Eddie Guerrero

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Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes (October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005), better known by his ring name Eddie Guerrero, was a Mexican American professional wrestler. Born into a legendary Mexican wrestling family, Eddie Guerrero managed to maintain the storied legacy of his family. Through the 1990s, he had a distinguished career, working for every major professional wrestling promotion in the United States during that period: Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment. Guerrero's in-ring character was that of a crafty, resourceful wrestler who would do anything to win a match. His famous mantra became "Cheat to Win". Despite being a heel for much of his career, he became popular in and outside the ring. Throughout his career, Guerrero encountered various substance abuse problems outside of wrestling, including alcoholism and an addiction to pain killers. His problems outside of the ring were sometimes integrated into his storylines. Notwithstanding these issues, Guerrero won numerous titles during his career, including the WWE Championship. ------------------------------------------------------------- Early career (1987-August 1995) Guerrero came from a legendary wrestling family. His father, Gory Guerrero, was a founding father of Lucha Libre, a prominent wrestling trainer and an influential figure in Mexican professional wrestling. His three brothers Chavo Guerrero, Hector Guerrero and Mando Guerrero all followed in their father's footsteps and became professional wrestlers. Guerrero's nephew, Chavo Guerrero, Jr. also became a wrestler, while his uncle Enrique Llanes and cousin Javier Llanes wrestle in Mexico. As a boy, Guerrero's father allowed he and Chavo, Jr. to wrestle one another during intermissions in the wrestling arena that Gory owned. Guerrero was born and raised in El Paso, Texas and attended the University of New Mexico as well as New Mexico Highlands University on an athletic scholarship, where he wrestled collegiately, before returning to El Paso to train as a professional wrestler. He debuted in 1987 in the Mexican Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre promotion. He became a star in Mexico long before he main evented in the United States. In the late 1980s, Guerrero debuted in the National Wrestling Alliance affiliate World Championship Wrestling (formerly known as Jim Crockett Promotions) as a jobber. In 1993, Guerrero began wrestling in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he was known as Black Tiger II. In Mexico, he wrestled mainly for Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion, teaming with El Hijo del Santo as the new version of La Pareja Atómica (The Atomic Pair), the legendary tag team of Gory Guerrero and El Santo. After Guerrero turned on Santo and allied with Art Barr as La Pareja del Terror (The Pair of Terror), the duo became arguably the most hated tag team in lucha libre history. Along with Barr, Konnan, Chicano Power and Madonna’s Boyfriend, Guerrero formed Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans), a heel stable. Guerrero later said that no matter how many people joined Los Gringos Locos, the stable was all about Art. Los Gringos Locos feuded mostly with El Hijo del Santo and his partner Octagón, eventually ending in a Hair vs. Mask match at the first lucha pay-per-view in America, When Worlds Collide, which they lost. Guerrero and Barr's first break would come when they were noticed in late 1994 by the owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling, Paul Heyman, and were approached about wrestling for him in 1995. However, Barr died before he could join ECW with Guerrero. As an homage to his fallen friend, Guerrero adopted his friend's finishing move, the Frog Splash. Guerrero won the ECW World Television Championship on his debut and went on to have a series of acclaimed matches with Dean Malenko before they both signed with World Championship Wrestling later that year. After their last match which ended in a draw in a 2 out of 3 falls match at the ECW arena, the locker room emptied and the two were carried around the ring by their fellow wrestlers while the crowd chanted "Please don't go. ------------------------------------------------------------ World Championship Wrestling (Sept. 1995 - Jan. 2000) In WCW, Guerrero found considerable singles success, winning the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship in late 1996 and the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship twice in 1997. One such title match was against Rey Misterio, Jr. at Halloween Havoc. He lost the match, but called it his favorite match in the February 2004 edition of SmackDown! magazine and his autobiography (published posthumously). Despite Guerrero's success and popularity, he had one of many wrestlers who were frustrated at never being given a chance to be main event stars in WCW. These frustrations came to a head when Guerrero requested that WCW President Eric Bischoff either push his character or give him a raise for family reasons. Bischoff responded by throwing coffee at Guerrero (In his autobiography, Guerrero states that Bischoff accidentally knocked his coffee off the table, and that it was a complete accident that he was hit). The wrestler, furious, demanded Bischoff release him from his WCW contract on a live episode of WCW Monday Nitro. Guerrero then left the company for a period of months, angry at Bischoff for what he had done. However, Guerrero later returned to WCW, leading to the belief that maybe Guerrero's angry speeches against Bischoff were actually a work (Guerrero later confirmed it to be a worked shoot). Guerrero would later rebut this on WWE's DVD Monday Night War claiming that he tried to put personal differences aside for the good of the company, yet found himself angry and outraged once more because of Bischoff's continued refusal to elevate Guerrero and other similar wrestlers. Guerrero responded to Bischoff's actions by forming the Latino World Order (or L.W.O.), which was understood by the fans to be a mockery of Bischoff's New World Order. The group was an answer to Bischoff's refusal to push Latino wrestlers in ways they felt they deserved. The group eventually grew to encompass almost all the Mexican wrestlers working for WCW at the time. However, Guerrero was involved in a serious car accident in 1999 that cut short the LWo storyline. Guerrero survived the accident and returned to wrestling in a matter of months. After his return, he helped create the Filthy Animals stable with Rey Mysterio Jr. and Konnan (later growing to include Juventud Guerrera, Billy Kidman, and Disco Inferno). Despite this success, he continued to be displeased with WCW management and signed with the WWF in 2000 along with top WCW stars Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn. ------------------------------------------------------------ World Wrestling Federation (Jan. 2000 - May 2001) Guerrero and the other WCW wrestlers debuted in the WWF on January 31, 2000 as The Radicalz, appearing on RAW and interfering in a match including the New Age Outlaws. In March 2000, Guerrero began pursuing the affections of Chyna, who he referred to as his "Mamacita." Chyna initially rejected his advances, but allied with him following WrestleMania 2000, declaring that she couldn't resist his "Latino Heat". Guerrero won his first WWF title by defeating another former WCW wrestler, Chris Jericho, for the WWF European Championship with help from Chyna. He and Chyna began a feud with Essa Rios and Lita, which culminated in a European title defense at Backlash 2000, which was also billed as the night of Guerrero's prom (he was said to have just earned a GED). Guerrero defeated Rios after arriving at ringside in a 1957 Chevrolet, even wrestling in his tuxedo pants and a bow tie. Guerrero successfully retained the title in matches against Saturn and Malenko before finally losing the title to Saturn on July 23, 2000 at Fully Loaded. Over the next few months, friction began to build between Guerrero and Chyna. Chyna was upset when Guerrero pinned her to advance in the King of the Ring tournament. On August 27, 2000 Chyna won the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Guerrero claimed to not mind and then begged Commissioner Mick Foley to let him take part in a title defense between Chyna and Kurt Angle, claiming he was afraid that Angle would injure Chyna. After Angle knocked Chyna down with the title belt, Guerrero "accidentally" pinned her while trying to revive her. Chyna became visibly uncomfortable as Guerrero began to cheat in order to retain his title, while Guerrero was upset that Chyna was posing for Playboy magazine, even trying to invade the Playboy Mansion to stop the shooting. Just when it appeared that Chyna would leave Guerrero, he proposed to her and she accepted. The engagement was called off when Guerrero was caught showering with two of The Godfather's hos claiming that "Two Mamacitas are better than one!" Guerrero turned heel once again as a result of the incident and was later defeated for the Intercontinental Championship by Chyna's friend Billy Gunn. The Radicalz reunited in late 2000, assisting Triple H in his match with Stone Cold Steve Austin at Survivor Series. In early 2001, Guerrero feuded with Test, winning the European Championship for a second time at WrestleMania X-Seven with help from Saturn and Malenko. Guerrero eventually left the Radicalz, siding with The Hardy Boyz and Lita. At this point, Guerrero developed an addiction to pain medication stemming from his 1999 car accident and in May 2001 was sent to rehabilitation. On November 9, 2001 he was arrested for drunk driving and was subsequently released by the WWF three days later. ----------------------------------------------------------- World Wrestling Entertainment (2002-2005) Guerrero returned to RAW on April 1, 2002, attacking Rob Van Dam and reuniting with Chris Benoit. On April 21 at Backlash 2002 he defeated Van Dam for the Intercontinental Championship. He lost the belt to RVD