Vickie Guerrero Talks Relationship With Eddie, His Career And More

Vickie Guerrero recently appeared on Prime Time With Sean Mooney and gave an in-depth look at her life with her late husband Eddie Guerrero including his struggles with addiction and much more.

Eddie's 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. 

His Frustrations With WCW Vs. 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.’

His 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."
 

Her Reaction During Eddie's Addiction:

"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."
 

Their Seperation:

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.
 

Nearly Losing Eddie 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.’"

Reconciling With Eddie

"Eddie had a relationship when we were separated. Me and Eddie were separated for two years. We both had lawyers that were trying to get our divorce final. We tried. Eddie and I tried with our lawyers. Every week we were texting each other, ‘Can you please keep moving forward, so we can get our divorce?’ That’s what we thought was our plan. Eddie, of course, had a girlfriend and she got pregnant by him and through this whole process, I saw Eddie changing to here he was calm. The rehab had worked, the work in the A.A. groups, and the personal time that he put in to his recovery. I could see that he was investing a lot of time in himself and the girls would come home and they were saying how daddy was doing good and I think we kind started flirting again. Eddie would drop off the girls and he would have a cup of coffee, ‘It’s almost dinner. Hey girls, you want to go to dinner with mom?’ I’d go to dinner. I was doing it because he was involving the girls. We always missed each other. I knew Eddie for almost 18 years before he passed away. He knew exactly what I liked and he had broken up with the girlfriend that he had and our first date was back at the beach again, where it was our favorite place. Just one day turned into – he was gonna come and pick up the kids from school and he was working with WWE and he just started coming to the place again and he really changed. He was a different person. He was the old Eddie that I used to know and we renewed our vows and he promised the girls that he was always gonna take it one day at a time, which is all he could do and the girls were so happy about having us together again and I was happy too. I never thought we’d be together again, but we renewed our vows and we did it on the beach and we got an apartment together and after a year of that we went and moved to Phoenix and it was great. Everything was just a wonderful life with him."
 

His WWE Return:

"I think WWE started seeing that he was serious about his recovery and he was getting back on the road and when they saw that we were starting to talk and we were hanging out, I think they were like, ‘Wow, so the family’s back together, so there’s got to be good things coming out of this.’

 

On Eddie Guerrero’s Death:

"He just ran five miles. He would run all the time and that next morning, which was Saturday…they had a TV and a pay-per-view and then they were headed to an international tour. I’m still in shock of how this even happened. It’s unreal how you think you’re just dropping him off at the airport and it’s just another drop off. You think he’s gonna come home…. Chavo was on the flight and Chavo said he was in a great mood…it was just like any other flight going to a show. It was nothing different. It’s pretty sad how this happened. Sunday, Eddie did call me. It was around 5:30 in the morning…that’s my cue that he’s already up for the day and when I missed his call, of course, we had no idea what was going on….they had rang the doorbell….WWE wanted me to go over, so me and the family wouldn’t be by ourselves and that’s when somebody told me….I kick myself that I missed that call because to me it was just another missed call. I’ll call him later…"
 

On How His Body Was Discovered:

"He had missed his call, his waking up call. There was no answer and when the bellman had gone to the door to see if Eddie would answer the door and the door security was on, but they could still open the door and that’s when they found Eddie in the bathroom and the water was running. That’s when they alerted Chavo and Dean…that’s when they called Eddie’s sister Linda to come to my house."
 

Her Reaction To His Death:

"I can’t honestly remember that whole time period. It seems like all a blur. There was a tribute that WWE did for Eddie on the 1,000th episode of SmackDown. They released a tribute before that show. They showed the funeral. They showed us walking behind the hearse at the cemetery. I don’t even remember all of that. I don’t remember the dress I was wearing. My daughters were talking to me. I don’t remember any of this. I think we were all in shock. I was a mess. I don’t think I was even making decisions that I could remember."
 

The Benoit’s 

"After Eddie passed away, Nancy Benoit was the one who was with me for four weeks. She was my best friend and she’s the one who helped me. After a week she was like, ‘OK, get up.’ She threw me in the show and was like, ‘You have to get up now.’ She goes, ‘You can’t do this anymore.’ She’s the one that started taking me to lunch and got the girls dressed, ‘We’re going out today. We’re all going out to just drive.’ We’re like zombies. We just sat around and did nothing all day. I thank God everyday for Nancy because her and Chris [Benoit] were there to just check on us. Chris had a worse time than I did. He was just a mess going anywhere in the house and there was something of Eddie’s and he’d just start crying and Nancy was so strong. She was my rock, she really was."