brace anymore like I used to.” Sadly, as Guerrero’s public appearances made him look good, it quickly turned out to be a facade, and in early November, things took a turn for the worse.

  An arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol isn’t good news for anyone, least of all someone who had just completed a drug rehabilitation course. On November 9, 2001, Guerrero crashed into a gate at an apartment complex in Tampa, Florida. Police officers on the scene noticed that Guerrero smelled of alcohol, before promptly giving him two breath tests - both of which were failed. Days later, everything came to a head when Guerrero was given his WWE release.

  The wrestling world that was waiting for Eddie after his release was a lot different to that of even a year previously. In 2001 alone, both of Guerrero’s prior US employers, WCW and ECW, had closed down, with WWE taking on the best of the wrestlers from both of those promotions. Without either of those groups, Eddie’s wrestling future seemed, at best, rather bleak, with local, no-name independent companies who would be only too happy to pay to have a former WWE superstar on their show seemingly being the only possible employment opportunities out there. Rather than dive into a risk-filled world of unscrupulous promoters, Eddie bided his time, and in February 2002, he jumped into bed with three promotions that were just breaking into the scene, all of whom would themselves end up with rather differing fortunes.