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Eddie Guerrero found dead
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Eddie
Guerrero was
found dead
Sunday
morning in
his hotel
room in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
He was 38.
No cause of
death has
been
reported,
Guerrero is
survived by
his wife
Vickie and
three
daughters:
Shaul, 14,
Sherilyn, 9,
and Kaylie
Marie, 3.
According to
WCCO-TV in
Minneapolis,
Guerrero was
found at the
Marriott
City Center
hotel.
Police
arrived on
site around
7:30 a.m.
Attempts
were made to
revive
Guerrero,
according to
a police
spokesperson.
At 12:45 pm
CT, Vince
McMahon and
Chavo
Guerrero
held a press
conference
in
Minneapolis
to talk
about
Guerrero.
The press
conference
is available
online at
WWE.com.
During the
press
conference,
Chavo
explained
that he and
Eddie came
in from
Phoenix the
night before,
and checked
into the
hotel around
12:30 a.m.
He was
scheduled to
meet his
uncle for
breakfast,
but got a
call instead
from hotel
security
saying that
Eddie did
not respond
to his 7
a.m. wake-up
call. Chavo
went with
security to
Eddie's
room, and
found him on
the floor. A
call was
then placed
to 911.
Tonight's
combined Raw
and
Smackdown!
tapings will
be a
four-hour
tribute to
Eddie
Guerrero,
airing over
two nights.
During the
press
conference,
Chavo
Guerrero
confirmed
that he will
air his
thoughts on
the show,
rather than
head home
immediately.
Guerrero had
an
absolutely
stellar
wrestling
career,
marked by
his ability
to deliver
athletically
competent,
emotional,
and
ultimately
awe
inspiring
performances
in the ring.
He was the
son of the
late Gory
Guerrero who
achieved
legendary
status in
the
wrestling
rings of
Mexico. His
older
siblings,
Chavo, Mando
and Hector
were also
wrestlers.
Guerrero
achieved
success no
matter where
he wrestled;
EMLL, AAA,
ECW, WCW and
WWE.
The
5-foot-8,
220-pound
graduated
from
Jefferson
High School
in El Paso
in 1985. He
seemed
destined to
follow his
older
brothers
into
wrestling.
"Growing up,
Eddie [Guerrero]
and I
dreamed
about it. We
never wanted
to be
anything but
wrestlers.
We had a
ring in the
backyard and
we were
inside it
all the
time,"
explained
Chavo
Guerrero in
the WWE book
Are We
There Yet?.
Eddie,
Chavo's
uncle,
concurred in
an August
2003
interview
with his
hometown
newspaper,
the El
Paso Times.
"Out of my
whole life,
there were
maybe four
months that
I thought I
don't want
to be a
wrestler.
But I knew
what I
wanted to do
all my life.
I grew up
watching my
dad and my
older
brothers do
it. This is
a dream for
me."
The pinnacle
of his
career came
at No Way
Out 2004,
when he beat
Brock Lesnar
for the WWE
World title.
A little
more than a
month later,
one of his
best friends
in wrestling,
Chris Benoit,
also
ascended to
the top of
the WWE as
World
Champion at
WrestleMania
XX. The two
world
champions
embraced in
the ring
following
Benoit's
victory.
"You know
how
sometimes a
dream seems
too
far-fetched
and
unreachable
- well
WrestleMania
XX was one
of the
moments
where I
realized
that dream.
Not only for
myself but
also for
Chris,"
Guerrero
told
England's
Sun
newspaper. "Breaking
that mould
of giants
was great -
I'll take a
pat on the
back for
that one.
Being a
smaller
wrestler is
something I've
been dealing
with all my
life. But
it's not the
size of the
dog in the
fight that
counts, it's
the size of
the fight in
the dog. And
that's what
I'd say
about me and
Chris."
Despite his
success, it
seemed he
was
constantly
fending off
his own
personal
demons in
the form of
alcohol and
drug
dependency.
Those
struggles
were told in
the DVD
Cheating
Death,
Stealing
Life: The
Eddie
Guerrero
Story.