Eddie Guerrero - 20 years on

[Chili]

It's been 20 years since Edd(ie)y Guerrero passed away aged only 38. One of the finest performers of any era for my money, a complete package who could adapt to pretty much anything, get given shit booking and make it gold, and just generally an engaging performer to watch throughout his career. So yeah, chuck on your 'Eddy Guerrero is my favourite wrestler' tees and talk about him, thoughts, matches. To start here's the mixtape from WWE Vault, his crowning moment taking the WWE Championship and THAT Johnny Cash eulogy video that's still incredibly touching.

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2025 by Chili

[SuperBacon]

I found out at a Funeral For A Friend gig, when they dedicated a song to him.

What a way to find out.

[herbie747]

Met him in WWF New York in August 2000 - what a class act.

[Arch Stanton]

I don't think I've ever popped harder than for his title win over Lesnar. My housemate and I both literally leapt off the sofa and were punching the air in delight at that moment. At half past three in the morning, or whatever It was, I'm sure we probably woke up the rest of the shared house we were living in at the time. It helped that we were big marks for Goldberg, too. It's still one of my favourite ever moments and fondest memories of watching wrestling.

I like to imagine that if he'd been able to stay clean and healthy, a 58 year old Eddie would probably still be wrestling somewhere today. I don't think he'd have ever stopped.

[RedTwoster]

I remember visiting a wrestling news site looking for spoilers, only to be greeted by a big splash on Eddie’s death. I thought it was fake, and it took me a while to believe that it could possibly be true. 

Eddie Guerrero was the first wrestler who actually felt like ‘my guy’ (a title Daniel Bryan would later inherit) and when he won the WWE Title at No Way Out, that was hands down my favourite moment from my early years as a fan. It was probably the first time I got goosebumps from a match result too, certainly, it’s the first time I remember getting goosebumps from a match result at least. 

Selfishly, you can’t help but wonder what moments we missed with Eddie, and where he’d have fit into the modern wrestling landscape. Yes he’d be 58 today, but so is Jeff Jarrett. 

Whether as an active performer or something else, you can’t help but feel he had decades more to give. 

[waters44]

I was 16 in 2005, I gave up on school and floated between living with my Mum and Dad. I played them off of each other so both would feel sorry for me and not force me to get a job, which meant I could just sit at home all day watching videos and playing on the PC. I didn't watch much wrestling between 2002 and 2004 but had all the 2005 PPVs recorded off Sky and just used to rewatch them over and over while surfing the TWCF (heady days). 

My two main memories of wrestling at that time were the Mexicools driving lawnmowers down to the ring and Eddie Guerrero's feud with Rey Mysterio which culminated in that cage match on Smackdown in the September. Those matches between Eddie and Rey really ignited my love for wrestling and I don't think I'd be as big a fan if it wasn't for them. It was the perfect combination of me having loads of time on my hands while this was happening in the industry. 

It also made me look backwards, and to the side, for the first time. I started to track down some of Eddie's old matches. I found obsessedwithwrestling and worked out what shows he was on in the past and trawled through my mates WCW VHS collection to watch some of his stuff from before the fed. I was already aware of Indy wrestling thanks to TWC but it was seeing Eddie in Ring of Honor that really made me pay attention to the scene and make me fall in love with it. 

Then I was online when someone started a "Eddie Guerrero dead" thread on TWCF. I remember it so well because this guy was bombarded with comments saying what a prick he was for making up something so horrible and how fucked up it was. There was no information online about it so everyone thought it was another troll. Regardless I kept refreshing wwe.com and eventually there it was. A picture of Eddie with a black background that had 1967-2005 written underneath it. I just couldn't believe it and started crying. It really left a void in me for a while and looking back I think it was the first time I ever felt that. At that point in time nobody in my family had passed, I hadn't experienced grief before, yet here I was missing someone that I had never even met.

I stayed up for the Raw tribute and just cried my way through it. My Mum bought me the Cheating Death, Stealing Life DVD and some dodgy DVD-Rs off of Ebay which had some of his classic matches on it and I just watched that all the time. I loved The Rock, Austin, Mankind, Undertaker etc when I was younger in the late 90s and early 00s but it was different with Eddie. There was something else about him and I honestly don't have the brain to put it into words. 

I really wish I had been a fan in 2004 and seen his title win, what a special moment that was.

Twenty years....bloody hell

I have watched hundreds, maybe thousands, of wrestlers ply their craft, and Eddie may be my all time number 1. Thanks for everything

[BarryOVega]

I’d stopped watching Smackdown by the time he won the title off Lesnar but was a fan of his through 2003, remember watching his US title match with Big Show and the room of us being deflated when he lost as it seemed like they were cutting his legs off again, for him to win the main title 6 months or so later was incredible 

Still find it funny they tried turning/keeping him heel by twatting Tajiri when he was already the most beloved babyface in the entire company at that point

Tragic he died so young and as mentioned above would no doubt be still contributing to the business in some way if he were still alive

[SaitoRyo]

26 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Selfishly, you can’t help but wonder what moments we missed with Eddie, and where he’d have fit into the modern wrestling landscape. Yes he’d be 58 today, but so is Jeff Jarrett. 

Whether as an active performer or something else, you can’t help but feel he had decades more to give. 

I've heard a lot of people say this, from fans to wrestlers, but I don't think it's true that he would be able to perform as an in-ring performer for much longer. Eddie was so physically broken down towards the end of his life that he could barely function and was living in absolute agony. His doctor had advised him to retired when he was reigning as WWE Champion more than a year prio because his back, hips and knees were so messed up. It's incredible he was able to perform at the level he did in those final years and months, given how knackered he was. 

But that's what Eddie Guerrero was - a top-class professional wrestler who gave you a great performance, regardless of how tired or beat up he was or if he had some shit going on in his personal life. He was my absolute favourite professional wrestler (and probably still is to be honest). He was so gifted and well-rounded and nailed every aspect of the business, from twenty-minute workrate classics in Japan to goofy skits with Chyna in WWE. He could do it all as well as anybody else, if not better. Great instincts, and a wonderful natural charisma. If he hadn't died, I could see him becoming a trainer or agent who occasionally did some on-screen stuff, perhaps as a manager or an authority figure. Whatever role it would have been, he would have excelled in it.

I found out about his death while I was in the middle of a wrestling training session. One of the other wrestlers came in and just said 'Guys, guys, Eddie Guerrero is dead!'. Everyone was stunned, but it seemed to motivate everyone to work harder in training for the rest of the day. It was a way to take our minds off it. I remember watching the tribute shows that week and just being completely gutted, as I was when other kids in school (I was 14) decided to take the piss out of his death to me because they knew how much he meant to me. Oh well, that's kids, innit?

As far as favourite Eddie matches, they don't come much better than Halloween Havoc '97 Mask versus Title against Rey Mysterio. It's probably my favourite match ever and still holds up almost thirty years later. I also really love the Judgement Day '04 bloodbath against JBL, because it's such a dramatic spectacle. He brought out the best in everyone he worked with because he worked for the match, not for himself. 

Could have really done without the Eddiesploitation that followed his death, but I'm glad he's lionised and his contributions are still talked about an celebrated today. When you watch his stuff back, you realise that he really was that good at what he did.

This is the happiest I've ever been at the result of a wrestling match:

 

[RedTwoster]

24 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

I've heard a lot of people say this, from fans to wrestlers, but I don't think it's true that he would be able to perform as an in-ring performer for much longer. Eddie was so physically broken down towards the end of his life that he could barely function and was living in absolute agony. His doctor had advised him to retired when he was reigning as WWE Champion more than a year prio because his back, hips and knees were so messed up. It's incredible he was able to perform at the level he did in those final years and months, given how knackered he was. 

You’re likely right, but with the likes of Rey Mysterio, Edge, Christian and others either making comebacks or performing at very high levels you never really know. Even if he’d retired, I’m certain we’d have seen a comeback match or two.

But even as a non-wrestler, you could see him playing an important role. He was a tremendous promo, and they’d have been mad not to utilise it in some way. In WWE that would likely have meant a GM or commentary role, but in AEW you could have seen him being a tremendous manager for the right act. 

[Carbomb]

I remember where I was when I heard: was backstage at an IPW:UK show. Sanjay Bagga was just arriving with some people, and he told us. As expected, there was just shock on everyone's faces.

When I got back into wrestling, I didn't know much about Eddy Guerrero, and, whilst fun, he seemed to just fold into the general midcard. After his return, though, he seemed to take on a whole other dimension, and by the time he got to the WWE title, he was must-see for me.

One match in particular that I think gets criminally overlooked is his match with Angle at WMXX - the Triple Threat obviously got all the plaudits and was momentous at the time, but Guerrero's title defence against Kurt was a superb match, that was well paced, full of action, and Eddy's loosening of his boot to get out of the Angle Lock was a classic bit of Lie, Cheat & Steal.

I never liked that that gimmick was the one amongst the many he had to get him to the main event, as there was more than a tinge of racism about it, but I'm glad he got there in the end, as a wrestler of his abilities deserved.

[TheScarlettChad]

Eddie was my guy growing up. I remember watching his final match with my mum. She was a Eddie fan. We both were stunned. Watched both of his tribute shows. He was apparently so banged up some nights he couldn't move. But he kept going. Meltzer quoted Dusty about Eddie, how he was dying to be a main eventer. And he died to be a main eventer. All that muscle, working through pain. Unbelievable. It's a better business now for sure. 58 year old Eddie getting involved with Rey and Dom? I'd have loved to have seen that. 

[Supremo]

For me, he’s probably second to only Bryan Danielson as the greatest of all time. Someone who could do everything. Super worker. Super promo. Fantastic actor regardless of the role. Heel. Babyface. Drama. Comedy. Ticks every single box. The best.

Similar to Danielson, it speaks to how incredible he was that he had so much success despite so much going against him. A man of that size, in that company, at that time? Nothing short of miraculous that he made himself so undeniable that they had no choice to put the belt on him. Imagine what he could have become if he came around twenty years later. Wild.

It also speaks to how utterly mental pro-wrestling is/was during that time, that a man troubled with drug issues was considered clean, looking like this.

On that subject, I’ve always wanted to find that video they released on WWE.com of the talent meeting where they announced a new drug testing policy after Eddie’s death. Some of the most fascinating footage of all time. Everyone shitting themselves. Kurt Angle asking about pain medication in the most suspicious manner possible. Still blows my mind they ever made it public.

Whilst it’s sad that he died so young, the stuff his daughter revealed recently about his potential MAGA beliefs makes me assume he’d have gone on to disappoint me as so many other guys have. He’d have probably been on the same podcasts, talking the same shit as the rest of them.

How many years were Eddie Guerrero and Shawn Michaels in the same company, yet they never had the big singles match? Always felt like the biggest “What If?” dream match. You’d assume they’d have made magic together, but equally I wouldn’t have been shocked if they had that weird anti-chemistry where they cancel each other out, similar to Shawn and Bret or Danielson and Okada.

 As far as favourite memories, I’ve always loved his home town entrance through the crowd at Smackdown. Extra points for the utterly hilarious moment at 2:10 when Michael Cole goes for a hug but is left hanging. Quality.

[TheScarlettChad]

Eddie and HBK were meant to lock up at WM 22. I assume they'd have set it up at Survivors. They were in the same match together. 

[Chili]

1 hour ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Eddie and HBK were meant to lock up at WM 22. I assume they'd have set it up at Survivors. They were in the same match together. 

There's a spot I can see in my head, where when Eddie's opponent would move as he was on the top rope, he'd dive over them and roll through to his feet. I can see that, turning round and getting chin music. What a lovely spot that would have been.

Anyway, I missed face run Eddy (WCW spelling) and only saw him from '97 on, and that might be my favourite version. He had a fantastic knack for pulling an absolute look of disdain at fans when playing a serious heel. That era with the mullet bestowed to his son Dominic and slowly sauntering out to this absolute banger. Yes! Eduardo might be one for the 'never had a bad entrance theme' club. 

Bad timing or maybe classic WCW incompetence, nevermind HBK/Eddie, we never got Bret/Eddy either. What a tidy bit of a business that would have been as evidence shown Hitman could put those working shoes on down south given the motivation.

Edited November 13, 2025 by Chili

[JNLister]

Shawn Michaels claims nobody ever mentioned wrestling Guerrero at WrestleMania 22 to him. Instead he'd made an offhand comment about how it would be nice to have a year where there was no pressure to do the best wrestling match, which led to the Vince McMahon match.