The following was taken from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

MINNEAPOLIS (Nov. 13) - World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Eduardo Gory Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room Sunday morning in Minneapolis, where he was scheduled to appear that evening in a WWE Supershow.

When Guerrero, 38, didn't respond to a wake-up call, hotel security at Minneapolis Marriott City Center and Guerrero's nephew and fellow WWE wrestler, Chavo Guerrero, forced entry into the room shortly after 7 a.m., police said.

The 5-feet-8, 220-pound wrestler was found on the floor. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. There were no apparent signs of foul play or suicide, police said. An autopsy was planned at the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.

He was a featured star on the UPN series "WWE Smackdown!" and son of Mexican wrestler Gory Guerrero. He is survived by his wife, Vickie, and daughters Shaul, 14; Sherilyn, 9; and Kaylie Marie, 3, according to WWE Web site.

"This is a huge loss," said WWE chairman Vince McMahon. "Eddie was a wonderful, fun-loving human being. Eddie was a consummate performer."

Chavo Guerrero and McMahon said Guerrero was open about his past drug and alcohol abuse but they said he'd been sober for four years.

Guerrero was in the Twin Cities with 60 to 80 other wrestlers to film "Friday Night Smackdown" at the Target Center. "I know Eddie would want the show to go on," Chavo Guerrero said.

In February 2004, Guerrero became the second wrestler of Hispanic heritage to be WWE champion when he defeated Brock Lesnar, a former University of Minnesota wrestling standout. Guerrero lost the title four months later.

In May 2004, UPN aired the special "Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story." The one-hour program chronicled his childhood and his struggle with drug addiction that almost cost him his job, family and life before his recovery and eventual capture of the WWE championship.

Guerrero grew up in El Paso, Texas. He and his three older brothers were all wrestlers.

This is a horrible, horrible loss. Eddie was one of my wrestling favorites, because he was human-sized. He wasn't one of those 'roid rangers like HHH or Brock Lesnar (for example), he wasn't 7'-0" like the Undertaker... he was muscular, sure, but that's because that's what his job was. He was also very open about his history of drug abuse, and in THIS case (and maybe this case only), I'm able to believe Vince McMahon when he says that Eddie was clean. I doubt that Eddie was on steroids... he wasn't cut enough (though it wouldn't surprise me to hear that he had used them in the past).

He was an amazing character in the ring, with a ton of personality and a style honed both in lucha libre and puroresu... and one of my favorite highlights of Wrestlemania XX came just after Chris Benoit won his championship match. Guerrero, holding HIS championship belt as well, came out and embraced Benoit... a fine bit of history showing itself (they'd wrestled together in WCW, ECW and Japan [Black Tiger II], and came over together to the WWE).

There were times that I hated the role he was playing (Chyna, anybody?), but was always impressed by his matches in the ring. He was believeable, which should be the main goal of any pro wrestler. Like many others, I thought he was destined for greatness a lot earlier than he got there.

The image of his elbow, shattered after one of his patented 'frog splashes' (and who can forget the first night he and the rest of the Radicalz showed up in the WWE... backstage, they met up with some of their old friends, and there was a quick exchange heard between Eddie and Rob Van Dam: "Hey, nice move." "You too!" heh), makes me wince to this day. Without that, he might have been a title holder a year earlier.

Bloody damn shame. I just hope the autopsy doesn't reveal that he was back on drugs. *sigh*

This might sound trite, but Via Con Dios, Eddie.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:06 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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