For those of you who may know me personally, you know that I am from El Paso, Texas. Some of you may be asking, 'why does that have to do with this blog or wrestling?' Well, it has a lot to do with wrestling. See, the topic of this blog involves the late, Eddie Guerrero.
Eddie Guerrero was born in El Paso and attended Jefferson High School, where my mom and her brothers/my uncles attended. He then went onto the University of New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands University, according to wikipedia. While in school, he participated in wrestling at the high school and collegiate levels. He would soon start training to become a professional wrestler.
Guerrero would accomplish many things during his time in the square circle. Some of his accomplishes can be seen here. But perhaps his biggest accomplishment was what he did for the sport of professional wrestling.
I remember when I first started watching the sport, there was not much of a lucha libre influence in then World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment. Off the top of my head, the only wrestler with a luchador style in the WWF besides Guerrero was Essa Rios. But Rios was someone who didn't have the potential to be a main eventer; but neither was Guerrero. In fact, after he was arrested for drunk driving in 2001, he was released by the company. But he would eventually be brought back the following year.
Now in my opinion, he really didn't do much in his first stint in the WWF. Sure he won a championship but really didn't do anything to wow me (then again I was only in the 7th grade at the time, what did I know). But during the second stint is where he started to make a splash.
During this period, he started to capture the eyes of many in the Hispanic community. He would team up with his nephew, Chavo Guerrero Jr., to form the tag team of Los Guerreros. After an injury forced his nephew out of action, he would complete for and win the United States Championship. But his biggest feat was around the corner.
In February 2004, he defeated Brock Lesnar at the No Way Out pay-per view view to first his first WWE Championship reign (did have some help from Bill Goldberg, but that's not the point). He would later defeat Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania XX. Guerrero would lost the championship later in the year and start a feud with fellow luchador, Rey Mysterio. Even though all these events did impact his life, they also had an impact for Hispanics.
This was a time when you saw more of a lucha libre influence in the company. Rey Mysterio was becoming more of a focal point in the company, Chavo was not just seen as another wrestler and other Mexican wrestlers were hitting the scene like Super Crazy. But one of the things that seems to be overlooked is his confrontation with Eric Bischoff, president of World Championship Wrestling.
Back in 1998, Guerrero was upset with his character and demanded he either be pushed or given a raise. Bischoff decided to do neither and let him walk out the door. Later, he would return and form the LWO, the Latino World Order (a play off the New Order World created by Bischoff). The reason for the formation of the group was to send a message that the Latino wrestlers in the company were not happy about not being pushed to the main events. Even though all of this was a work, it did send a message to the entire wrestling world that Latinos were as good as anybody else in the ring.
In my eyes, Eddie Guerrero is a true pioneer of the sport. Sure there have been countless luchadors who have had an influence on the sport, but they have not had one like Guerrero. He formed a group of Latinos to say they could mess with the big boys in the ring. He would many championships during time in the WWE, including the tag team titles, the Intercontinental championship, the U.S. Championship and the WWE Championship. And all of this lead to his induction in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006, the second Hispanic wrestler to be inducted (the first being Tito Santana). His legacy is what laid the foundation in what you see today in professional wrestling. For me, he is the star who led the influence of lucha libre in American wrestling.
The only sad thing about this is that he did not get a chance to see all of this happen today. I remember watching a NASCAR race on television back in November 2005. During the race, there was an alert on the bottom of the scene. I thought nothing much of it; probably just a weather alert of emergency test of the broadcasting system. But as I read the message, I couldn't believe it. Eddie Guerrero found dead in his hotel room on the other side of the country.
Eddie Guerrero is missed everyday in the wrestling world and many wish he was alive to see what he has done for the sport of professional wrestling.
-Christopher J. Valverde
Follow me on Twitter: @xfactor7806
*Information obtained from wikipedia*
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