Eddie Guerrero: Dead at 38There are few wrestlers of any generation who can say they achieved more than was ever expected of them. Hulk Hogan is one of them, and so was Eddie Guerrero. Too small bythe standards of wrestling in the post-WWF Expansion world, he wasn’t given a chanceuntil Paul Heyman started ECW and he had already made a name for himself in Mexico,where size seldom mattered. Eddie Guerrero, who made it to the top only to be unable tohandle the pressure, passed away on Sunday at the age of 38. He leaves three daughtersand a wife, his mother, and three brothers and a nephew who have all had at least somesuccess in wrestling.Eddie in Mexico made a name for himself even though he was the son of a giant star, thelegendary Gori Guerrero, and the brother of a couple of guys who were good sized starslater. Eddie was easily the best wrestler of all of them, having amazing matches at any position on the card. He started in Mexico as Mascara Magica, but voluntarily unmaskedas himself. He started a team with El Hijo del Santo and also started wrestling in Japanas Black Tiger, also under a mask. He got his first big push as one half of one of the trulygreat heel tag teams. Art Barr was a wrestler who had been a biggish name in Oregon buthad gotten into much trouble over the years. He ended up in AAA where he was teamedwith Eddie as Los Gringos Locos. They were the best heel team in Mexico ever whenyou look at ring work and crowd reactions. Sadly, Art died too young and left Eddy (asthey spelled it then) on his own.The first time US fans got to see Eddy regularly was in ECW. He was Televisionchampion, and more important than that, he had a series of matches with Dean Malenkothat changed American wrestling forever. These were the best matches of the period, bar none. No WCW or WWF match of 1994 or 1995 came close to what these guys weredoing in ECW. They both ended up being called into WCW to start as cruiserweights.Both of them had some success and they were an important part of the Nitro equation:great openers from Guerrero, Malenko, Mysterio, Jericho, Benoit and others, followed bycrappy angles and interviews and bad main events. At one point, Eddie was the leader of the LWO, the Latino World Order.After Kevin Sullivan was about to take back the book at WCW, Eddie went along withBenoit, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko to the WWE, where they blew the house down.Eddie got hurt early in a match against the New Age Outlaws, but once he came back, hegot a bigger and bigger push, eventually ending up with Chyna and the Lie, Cheat andSteal gimmick that would make him the biggest draw on SmackDown!Eddie was fired a couple of times. He had troubles with pain medications and other drugissues as well. He was involved in a car accident and most folks said he shouldn’t come back. He wrestled in the indies, including Ring of Honor, but eventually he got hisdemons under control and returned to the biggest push of his life. In February of 2004, atthe Cow Palace, Eddie pinned Brock Lesnar to win the World HeavyweightChampionship. A guy who had been told he was too small for almost his entire career had won the belt and got a huge pop for it. He was the backbone of the promotion, but he