from champion to legend

When people ask me, “what is one thing about yourself that not a lot of people know?” In an instant, I would always answer them that I watch [wwe] wrestling and I know a lot of things about it. It would always come as a shock to those who don’t really know me given that I look like the girlie girl stereotype who would only talk about shopping, clothes, boys and fashion. Well, I do watch wwe and I have been watching it since I was a kid and I even had a crush on Shawn Michaels before and I didn’t know what I was thinking with that but that is just between you and me. Even though it’s all scripted and staged and the chair shots aren’t really that painful at least I take pride for not being barbaric/sadist to really want to see them inflict pain and hurt until they actually bleed. It’s just like watching a play or better yet, a movie, even if the special effects aren’t real doesn’t make it any less of a movie.

So anyway, it’s weird because I only watch WWE Raw and not Smackdown for the main reason that RAW is where the Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Kane, John Cena and all my favorite wrestlers are. Although I also liked the Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Batista and Eddie Guerrero who used to be in RAW but now in Smackdown, I just was more of a RAW fan than of Smackdown. For some reason, I ended up tuning to Smackdown last night. It was more of a background while I was doing my homework. Until the skit about Eddie Guerrero and Batista came on and I started to watch it. Eddie, from his Mamacita to Latin heat days proved to be really entertaining and fun to watch so as I laughed my butt of watching the skit, I thought to myself this is so interesting, I just might watch Smackdown again next week. Or so I thought…

The next day, I ran into a friend [who was much more of a wrestling fan than I was], we chatted a bit and he mentioned that Eddie Guerrero dead.

“get outta here” I responded, guessing if he was serious, or talking about the show or just kidding with me. “ I was just watching him last night with Batista.”

“my dad called me up this morning and told me all about it. Chavo Guerrero found him dead in his hotel room this morning in Minnesota.”

This didn’t seem like a skit from the show or a joke at all.

“no way!”

Apparently, his dad was mixed up in the wrestling business in someway. He knows someone who knows someone - well, you know how that works. Even with that, I didn’t completely believe him. It was just impossible. I went about my day and when I got home I checked it out in the wwe website and nothing was there about Eddie Guerrero, it was business as usual. I googled it up but still no results so I dismissed the thought of it being a cruel joke like one you’d likely hear geared towards celebrities. I surfed the net, checked my mail and emailed some friends. And just before I was about to turn it off, I checked the wwe website just to be sure when I tell my friend about it. There it was - a confirmation of the unthinkable. It sent shivers down my spine. I couldn’t believe it. Eddie Guerrero was indeed dead. Words that anyone wasn’t expecting at least not in this year or this decade or any time soon.

It was just so surreal. I didn’t really know him personally but I couldn’t deny a tragic sense of loss and a despondency that came along with it. And it really scares me. How life so vibrant and so full can end just like that devoid of any warning. At 38, he still had a lot to look forward to, he was barely in the middle. It is this sense of not knowing and precariousness about life that scares me the most. How one can be here today and gone tomorrow and you will never see them again. Life is unfair. You are born into this world and you grow to love it only to leave it all behind. It is tragic and untimely deaths like these that make you ponder about your own existence. How much time do I have left? Then it hits you, that this life you take for granted is frail and that no matter how young, powerful and invincible you feel, as sure as your heart is beating right now someday it will stop and that will be the end of you. Death, for me is a very vast concept, one that I can not grasp and stayed up a couple of nights thinking about but still can not grasp. I love my life too much to let go. Questions like, what will happen to me when I die? Go to heaven, purgatory or hell? Or just cease to exist? Will I be a ghost? Let’s say I go to heaven, what will I do there for the rest of eternity? The concept of eternity is also so infinite and vast. Questions that will only be answered when I am there. The only thing that I know is that death is certain.

As for Eddie Guerrero, I'd like to thank him for being a valuable part in the wrestling industry and entertaining us every single time we see him on tv. He had a profound passion for wrestling that transcends the television screen and touching people's lives with a character that they can relate to. A champion in overcoming the obstacles in life [drug addiction and alcohol], his life taught us a lesson that will stay with us long after he is gone.

Great men do not die and cease to exist, they simply become legends.

Viva la raza!

que en paz descanse.

We will miss you Eddie!