Eduardo “Eddie” Guerrero was born on October 9, 1967, the youngest member of a respected Mexican-American wrestling family. He was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, where he graduated from Jefferson High School.
He attended the University of New Mexico as well as New Mexico Highlands University (the latter on an athletic scholarship) where he wrestled collegiately before returning to Texas to train as a professional wrestler.
In Mexico, he wrestled for Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion (AAA), teaming with El Hijo del Santo as La Pareja Atomica. Later, with fellow wrestlers Art Barr, Konnan, Chicano Power and others, Guerrero formed Los Gringos Locos, a stable of “heel” wrestlers. Los Gringos Locos feuded mostly with El Hijo del Santo and his partner Octagon. This conflict ended in a Hair vs. Mask match at the first AAA pay per view in America, “When Worlds Collide”.
In 1994, Guerrero and Barr received an invitation from Paul Heyman to begin wrestling for his Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Unfortunately, due to Art Barr’s tragic demise shortly before he could accept this offer, Guerrero went to America as a solo act. At ECW, after having won the World Television Championship from 2 Cold Scorpio, he went on to a serious of matches with Dean Malenko, after which both signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW).Guerrero later lost the championship to Malenko, but regained the title that same year (1994).
In 1996, Guerrero contended for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship against Konnan at Uncensored and Ric Flair at Hog Wild. He feuded with Flair and the Four Horseman throughout 1996 after Guerrero’s erstwhile partner Arn Anderson turned against him during a tag team match against Flair and Randy Savage. Later, Guerrero defeated Diamond Dallas Page in the final round of Starcade 1996 to win the title. In 1997, Guerrero defended his title against Scott Norton at Clash of the Champions XXIV and Chris Jericho at SuperBrawl VII. Guerrero’s reign came to an end at Uncensored when he lost the title to Dean Malenko.
Guerrero never became a “main event” personality at WCW. He finally requested that WCW President Eric Bischoff either feature him more prominently or give him a pay increase for family reasons. At a meeting, Bischoff allegedly threw hot coffee into Guerrero’s lap, after which Guerrero demanded his release from WCW on a live episode of Nitro. However, he later returned to WCW for several months, at the end of which he allowed Brian Adams to obtain in an upset victory in his final WCW match.
Moving on to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Guerrero was soon considered a VIP personality. An arrest for drunk driving in November 2001 resulted in a temporary suspension from WWF, after which he returned to contention for the heavyweight title, remaining so for several years until his untimely death on November 13, 2005. Guerrero was found unconscious in a hotel room in Minneapolis, MN, by his nephew Chavo, having died of acute heart failure due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
