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Submitted by Xan on Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 6:38 PM EST
 "I'm naming all the stars."--Drusilla Like many of you, I logged onto LordsofPain.net last Sunday morning to check if any wrestling news was going on and got a huge shock. Eddie Guerrero was dead. It hit me pretty hard, as I was choked up when I told my wife that for the second time in 8 years one of my favorite wrestlers had died in a Twin Cities hotel room. A few minutes later, I told my boy, Cody, that Eddie Guerrero died. He looked sad for about half a minute, then he said, "I wonder who'll take his spot, Papa." He's nine and showed about the same amount of emotion when his great-grandma died in late October. Cut him a break. I do. My sadness over Guerrero's death lives on, as I expect it will for a long time. These wrestlers we watch every week are more real to us in a lot of ways than the people we actually know, because we constantly see them displaying their emotions and giving a lot of themselves to us show after show after show and though Cody meant in the World Title Triple Threat match that was advertised at the end of Smackdown, it turns out to have been a very good question, indeed. Who can possibly take Eddie Guerrero's spot? Is there a man alive who can? I think Randy Orton will probably get the World Title for the second time this Tuesday at the Smackdown tapings, and more power to him. I've never liked the guy, but at times like this, likes and dislikes go out the window, and so does everything else. Personally, I believe that Orton's back-dooring his way into the title. Batista's injured, Benoit has yet to sign, and the man who would be our World Champ right now is no longer alive. However, as sure as I am that "The Legend Killer" isn't fit to strap "Latino Heat"'s boots, I'm equally sure that Orton wouldn't have wanted things to go down this way. So, I wish Orton well on his title reign and hope that it goes a lot better than the last time he won it, because someone has to carry the day. The show must go on. "You can't see the stars, love. That's the ceiling; also it's day."--Spike After all, did Vince McMahon not say so at the beginning of the first WWF tribute to our fallen hero? Of course he did. He said the show must go on because Eddie would have wanted it that way. Regardless of whether this is true or not, I have to ask, "Why must the show go on?" All things end, and is it just me, or does this not seem the perfect time to add the World Wrestling Federation to that list of things that cease to exist? I'm sure that a month for now I'll feel like this was an awful thing to say, but right now my pain is still raw and tomorrow night RAW will cause that pain to intensify. But, I'm still going to watch, because I want to give the WWF a chance to convince me that everything can be okay again. I'm willing to sit through two hours of pain if I can find something--anything--in that two hours that will give me a reason to go on as a fan of the organization. I'd love to say that the two tribute shows did that, but they didn't. They were filled with great matches, yes, but so is ROH from all reports, and I have yet to buy so much as a single one of their DVDs. Cena won me over as a fan of his again last week because of the class he showed putting the WWF Title atop Eddie's shirt, but what is he going to do tomorrow night to keep me there? It's a tough question. It's an unfair question. But, nothing in wrestling has hit me this hard since the Montreal Incident. After that event, I distrusted Vince McMahon so much that I stopped watching the World Wrestling Federation regularly for more than 6 months. I still caught a few eps of RAW, as well as the Royal Rumble 1998, but for the most part I was uninterested in a wrestling product that didn't feature Bret Hart. It took the Austin/McMahon war to really get me back into the organization. I'm really dreading a week of wrestling without Eddie Guerrero, and here I sit wondering what it will take to get me back into the WWF, even to the extent I was a week ago. "I can see them, but I've named them all the same name and there's terrible confusion."--Drusilla I feel that, as a wrestling fan, I'm in a trance that it'll take me months to snap out of. Like I said, only Bret Hart's departure from the WWF has ever hit my fandom this hard. Not even the deaths of Brian Pillman and Owen Hart could touch me the way this has, and I have to feel not only for the wrestlers, especially those that were Eddie's closest fans, and for his family, but for the writers, as well. I don't mean to be disrespectful to Eddie, far from it. The man was one of my favorites and I was looking forward to seeing him reign as World Champion. But, if the show really must go on, where is there for it to go? What direction can the writers possibly take it in? They've got to somehow pull a show off tomorrow night that will both transition from the Eddie transition show and plug their next Pay Per View, Survivor Series. While Flair/Triple H and Angle/Cena basically sell themselves, they've got to make the 10-man Survivor Series match seem important again, when really most of us would just like to forget about it at this point. As a writer, what do you do? Well, you can take the high road and hope people will buy the show anyway--like my brother and I will--just because it's tradition, or you can do the smart thing and try to generate something positive from the death of one of the best wrestler's the world has ever seen. The show must go on, right? Well, then, let the show gain momentum from Eddie. How much more heat would Masters, Edge, and Bischoff get if they talk about how they are going to dominate now that the Smackdown team is weakened? Wouldn't this really turn the two wrestlers into monster heels and simply maintain the whole "Bischoff is a weasel" theme that we've had running for over 3 years now? Would it be in poor taste? Yes. Would people take notice? Also, yes. Is it a good idea? I don't know. But, remember, I don't even know if it's a good idea for the WWF to continue right now. I miss Eddie terribly, and if I do, then I know the wrestlers are still barely functioning. "Some play it smart. *I* had a ball. Some of us fly; all of us fall."--Merle Haggard But, watching the tribute show basically all of them said the same thing, "Eddie loved his family, he loved this business, and he'd want us to continue because that's the kind of guy he was." I always got that feeling from him, myself, along with the fact that he never minded giving others the rub and giving everything he had to professional wrestling. Well, this is the last chance he'll ever have to do this. Edge has proven he's an asshole, and if he can be blasé about ending Hardy's career, than what's to stop him from doing the same about Eddie's death? This could lead to a feud that would make both he and Chavo, and I think Uncle Eddie really wanted his nephew to become a star. And, what about Orton? If Orton's title reign is to succeed--if he is to become the player in this business that everyone but me seems to think he is--something big has to happen. A victory over Batista isn't big enough, but burying the Undertaker alive? Aye, now that would do it. While I think the WWF has probably at least entertained the notion of scratching this planned match for Survivor Series, due to the untimely death of Guerrero, but, again, how much heat would Orton have if he buried another legend right on the heels of Eddie's passing? This is the kind of thing Randy will need to be a strong champion. I want to apologize if I seem insensitive, here. While I think the RAW and SmackDown Tribute shows were a great way to honor the memory of Eddie Guerrero, I think the idea I've laid out is another way to honor the great spirit he always brought to the business. My idea probably seems misguided and unworkable as all hell, but I'm trying to answer the question we as fans all want to know: What now?  Please e-mail any feedback to me at XanManX@hotmail.com, with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line. The Northern Star will rise again. Until then, I bid you... Long days, pleasant nights
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