Eddie Guerrero: From El Paso Roots To Wrestling Stardom Worldwide

Wrestling has always been an integral part of El Paso's history; the family that most people know about is the Guerrero family. Chavo & Vickie Guerrero are some of the biggest names in the world of wrestling to represent El Paso but you can never forget the iconic...Eddie Guerrero.

Born on October 9, 1967, Eddie's love of wrestling started after watching his father, Gory Guerrero, train at the El Paso County Coliseum & would train with his dad and his nephew Chavo.

After Eddie attended Jefferson High School, as well as the University of New Mexico & New Mexico Highlands University in college, Eddie would start his wrestling career in Mexico in the early 90s.

Eddie Guerrero's start in wrestling & some of his most iconic matches

Eddie's first match in the big leagues was for WCW, but in the 90s as we would know it. Eddie's very FIRST match was against Terry Funk in 1986, however he was a jobber so this was an easy win for Terry.

Eddie would do some wrestling for organizations like Asistencia Asesoría y Administración from 1992-1995 & New Japan Pro Wrestling from 1992-1996.

During that time, Eddie would join ECW in 1995; his first match would be on April 8 against 2 Cold Scorpio where Eddie would win the ECW World Television Championship. Eddie would continue to have countless classic matches against Dean Malenko during his time in ECW.

In late 1995, Eddie would return to WCW WITH his close friends Dean Malenko & Chris Benoit. Eddie would also put some on some wrestling clinics against names like Chris Jericho, Booker T, Ric Flair, Chavo Guerrero & of course, Rey Mysterio.

In 2000, Eddie would debut in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on January 31 in a tag match against the New Age Outlaws. Eddie would also debut alongside Dean, Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn.

Eddie would have a short stint with the WWF until November 9, after he was arrested for drunk driving. Thankfully Eddie would return to the WWF on April 1, 2002 on RAW but would move to Smackdown in August. Eddie would win the US Championship at Vengeance 2003 after beating Chris Benoit for the title. Eddie would show off the belt in full display when they came the next month in front of, what else, then his hometown crowd.

Eddie would lose the US Championship at No Mercy that same year; but Eddie had his sights on a bigger prize...the WWE Championship. He would get that chance after winning a 15 man Royal Rumble match on Smackdown on January 29, 2004 to face off against Brock Lesnar for the title at No Way Out...and win.

Eddie would continue to defend the belt at Wrestlemania XX against Kurt Angle, JBL at Judgment Day & The Great American Bash but would lose the belt on July 15 during an episode of Smackdown.

Eddie would continue to wrestle until he would have his final match on Smackdown against Mr. Kennedy on November 11, 2005 would "lie, cheat & steal" a DQ win.

Tragically Eddie would die from acute heart failure in his hotel room in Minneapolis just 2 days later, dying at the young age of 38 years old. WWE would dedicate episodes to the life of Eddie on RAW & Smackdown the very next week.

While Eddie may be gone, we still remember him very much in El Paso; he was inducted posthumously into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 as well as the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 2023.

Even after all this time, we will never forget Eddie's iconic moves from his Lasso from El Paso to his Frog Splash, to his iconic work on the microphone, but most importantly, we will never forget the love he had for the 915...

R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero...gone but never forgotten.

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