3 hours Ago By RobertLeightyJr
-I am intrigued by this one as I know the name Eddie Gilbert, but mainly from his run in Global that I would see on ESPN as a kid. I know doing my run of NWA/WCW shows since 1989, he popped up a few times as well and then had a run in ECW. Let’s get to it! -Weekly reminder that Chris Jericho is our narrator! -Preview shows who you would expect as Talking Heads for this episode: Jim Cornette, Ricky Morton, Mick Foley, and Dutch Mantel among others.
-Show opening! -Doug Gilbert, Eddie’s brother, starts us out and says Eddie was a generation ahead of his time. He says Eddie’s 32 years were spent living life more than others do in double that time. He looked up to Eddie and says he was his best friend, who looked out for him.
He notes Eddie’s obsession was wrestling and thought about it all the time. He would make up his own wrestling cards and write out the shows like we all did at one point. Then we were gifted EWR and I still play it to this day.
-Jim Cornette brings the history as he notes Eddie’s dad, Tommy, was one of the most popular wrestlers in the Tennessee territory in the last 60s. Jim was friends with Eddie before they started their careers. They both took photos at matches and ran into each other that way.
-Dutch Mantel brings up Eddie being a photographer who worked his way into the back and learned the business. Cornette says Eddie turned 18 and started wresting as a tag team with his father. We have old audio and video of Eddie talking about looking up to his father.
He was taught by his father to be able to work any style and Tommy was brought up by old timers that would beat on you. Cornette says Tennessee wrestling was blood and guts and we see video of the 2nd Tupelo Concession Brawl that Eddie took part in that paid tribute to the first one that involved Jerry Lawler. Years later WCW was pay homage with their more tame version at Uncensored.
-Ricky Morton is here and he was part of that second Tupelo Brawl. Ricky: “That shit hurts, brah.” He says he was best friends with Eddie and mentions that was a hardcore match but they didn’t know that at the time.
Cornette mentions Onita was involved in the match and he took the style back to Japan and we got FMW. -Next is Darla Staggs and she met Eddie when he was 17 and they became good friends. She covers Eddie’s run in the WWF.
Ricky says you can’t say no because the WWF is Madison Square Garden. Eddie took Doug with him when he made his MSG debut. We see footage of him working a match for WWF at The Spectrum against Tiger Mask.
-Eddie tells the story of driving to meet Vince McMahon. He was hit from behind by a truck and was in critical condition. Mantel says the steering wheel hit above his heart and made his heart like Jello.
He also had a broken neck and was told he would never wrestle again. Eddie wasn’t accepting that so he pushed himself to make a return and he was back in the ring three months later. Ricky: “When you break your neck, they don’t send you home with Tylenol Plus.
You understand me?” -Commercials! -Cornette says Eddie came back probably too quick, but didn’t want to lose his spot. They ran an angle where The Masked Superstar went after the neck and Jim says that is where Eddie unfortunately met Dr. Zahorian.
Uh oh! Jim throws Dr under the bus and Eddie gets pain killers to let him keep working. -Hey, Hulk Hogan is mentioned as the WWF was going in a new direction and became the land of The Giants and Eddie was on the smaller side. Ricky says Eddie didn’t want to go down the bodybuilder path, but they did a little something something to tone their bodies.
Eddie also though the WWF was too show business and he wanted to go back to Memphis as a heel. -Hot Stuff is born as Eddie knew the fans wanted more talking and excess in the 80s. He was a cocky heel that thought he was better than everyone else.
Jim says he came up with a pattern and style thatw as all his own. Darla notes he was still the same sweet guy. -Cornette mentions Eddie combined the best parts of all the heels he watched as a kid and that led to a legendary feud with Jerry Lawler.
Eddie wanted to be the King of Wrestling in Memphis and Lawler had that Crown. -Eddie gets his first shot as a booker running shows in Louisiana for Bill Watts’ Mid-South. Eddie had ideas since he was 17, but knew nobody was listen so he had to wait until he was 25.
They show the angle with the Koloffs attack Bill Watts and Eddie covers him with the Soviet Union Flag and the crowd riots. -Morton covers the guys Eddie got to work with in the Mid-South: Sting, Rick Steiner, Ultimate Warrior, Dr. Death.
All of them got to work under Eddie. He thinks everyone is falling in place, but Mid-South sells out to Jim Crockett, who then sells to Turner. -Eddie ends up part of WCW’s Creative Team and Dutch says that is one of the worst things to be on.
Ric Flair makes a power play and gets the book. Jim says Ric did not know much about Tennessee wrestling or Eddie Gilbert. Ric booked Eddie to lose to Ron Simmons in Memphis and Eddie thought it was a mistake as he can’t lose in Memphis, so he changed the finish.
Ric calls Cornette and bitches about Gilbert changing the finish and he wants him moved out. He offers Jim the spot Eddie had and Jim notes he always wanted to have a spot like that but now it was at the expense of a friend. -Commercials! -Jim says they never had a face-to-face disagreement, but Eddie would tell people he went to the booking meeting and Jim was in his spot.
Jim says that never happened as Eddie knew he was on his way out because he messed with the finish of matches Flair booked. -Eddie goes back to Memphis and pushes the envelope as he knew the fans were getting smarter. They cover the hit and run angle where Eddie hits Lawler with a car.
It’s a pretty nasty dump as Doug notes they were going way too fast for the spot. The fans called the police because it’s Memphis and that shit is real down there. Lawler had to come out and clear things over with the cops, but Eddie admits he would have spent a week in jail if it meant getting a wrestling angle over.
I don’t doubt that at all. -Eddie and Doug were so hated, someone pulled a butcher knife on them in the parking lot. There was a cop close by that was able to stop the guy.
Doug says to see what is happening with wrestling today and go back and see what Eddie was doing in the 80s. -Dutch says Eddie was never a booker in a place for more than six months. Eddie talks about the power struggle and how fighting battles wasn’t worth it, so he bounced for promotion to promotion.
As he does all this, he develops a relationship with Missy Hyatt. -Jim says she was one of the first women in wrestling that was attractive and used as a valet for the top heels. Elizabeth! Missy was fine and all respect, but Miss Elizabeth will always be the first lady of wrestling.
Missy audio from 2024 as she talks about how she hoped Eddie would be able to relax after leaving WCW, but he had no hobbies as wrestling was his life. Their marriage lasted about 18 months according to Doug. -Morton says Eddie loved beautiful ladies and that brings us to Madusa.
She is here and says she got to work in the ring with Eddie and that led to their relationship. They teamed in a match against Foley and Luna Vachon. They instantly hit it off and were soon married.
She says his family was so loving and she felt welcomed by all of them. We see Christmas videos of them together with the family. She says Eddie loved his family and the dynamic felt healthy.
She says the marriage was wonderful for the beginning but Eddie wasn’t the man she fell in love with by the end. She notes that Eddie fell asleep in his food one night. -Dutch saw him do something similar and Eddie told him it was none of his business and Dutch agreed.
Doug said he saw others doing worse, so he didn’t think Eddie’s issues were bad. The pills had taken over Eddie and Madusa says he wanted to get better, but it didn’t happen. -Commercials! -Mick Foley is here and says he and Eddie had the best feud of the indie scene.
We see video of barbed wire matches they had. Mick says he didn’t know Eddie was having trouble with pills and he was from an era where they weren’t frowned upon. Eddie kept everything inside and told Madusa he needed to get better.
He decided to end the marriage and said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do. -We are in the early 90s with all the territories going out of business, so all he really had was a new promotion in Philly, ECW. Tod Gordon, founder and originator of ECW, says he worked with Eddie to get ECW off the ground.
They wanted a more believable product than what WWF and WCW were offering. Gordon says Eddie wanted to be the King of Philly like Lawler was the King of Memphis. Eddie told Todd “this is wrestling and you can do anything.
” That was the foundation of ECW and Tod notes “without Eddie there is no ECW.” -Cornette says Paul Heyman is the most brilliant manager on the wrestling scene today, but back then he was learning how to book shows from Eddie. Heyman interview from 2013 and he calls Eddie his mentor and best friend at the time.
He puts over Eddie as a magnificent booker and the combination of the two of them worked. -Gordon says Eddie started showing up late to show about six months into the ECW run. His attitude had change and Gordon didn’t know how drugs affected people.
He says Eddie had lost the fun side and Heyman says it was not the same guy that contributed so much to the business. Paul had a deal to work with Crockett and Eddie was paranoid and thought they were abandoning him. He told them he and Doug were quitting.
-Commercials! -ECW had a show booked called Ultra Clash and Eddie stormed out five days before the show. Eddie apologized two days before the show, but Todd already had him replaced. Eddie asked if he could come to the show and wants to thank the fans for supporting him.
Doug says Eddie wanted to cut a promo and thank the fans. Paul lost it and told them to cut the mic as he though Eddie was going to screw him. That pissed off Doug and he started destroying things in the back with a baseball bat.
Gordon says that was the end of the Paul/Eddie relationship and they never spoke again. Eddie: “In the end, Paul E learned too well and I will leave it at that.” Paul takes ECW to new heights and rebrands Eastern Championship Wrestling into Extreme Championship Wrestling.
-Jim brings up that Eddie shot one of the first shoot interviews (that’s the video they have been playing for sound bites here) as it was a chance for him to plead his case to the hardcore, smart fans. It pissed off some people as Eddie was raised in the business and you didn’t expect that from him. Doug notes that 10 years later, everyone is doing it.
Jim says Eddie did it in 1994 and not in 2004. -Jim is running Smokey Mountain and asks Eddie to come to a TV Taping. He has a match with Morton and looks great.
They had an angle planned, but Eddie tells Ricky he hopes it doesn’t happen as he has a chance to book in Puerto Rico. Ricky tells him he is happy for him and will cover if he doesn’t come back to TV. Cornette: “After that first TV Taping, I never saw Eddie Gilbert again.
He was dead three months later.” -Commercials! -Next week: Billy Jack Haynes! About to get crazy! -Eddie heads to work for WWC and The Colons in Puerto Rico as a booker. Doug shows off Eddie’s briefcase that he carried around in Puerto Rico and we see booking notes he had.
He booked himself against the wrestling bear. He invited Doug to come down and the next day Eddie was found dead. He was found with headphones on as he was listening to music.
-Feb 18, 1995: Eddie dies from heart failure in his early 30s. Puerto Rico you can get any drugs you want. There was speculation about drugs, but the cause of death was heart failure.
Doug says they did things they should not have done, but Eddie had a damaged heart from the car wreck. -Cornette breaks down a bit as he notes if Eddie was still alive, he would be 1 month older than he is right now. Madusa says they kept in contact and would write letters to each other.
She reads one of the letters and she starts to cry as well. It was one of the last letters she received from him. “He was a good person and he meant well.
” -Ricky says Eddie gave his heart and soul to wrestling and he wants fans to remember that. Madusa says all Eddie wanted was the wrestling business. Doug breaks down as he says it will be 30 years since Eddie’s passing and he loved him.
Eddie did what he loved until the last day of his life. -Solid episode though I wouldn’t say anything was really on the Dark Side. Eddie had a pain killer problem like thousands of guys.
He also burned some bridges due to wanting to be a booker which is also something we see countless times. He seems to have been well loved by friends and family. He was just a massive wrestling fan that wanted nothing more than to work in the business.
You can obviously see he was ahead of his time with the hardcore wrestling and trying to mess with smart fans. Next week we get crazy with Billy Jack. Thanks for reading!.
