Tokyo’s Muslim

Eddy Guerrero passed away.

Guerrero was always one of my favourite wrestlers, especially in an era of steroid monsters and headlocks which bored the snot out of me. I saw him first in a WCW pay per view called “Collision in Korea” – a joint production with New Japan Pro Wrestling. The immortal Antonio Inoki had managed to secure a deal with the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, and certain WCW wrestlers were participating. However, Eddy was, at the time, out of favour and wrestling exclusively in Japan. During his bout with 2 Cold Scropio, Eric Bischoff commented that Eddy was not wrestling in America because of his temper. That was probably the most diplomatic way Bischoff could put it.

The truth was, Eddy was, at times, a drinker and a drug abuser Coupled with his fiery Latino temprament, he was an accident waiting to happen. And it did – with the end result that Eddy would hit the bottle hard, and eventually lose his job with World Wrestling Entertainment. He also almost lost his wife – the beginning of his near-redemption. Eddy became a born-again Christian and for the past 4 years, he had not touched any illicit substances. He had avoided the temptation, as was chronicled in the WWE-produced “Cheating Death, Stealing Life” video. (I hesitate to call it a documentary, because who trusts anything coming out of the pocketbooks of Vince MacMahon Jr.?)

After his return, Eddy had great matches, and was even the World champion. There were emotional moments, absurd moments, and pure stupidity more times than not. Then Eddy Guerrero died, possibly of a heart attack while brushing his teeth. (One of several ideas being floated). Let me reiterate that – he died of a heart attack at the age of 38. It isn’t genetic (no history of such diseases in his family) and it isn’t some sort of one-in-a-million flash of lightning sort of happening. Despite being clean, despite everything, the abuse caught up with him. Eddy now traverses to the Undiscovered Country, leaving 3 daughters and a hysterical wife.

What kind of idiot would follow in his footsteps now?

There are a lot of idiots in Independent Wrestling, but very few of them abuse drugs and alcohol the way Eddy did. Very few of them are interested in Wrestling as a career either. This is just another notch in the belt for a lifestyle that should have never been, and a way of living that simply has no place in a more image-conscious America.

Wrestling will be Roller Derby in 30 years. New attractions like MMA are already replacing it in Japan, and in the era of “Security Moms” and other such social hypocrites dictating policy, it might prove to be the beginning of the end of large scale professional combat sports in North America.