Eddie Guerrero

Eddie Guerrero (also known as Eddy Guerrero, born Eduardo Gori Guerrero Llanes on October 9, 1968 in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico) is a Hispanic professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the SmackDown! brand. He comes from a legendary wrestling family.

His late father, Gory Guerrero, is considered one of the greatest wrestlers in Mexican history. His oldest brother, Chavo Guerrero, is a legendary junior heavyweight wrestler, feuding with Japanese legend Atsushi Onita. His brother Hector Guerrero is also somewhat well-known and brother Mando Guerrero wrestles as well. His nephew, Chavo Guerrero, Jr. wrestles in World Wrestling Entertainment. His uncle Enrique Llanes and cousin Javier Llanes are also popular wrestlers but their popularity is restricted to Mexico. He also has two sisters, Cuqui and Linda.

Guerrero holds dual citizenship in Mexico and the United States.

Early Career

Eddie Guerrero was raised in El Paso, Texas, and attended the University of New Mexico 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 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 (AAA), 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 El Hijo 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 and Madonna’s Boyfriend, Guerrero formed Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans), a heel stable.

Guerrero and Barr were noticed in late 1994 by the owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling, Paul Heyman, and were approached about wrestling for him in 1995. Sadly, Art Barr died before he could join ECW with Eddie. Eddie won the ECW World Television Title on his debut, and went on to have a series of excellent matches with Dean Malenko before they both jumped to World Championship Wrestling later that year.

WCW career

In WCW, he found considerable singles success, winning the United States Heavyweight Title in late 1996 and two World Cruiserweight titles in 1997. He also founded the Latino World Order (LWO). The LWO was an answer to the nWo and Eric Bischoff not pushing the Latino wrestlers. Members of the LWO included Psychosis, Rey Mysterio, Jr., Los Villanos and La Parka. He was involved in a serious car accident in 1997 that almost cost him his life, but returned to the ring a few months afterwards. He turned heel in 1998, a role which he is best at, judging from his days in AAA in Mexico. Around this time, he became unhappy with WCW management and jumped to the WWF in 2000, with Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn.

World Wrestling Federation

Guerrero and the other WCW wrestlers debuted in the WWF on January 31, 2000 as the heel group The Radicalz. After breaking his arm while performing a Frog Splash, Guerrero was sidelined for several weeks. In March 2000, Guerrero began pursuing the affections of Chyna, who he referred to as his Mamacita. Chyna was intially repelled, but allied with him, declaring that she "couldn't resist his Latino Heat". This made Eddie Guerro turn face.

After defeating Chris Jericho for the European Championship on April 3, Guerrero held the title for just under three months. He and Chyna began a feud with Essa Rios and Lita, which culimanted in a title defence on April 30 at Backlash, 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. Guerrero successfully retained the title in matches with Saturn and Malenko before finally losing to Saturn on July 23.

Over the next few months, friction began to build between the couple. Chyna was upset when Guerrero pinned her to advance in the King of the Ring Tournament, but forgave him when he presented her with a puppy. On August 27, Chyna pinned Trish Stratus in an inter-gender tag match between Chyna and Eddie and Trish and Val Venis, winning Venis' Intercontinental Championship as a result. Guerrero claimed not to mind, and on September 4 he begged Commissioner Mick Foley to let him take part in a title defence between Chyna and Kurt Angle, because he was afraid that Angle would injure Chyna. After Angle levelled Chyna 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 photoshoot. Just when it appeared that Chyna would leave Guerrero, he proposed to her and she accepted, much to the dismay of her fans. The engagement was called off when Guerrero was caught showering with two of The Godfather's hos, Mandy and Victoria, claiming that "Two Mamacitas are better than one!" Guerrero was later defeated for the Intercontinental Championship by Chyna's friend Billy Gunn. Eddie Guerro of course turned heel again.

The Radicalz reunited in late 2000, assisting Triple H in his match with Stone Cold Steve Austin and 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 1997 car accident, and in May 2001 he was send to rehabilitation. On November 9, 2001 he was arrested for Driving while under the Influence of Alcohol, and he was released by the WWF three days later.

Independent Circuit

Guerrero appeared with numerous indy promotions, including Ring of Honor and the World Wrestling Allstars, before being rehired by the WWE in March 2002.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Guerrero returned to RAW on April 1, 2002, attacking Rob Van Dam and reuniting with then heel, Chris Benoit. On April 21 at Backlash he defeated RVD for the Intercontinental Championship. He lost the belt back to RVD a month later in a highly acclaimed Ladder Match, in the course of which an overenthusiastic fan ran into the ring and knocked the ladder over while he was climbing it. Guerrero then attacked Steve Austin in a bar, beginning a feud, but Austin left the WWE before a match could take place. He went on to feud briefly with The Rock.

On August 1 Guerrero and Benoit jumped to SmackDown!. Eddie soon aligned himself with his nephew Chavo, forming the successful tag team Los Guerreros. In contrast to a previous WCW storyline with his nephew, Chavo fully adopted his uncle's policy of "Lie, Cheat and Steal" to win matches as part of the gimmick. The duo would soon win the tag titles.

The tag team eventually turned face by having a rival run in with then heel, John Cena and as Eddie's popularity grew, Eddie began seeking the WWE Title. In a storyline, Eddie's singles title ambitions made Chavo jealous and Chavo broke from the team.

During this time, in the summer of 2003, Eddie began driving a customized lowrider to ringside as part of his ring entrance. He has become identified sufficiently with lowriders that he appeared on the cover of the February 2004 issue of Lowrider magazine; he is the first man ever to appear on the cover of that publication. (Normally, the cover includes a lowrider and a bikini-clad woman; the Guerrero cover has the same features but adds him.) He turned heel for a third time on Tajiri. After he won the United States Championship in a Four Way Match he reverted to being a face again by engaging in a rivalry with John Cena.

Guerrero won his first WWE Championship at WWE's No Way Out pay per view on February 15, 2004, defeating Brock Lesnar. Eddie Guerrero would enjoy many months of success as champion, but would later lose the title to John "Bradshaw" Layfield.

On February 20, 2005, Guerrero once again became a tag team champion, this time with long time friend and rival, Rey Mysterio when they defeated Doug Basham and Danny Basham at No Way Out.

Many expected the new champions to defend their titles at WrestleMania 21, but after encouragement from Chavo, instead Eddie challenged Rey, to a one-on-one match so they could "bring the house down". The two wrestled a match at WrestleMania with Mysterio getting the win. Although visibly frustrated, Guerrero congratulated his partner.

After several mishaps in the weeks following WrestleMania, the growing tension between Guerrero and Mysterio finally erupted when they lost their tag titles to new team MNM on the April 21 episode of Smackdown. After a brief but intense shoving match, it appeared the team was irrepairably damaged, thus setting the stage for a feud between the former partners.

On April 29, 2005, Eddie and Mysterio faced MNM in a rematch for the WWE tag team championships. During the match Mysterio tagged in accidently and then hit Eddie off the side of the ring and Eddie landed on the floor. Eddie then got up, but he refused to tag Mysterio. MNM double teamed Mysterio and threw him out of the ring. Eddie then gave Mysterio a glare and a frown and walked off. As a result, Eddie has now officially turned heel for the fourth time in the WWE betraying his long time friend, Rey Mysterio, who he had dubbed "his family" earlier in the show.

The next week on SmackDown!, Guerrero appeared to adopt a new, somewhat sociopathic gimmick. Though Guerrero had historically been characterized by his emotion in the ring, on this edition of the show he viciously and emotionlessly beat up his former tag team partner, leaving him bruised and bloody on a set of steel steps.

Books

Autobiography: Cheating Death, Stealing Life (2005) with Michael Krugman

Finisher and signature maneuvers

• Frog Splash
• The Lasso From El Paso
• The Three Amigos
• Brainbuster
• Hilo
• Gory Special
• Tornado DDT
• Spinning Boot Scrape

Championships and accomplishments

World Wrestling Entertainment

• 1-time WWE Champion
• 2-time WWE Intercontinental Champion
• 2-time WWE United States Heavyweight Champion
• 2-time WWE European Champion
• 4-time WWE Tag Team Champion (2-time Chavo Guerrero, Jr., 1-time with Tajiri, 1-time with Rey Mysterio)

Extreme Championship Wrestling

• 2-time ECW World Television Champion

World Championship Wrestling

• 2-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion

Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion

• 1-time AAA/IWC World Tag Team Champion (with Love Machine Art Barr)

New Japan Pro Wrestling

• NJPW Junior Heavyweight Super Grade Tag League Champion (with The Great Sasuke)

World Wrestling Allstars

• 1-time WWA International Cruiserweight Champion

World Wrestling Association

• 1-time WWA World Trios Champion (with Chavo Guerrero and Mando Guerrero)
• 1-time WWA World Welterweight Champion

Latin American Wrestling Association

• 1-time LAWA Heavyweight Champion

Pro Wrestling Federation

• 1-time PWF World Tag Team Champion (with Hector Guerrero)

Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South

• 1-time IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• 81st Best Wrestler of the "PWI Years" (2003)
• 18th Best Tag Team of the "PWI Years" (with Art Barr)
• Comeback of the Year Award (1999)
• Most Inspirational Award (2002)
• Most Inspirational Award (2004)