Eddie Guerrero

Born into lucha libre

Eddie Guerrero was the youngest son of Gory Guerrero, a respected Mexican wrestler who helped popularise holds still used today. His older brothers Chavo, Mando and Hector also wrestled, and Eddie grew up around rings in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. He started in Mexico in the late 1980s and became a star in AAA, including a famous tag team with Art Barr.

Around the world

In the early 1990s he worked in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, wearing a mask as Black Tiger. He then joined ECW in 1995, where his matches with Dean Malenko showed American fans a mat-based, fast-paced style. WCW signed him later that year, and he became a key part of its cruiserweight division, which offered some of the best in-ring action on television during the late 1990s.

Lie, cheat, steal

Guerrero joined the WWF in 2000. After personal struggles he rebuilt his career, and from 2002 he found a character that suited him perfectly: Latino Heat, a charming rogue who would cheat to win, often by pretending to be hit with a chair and fooling the referee. Fans loved him for it.

In February 2004 at No Way Out, he beat Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship. He successfully defended the title at WrestleMania XX a month later, a full-circle moment for a wrestler who had nearly lost his career.

Legacy

Guerrero died of heart failure in November 2005, aged 38, and WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame the next year. His frog splash, his three amigos suplexes and his playful character are still copied by wrestlers worldwide, and his nephew Chavo Guerrero Jr. and the wider family kept the name in the business.

Guerrero's style blended three traditions: the holds and counters of Mexican lucha libre, the crisp technical wrestling he learned in Japan and the character work he developed in the US. That mix made him equally convincing as a villain and as a hero, often in the same match. Wrestlers today still pay tribute to him with the three amigos and the frog splash, especially when they wrestle in Texas or in Mexico, where his family name remains famous.

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