Eddie Guerrero, 1967-2005

I found out early this afternoon from PWInsider.com that Eddie Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room in Minneapolis today. He was only 38 years old.

There are few people in wrestling who I would hold up as a hero. I am a fan of many, admire many, but hold few as a true inspiration. Eddie was one of these, but not so much for what he did in the ring, but for what he accomplished out of it.

To be sure, he was an amazing perfomer. One of the greatest ever. No man looked more at home in a ring than Eddie. Heir to an incredible family legacy, son of the legendary Gory Guerrero, Eddie cut his teeth wrestling his brothers in his backyard. He lived, breathed and ate wrestling, and it came out in his work. His career is illuminated with brilliance, studded with classic matches, and his incredible ability to get over as a character, as well.

But Eddie's life story was also beset with heartache and tragedy, even before the events of today. Like many before him, Eddie had faced many demons in his life, including his battles with alcoholism and drug use. His struggles with these demons had cost him his health, his job and his family.

But from there, Eddie would have the most remarkable of comebacks.

He would overcome his alcoholism and drug abuse. He regained his family's love, his wife and children standing at his side to this day. He would rebuild his career, returning to the WWE and steadily being rebuilt into one of their top stars, until, in one of the greatest nights I've ever had the pleasure of watching, Eddie was given the WWE Title. Only three years earlier, his world had crashed down around him. And now, here he stood, at the top of the wrestling world. I'm not sure I've ever been happier for a performer in my life.

Eddie was a hero, yes, but not for his wrestling exploits. Eddie never shied away from his troubled past, or tried to deny that it happened. Instead, he tried to use it to inspire others. He spoke frankly of his abuse in a documentary WWE produced, encouraging others to seek help if they faced the same problems. He was ashamed of what he had done, he admitted, but he was not ashamed of what he had accomplished in coming back, and hoped it might inspire others to face their own problems.

And now he's gone.

There's no word yet as to a suspected cause. His father had passed away relatively young from heart complications. Eddie had been through a great deal physically during the bad years, including several O.D.'s and a car accident that had wrecked him physically. The whispers among the wrestling writers are, of course, that perhaps his demons had finally caught up with him, once again. I truly hope not. But no matter the cause, the end result is the same.

But no matter what, he'll still be a hero to me. Writing about Magic Johnson in the book "The Big Show," Keith Olbermann talks about how, in bringing his disease out into the open, Magic helped open people's eyes, and that by facing up to it, in front of the world, he had probably inspired quite a few people to follow suit in their own lives. "How many lives do you have to save to be a hero?," Olbermann wrote. "I think just one is enough."

Eddie may have let his demons overcome his life in the past, and if they did come back in the present, it is indeed a tragedy. But by facing up to that, bringing it out into the open, and letting his story be told, Eddie Guerrero was an inspiration to many of his fellow wrestlers - and who knows how many in the public.

That was the act of an incredibly brave man. And that is why, no matter what, on this day I have lost not just a favorite performer, but a true hero.

Goodbye, Eddie.