Eddie Guerrero

Eddie Guerrero found dead

Eddie Guerrero was found dead Sunday morning in his hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
No cause of death has been reported however it was considered heart failure due to heart disease. Guerrero is survived by his wife Vickie and three daughters: Shaul, 14, Sherilyn, 9, and Kaylie Marie, 3. He was 38.

According to WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, Guerrero was found at the Marriott City Center hotel. Police arrived on site around 7:30 a.m. Attempts were made to revive Guerrero, according to a police spokesperson.

At 12:45 pm CT, Vince McMahon and Chavo Guerrero held a press conference in Minneapolis to talk about Guerrero. The press conference is available online at WWE.com.

During the press conference, Chavo explained that he and Eddie came in from Phoenix the night before, and checked into the hotel around 12:30 a.m. He was scheduled to meet his uncle for breakfast, but got a call instead from hotel security saying that Eddie did not respond to his 7 a.m. wake-up call. Chavo went with security to Eddie's room, and found him on the floor. A call was then placed to 911.

Tonight's combined Raw and Smackdown! tapings will be a four-hour tribute to Eddie Guerrero, airing over two nights. During the press conference, Chavo Guerrero confirmed that he will air his thoughts on the show, rather than head home immediately.


Guerrero had an absolutely stellar wrestling career, marked by his ability to deliver athletically competent, emotional, and ultimately awe inspiring performances in the ring. He was the son of the late Gory Guerrero who achieved legendary status in the wrestling rings of Mexico. His older siblings, Chavo, Mando and Hector were also wrestlers. Guerrero achieved success no matter where he wrestled; EMLL, AAA, ECW, WCW and WWE.


The 5-foot-8, 220-pound graduated from Jefferson High School in El Paso in 1985. He seemed destined to follow his older brothers into wrestling.


"Growing up, Eddie [Guerrero] and I dreamed about it. We never wanted to be anything but wrestlers. We had a ring in the backyard and we were inside it all the time," explained Chavo Guerrero in the WWE book Are We There Yet?.


Eddie, Chavo's uncle, concurred in an August 2003 interview with his hometown newspaper, the El Paso Times. "Out of my whole life, there were maybe four months that I thought I don't want to be a wrestler. But I knew what I wanted to do all my life. I grew up watching my dad and my older brothers do it. This is a dream for me."


The pinnacle of his career came at No Way Out 2004, when he beatBrock Lesnar for the WWE World title. A little more than a month later, one of his best friends in wrestling, Chris Benoit, also ascended to the top of the WWE as World Champion atWrestleMania XX. The two world champions embraced in the ring following Benoit's victory.


"You know how sometimes a dream seems too far-fetched and unreachable - well WrestleMania XX was one of the moments where I realized that dream. Not only for myself but also for Chris," Guerrero told England's Sun newspaper. "Breaking that mould of giants was great - I'll take a pat on the back for that one. Being a smaller wrestler is something I've been dealing with all my life. But it's not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, it's the size of the fight in the dog. And that's what I'd say about me and Chris."


Despite his success, it seemed he was constantly fending off his own personal demons in the form of alcohol and drug dependency. Those struggles were told in the DVD Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story.

Sir Oliver Humperdink

LEGENDARY pro wrestling manager Sir Oliver Humperdink passes away at aged 62

Humperdink - whose real name was John Sutton - had been suffering from bladder cancer and was recently been moved into hospice care.

The red-haired and flamboyant star first made a name for himself as a heel manager in Florida Championship Wrestling during the 1970s.

Forming a heel stable called The House of Humperdink, his stars dominated in the Sunshine State and other NWA territories, including Jim Crockett Promotions, based in the Carolinas

Among the many wrestlers he managed during those days were Greg Valentine, Don Muraco, Bruiser Brody, Ivan Koloff and 'Superstar' Billy Graham.

Humperdink joined the WWE in 1987 and had a brief run as the babyface manager of Bam Bam Bigelow and Paul Orndorff.

He later worked for WCW, where he managed The Fabulous Freebirds as Big Daddy Dink.

He retired in 1993 but still attended many wrestling conventions and events in association with The Cauliflower Alley Club - where he was extremely popular with both fans and his peers.

Katsuji Adachi aka Mr Hito

Mr. Hito remembered as a wrestler and trainer 

Colleagues of Katsuji Adachi, who wrestled as Mr. Hito and died Tuesday in Japan, spoke very highly of him, as a wrestler, as a trainer, and as a man.
Adachi started his career in 1956 at the age of 14 in Japan, beginning as a sumo wrestler. In the late 1960s, he turned to professional wrestling for Japan Pro Wrestling, and he worked mostly tag and mid-card matches throughout his Japanese career.

In 1973, he toured North America for the first time, working mostly in the Central States (as Tokyo Joe) and Stampede Wrestling (as Mr. Hito) territories. He held the Calgary version of the NWA International Tag Team Championship eight times with partners like Big John Quinn, Heigo "Animal" Hamaguchi and Michel Martel. He and Hamaguchi would win tag titles in Florida and what would become World Class in Dallas.

Adachi would capture the Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship in September 1981, defeating "Dr. D" David Shults.

In 2004, his most famous student, Bret "Hitman" Hart, explained what Hito meant to his father's company. "Back in the heyday of Stampede Wrestling, Hito was one of Stu's most trusted foremen and reliable workers," wrote Hart.

Others with connections to Stampede Wrestling shared their thoughts on Mr. Hito at the Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in Las Vegas.

"I think Mr. Hito set a standard for a lot of guys. If you watched him work night after night there was a consistency," said "Cowboy" Dan Kroffat, one of Stampede Wrestling's biggest stars of the 1970s. "He was solid, he was believable, and I think he was the type of guy that if you worked with him, you'd have a good match because he was the kind of guy that was serious and he was a professional through and through."

Bob Leonard, longtime photographer and promoter in western Canada, explained what Mr. Hito meant to Stampede. "To the promotion, one of the most dependable people there, one of the most talented people there, tough man, good at just about anything. He was a good man to work with," said Leonard.

But for all of his accomplishments in the ring, Adachi's legacy is probably best summed up by those he helped train, both officially and through his willingness to share his knowledge.

Adachi assisted in the training of Bret Hart, Shinya Hashimoto, Kensuke Sasaki, Jushin "Thunder" Lyger, Hiro Saito and Hiroshi Hase when they worked for Stampede out of Calgary during the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside his partner, Kazuo Sakurada. The two worked alongside Stu Hart in the infamous "Dungeon" for years.

However, according to Akio Sato, who knew Adachi in Japan, he was always a helpful man. "When I started in the business, he was a bit of a trainer with the young boys, he was giving all the new guys advice, how to do their training and stuff like that," said Sato. 


"He always liked to teach young boys. He was funny and makes jokes, but also, he's been through it, so he takes time for the young boys. Leonard called Adachi "a great trainer."

"Hito and Sakurata trained Bret and certainly others," he said. "Hito was the type of a guy that would share his knowledge in the dressing room in a two-minute conversation or a 25-minute conversation. A real credit to the business."

In a Calgary Sun column, the Hitman simply asked: "People often say to me: Where would wrestling be without Bret Hart? But my answer to that is: Where would Bret Hart be without Mr. Hito?"

Kroffat saw Adachi share his knowledge continually.

"Mr. Hito was a trainer. He was a quiet guy and went about, if someone wanted help, he was there, he was available," Kroffat said, adding that that was an exception in the business. "Quite often we were so concerned with taking care of our own work that we didn't look around us. 


But Mr. Hito was there if there was a guy who needed a tip or needed advice, he would do it. Obviously, he was instrumental in helping guys go to Japan. So I would say an ambassador to the business for sure in a quiet, unassuming way; he wasn't boisterous, he wasn't outspoken, and if he had an ego, it was well contained."

Bob Johnson began his involvement with Stampede Wrestling in 1979, in a variety of roles, including advance publicity. He remembered one time when the travel van broke down on the way to a show, and two bad guys guys, Mr. Hito and the Cuban Assassin(Angel Acevedo), were forced to fill time.

"They went about 20 minutes, then half an hour, then 45 minutes, then another five minutes, then another five minutes," recalled Johnson. "I think it was about an hour match with Cuban Assassin and Mr. Hito and they were both heels at the time, if you can believe it. One of the great matches that I've seen, two real troopers held that show together. The van did eventually get there, but the fans really enjoyed that one hour match."

Mr. Hito wasn't always a villain in Stampede, though. "[It] used to amaze me that Hito could become such a hero in a western Canadian city. Looking back, it makes perfect sense when you consider that fans in Calgary always applauded technically-sound wrestlers," wrote Hart.

Johnson said that Adachi stayed involved with Stampede crowd during his time in Calgary, where he retired to and raised a family. "I spent a lot of time with old Mr. Hito and you couldn't fool him on anything. Very smart guy," said Johnson.

A automobile accident in 1982 would slow down Adachi's career before he finally retired in 1986. He moved to Osaka, Japan about 2003, and ran a restaurant.

For years, Adachi battled diabetes, and lost his right leg to the disease about six months ago. His death on April 20th came at a hospital in Japan. A ten count ceremony was held at the following New Japan Pro Wrestling show in Osaka, Japan.

Brian "Crush" Adams

Brian "Crush" Adams Found Dead

Brian Adams, who worked as Demolition Crush and was half of the KroniK tag team, has been found dead. He was 43.

A Tampa Police Department report obtained by TMZ.com indicated that Adams "was found by his wife unconscious in bed not breathing." She called 911, but medical personel were unable to revive him. He was pronounced dead at the scene. No reason for his death was noted in the report.

Adams was a boxer in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Japan, when Antonio Inoki discovered him and talked him into going into professional wrestling. When his time in the service was up, he trained in the New Japan dojo for a year. He was one of two gaijin, or foreigners, to make it through the New Japan dojo in the 1980s. The other was Chris Benoit.

In the United States, Adams debuted in the Pacific Northwest in 1986, which was one of the few remaining territories left. He was named The American Ninja under a mask, and teamed with "The Grappler" Len Denton as The Wrecking Crew for a time. The duo held the Pacific Northwest Tag Team titles, feuding with Steve Doll and Rex King. Later in 1990, Adams was Pacific Northwest heavyweight champ. He lost the title to Scott Norton.

In 2006, Norton talked about Adams. "I always had a certain amount of respect for him, because he always thought everything through," Norton said. "He'd make the smallest decision, and he's sitting there, you ask him a question, and give him about two minutes. He'd think about every scenario, how this could go good, how it could go bad, Then he'd answer you. But he'd use his head. A lot of guys don't do that."

In the WWF in 1990, Adams was thrust into the Demolition tag team with Axe (Bill Eadie) and Smash (Barry Darsow). The three shared the tag team titles in the summer of 1990, using the "Freebird Rule" where any pairing could defend the belts. The WWF wanted ultimately to phase Axe out of the team, but when they lost the tag titles, the team lost steam and was disbanded a short-time later.

When the team dissolved, Crush returned to Oregon for a stint, but would return as a "surfer-type" singles babyface in the WWF. A native of Hawaii, it wasn't a stretch. He had a memorable run with Doink the Clown (Matt Borne) and former tag partner Darsow who was then known as The Repo Man.
Adams would run into legal problems in personal life including a short jail term for gun possession in 1995. When he returned to the WWF, Vince McMahon gave him a new persona, playing off his real life problems. A heel Crush was introduced in 1996 complete with a faux tattoo on his face and a biker-style gimmick.

After leaving the WWF in 1997, Adams resurfaced in WCW and joined the New World Order faction. He was never more than a mid-card wrestlers for the promotion, including a one-time appearance as the Kiss Demon (before the role was given to Dale Torborg), until the tag team KroniK was formed when Adams was paired with Bryan Clark. The duo would hold WCW's tag team titles on two occasions.

The titles were a compliment to their abilities, said Clark in a 2005 interview with New Path Productions. "It meant a lot to us. I wish we'd have gotten the push we deserved instead of being held back so that we could have remained champions."

In an interview with the same website, Adams talked about Clark. "Bryan is a great partner, we're a soul team. We knew what each other's next move was without a word between us. That's a real tag team."

Adams as half of KroniK

KroniK was brought into the WWF after the purchase of WCW, a part of the Alliance storyline. The team would feud with The Undertaker and Kane.
That was the last prominent U.S. run for Adams. He and Clark would have one strong run for All Japan, including winning the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship over Keiji Mutoh and Taiyo Kea in July 2002. The two would vacant the titles in October 2002, when Adams left the promotion to pursue a boxing career.

Adams would never see his first boxing match, as he suffered a shoulder injury while training for a bout with Rick Zufal in November 2002. He tried to return to wrestling but injured his back in January 2003, ending his career.
In recent years he had worked as a bodyguard to Randy "Macho Man" Savage.