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CAN YOU FEEL THE HEAT?

"In recent years, it seems, that being a great worker relegated you to a supporting role of being used to get over some green, untalented, and undeserving lug. Eddie Guererro, in direct opposition to that scenario, became a star because he was, simply put, one of the finest in-ring performers our sport has known."
Shane Douglas eulogizes Latino Heat

Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes (October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005) was a Mexican-American professional wrestler and a member of the venerable Guerrero wrestling family. He started out his career in childhood, as he and his nephew Chavo were allowed by his father, legendary promoter Gory Guerrero, to wrestle matches during intermissions. From there, Eddie launched into the family business headfirst.

(A little note: Eddie was the youngest of four brothers — so young, his nephew Chavo is only three years younger than him.)

Eddie's early exposure to wrestling audiences was limited to Mexico, as most of his formative years in the business were spent as part of CMLL and then the newly formed AAA promotion. He later had runs in New Japan Pro-Wrestling but it wasn't until the famous When Worlds Collide event - co-promoted and co-presented by WCW - where Guerrero was really exposed to an English speaking audience. At the event, he and partner Art Barr faced off against the team of Octagón and El Hijo del Santo in a Hair Versus Mask Match (Guerrero and Barr lost, and had their heads shaved).

Guerrero wrestled around the world for the next few years, traveling both to Japan (where he met up with Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko) and ECW, where he started to gain a foothold in the American wrestling industry. When he arrived in WCW, Guerrero was made a part of the promotion's now-legendary Cruiserweight division, delivering solid matches with just about everyone he faced (including longtime friend Rey Mysterio Jr.). It was in WCW that the seeds were sown for Guerrero's "Lie, Cheat and Steal" gimmick, as he pushed Chavo (who had also signed with WCW) into believing the mantra "Cheat 2 Win" (going so far as to force an unwilling Chavo to wear a shirt with the saying).

In early 2000, Guerrero was one of a group of wrestlers who jumped ship from WCW to the WWF in protest of Kevin Sullivan being put in charge of the promotion's booking; he was one of the first to become a standout singles star, too. Working his natural charisma, Eddie became known as "Latino Heat" and wooed Chyna, entering into both a relationship and a feud with the powerful Diva as they spent the next year in the Intercontinental Title hunt.

In 2001, Guerrero was released from the company after an arrest for drunk driving, which happened following his being sent to rehab months earlier. Facing the loss of his career and possibly his family, Eddie started at rock bottom and worked his way back up. Eddie cleaned himself up and spent the first few months of 2002 wrestling for independent promotions (including the debut show of Ring of Honor) before returning to WWE in April of 2002; by then, his nephew Chavo had signed with the company, and the two became a tag team, banking on Eddie's old "Cheat 2 Win" gimmick in WCW and turning it into their gimmick ("We lie, we cheat, and we steal...but at least we're honest about it"). "Lie, Cheat and Steal" became part of Eddie's repertoire for the remainder of his career, whether he was a face or a heel.

For the next two years, Eddie slowly climbed to the top of his profession, and at No Way Out 2004, Eddie hit the top when he defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. He followed this up the next month at WrestleMania XX by defeating Kurt Angle to retain the title, then joined Chris Benoit following HIS successful win of the World Heavyweight Championship in one of the most memorable images in wrestling history.

Over the next year-and-a-half, Eddie's career fluctuated from high to low: he helped build the credibility of John "Bradshaw" Layfield as a world champion over the summer of 2004, but he was also involved in one of the most tasteless and WrestleCrap-worthy feuds of all time as he feuded with Rey Mysterio over the custody of Mysterio's son Dominik (who, kayfabe, was revealed to actually be the biological son of Guerrero).

In November of 2005, Guerrero was closing in on another world title shot, and was scheduled to be a part of a Survivor Series Match featuring members of the SmackDown brand (which Eddie was a part of) going up against members of the Raw brand. Tragically, however, Guerrero died of heart failure two weeks prior to the event. The Monday and Friday following his death, WWE held two special tribute shows in the vein of the Owen Hart tribute show a few years earlier, in which storylines were thrown out the window and matches were put on for the sake of tribute.

This would normally be the end of the story, but pro wrestling has a way of dragging things out well past their expiration date; Eddie Guerrero's name was no different. Just weeks following his death, WWE began a campaign of what came to be known as "Eddiesploitation", where Guerrero's name and legacy were used in the most tasteless ways possible - from Randy Orton telling Rey Mysterio that Eddie was "in hell" to Mysterio acting as if he were receiving heavenly assistance from Eddie's spirt to Eddie's widow Vickie Guerrero becoming an on-screen character (who later grew into a surprisingly effective villainous manager/authority figure in her own right). Strangely, the "Eddiesploitation" period heavily pushed Rey Mysterio as Eddie's successor, while Chavo Guerrero was largely ignored (Chavo later revealed that he was originally offered the push, but he refused, so it went to Eddie's friend Mysterio). WrestleCrap gave this exploitation its annual Gooker Award in 2006, with RD Reynolds famously stating that while it was a necessary evil due to the site's mission, the induction was "the hardest induction he'd ever had to write".

Guerrero is fondly remembered to this day by fans as an excellent wrestler and a great human being. He was posthumously inducted into WWE Hall of Fame in 2006.


"Can you feel the tropes?":

  • Aborted Arc: A Face–Heel Turn where Eddie would turn on then-tag-partner Tajiri was aborted. Eddie believed his low rider's paint job was more important than Tajiri's wellbeing, but Eddie was so crazy popular that the crowd actually agreed with him. Even after he put Tajiri through a windshield and tried to cut a selfish heel promo, the fans would have none of it:
    Eddie: From now on, I'm only looking after number one!
    (audience roars in approval)
  • All American Heel: Los Gringos Locos (Eddie and Art Barr) wore jackets with American flag designs as heels in Mexico.
  • Anti-Hero: To Nominal Hero levels, or would be if wrestling ever claimed to work on that kind of morality. Eddie was a dirty cheater who used various tricks to win his matches, including harming innocent referees. There's also the fact that he was a Domestic Abuser who gleefully abused Chyna and his three daughters. He was cheered for, so he was a face.
  • Arch-Enemy
    • For most of his career, Eddie's was either Rey Mysterio Jr. or Dean Malenko.
    • In WWE, Kurt Angle managed to be his nemesis both in the ring and as GM throughout Eddie's banner year of 2004.
    • Tiger Mask as Black Tiger
    • In Real Life, Kevin Nash, as he said in his autobiography Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story:
    "Considering how little talent he had in the ring, Nash is one of the most arrogant people I've ever had the displeasure to know. He'd walk right past you and not acknowledge your presence unless he thought there was something he could get out of you. I don't say this lightly, but I genuinely feel that Nash is evil."
  • Ash Face: The results of the "anti theft device" on Eddie's low riders, as Kurt found out.
  • At Least I Admit It: He repeatedly lied, cheated, and stealed during his heyday. And he admitted them unapologetically.
    "I lie, I cheat, I steal, but hey - at least I'm honest about it."
  • Bash Brothers: Art Barr, Rey Mysterio, Chavo Guerrero Jr.
  • Big "NO!": When he asked the audience if they blamed him for what he did to Tajiri, the answer was short but deafening.
  • Bilingual Bonus: If someone speaks more than one language and Eddie was cutting a promo on them, his promo might be in a mix of both languages.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Eddie had recently cleaned himself up off drugs and become a born-again religious man in an attempt to recover his life. His last match, against Mr. Kennedy on the SmackDown prior to his death, where he qualified for the Survivor Series Match between SmackDown and Raw. What makes it moreso is that Eddie used his famous winning trick: grab a chair while the ref's not looking, slam the chair against the canvas, toss it to his opponent, lie down, and get the other guy disqualified when the ref turns around. The scariest thing about the match was afterward, Eddie's last moments on WWE television, when Mr. Kennedy, after being disqualified for the above trick, hit Eddie in the head very hard with the chair, yelling for the referee to "Disqualify that!"
  • Blood Is the New Black: Exaggerated at Judgment Day 2004 after a brutal showdown with JBL.
  • Breakout Character: Eddie is easily one of the most beloved figures in the wrestling industry and community.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': After Eddie lost the WWE title to JBL, he suffered this on occasion as both refs and opponents became more wise to his "family traditions". Refs caught him in the act, and opponents like longtime friend Rey Mysterio had known Eddie long enough to predict him and his bag of tricks.
  • Captain Ersatz: In Fire Pro Wrestling, but you'll have to make an edit if you want him as Black Tiger.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: To quote the Cheating Death, Stealing Life DVD, "I lie, I cheat, I steal, but hey — at least I'm honest about it."
  • Catchphrase
  • Cheap Heat: Eddie got in trouble during a WWE live event in Deutschland where he responded to unexpected booing by screaming "Germany sucks!" Of course, in news media this was almost completely overshadowed by JBL goose stepping around the ring and waving the Nazi salute.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: During the infamous Dominik-custody-ladder match with Rey Mysterio, Vickie missed her cue, causing Eddie to be yanked from the hanging belt and fall square on his leg, nearly blowing out his knee. Despite being a Born Again Christian at the time, you can hear Eddie going positively livid in the ring, swearing up a storm while holding his knee in obvious pain, and actually yells "FUCK HER!!!" at one point. Vickie, of course, is his wife.
    GODDAMMIT! MOTHER! FUCK! ER! WHERE THE FUCK WAS VICKIE?! GODDAMMIT! FUCK HER!
  • Color Character/Cool Mask: As Black Tiger.
  • Combat Pragmatist: As a self-proclaimed cheater, he's not above using underhanded tactics to win a match (i.e. low-blows, thumb to the eyes, and more). And this is when he's a Face.
  • Companion Cube: After ripping off Rey Mysterio's mask, Eddie would talk to it as if it were Rey Mysterio and force other people to wear it, then act as if they were Rey Mysterio.
  • Cool Car: Eddie loved his lowriders. He was bringing out a new one, usually a convertible with hydraulics, nearly every week for a while. Sometimes he even got a Cool Car-intro at "dark" shows (wrestling matches that were not filmed for broadcast).
  • Cool Teacher: He and Rey Mysterio (the original, not the little successor whom Eddy feuded with) trained Konnan.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: He invaded the Playboy mansion to try to stop the photo shoot that his girlfriend Chyna was doing.
    • Green-Eyed Monster: Both of them when the other was Intercontinental Champion, though they had just gotten over it before Chyna found and broke up with him.
  • Determinator: At Judgment Day 2004, Eddie and JBL had both got cut open during their WWE Championship match, yet they simply kept coming after each other. Eddie's literal crimson mask redefined the Muta Scale that night. As JBL recalled later, "I've been in car wrecks that were less painful than that match!"
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Tragically, he died in his nephew's arms. By Chavo's own admission, he's still haunted by the memory.
  • Dirty Coward:
    • Averted in this case. Eddie was never portrayed this way, at least not as a face, because, even though he more or less consistently employed "cheating" tactics, most of his tricks were technically not illegal and his heel opponents were often using even more unethical methods (and the fact that they were total Jerkasses helped, too).
    • Played straight as a Heel though, especially in WCW where he forced his nephew Chavo Jr. to do his bidding.
    • There is also the fact that, as a Face, he had so much charm and charisma, and was so funny, that the fans would condone anything he did.
  • Domestic Abuser: With Chyna in the Attitude Era. At first, they seem genuinely in love with one another, but after Chyna wins the Intercontinental Title things turn sour as Eddie plays a Bad Samaritan and steals it from her under the guise of a hug when she's knocked out by Kurt Angle during a Triple Threat match, then becomes increasingly angry, controlling and abusive to her once she starts to suspect what really happened, attacking her friends, feigning illness, manipulating her through a marriage proposal, and eventually cheating on her with the Godfathers' former hoes (one of which is Victoria), leading to her walking out on him. During a face-off with The Rock two years later, he also says that he became furious with his daughters when he found out that they had a poster of The Rock next to one of their father, and that he tore it up and burned it in a rage over their cries "to discipline them" because he thought they weren't showing their father the respect he felt he deserved, causing Rock to call him a "sick psychopathic freak".
  • Drugs Are Bad: They cause you to suffer fatal heart failure years after you stop doing them, for one.
  • Due to the Dead: The Frog Splash was actually the finisher of Edddie's friend and partner Art Barr. When Barr died tragically early at 28, Eddie adopted the Frog Splash as his own finisher in tribute to him.
  • Dying as Yourself: Even though the damage he had done to his body was what eventually killed him, he had by then managed to clean himself up, and didn't end up dying from an overdose like his less fortunate contemporaries Test or Bam Bam Bigelow.
  • Easy Come, Easy Go: He was only IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion for a day before CM Punk won the belt back.
  • Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: In his book, there are only two people he has any negative things to say about. One of them is Kevin Nash, who he describes as one of the most arrogant people he had the displeasure of knowing and truly feels that he is evil. Not helping that Nash has called him a "Vanilla Midget," even stating that his Heartwarming Moment with Chris Benoit at WrestleMania 20 was the moment that killed the wrestling business.
  • Evil Genius: In what sadly turned out to be his last match, on the November 11th (taped November 8th), 2005 WWE SmackDown, he defeated Mr. Kennedy by disqualification with his "chair fake" routine.
    Tazz: "Mr. Kennedy just found out that Latino Heat is an evil genius."
  • Five Moves of Doom: Spinning headscissors, three amigos, lasso from El Paso or Frog Splash.
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule: Eddie claiming to be the "father" of Rey Mysterio's son was a recycling of Brian Pillman claiming to be the "father" of Dustin "Goldust" Runnels' and Terri Runnels' daughter Dakota in 1997, the difference being that Eddie wasn't a physically-deteriorated maniac and never got Rey's wife as a valet.
  • Giving Them the Strip: He removed his shoe to escape Kurt Angle's Ankle Lock at Wrestlemania XX.
  • Glass Jaw Referee: His favorite wrestling trope to exploit when cheating in his matches.
  • Guile Hero: As a face.
  • Happily Married: To Vickie since 1990 (they took a break due to his past substance issues in 2001, but then reunited the following year and remained together until his untimely demise). His grave even has a picture of the two of them on it.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners
    • With Chris Benoit, in one of wrestling's most infamous examples. Chris pretty much lost it after Eddie died.
    • Also with nephew Chavo Guerrero, both in and out of the ring.
  • Homage/Finishing Move
    • The Black Tiger Bomb, which was practically a contractual obligation with that gimmick.
    • The Frog Splash became Eddie's signature move, but it was his partner Art Barr who originally used the move; when Barr died, Eddie started using the move in tribute to his partner.
    • And after Guerrero died, several wrestlers worked the Frogsplash into their movesets in tribute to Eddie. Including Christian, who debuted in TNA on the very same day as Eddie's death.
    • Sunday Night Heat Jobber turned Mae Young Classic invite Mercedes Martinez and OVW developmental talent Tracy Taylor used the Three Amigos (Amigas in the former's case).
    • His widow, Vickie, also used her own variant at WrestleMania XXVI, to a nice reception from the live audience. The internet audience were not so accepting of it unfortunately.
    • Eddie also used an elevated cloverleaf called the "Lasso from El Paso" and it was also used in tribute by some WWE wrestlers (Sofia Cortez).
  • Hot-Blooded: He wasn't called "Latino Heat" for nothin'.
  • I Lied: Nobody ever seemed to catch on. At one point, following the feud with Rey Mysterio where he'd gone off the rails, he told Batista that he was giving up his cheating ways, and even did resist the temptation to cheat several times despite ample opportunity to do so... but then when Batista embraced him for keeping his word, Eddie had an evil smirk behind his back. Soon enough he did go back to cheating, particularly in the charismatic "Viva la Raza" way that he was known for in the past, charming Batista himself into going along with it. This was obviously meant to end in Eddie suckering Batista in a long game to continue their feud for the title, but this never played out fully because Eddie died three weeks in.
  • Important Haircut: He cuts his mullet off around the time of his rise to the main event scene.
  • It Will Never Catch On
    • Eddie— along with Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko— were dubbed the "Vanilla Midgets" by Kevin Nash in WCW due to their supposed lack of both size and charisma. Due to this, they were never given a real push in the company. They jumped ship to WWE, where both Benoit and Eddie became world champions, and where Eddie showed that he had enough charisma to fill a sports arena... which he often did.
    • A prime example of this ideology in WCW pops up in one match that Eddie had against Chris Benoit. It was an incredibly solid match and the crowd was behind them, but the commentators spent the entire match talking about Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan, and barely commentated on the action in the ring. But that was typical of WCW during the nWo era.
  • Jobber: His WCW appearances up until 1996 Starrcade when he competed for and won the United States Championship, or in other words, for seven years! Good thing for him that most of those were dark matches.
  • Kick the Dog: Angry with the lWo for disbanding, Eddie got revenge by claiming that he was mugged by a Luchador who unmasked in front of him, forcing the interrogated Luchadors to unmask (though we don't see them unmasked).
  • Large Ham
    • Eddie had natural charisma on the mic, and he milked it for all it was worth. Chavo, who has enough charisma, came off as bland by comparison.
    • It also helped to compensate for Benoit and Malenko's perceived lack of same, since he could handle the mic work and they could stand in the background.
    • "I'M YOUR PAPI!!"
  • Living Emotional Crutch: To Chris Benoit. Eddie's death is a big part of why Atlanta happened — in the ensuing investigation, accounts by close friends and Benoit's own journals made it very clear that he never managed to move on from it.
  • Lovable Rogue: As a face, and even as a heel, Eddie made this an artform. Unlike traditional heel cheating which usually involved Groin Attack or vicious beatdowns, Eddie knew how to cheat with style.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Towards the end of his feud with Rey Mysterio in the WWE, Eddie revealed that he was the biological father of Rey's son Dominik. Anyone who has ever seen Rey without his mask knew that Dominik is the spitting image of his father, and this detail has never been mentioned since the end of the feud. This was probably one of the reasons the feud became so creepy, many fans just couldn't respond to it. It's not that they didn't care (they cared enough for it to be his most famous wrestle crap induction, prior to the stuff after his death). Ironically, this ended up great fodder for Rey's own feud with Dominik eighteen years later, after Dominik turned on Rey and made a Face–Heel Turn. He managed to generate great heat from the crowd by antagonizing Rey via claiming that Eddie should've been his father.
  • Masked Luchador: He wrestled as Máscara Mágica for a stretch of his CMLL run. He shared the identity of El Gran Luchador with Paul London on WWE Smackdown, in order to get one up on JBL. Eddie is also one of the many men to take up the mantle of Black Tiger, a Legacy Character that whoever the current Tiger Mask is feuds with.
  • Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Insulting Eddie in any form will get you killed by marks and smarks alike, let alone by the wrestling community, especially those who knew and/or worked with him. He was not only loved as an amazing performer, but as an amazing human being and even to this day, Eddie is held up on a pedestal in which only Owen Hart can match.
  • Nice Guy: Fellow wrestlers have said that Eddie was one of the nicest and most caring men one could ever meet.
  • No-Sell: During Eddie's crazed beating of Smackdown jobber Jimmy Jacobs, Jacobs did fight back. Eddie just ignored it.
  • Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Oh, yeah. Ric Flair was proud. At least until Eddie swapped their Royal Rumble numbers in 2005 (Flair had #30, while Eddie had #1). Oh, and stole Flair's wallet while he was at it.
  • Now Do It Again, Backwards: When challenging for the Impact Championship Wrestling title, Low Ki slipped out of a Gori special and tried to pull Eddie in for a cradle only for Eddie to pick him up for an inverted Gori special.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A legendary case was his Champion vs Championship match at the International Wrestling Cartel against CM Punk that went to a time limit draw with reset for overtime. The belt Eddie held was WWE's Intercontinental Championship and though they allowed Eddie to keep his date with the company (he had been fired but then they hired him back when he started wrestling for other companies) they refused to allow the match to be filmed, even with the promise Eddy wouldn't lose. This is worse in hindsight, as CM Punk would go on to be one of WWE's top stars, meaning not only could the IWC not make any additional money off of their match, WWE couldn't either. True, Punk and Eddy had other matches, but not any like that one and WWE can't use that footage, not without paying for it anyway (nor can IWC). Sadly, Punk didn't arrive on WWE TV until after Eddie's death.
  • Opposites Attract: His on-screen romance with Chyna!
  • Pet the Dog
    • Los Guerreros lured Benoit backstage on the pretense Eddie was being assaulted by Kurt Angle and then beat him down with a chair. They later helped Benoit out against Kurt Angle though to make up for it.
    • Eddie patted Super Crazy in the face where he had slapped him earlier after they wrestled in Ring Of Honor for the IWA Puerto Rico Intercontinental Championship belt.
  • Playing Possum: One of Eddie's favorite cheating shticks was to wallop someone with a chair, and then immediately fall over and fake having been the one hit with it. He did it with low blows on occasion also.
  • Posthumous Character: Eddie was infamously used in angles immediately after his death. To say that fans and even his peers did not appreciate this is an understatement.
  • Power Stable
    • The Latino World Order, or LWO; the only reason this stable didn't get MORE popular in its brief existence is because of Eddie's car accident in 1999 that cut the angle short.
    • A more straight example of this trope was during The Radicalz' first weeks in the WWF, where they forged an alliance with D-Generation X to form a short-lived Super Power Stable. The most memorable moment of this short-lived alliance was the awesome 10-man tag in Dallas featuring The Radicalz teaming with Triple H and X-Pac against The Rock, Cactus Jack, Rikishi, and Too Cool, which also featured the return of Kane and Paul Bearer - and one of the single hottest crowds in Raw history.
    • Los Gringos Locos in AAA along with Art Barr, Konnan, Madonna's Boyfriend and Chicano Power
    • The Filthy Animals in WCW, with Rey, Konnan, Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson.
    • Team 2000, in New Japan Pro-Wrestling
  • Prejudiced For Pecs: The reason he could not get a more prominent spot on WCW cards. He did a little better in McMahon Land, where Eddie Guerrero was the first person of such a size and stature to win the WWE Championship and would pave way for the even smaller Rey Mysterio. More than anything this represents the ridiculous size escalation wrestlers went through that Vince McMahon was largely responsible for. The very first American Heavyweight Champion, Evan Lewis (not the first man to hold the belt but the first to be considered a real "heavyweight"), was one inch taller and forty eight pounds lighter than the 228lbs Eddie! In fact, Eddie was only two pounds lighter than who was perhaps the first world champion, George Hackenschmidt.
    • A careful comparison of "before" and "after" photos from his earlier career and WWE main-event run reveals that Eddie put on a lot of muscle, presumably to help him get around this. (If his agility suffered, it wasn't by much.) Unfortunately, this extra mass put even more stress on his heart, and is speculated by some to have been a contributing factor in his untimely death.
  • Practically Different Generations: As the youngest of the Guerrero siblings, with his eldest brother Chavo Sr. already being eighteen by the time he was born. Eddie was only three years older than Chavo Sr.'s son, Chavo Jr., leading to the two being more-or-less raised as siblings.
  • Present Absence: His legacy is still felt in the WWE even nearly two decades after his death. Immediately following his demise, WWE launched a wellness program for their talents to ensure they are systematically clean. Rey Mysterio's main event push and subsequent storylines revolve around him, his other good friend Chris Benoit Murder-Suicide is partly fueled by Benoit's depression over Eddie's death, and his wife Vickie became a prominent figure for the next decade following his death. A lot of WWE's prominent wrestlers during The New '10s are also inspired by Eddie, notably Sasha Banks and first female Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion Bayley.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: From his "Latino Heat" theme:
    "I'm not scared of you, my brother, 'cause I'm Latin."
  • Really Gets Around: Referenced by his "I Lie, I Cheat, I Steal" theme song.
    One woman isn't enough, amigo.
  • Red Baron: "Latino Heat".
  • The Rival: Besides the obvious, this Black Tiger was known for feuding with Jushin Liger and Wild Pegasus.
  • Rule of Three: In the last years of his career, Eddie started using a series of three vertical snap suplexes that became known as the "Three Amigos".
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He was among those who departed from CMLL to AAA, leaving behind his El Hijo Del Santo, who went to really come into his own without Eddy around. Then he was among those who departed WCW for the WWF.
  • Self-Proclaimed Liar: From Los Guerreros onward. "We lie, we steal we, we cheat. When we fight, you get beat!"
    "We don't ever get caught for nothing! You know why? Because we lie!"
  • Series Mascot: One of the people synonymous with the Ruthless Aggression Era, particularly the SmackDown brand during that time.
    Batista: "He is the SmackDown locker room."
    Paul Heyman: "If you're gonna build a Mount Rushmore for SmackDown, the first face that goes up there is Eddie Guerrero."
  • Smug Smiler: Giving you a shit-eating grin was his way of saying he successfully bamboozled you.
  • Spexico: Before the match where he defeated Chris Jericho for the WWE European Heavyweight Title on the April 3, 2000, Raw, he cut a promo where he told Chyna that he had to set her aside in order to focus on winning the European Championship to make all his ancestors in "Spain" proud. Jim Ross said, "I thought he was from El Paso."
  • Spicy Latino: As if you thought he got the Latino Heat moniker for some other reason, though Eddie's explosive temper was not always on display because he usually had things going his way. Still, Chyna so much as said she just could not resist his spicy Latino heat when she betrayed Chris Jericho for him.
  • Squash Match: Eddie beat Brian XL in under a minute to show how committed he was to climbing to the top of ROH after his initial set back. For better or worse this would be Guerrero's final ROH match as WWE came calling.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: More than usual with his older brother Hector, who looks basically like if Eddie was skinnier and had a moustache.
  • Tag Team
    • La Pareja Atómica con El Hijo Del Santo (a call back to the Atomic Pair between Gori Guerrero and El Santo). Hijo Del Santo could later be swapped out for El Titere.
    • Later La Pareja Del Terror after he turned on El Hijo Del Santo and joined Art Bar
    • Los Hermanos Guerrero with Chavo Guerrero and Mando Guerrero, the sibling team was a power trio in Mexico's World Wrestling Association
    • Los Guerreros with his nephew Chavo Jr.
  • Take This Job and Shove It: Said word for word. But even walking right of WCW didn't get him fired, so he eventually came back...to raise hell.
  • Take Up My Finisher: The only tribute Eddie ever made to his tag team partner Art Barr was to adopt his Frog Splash as his own finisher.
  • Toilet Humor: Eddie decided to bully a giant by putting laxatives in the Big Show's burritos and spraying him with a sewage truck in the lead up the defense of United States Championship. Naturally, Big Show won.
  • Tough Love
    • An angle during his WCW days was that Eddie "mentored" his nephew Chavo by setting him up against massive opponents and humiliating him when he lost.
    • The Corrupter: This is because Chavito refused uncle Eddie's advice and instruction (cheat more, here is how to do it)
  • Tournament Arc
    • Black Tiger won the most points in block B New Japan's Best Of The Super Junior III round robin with ten, tying with El Samurai and Wild Pegasus, who each got ten points in block A. This lead to a short knockout tournament between the three of them and runner up with 8 points in Block B Jushin Liger, with Black Tiger beating Jushin Liger in the final match.
    • Eddie won WCW's tournament to crown a new United States champion after it was vacated by Ric Flair, defeating Diamond Dallas Page to do so. He later won another on Thursday Night Smackdown to become the first holder of the belt after Stephanie McMahon revived the United States championship, this time beating Chris Benoit in the final round.
  • Tweener: Initially what one would expect of his Smackdown run except that Eddie was far to over to be considered anything but a baby face, in spite of his antics. He later settled more into the role after the heel heat he gained from his feud with Rey Mysterio died down.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: To his older brother Hector.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When Eddie turned heel in the spring of 2005 because of his massive jealousy of Rey Mysterio, the Mood Whiplash from his "Hispanic cool dude" act to that of a raving lunatic was truly something to behold. Eddie's psychotic rages during this period would have to make the list if one were to catalog the most disturbing gimmicks in wrestling.
  • Villain Rap
    • Sample lyrics from Los Guerreros theme, Viva La Raza: "We can't be beat/Comin' from the streets of the ghetto/At the end of the week/We get to keep your dinero/You're fast asleep when we sneak in your casa/Your life sucks 'cause you're bankrupt and we laughin'/You can't trust us, ese, 'cause we Latin!"(Can You Feel The Heat is worse)
    • As most face/heel tropes involving Eddie, however, it's played with, as that line was featured in all his themes from Los Guerreros up to his death, save for "Gangsta Lean", whether heel or face. His pre-Gangsta Lean heel theme though moves the line from third verse to first.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Rey Mysterio have been portrayed as worse of enemies and best of friends.
  • Wake-Up Call: Eddie Guerrero's loss to Super Crazy at The Era Of Honor Begins was only his second loss since returning to the independent circuit and only his first loss of that year. However, it was also the first loss Guerrero had to someone he thought he knew for sure he was better than, which caused him to become introspective and consider if he could needed to seriously improve as a pro wrestler or had simply lost that much or had perhaps gotten rusty.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Played for Laughs, such as his Christmas in Iraq match against Chris Benoit where Eddie tried to enter the ring in a flak jacket that the referee forced him to remove. Eddie eventually won the match and then retreated to obtain another flak jacket for protection against the understandably upset Benoit.
  • Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: On Smackdown he insisted he was only attacking Rey Mysterio because Rey Mysterio wanted him to.
  • Worked Shoot: Eddie famously asked for his release on an episode of Nitro, and was out of WCW for a few months, because he was angry at Eric Bischoff's refusal to give him a bigger push; Guerrero offered contradicting statements about the promo and the events leading up to it, but many believe the bit was a worked shoot...especially when you consider that Guerrero's return was followed shortly by the formation of the Latino World Order.
  • Worthy Opponent: He had a sort of respect for Rey Mysterio Jr. and John Bradshaw Layfield, despite or perhaps because of having wrestled a multitude of matches with the two.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit
    • When the Glass Jaw Referee's back was turned, he'd slam a chair on the ground, throw it to his opponent, and then lay down like he'd just taken a chair shot. Ref turns around, sees the "carnage", and DQ's the opponent. And this was while he was a Face, mind you.
    • Idiot Ball: You'd think, after a while, refs would get wise to this trick and for a time they did, but they soon went back to being utterly clueless, right up to his last match.
      • This is how he retained the WWE title from Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania XX, albeit by pinning him with a roll-up, instead of DQ.
  • Wrestling Family: One of many members of the famous Guerrero family.
  • Youngest Child Wins: He is the youngest of his generation of the Guerreros, and the most successful of the entire family.

If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.

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