The intial autopsy report following Eddie Guerrero’s death Sunday morning in Minneapolis have indicated that the former world champ died of heart disease.
“It was heart failure. It was from his past — the drinking and the drug abuse. They found signs of heart disease,” Guerrero’s widow, Vickie, told WWE.com. “She (the Hennepin County medical 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.”
A more complete autopsy is still pending. In Tuesday’s edition, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the Hennepin County medical examiner said that the cause of death may not be known for weeks.
Vickie Guerrero also said thank you for all the love and support from fans during the ordeal, but reaffirmed her request for a private funeral outside Phoenix, Arizona.
The service on Thursday will be run by “Superstar” Billy Graham, a long-time friend of the Guerrero family.
Around the web, various wrestling stars have posted their own recollections and memories of “Latino Heat.”
“Eddie Guerrero was one of those rare few that was admired and respected by everyone in the entire industry,” wrote Gregory “The Hurricane” Helms at Gregoryhelms.com.
Chris Jericho fondly recalled his friendship with Guerrero, saying that his death hurt the most of any over the years. “One of my favorite times in my career was when Eddy and I were an underutilized, underpushed, hell, almost non-exisitant tag team, that were thrown together randomly in WCW,” wrote Jericho at Chrisjericho.com. “But there was a chemistry there that existed becuase we had mutual respect for each other and we both loved what we were doing.
Dory Funk Jr. went back a long way with Eddie Guerrero and the Guerrero family. “In 1967 when Eddie was born we were the booking office out of Amarillo for El Paso. The promoter in El Paso was Gory Guerrero. We would meet with him to book the show, then work El Paso. I knew Eddie in diapers,” he wrote at DoryFunk.com. “We have been family for all these years. I watched the Guerrero kids grow up in the wrestling business, Chauvo, Mando, Hector, Eddie and then Chauvo Jr. They all had the gift of wrestling and credibility of their father, Gory Guerrero. I remember great matches with Chauvo in the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.”
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