Eddie Guerrero is a hallowed name in the annals of professional wrestling. He’s considered to be one of the greatest and most influential wrestlers of all time, as well as the most famous member of the legendary Guerrero family.
He was a star in Mexico, and went on to become the most iconic name in WWE SmackDown circa 2004. Guerrero did everything a wrestler could hope to achieve and more, which is what makes his personal life so tragic.
Despite being adored by millions of fans, Eddie Guerrero struggled with alcohol and substance abuse throughout his career. His death at the tragically young age of 38 left many people baffled as to where things went wrong, but it was not a singular event so much as a side effect of his gung-ho, leave-everything-in-the-ring mentality. He wrestled hard and performed hard, and attacked his life outside the ring with the same vigor.
Eddie Guerrero was open about his addiction problems
Eddie Guerrero played a heel throughout much of his wrestling career, which is to say, he usually played the role of the villain. His popularity was not technically by design, but a side effect of his charisma and his ability to win over the crowd. What’s most interesting about Guerrero’s persona, however, is how close it was to his actual life. He was open to incorporating his alcohol and drug problems into his SmackDown storylines, when other wrestlers would have gone out of their way to hide it.
One of the most iconic WWE promos of all time actually flips Guerrero’s addiction problems into a virtue:
“I’m addicted to the high I get when I go home and tell my family ‘hey! I’m doing it! I’m addicted to the satisfaction I get to tell everybody like you who didn’t believe in me ‘you can stick it up your a*s! I’m addicted to the do or die feeling that I’m going to have at this Sunday at No Way Out.“
It’s a moment still quoted by WWE superfans, despite being released two decades ago. Guerrero let the mask slip when he was sat down for his WWE documentary in 2004. He explained the desire to turn to alcohol and substances came from the fact that he experienced emptiness whenever he wasn’t performing in front of a crowd.
“There’s nothing to fill you,” he reasoned. “So I know, for me, I started turning to other things. I started buying this, started buying that and it would satisfy me for a little bit. I started taking a pill here and a pill there and experimenting with other stuff and I just started going downhill.” Eddie Guerrero subsequently had several stints in rehab.
Eddie Guerrero died of heart failure in 2005
Eddie Guerrero died on Nov. 13, 2005. He was found unconscious in his bathroom by his nephew and pronounced dead once paramedics arrived. While many fans assumed that it was directly related to his addictions, the cause of death was determined to be heart failure due to an underlying atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. In layman’s terms, hardening of the arteries.
While substance abuse did not bolster Guerrero’s health, the Hennepin County Medical Examiners Office claimed that his heart failure was partially spurred by his use of steroids. “A lengthy history of anabolic steroid usage and recent usage of narcotics medication” were the specific factors cited on the official autopsy. Enlarged organs also played a role in his death. “They were contributing conditions,” Dr. Kathryn Berg told Associated Press. “When you have larger organs, your body works a little bit harder to maintain your normal physiologic state.”
Despite, or perhaps because of, his untimely death, Eddie Guerrero remains as beloved as ever. He’s celebrated by those he wrestled with, and regularly ranked among the greatest WWE stars of all time, despite being part of the organization for less than five years. It goes to show the impact that some people can have in a short window. Guerrero was truly a shooting star.