Family Wrestles with Death of Eddie Guerro

The professional WWE wrestler Eddie Guerrero, affectionately known as "Latino Heat," was found dead on the morning of Sunday November 13 in his hotel room in Minneapolis.

His fans around the world grieve, and according to Vince McMahon, Chairman and Owner of World Wrestling Entertainment, Guerrero's loss is tragic to the WWE because "he was one of the stellar performers in the history of the business that few could excel to ever be… he was a fun loving human being, who had so much to give."

Vickie Guerrero, his wife, released the results of the autopsy saying, "It was heart failure. It was from his past - the drinking and the drug abuse. They found signs of heart disease. She (the examiner) said that the blood vessels were much worn and narrow, and that just showed all the abuse from the scheduling of work and his past. And Eddie just worked out like crazy all the time. It made his heart grow bigger and work harder and the vessels were getting smaller, and that's what caused the heart failure. He went into a deep sleep."

It is hard to believe that Guerrero, who died at 38 years of age, had faced and defeated Mr. Kennedy on Friday November 11th. According to his nephew, Chavo Guerrero, the deceased had shown no signs of feeling uncomfortable on Sunday at 12:30 am when they checked into the hotel for the night. Chavo received a phone call from security at 7:00 am because Eddie had missed his wake up call. When the room was opened, he lay there lifeless. The event has devastated the legendary Guerrero family because nobody had ever perished so suddenly and so young in it to this date.

Eddie Guerrero had a wonderful and short lived career. He was born to a family of Mexican professional wrestlers in 1967, and so much was the passion for the sport that Eddie could perform a dropkick by the age of three. He debuted in 1987 in his motherland as "Mascara Mágica" and then traveled to Japan to become the "Black Tiger." When he returned to Mexico, he kept on wrestling and one of his most famous feuds of this period was the one in which he had a partnership with Barr and ended up loosing to Santo and Octagon in 1994. In 1995, Guerrero joined the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) with his new signature move under his sleeve-The Frog Splash-debuting in the United States. He moved on to the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where he won the United States Heavyweight Title in 1996 and two World Cruiserweight titles in 1997. Due to Guerrero's unhappiness with the treatment of Latino wrestlers in the WCW, he formed the Latino World Order (LWO) in 1998, but was disbanded in 1999 because Guerrero was in a car accident.

Eddie Guerrero entered RAW in 2000 along with Benoit, Malenko, and Perry Saturn. The group became known as the Radicalz, which disbanded in September 2000, a few months after Guerrero won the International Championship. From 2001 to 2002, Eddie Guerrero faced severe addiction to alcohol and drugs which forced him to pull out for the time being. He recuperated and retuned to perform in RAW in April 2002, when his career made a huge turn for the better after his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin. In a team with his nephew Chavo he won the WWE Tag Team Championship. In February 2004, Eddie Guerrero defeated Brock Lesnar at No Way Out and became the WWE Champion.

Later Eddie joined forces with Rey Mysterio and won the WWE Tag Championship yet again, but the duo broke up in early 2005 after WestleMania 21. On Eddie Guerrero's thirty-eighth birthday at No Mercy, his rival Batista sang happy birthday to Latino Heat, and a memorable friendship was forged. And we are back to November 11th, 2005, where Eddie defeated Mr. Kennedy and sadly did not get to use the Frog Splash one last time.

The WWE has released the following announcement: "WWE is deeply saddened by the news that Eddie Guerrero has passed away. He was found dead this morning in his hotel room in Minneapolis. Eddie is survived by his wife Vickie and daughters Shaul, 14, Sherilyn, nine, and Kaylie Marie, three." The match that was going to be held on the night of his passing was speculated to be the night where Guerrero would walk out being the World Heavyweight Champion for the first time.

Tributes to Eddie Guerrero were held by WWE RAW on November 14, 2005, and WWE Friday Night Smackdown! on November 18, 2005. His funeral was private in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday, November 16. All in all, someone has to do something about all these athletes using drugs and alcohol or we will end up missing more people like Eddie.