Eddie Guerrero (WWE Hall of Fame Superstar)

It was also announced that the second inductee into the 2006 WWE Hall of Fame class would be the late Eddie Guerrero. Bret "Hit Man" Hart was the first inductee announced for the ceremony in Chicago on April 1.

Eddie Guerrero was born into Mexico's first family of professional wrestling in 1967. The son of the legendary Gory Guerrero, it was only natural that Eddie, along with his three older brothers, would pursue a career in sports-entertainment. With wrestling flowing through his veins, Eddie began his in-ring training at a very young age. In fact, Guerrero had mastered the dropkick by his third birthday.

Eddie moved from his family's backyard ring to the professional circuit in 1987 when he debuted as "Mascara Magica" or "Magic Mask" in Mexico. After teaming with his brothers, Guerrero broke out on his own, crafting his skills in the lucha libre world. Eddie then moved on to Japan, wrestling as Black Tiger. It was there that Guerrero first met good friend Chris Benoit.

After moving back to Mexico full time, Eddie began teaming with El Hijo del Santo, who was the son of Gory Guerrero's long-time associate El Santo. Eddie and Santo eventually broke up, with Eddie forming a duo with Art Barr. The pair would feud with Santo in one of the most heated rivalries in lucha libre history, which culminated in Guerrero and Barr losing a hair vs. mask match to Santo and Octagon in November 1994.

Eddie then moved on to ECW, where he gained his first full exposure in the United States. Not long after his ECW debut, Guerrero defeated 2 Cold Scorpio for the ECW Television Championship, a title he held twice before moving to WCW. Guerrero's ECW stay will always be remembered for the amazing match he had with Dean Malenko before leaving the promotion. After the match, which many consider to be one of the greatest ECW matches ever, the crowd showed their appreciation for Guerrero by giving him a standing ovation.

Guerrero spent four years competing in WCW. While there, he was a part of numerous memorable rivalries with the likes of Booker T, Rey Mysterio, Dean Malenko, Ric Flair and nephew Chavo.

On Dec. 29, 1996, Guerrero defeated Diamond Dallas Page in the finals of a tournament to crown a new United States Champion. He also went on to capture the Cruiserweight Championship on two separate occasions before leaving WCW.

On Jan. 31, 2000, four new faces showed up on Monday Night RAW and shocked the sports-entertainment world. They were former WCW wrestlers Benoit, Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero - The Radicalz. The faction immediately got involved in a match between the New Age Outlaws and Al Snow & Steve Blackman, marking the beginning of Guerrero's amazing WWE career.

Over the next five years, Eddie Guerrero overcame many obstacles to reach the top. In his first WWE match against the Outlaws, Eddie suffered a dislocated elbow, but returned to action in a short time. On April 3, 2000, he claimed his first piece of WWE gold, defeating Chris Jericho to win the European Championship. He would go on to win that championship one more time in 2001.

After The Radicalz went their separate ways, Eddie began a relationship with his "Mamacita," Chyna. In fact, it was Chyna that Eddie defeated in September 2000 to claim the Intercontinental Championship. After their split, Eddie's demons got the best of him. He subsequently took time off from the ring in 2001 to deal with his personal issues.

Upon his return in 2002, Eddie's career skyrocketed to new heights. He won the Intercontinental Championship again in May 2002, this time from Rob Van Dam. Eventually, Eddie moved to SmackDown where he teamed with nephew Chavo to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship. He would win that championship three more times, as well as the United States Championship, but his greatest moment came in February 2004.

On Feb. 15, 2004 in San Francisco, Guerrero defeated Brock Lesnar at No Way Out to become WWE Champion. He had reached the pinnacle of the industry, and went on to headline WrestleMania XX against Kurt Angle. No one will ever forget the scene at the end of the show, when Eddie joined long-time friend Benoit in the ring to celebrate moments after Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship.

Eddie later formed an alliance with another old friend, Rey Mysterio, and the duo would win the WWE Tag Team Championship in early 2005. This was Eddie's final run as a champion, as the duo split up after WrestleMania 21 and began a bitter rivalry, highlighted by numerous breath-taking matches.

At No Mercy on Oct. 9, 2005, Eddie's 38th birthday, Eddie squared off against a new amigo, Batista. He was unable to win the World Heavyweight Championship from the Animal, but their friendship was cemented when Batista led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Latino Heat afterwards. A little more than one month later, Guerrero competed in his final televised match on the Nov. 11 edition of Friday Night SmackDown where he defeated Mr. Kennedy.

Even months after Eddie Guerrero's untimely passing, the former WWE Champion is still touching the lives of his friends, family and fans everywhere. Eddie's mantra of "lie, cheat and steal" endeared him to millions of fans, but even before that he was already El Paso's own Champion.

Eddie posthumously received the Star of the Mountain Award in recognition of the pride he brought to his hometown. His wife Vickie and their three daughters also all received keys to the city of El Paso, the same city in which they grew up.

"It was an honor to see how much El Paso loved Eddie Guerrero. It was a great honor to have Eddie recognized. To hear the mayor and everyone say how much Eddie and his work was appreciated meant a lot," she said.

Vickie said that she knew that Eddie was a popular wrestler, but she is still surprised by how much media attention her husband's death has brought.

"I really didn't expect it. We liked to lead a simple life. We never looked for publicity, so it was amazing to see the impact that Eddie's passing has had on people. It has really touched my heart."

After the untimely passing of Eddie Guerrero, WWE and the entire sports-entertainment community is still reeling from the devastating loss of a champion. The initial autopsy reports on Guerrero have come in. WWE.com spoke with Eddie's widow, Vickie Guerrero, earlier today.

"It was heart failure. It was from his past - the drinking and the drug abuse. They found signs of heart disease. She (the examiner) said that the blood vessels were very worn and narrow, and that just showed all the abuse from the scheduling of work and his past. And Eddie just worked out like crazy all the time. It made his heart grow bigger and work harder and the vessels were getting smaller, and that's what caused the heart failure. He went into a deep sleep.

As soon as they saw his heart, they saw the lining of his heart already had the heart disease. There was no trauma, and Eddie hadn't hurt himself in any way. It answered a lot of questions. I knew Eddie wasn't feeling very good for the last week. He was home and kept saying he wasn't feeling good and we thought it was just "road tired." So we thought he just had to rest. It answered a lot of my questions, too, because he was just so exhausted. She said it was normal because the heart was working so hard.

When he didn't call me last night and the night before I knew it was for real, because he would call me every night. I miss his phone calls. I cried through the whole thing (last night).

I loved his laugh. His laugh was the best.

We just celebrated his four-year sobriety last Thursday. We just thought we had life by the handful. We thought we had it all figured out. He worked so hard to make a better life for us.

I'm just overwhelmed by how people are coming out. It's touched my heart a lot.

Everybody was just in awe last night in how beautifully everything was put together.

All my life was wrestling. All he did was take care of them and live for that. And I don't know what to do now."

Both RAW and SmackDown! were booked as tribute events in memory of Eddie Guerrero. Throughout the events, several wrestlers wore Guerrero's "I'm Your Papi" T-shirt to the ring, and some also wore a black armband marked with the initials "EG." Both shows consisted almost entirely of interbrand matches.

Taped in Minneapolis barely 12 hours after Eddie's passing, this special edition of RAW was the first WWE show to air following Eddie's passing and included the expression of grief and tribute by WWE superstars and fans. Video tributes from JBL, Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, Lilian Garcia and The Big Show were aired. It aired the following day, November 14.

The show began with a ten-bell salute with the entire roster standing at the entrance ramp, a tradition in professional wrestling used to honor a recently fallen comrade. Following that, a video tribute, using the song "Hurt" by Johnny Cash was shown, and the audience emotionally chanted "Thank you, Eddie!" out of respect to the late Superstar.

Rey Mysterio wrestled Shawn Michaels in an interpromotional tribute match, which Mysterio won. Following the match, both men embraced one another and Mysterio cried while pointing skyward. In the aftermath of his match with Randy Orton, WWE Champion John Cena, who had previously described Guerrero as a great man and father figure, laid the Eddie Guerrero t-shirt he had worn throughout the match in the center of the ring then placed the WWE Championship atop the shirt, reflecting Stephanie McMahon's earlier comment that "Eddie was always a champion." The broadcast ended with commentator Joey Styles eulogizing Guerrero with the words "Eddie Guerrero was a champion competitor, he was a champion in life."

World Tag Team Champions Big Show and Kane (RAW) defeat WWE Tag Team Champions MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro) (SmackDown!) in a non-title match.
Kurt Angle defeats Shelton Benjamin.
Rey Mysterio (SmackDown!) defeats Shawn Michaels (RAW).
Melina (SmackDown!) won a "Diva battle royal" that included every Diva on the active WWE roster (excluding Lita, Torrie Wilson, Lilian Garcia, Sharmell, and Stacy Keibler).
Eugene (RAW) defeats Simon Dean (SmackDown!).
WWE Intercontinental Champion Ric Flair (RAW) defeats William Regal (SmackDown!).
WWE Champion John Cena (RAW) defeats Randy Orton (SmackDown!) by disqualification.

After the RAW taping, the scheduled edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown! was conducted and taped entirely as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero.

The show opened with Batista driving one of Eddie Guerrero's signature lowriders to the ring, then after making a tearful speech he laid his sunglasses and the World Heavyweight Championship belt on the hood of the lowrider, where they remained throughout the show.

Video tributes by Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio and Eric Bischoff were also aired, with each one of them recounting memories they had of Eddie Guerrero.

Chavo Guerrero wrestled a match against John "Bradshaw" Layfield in which he performed several trademark Eddie Guerrero spots, such as the *Three Amigos (Combination three vertical suplexes), as well as tricking the referee into thinking JBL had used a chair, and using the frog splash as a finisher.

A modified video tribute to Eddie Guerrero was shown, this time the song used for it was "Here Without You" by 3 Doors Down.

The show ended with Chris Benoit defeating Triple H. After the match, the two shook hands and embraced, celebrating Eddie's life in the ring.

Following that match, announcer Michael Cole remembered the night in which Eddie won the WWE Championship, telling the TV audience how grateful he was to Guerrero for letting him call that match and finished the show off by saying "Thank you Eddie, one last time."

Matt Hardy (SmackDown!) defeats Carlito (RAW).
Legion of Doom (Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich) (SmackDown!) defeats Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch (RAW).
Chavo Guerrero (RAW) defeats John "Bradshaw" Layfield (SmackDown!).
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Juventud (SmackDown!) won a cruiserweight battle royal.
Chris Benoit (SmackDown!) defeats Triple H (RAW).

Feb. 15, 2004 - June 27, 2004

The famed Guerrero family finally reached the pinnacle of sports-entertainment when Eddie Guerrero turned back the big Brock Lesnar at No Way Out 2004. Eddie's WWE Championship reign lasted more than four months before coming up short against JBL at The Great American Bash.

WWE Champion : Eddie Guerrero
Feb. 15, 2004 - June 27, 2004