December 5, 2005 Observer Newsletter: The life and times of Eddie Guerrero

If there is a legacy that Eddy Guerrero will leave in pro wrestling from a historical basis, it is that of all the ten of thousands of wrestlers who started their careers in Mexico, on a world wide basis, at least to the non-Spanish speaking world, he ended up being the biggest star of all. And if anyone had ever told him that, he'd probably thank them, and likely never believe it.

But among those who knew him well, his in-ring ability, as well as the level of star he became, almost went without saying. In fact, at his funeral on 11/17 at the Green Acres Funeral Home in what was to be his new home town of Phoenix, it almost did. Everybody knew what a great wrestler Guerrero was to the point nobody had to say it. At best, it crept into a conversation here or there. 

John Layfield noted that Guerrero led him through the most important matches of his career in the feud that made him. Dean Malenko said that every top star in his career has the one opponent people most remember them with, and for him, that person was Eddy Guerrero. Chris Jericho noted that he wished he could have had a major run with Eddy Guerrero as a tag team.

Billy Graham talked about being so moved by what turned out to be the biggest match of Guerrero's career, his February 15, 2004, WWE championship win over Brock Lesnar, that he got his number from someone at the WWE and called him up. Eddy got the call the day after the match, and at first thought one of the wrestlers was ribbing him. 

As Graham praised him for the match, he shot back with, "Why would Superstar Billy Graham be calling me up?" But it began what turned out to be a relatively short friendship built more upon discussions of religion than of pro wrestling.

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