Eddie
Guerrero

Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes — known to millions of wrestling fans simply as Eddie — was one of the most beloved and gifted professional wrestlers of his generation. Born in El Paso, Texas, into the legendary Guerrero wrestling dynasty, he grew up at ringside watching his father Gory Guerrero perform at the El Paso County Coliseum. By the time he was a teenager, Eddie and his nephew Chavo were already wrestling each other during intermissions. The ring was, quite literally, his inheritance.

After a brief stint in collegiate wrestling at New Mexico Highlands University, Eddie left for Mexico to follow his brothers Chavo Sr., Mando, and Hector into the family trade. He debuted in 1986 and rose quickly through CMLL and AAA, where his run as part of Los Gringos Locos with the late Art Barr remains one of the most electrifying tag-team acts in lucha libre history. In Japan he became the second Black Tiger, winning the 1996 Best of the Super Juniors tournament for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. In ECW he gave fans some of the most acclaimed technical matches of the 1990s, often opposite his close friend Dean Malenko.

It was in the United States, however, that Eddie became a household name. After years in WCW, he joined the WWF in 2000 alongside Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn as The Radicalz. He won the European, Intercontinental, and United States Championships, and reunited with his nephew Chavo to form Los Guerreros — a tag team built around the unforgettable mantra "We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal." His low-rider entrances, his cheating-but-charming Latino Heat persona, and his ability to make audiences laugh and gasp in the same breath turned him into one of the most popular performers WWE has ever produced.

The defining moment of his career came on February 15, 2004, at No Way Out, when Eddie pinned Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship — his first and only world title, and one of the most emotional title wins in the company's history. A month later at WrestleMania XX, he and his lifelong friend Chris Benoit ended the night embracing in the ring as world champions, two undersized technicians who had refused to be told they were too small to reach the top.

Behind the swagger, Eddie carried struggles he never tried to hide. Years of injuries had led to a long battle with painkillers and alcohol, and he had been released by WWE in 2001 at his lowest point. He fought his way back — through rehab, through faith as a born-again Christian, and through the patient love of his wife Vickie and his daughters — and was rehired in 2002. The man fans cheered in 2004 and 2005 was a man who had genuinely earned every step back.

On November 13, 2005, Eddie was found unconscious in his hotel room at the Marriott City Center in Minneapolis by his nephew Chavo. He was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. The cause was acute heart failure due to underlying cardiovascular disease — a quiet ending for a performer whose final years had been anything but. He was 38 years old.

WWE filmed two tribute episodes that night. Wrestlers and crew stood together on stage as Vince McMahon addressed the crowd, and a ten-bell salute closed the show. His friends — Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Chavo, Batista, Chris Jericho — wept openly on camera. Johnny Cash's "Hurt" played over the tribute video. A low-rider sat at the entrance ramp, empty.

Eddie was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006, and into the AAA, Wrestling Observer, and Hardcore Halls of Fame in the years that followed. Two decades later, his influence is still everywhere in professional wrestling. The crowd still chants "Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!" whenever a wrestler hits the Three Amigos or climbs the turnbuckle for a frog splash. His daughter Shaul became a wrestler. Rey Mysterio's son Dominik carries forward a storyline born of one of Eddie's last great feuds. The Latino World Order he founded in WCW lives on. Stars from CM Punk to Mercedes Moné to Seth Rollins cite him as the reason they fell in love with wrestling.

He was the smaller man in a land of giants, the cheater the fans always cheered, the son of a wrestler who became a father to a generation of them. Viva la raza.