Crossposted from my post on Our Oasis forum:

This is a huge blow for the industry.

As probably everyone already reading this knows, Eddie (or Eddy, the spelling varied by promotion) Guerrero tragically was found dead in his hotel room early Sunday morning. Eddie was a major star in the prime of his career seemingly. His title reigns included:

• WWA World Trios Championship (with Mando Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero, Sr.)
• WWA World Welterweight Championship
• AAA/IWC Tag Team Championship (with Art Barr)
• NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Super Grade Tag League Championship (with Great Sasuke)
• ECW World Television Champion (x2)
• WCW United States Champion
• WCW Cruiserweight Champion (x2)
• PWF Tag Team Champion (partner unknown)
• WWF Eurpoean Champion (x2)
• WWF Intercontinental Champion (x2)
• IWA Puerto Rico Intercontinental Champion
• WWA International Cruiserweight Champion
• IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion
• WWE Tag Team Champion (x4, twice with Chavo Guerrero, once with Tajiri, once with Rey Mysterio)
• WWE United States Champion
• WWE Champion

I don't go back with Eddie as long as lot of people here do. I never saw a single ECW match until I bought Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses. So I didn't get to see any Eddie until he came into WCW.

If one doesn't count GLOW, I was a WWF brat. I didn't get into WCW until the whole NWO angle as I was curious to see what "Diesel" and "Razor Ramon" were up to. One of the many faces I was introduced to then was Eddie Guerrero. I didn't really pay much attention until WCW/nWo Souled Out '97, when Eddie beat Syxx for the Cruiserweight Title, and thought that beating the NWO at their own PPV was quite the achievement.

I will admit that the highlight of the cruiserweight era for me was the phenomenal Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio feud. Back then, Rey simply seemed to defy the laws of physics. He's still great now, but back then he was even better. Eddie honestly wasn't all that far behind either... and even back then, he could show charisma.

He really pulled my interest with the Latino World Order angle. The whole proposition of a bunch of lower card guys teaming up to force their way into the uppercard is a very interesting proposition. WCW used it twice, here and in the New Blood angle (where it didn't really work very well). Unfortunately, this is when Eddie had his accident.

I had no idea at the time, but as anyone who has watched his video knows, this was a horrific accident. Ideas were thrown about like maybe he'd never walk again or that he really should have been killed.

But Eddie came back... probably way too early, worked another half year in WCW... then bolted to WWF as one of the four Radicalz (himself, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko), forming possibly the 2nd biggest talent coup in the Monday Night Wars after the defections of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Eddie promptly injured himself for months, landing on his arm wrong and screwing up his elbow in what I believe was his first WWF match.

He came back from this, and settled into the Latino Heat gimmick, an over the top Chicano character that was so over the top that it passed from racially insulting into just plain funny, and worked a lot with Chyna during this time.

This run ended when it was his fellow "Radicalz", Benoit, Malenko and Saturn who went to WWF management and revealed that Eddie had problems with alcoholism and pain killer addiction. And after this, Eddie was told he could go to rehab or he could go home (be fired), and that it was so bad, it would look bad to the other boys if WWF management didn't do this.

This is when life crashed around Eddie. His wife left him and took their two daughters. He had no job, no future.

Eddie did what a lot of people didn't when it gets that bad for them... he got back up. He cleaned himself up in rehab, and started working independent shows. Fortunately for him, WWF was watching, and seeing how good he was looking. It helped that a lot of his friends, such as the Radicalz and Rey Mysterio were going to the bat for him, urging Vince to give him another chance.

And say whatever you want about Vince, but giving other chances is something he does extraordinarily well. And as a bonus, he and his wife reconciled.

He was rehired in mid 2002 and by the end of that year, had formed a tag team with his three years younger nephew, Chavo, and started the immensely entertaining "Lie, Cheat and Steal" gimmick. The pair were part of what the IWC dubbed "The SmackDown Six" along with Rey Mysterio, Edge, Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. When matches happened with any combination of these guys, they were the show stealers.

As 2003 closed out and 2004 began, Chavo turned on Eddie so as to prime Eddie for the highlight of his career. In February, 2004, after winning a SmackDown "mini Royal Rumble," he beat the seemingly unbeatable Brock Lesnar in what seemed to a mark like a huge upset for the WWE Title, and would retain it vs. Kurt Angle in one of the main events of Wrestlemania XX. The show closed with fellow Radical Chris Benoit winning RAW's WWE World Title and the two hugging in the ring and celebrating together.

Eddie's title reign did not go well for him. Despite the fact that he was far and away the highlight of the SmackDown brand during his championship, he blamed himself for the ratings and quality failures of the brand overall during his reign and approached a nervous breakdown. As a result, then perennial midcarder JBL beat Eddie a mere four months into his reign and would proceed to hold the belt for over a year. Rather than pursue JBL, Eddie would proceed to feud with Kurt Angle for a short time.

Eddie then moved into a partnership with Rey Mysterio, who he eventually turned on. Although these are two talented grapplers who are also great friends in real life, they were saddled with the angle that Eddie was really the father of Rey's son Dominic. Despite the outlandish soap opera-esque angle, Eddie and Rey usually had good to great matches.

Eddie's last angle ended up being a feud with Batista. Eddie claimed to have turned over a new leaf and wanted to help Batista, and Batista played along. This really helped make Batista and show off his charisma. After the feud, Eddie seemingly did turn over a new leaf, returning to his face mannerisms.

Just prior to Sunday's events, Eddie celebrated four years of sobriety. He was strongly rumored to be winning the World Title from Batista after Batista's recent back injury.

Both RAW and SmackDown were already taped last night because WWE is going on a European tour, and both shows' original plans were scrapped and redone as Eddie tribute shows, similar to the Owen and 9/11 shows in nature.

I'm kind of torn about this. I mourn his death. I mourn the fact that I'll never get a chance to shake his hand and tell him how much I admired the LWO, or the Los Guerreros skits, or the utter genius comedy that was the Lie, Cheat and Steal gimmick in matches.

But at the same time, I remember... he should have died in that car wreck... or he should have simply crawled into the bottle and never come out when WWF fired him, as so many other people before him have done.

It's painful now because Eddie made us care.

And I'm glad he did.

Viva la raza, Eddie. And thank you.