From WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
Dan Crocker Discusses Eddie Guerrero
By Dan Crocker
Nov 20, 2005, 11:56
I'm sorry this column is a bit late. To be honest with you, I've written three complete columns now and scrapped them all. I was trying to write something logical and that made sense about Eddie Guerrero's death. But, try as I might, I can't. It's easy to goof on Smackdown once a week. This is not easy writing. I'm the type of person who usually hides their emotions in humor to begin with.
So, let's start like this. I'm not the type of person that usually gets over emotional when a celebrity dies. Not even celebrities that I like. I've had people very close to me in my own life die. That's not to say that I don't feel bad for the person who has died and especially for their family, I do. But I feel the same way when a non-celebrity dies and I hear about that on the news. I have a genuine concern for the person and their family. But I don't internalize the sadness.
There have been a few exceptions, however. I was home for the weekend from college when I first heard that Kurt Cobain had killed himself. I sat in my dad's recliner and cried. Had someone told me the day before that I would cry if Cobain died I would have thought it impossible. But something about that death meant something to me. Other musicians I have liked have died and it just wasn't the same. Cobain meant somethign special to my entire generation. But even more than that, he had a charisma--he had something that I could relate to. It wasn't special to me, however. He had whatever that X-factor was that made people feel like they knew him, like he was part of their lives.
Many wrestlers have, unfortunately, died young. Many of them were wrestlers I would consider personal favorites of mine. And, when they died, I felt sorry for them, and my heart went out to their families. I never shed a tear. In fact, I would have felt it somewhat selfish to shed a tear. When I heard that Eddie Guerrero died I was in a daze. When I watched the RAW tribute I cried like a baby. I've spent sometime trying to figure out why Eddie's death was one that I internalized. Why did I feel personally hurt when I had never known him, never met him?
I looked over all the silly Smackdown articles I have written for WWI. Every week it seems I mentioned Eddie being the highlight of the show. But, I find Kurt Angle the highlight of RAW and if he (God forbid) died I would be sad, but I wouldn't feel like I had lost someone I knew personally. I looked over these boards, on the internet, etc, after Eddie's death. I was getting the same feeling from other wrestling fans. Like Kurt Cobain, Eddie had an open honestness that made us feel like we knew him. He couldn't help but be real. Yes, he was an incredibly talented perfomer both in the ring and on the mic, but he had something else. He had an intangible. His personality was so, big, that he went beyond being a celebrity. When Eddie had his downs we felt them, when he had his triumphs we celebrated along with him. He was human in all the glorious ways a person can be human and he didn't try to hide it. We felt like he was one of us and that made us love him all the more.
We felt like we knew Eddie. We felt close to him. That's a testiment to his unconquerable heart. I know that this isn't a well written article. I know I had no beautiful pearls of wisdom. You know what? I don't have any. I just wanted to write this from the heart and to say to Eddie that I miss you. You made my life better. You made me smile, you made me laugh--which is a great gift and you used it well.
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