Vickie Guerrero was the most recent guest on the Prime Time with Sean Mooney podcast. The former SmackDown GM opened up about her her marriage to late WWE Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero, as well as a gut wrenching detailing of his tragic passing.
On Eddie Guerrero’s First Big Break:
I don’t think it was really in WCW. He had a lot of competition and a lot of politics with the bigger guys, you know, to get the TV time and to get time to be in the ring and to be able to show what he wanted to show the fans. When he jumped to WWE, he was treated very well and he got to be in the main storylines and when he jumped with The Radicalz that was just a great time. Of course, that first night when he went to the ring, that’s when he broke his arm. His elbow fractured and we just kinda sit there going, ‘That was horrible,’ because Eddie was ready to turn a new leaf and start working again. God humbles you in different ways and you have to have patience and get back up and try this again, but he did love his time in WWE and to work with Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, and Dean Malenko – that was his posse and they kept each other pretty motivated during those days.
On Eddie Guerrero’s Frustrations With WCW & How Things Differed For Him In WWE:
It was really frustrating. Eddie was always wanting to be creative and of course there were people on your back saying, ‘We want to do it this way.’ He’d get pretty pissed off because he’d be telling me, ‘That’s not who I am. That’s not what I would say. That’s not what I would do.’ He just wanted to be Eddie and show the fans that this is who he was. I think that when he started working with Chyna and that storyline, that was the true Eddie because he was funny, he was a sarcastic person. He was very sarcastic. He was a jokester. He always wanted to make everyone laugh and I think that when he started working with Chyna that’s when he was really having a good time and I could see that the Eddie that was on TV was the Eddie we got to see at home and I knew that was a genuine character for him because he was comfortable in it and that’s who he was. I think that when they let him be who he wanted to be, he was taking the ropes and just going with it. He was like, ‘I’m loving this,’ and he got excited to go to work. That was really finally relaxing because I thought, ‘Now, Eddie’s having a good time.’
On Eddie Guerrero’s Personal Demons:
The demons had been coming in for ten years before Eddie had come back the second time with WWE. After he went to rehab, the last four years of Eddie’s life was really enjoyable for us. Not that I didn’t love Eddie any less, but it was a real hell hole when you’re dealing with a person that you love so much and there’s these substances that overtake his whole thinking and actions and you can’t fight with them. There’s no fighting with a pill. There’s no fighting with alcohol and you didn’t really want to fight with Eddie because the drugs and alcohol already had control of him, so I didn’t even have Eddie with me for a long long time. It was pretty touch and go for awhile and it started affecting his work, which of course, as everybody knows and I think the rehab, the last time, and he finally got serious and got a sponsor and did the work he was supposed to do and then, of course, you’re reunited, those were the greatest four years I had with Eddie in a long time.
On Her Own Personal Difficulties During Eddie Guerrero’s Battle With Substance Abuse:
I became a co-dependent where I would make excuses for people not to come over because I knew Eddie was having a bad day. The girls had stuff to do. I would stay busy all day outside my house, so Eddie wouldn’t be around us. This is a truly horrible disease and addiction that a person like me had to hide from everyone because I wanted to protect him from the people and his work and from his loved ones….On his good days, we had great days and on his bad days, they were bad and so you kinda just get through it and wait for the good days to come along.
On What Prompted Her To Separate From Eddie Guerrero:
There was a point where once he got fired and he got in trouble with his DUI, that’s when I said, ‘I’m done…..’ I called it quits when the IRS came after us because we hadn’t paid taxes and we started getting all our cars repossessed. When they fired Eddie, of course, there’s no money coming in. That’s when I said, ‘I’d rather be poor again.’ Me and Eddie sat down and we talked seriously. I said, ‘I’d rather not have anything and be at peace and have all of this and worry about you everyday, that you’re not gonna come home.’ That was something that he didn’t blame me at all. He knew he put me through a whole lot. He hung around with bad people and people that were influencing him in ways that wasn’t helping us to grow in a good positive direction. I just told him. I said, ‘You can have it,’ and when he got fired from WWE, I knew that it was time to get out and everything was gonna get worse because it did. We lost everything. That was my saving grace because once he went to rehab – I think it was for the sixth time – I could finally get sleep because I didn’t have to worry about whether he was gonna come home or not.
On Eddie Guerrero Nearly Dying After A Car Wreck:
He had several accidents and the police loved him so much in Florida, ‘We brought Eddie back home for you. Here he is.’ ‘No, arrest him!’ He did have a serious accident in 1999 where he was driving and he was under the influence where they had told me that he almost died on the operating table. There was a lot of roller coasters and a lot of time where I thought, ‘This is it.’ It takes a toll after awhile. I even told his mom, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and she was like, ‘You lasted longer than I did.’
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
There is more on the next page including the rekindling of Vickie’s relationship with Eddie Guerrero, as well as a detailing about his tragic passing, and Chris Benoit’s reaction to Eddie Guerrero’s death.
