Eddie Guerrero

Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes (October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005) was an American professional wrestler.

He was best known for his tenures in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

A prominent member of the Guerrero wrestling family, being the son of first-generation wrestler Gory Guerrero, he was widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential professional wrestlers of all time.

Guerrero performed in Mexico and Japan for several major professional wrestling promotions, and in the United States he performed for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and most notably World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/WWE).

Guerrero's gimmick was that of a "Latino Heat", a crafty, resourceful wrestler who would do anything to win a match.

His catchphrase became "I Lie! I Cheat! I Steal!"

Guerrero was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, where he graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School (La Jeff) in 1985.

He attended the University of New Mexico, and then New Mexico Highlands University on an athletic scholarship.

It was there that Guerrero entered collegiate wrestling before moving to Mexico to train as a professional wrestler.

He followed in the footsteps of his brothers and father, who had also wrestled in Mexico.

As a boy, he would attend the wrestling promotions held by his father Gory Guerrero at the El Paso County Coliseum.

Guerrero's father allowed him and his nephew Chavo to wrestle each other during intermissions.

Guerrero debuted in 1986.

In 1989, he appeared with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a jobber, most notably wrestling Terry Funk.

In 1991, he would return for WrestleWar, wrestling a dark match, teaming with Ultraman to defeat Huichol and Rudy Boy Gonzalez.

Guerrero wrestled as the original Mascara Magica in CMLL until his departure in 1992.

He then left the company to pursue a career with AAA.

Although the Mascara Magica gimmick was popular, CMLL owned the rights to the character.

Guerrero then appeared on a televised AAA show as Mascara Magica, only to then unmask himself along with the aid of his tag team partner that night, Octagón.

Being physically attacked by the opposing tag team for doing so.

In Mexico, Guerrero wrestled mainly for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), teaming with El Hijo del Santo as the new version of La Pareja Atómica (The Atomic Pair), the tag team of Gory Guerrero and El Santo.

After Guerrero turned on Santo 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, Chicano Power, and Madonna's Boyfriend, Guerrero formed los Gringos Locos ("the Crazy Americans"), a villainous stable.

Guerrero later said that no matter how many people joined los Gringos Locos, the stable was all about Barr.

Locos feuded mostly with El Hijo del Santo and his partner Octagón, eventually ending in a Hair vs. Mask match at the first Lucha pay-per-view in America, When Worlds Collide, which they lost.

Guerrero and Barr's first break would come when they were noticed in late-1994 by the owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Paul Heyman, and were approached about wrestling for him in 1995.

Barr, however, died before he could join ECW with Guerrero.

After the death of Barr, Guerrero received his first mainstream exposure in the United States in 1995 by joining ECW and winning the ECW World Television Championship two times.

Later that year, Guerrero moved to WCW, where he became WCW United States Champion and WCW Cruiserweight Champion and also led the Latino World Order.

He left WCW in 2000 after the company failed to elevate him to a main event spot.

He moved to WWF during the Attitude Era with his WCW colleagues Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn, who formed a group called The Radicalz.

Guerrero went on to win the WWF European Championship and WWF Intercontinental Championship before he was released in 2001 due to addiction issues.

After being rehired in 2002, he formed Los Guerreros with his nephew Chavo, winning the WWE Tag Team Championship, and established himself on the SmackDown brand.

Despite being a heel for most of his career, he was popular in and out of the ring and was at the peak of his career as a face during 2003–2005, becoming the top wrestler on the SmackDown brand in 2004.

He experienced various substance abuse problems, including alcoholism and an addiction to painkillers; these real-life issues were sometimes incorporated into his storylines.

Guerrero spent much of his early career wrestling in Mexican promotions and forming a popular tag team with Art Barr.

He climbed to main event status and won the WWE Championship, his sole world championship at No Way Out 2004.

and was used in one of his entrance themes; he partly used this phrase in the title of his 2005 autobiography, Cheating Death, Stealing Life.

He lost the title later that year but remained a popular main eventer until his death on November 13, 2005.

He was posthumously inducted into the WWE, AAA, Wrestling Observer Newsletter and Hardcore halls of fame.