Member-only story
Always Will Be
I’m thinking of Eddie Guerrero today.
I’m thinking of the great matches and the unforgettable personas, of the stories he told in a pro wrestling ring, and the stories of him behind the scenes. I’m thinking of the extraordinary man who was, in ways that are impossible to fully explain, a hero of mine.
I’m thinking of him today because Eddie’s life was littered with paradoxes that only made sense if you understood the person underneath.
He came from arguably the most famous Hispanic-American pro wrestling family in the world but was compelled to pick up his career from the bottom of the ladder time and again. He struggled to connect with English-speaking audiences because of his heavy accent but inverted the language divide and had those same audiences cheering him on with chants of viva la raza (‘long live the people’) by the end of his run. He acted nasty to his real-life nephew on screen just so that people would invest in his villainy but turned a corner to become one of the most loved characters in pro wrestling history with the same nephew by his side.
Eddie blamed himself for not selling out enough arenas as world champion but never failed to tip twenty percent on a restaurant cheque because he knew that it could be the difference between a waitress being able to pay her bills that month or not. In the ring, he portrayed a comedic…
