Vickie Guerrero Speaks Candidly About Eddie Guerrero’s Personal Demons, Their Marital Problems, and the Day of Eddie’s Passing

– Prime Time With Sean Mooney recently interviewed former WWE Superstar Vickie Guerrero, who discussed her late husband, Eddie Guerrero. Below are some highlights (Transcript via Michael McClead and Wrestlezone.com).

Vickie Guerrero 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.”

Vickie Guerrero on rekindling her marriage with Eddie Guerrero after their separation: “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 where 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.”

Vickie on Eddie’s WWE return in 2002: “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.’”

Vickie Guerrero on Eddie Guerrero’s passing: “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 [Guerrero] 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…”

Vickie Guerrero on how Eddie’s 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.”

On what that time was like when she found out: “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.”

Vickie Guerrero on Chris Benoit’s reaction to his passing and how Nancy Benoit was best friend through that wole period: ” 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.”