Dark Side of The Ring S6 E06 29th April 2025 Full Show HD | WWE Dark Side of The Ring Season 6 Episode 6th 2025
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00:00Eddie Gilbert knew what he needed to do to attract attention to himself.
00:13Get that camera up here on me just a second.
00:15He was a sneaky, conniving, dirty backstabber.
00:18He really thought he was hot stuff.
00:21Egotistical, arrogant, conceited, self-confident.
00:24He loved the crowd.
00:26You cowards of Justin, Alabama!
00:28Eddie himself was the complete opposite of that.
00:32What he loved was creating.
00:35Born into professional wrestling, Eddie Gilbert's vision and ambition had a profound impact on the business he loved.
00:42This is not wrestling, this is a free fight!
00:44He would see the shift before the shift.
00:47Ed said, this is wrestling, you can do anything.
00:50This is getting out of hand!
00:51Sure enough, Eddie was right, not Eddie, there's no ECW.
00:55You're the king of Philadelphia!
00:57He would have gone on to be one of the most influential minds in wrestling.
01:02But it didn't happen that way.
01:04A rising star with undeniable charisma, Eddie's demons threatened his career from the start.
01:10I've worked too hard and too long!
01:12Eddie could burn a bridge better than anybody.
01:14He has a history of going to territories and just leaving.
01:18Eddie, a small thing could set him off.
01:20I have been run out of any wrestling organization I've ever been in!
01:25For Eddie, coping with the chronic pain from a life-threatening injury came at a devastating cost.
01:33Night after night of putting your body through that abuse, I don't think that pain ever loved him.
01:40We just want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to a real warrior.
01:45You know, Eddie passed away 30 years ago.
01:48And he's still f***ing missed.
01:50But this is a story of what if.
01:54What if this didn't happen?
01:56What if this didn't happen?
01:59What if?
02:00Eddie, we're on.
02:12Eddie!
02:12Oh, oh, okay.
02:14Hello, everyone.
02:15I think what the wrestling business lost was a great worker and a mind that was about a generation ahead of what anybody else is at the time.
02:27But I look at what my brother did and his angles and pushing the limits.
02:34And the guys that he helped in his short life.
02:37It's you and me, brother!
02:38He lived 32 years.
02:41He done more in that 32 than most people would do in 70.
02:44He made the best out of all of them.
02:47And to me, that's where you tell the character of a person.
02:51I'm Dangerous Doug Gilbert, and I've been in the wrestling business about 36 years.
02:55My brother is Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert.
02:57Tell him Hot Stuff!
02:59I looked up to Eddie.
03:01I mean, he was an idol of mine also.
03:04He was a fun guy.
03:06I mean, he was my best friend.
03:08And Eddie looked out for me, and I was lucky enough to have that.
03:12That's when we was partners in Memphis and everything.
03:15To me, that's really cool.
03:16That's history.
03:17It's like a museum.
03:19His life and obsession was wrestling.
03:22He thought about it all the time.
03:24Let's kick some ass and draw some money.
03:26That was a big one.
03:28When he was a kid, he would make cards out with his friends' names on it.
03:31And I think that's when my dad realized he was actually really serious, serious about the business.
03:36Eddie's father, Tommy Gilbert, was one of the most popular wrestlers in the Tennessee territory from the late 60s through the early 80s.
03:43Eddie grew up watching that, and that was what Eddie had his sights set on.
03:48I'm Jim Cornette, and I was friends with Eddie Gilbert even before he began his pro wrestling career.
03:54We started in wrestling in the same way.
03:57Eddie began taking ringside pictures of the matches in Memphis at the Mid-South Coliseum.
04:02And at the same age, I started doing it in Louisville.
04:04And we ran into each other at the matches and just instantly developed a friendship.
04:10Eddie, I think, was 16.
04:12Instead of saying, oh, I'm Tommy Gilbert's son, he would walk in with a tripod.
04:18So that was how he was getting access to the dressing room.
04:22He was slowly, slowly working his way in.
04:25He loved, loved the wrestling business.
04:28My name is Dutch Mantell, commonly called Dirty Dutch.
04:32And I've been in this wrestling business for over 50 years, and I used to work with Eddie Gilbert.
04:38You better watch your big, fat lip, Gilbert.
04:40He would watch Memphis live television on Saturday morning at 11 o'clock.
04:45He would study how it was produced.
04:47He would study when the commercials came on.
04:51When Eddie turned 18, that's when he started his major league wrestling career as partners with his father, Tommy.
04:58From Lexington, Tennessee, the Gilberts, Tommy and Eddie.
05:02Tommy and Eddie Gilbert, father and son champions.
05:05My brother was thrilled any time to do anything like this with my dad.
05:09My dad was both of our heroes, and he wanted my dad to be proud of him.
05:14What teamwork by the Gilberts?
05:15I mean, the real idol of my life was my dad.
05:19So I got to have a lot of good matches with him.
05:20I still have him tape.
05:21I really enjoy watching back forth and remember how it looks 10 years ago.
05:26I was 12 now.
05:27When he was training Eddie, it was for you to really be able to say that you're great.
05:32You've got to be able to work with any style.
05:35Oh, the bloody Tommy Gilbert in the ring right now.
05:37Tommy Gilbert had been trained by the old timers.
05:40The way that they laid the blows in, you could hear the smack of the meat and the flesh from the cheap seats in the arena.
05:48Genesee wrestling is about brawling, fighting, blood and guts, personal issues, hatred, rivalries, animosity.
05:59Hey, you guys save that for the ring.
06:00And Eddie Gilbert fit right into that.
06:04Here comes Eddie.
06:05Look at that.
06:06I just never got that chance, even up to 81, that I could show that I had any kind of character at all.
06:10So Ricky Morton and I had this chance to go to Tupelo.
06:13And they went into the concession stand of the Tupelo sports arena and had a knockdown drag-out brawl involving furniture and concessions and hot dogs and mustard.
06:26Moochie nails with mustard and blood all over it.
06:29It was a very believable fight because I think even the people involved in it believed it.
06:34They were knocking the shit out of each other.
06:36Oh, Nita's head busted wide open.
06:39We was just hitting each other in the head with pots and pans and chairs.
06:44Rick Morton hammered with a garbage can top.
06:48I mean, that shit hurts, buddy.
06:50I'm Ricky Morton, one half of the Rock and Grill Express.
06:53One of the greatest babyface tag teams ever.
06:57And I was best friends with Eddie Gilbert.
07:02You see, it was a hardcore match, really.
07:05But at that time, we didn't understand that.
07:07As a matter of fact, that night is where Atsushi Onita got the idea for hardcore wrestling that he took back to Japan.
07:17And in the 90s, made a fortune with it came from that night in Tupelo, Mississippi.
07:22What a brawl.
07:25Yeah, keep shooting.
07:25We're not going to be able to show a lot of them.
07:27And just keep shooting it.
07:30He was always on fire.
07:32Thank you very much.
07:33I like to say hello to all my friends and family and everyone out there.
07:36Let's face it.
07:37He was a good-looking kid.
07:39My name is Darla Staggs.
07:41And I met Eddie Gilbert when he was 17 years old.
07:44We were just good, good friends.
07:47He went on to work for WWE.
07:50It was a dream for him.
07:53And it was his road to stardom.
07:56Memphis was great, but WWF, you know, it's Madison Square Garden.
08:03I mean, what are you going to say?
08:05No.
08:06Making his Madison Square Garden debut, Eddie Gilbert.
08:11My brother brought me with him to New York.
08:14I guess I was 12 or 11.
08:16Doug and Eddie were close, very close.
08:19Eddie was 18 years old, and he's hanging out with his 11-year-old brother.
08:24That says something to me.
08:26Being two small-town country boys, seeing him in Madison Square Garden, I was really proud of that.
08:32Eddie wasn't a big guy, and that actually helped him.
08:37Oh, that was beautiful.
08:38He had great timing.
08:41You see, that was Eddie getting his foot through the door.
08:44Right back on his feet.
08:45You see that?
08:45You believe it?
08:47Fans are loving that.
08:49En route to a meeting with WWF's patriarch, a tragic series of events is triggered.
08:56Went to my room, got a shower drip.
08:59It was already like 12 o'clock, so I was tired.
09:02And I started driving.
09:04And all of a sudden, a room right on the back of the truck.
09:11We got a phone call at my house.
09:13It was like 1 to 2 in the morning.
09:16And they said, Mr. Gilbert, it's your son, Eddie?
09:19And she said, yes.
09:20And they said, he's been in an accident.
09:22They didn't even know that they could keep him alive.
09:25He's in critical condition, and it broke his neck.
09:28The steering wheel, I think, hit him right here in the solar plexus, like, about over
09:33his heart.
09:33They said he will never wrestle again.
09:36His heart was like jello.
09:37It would never heal.
09:39He wasn't even 22 years old yet.
09:43And suddenly, his career may be over.
09:46That was not acceptable.
09:47It wasn't an option for Eddie.
09:49No matter how catastrophic the injury was, he was going to get back in the ring.
09:53When something like that happens to you, it takes a long, long time to get over that.
09:59It takes years.
10:01Put yourself in that situation.
10:03You still want that opportunity.
10:06So that's why you keep going.
10:08Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome back the very popular Eddie Gilbert.
10:17Three months later, he will start back wrestling again.
10:20Such is the tenacity of this young man, Eddie Gilbert, who has made it all the way back.
10:24I can speak for myself.
10:26You know, it was a hard, long road in our business.
10:30Ooh, you wonder if blows like that, if it would affect the neck.
10:33Apparently not.
10:34When you have a car wreck and break your neck, they don't send you home with Tylenol Plus.
10:40You understand me?
10:41I'm sure he would be back in the ring if he was not ready.
10:46It takes a tremendous amount of courage for a man that had a broken neck to come back into wrestling.
10:54Eddie came back to wrestling probably too quick, but he wanted to get back before he lost his spot.
10:59They did an angle based on the fact that the fans knew that he'd had a serious neck injury.
11:06And they used the masked superstar to allegedly re-injure the broken neck.
11:12Oh, no!
11:13Oh!
11:14Oh!
11:15Now there's no need for anything like that.
11:17See those scars there on the throat?
11:20That was from the automobile accident.
11:22And unfortunately, that is where Eddie met Dr. George Zahorian.
11:27I'm presently evaluating Eddie Gilbert following a traumatic accident to the vertebrae of his neck.
11:34Dr. George Zahorian was a doctor in Pennsylvania, was also appointed by the Athletic Commission to be the doctor to give physicals and etc. to all the wrestlers.
11:43Anything that the wrestlers wanted, drugs, substances, whatever that he could prescribe, there was your guy.
11:52Now you've got Eddie Gilbert, who's had a severe neck injury.
11:57What do you think is going to happen?
11:59He was in a lot of pain from the wreck, but the doctors prescribed him something, he would definitely take it.
12:06When he was doing it to be able to work, I guess that was our justification.
12:12As Eddie steps back into the ring, the WWF charts a new direction, jeopardizing his climb to the top.
12:19The WWF at the time was like superheroes.
12:22That was the Hulk Hogan starting there.
12:25Everybody that was up there got bigger.
12:26Oh, look at that!
12:28I didn't want to go that bodybuilder path, and Eddie didn't want to either.
12:32Now, we might have did a little something-something to tone you up, but you get caught up in that circus act.
12:40I think Eddie thought that some of the stuff they do in WWE was too much show business and not enough realism.
12:48I knew that meant that I was probably going to be probably buried.
12:52And I thought to be the best career move was to leave and go back home to Memphis to be a heel,
12:59because I knew that when I started in a business, that's all I wanted to be, and I thought that was my calling.
13:04Returning to the southern territories, Eddie reinvents himself as a villain and creates his most iconic persona.
13:11Eddie knew that in the 80s, the people expected more excitement, more action, more life, more talking.
13:24I am the greatest wrestler, the prettiest face, and the greatest set of brains for a professional wrestler.
13:29He had the flashy sequined jacket, frosted the hair blonde, and he was wearing sunglasses.
13:35Now, he's this guy that looked like he just stepped off this new thing called MTV.
13:41A cocky heel that really thought he was hot stuff and was better than everybody else.
13:47Listen to me, boy, when I'm talking to you!
13:50He came up with a patter and a style that was all of his own.
13:54Heaven won't take me, and hell's afraid I'll take over.
13:57My grandmother said to me, he's so mean and dirty, I just hate him.
14:02If you hate him, that means he's doing his job well.
14:06But you know what? He's still the same sweet guy that he's always been.
14:10No, he's not either.
14:12It was an amalgamation of all of the heels that Eddie had watched over the years, and it worked.
14:20One of his idols was Jerry the King Lawler.
14:22Who's the greatest wrestler in the world, and why am I?
14:24He was the undisputed king of Memphis wrestling.
14:27Lawler, from the top rope, he gets it!
14:29I am in rare form, and I guess you saw it right there, didn't you?
14:32The first chance he got, he went to wrestle Jerry Lawler.
14:36Lawler, I want to tell you something, brother.
14:37You're not hungry anymore.
14:38I am.
14:39He ultimately wanted to follow in Jerry Lawler's footsteps as the king of Memphis wrestling.
14:46Jerry Lawler, look what you've done to me!
14:49When an opportunity comes, you've got to chase your dream.
14:52Hey, stop, Eddie Gilbert!
14:54You're going to be real hot, brother!
14:56I'm hot!
14:56Eddie had that in his mind.
14:59He knew that.
15:00That's why he was successful down south.
15:02Already a star in Memphis, Eddie gets his first shot at fulfilling his dream of becoming a company's booker in Louisiana,
15:10working for Bill Watts Mid-South Wrestling.
15:13The booker is basically the matchmaker.
15:15Even from the time he was a teenager, Eddie already had that in his sights.
15:19I knew I was 17, and no one was going to listen to me, so I had to wait until I was 25, which was, I was still one of the youngest ever to get a chance.
15:27That's Eddie Gilbert doing out there.
15:29They're getting ready to find out, I think.
15:30Wrestling is more than just doing the moves.
15:33Wrestling is telling a story.
15:34I really think I need to set the record straight because I am not a communist, ladies and gentlemen.
15:39And Eddie, Eddie was very good at that.
15:41You can do whatever you want to with this flag.
15:43I'd like to give it to you.
15:45Let's convert it!
15:46Everybody loved Bill Watts.
15:48He's in the big cowboy babyface down there.
15:51And everybody thought Eddie was going to do something trickier, low down.
15:55Hold on!
15:56That's the cold off!
15:57The cold off!
15:58The cold off!
15:59And they've got to watch now!
16:00They've got that chain!
16:02When a great heel has a great babyface, they can tell a story that's unbelievable.
16:07But they put the flag over the Cowboys!
16:09Look at that!
16:10The fans are getting out of their seats!
16:12This place is mayhem!
16:13You've really got to work to get that feeling when you walk out that the people hate you.
16:17What does the people want to pay to see?
16:19They want to pay because they don't like you.
16:23And they want to see the good guy eat the crap out of you.
16:26A little bit too cocky there!
16:28If you had heat like that, he was usually drawing good money.
16:32Listen to this crowd!
16:33They love it!
16:35Eddie had some great guys there that went on to be superstars like Sting.
16:40Rick Steiner was there.
16:42Ultimate Warrior.
16:43Dr. Beth Steve Williams.
16:45All these guys were there under the guidance of Eddie Gilbert.
16:49In his mind, he said, where can I take this guy?
16:52Or who can I book this guy with?
16:54Because his mind never stopped.
16:57And this is all of everyone.
16:58I think things are finally falling in place here.
17:00We were successful.
17:01The gates were good.
17:02And the TV was turned around.
17:04Bill Watts sold the company to Jim Crockett Promotions.
17:13And about a year and a half later, Crockett Promotions had sold to Turner Broadcasting.
17:18It's kind of personal.
17:19I love D.W.
17:20I hated seeing the people who had jobs that did.
17:23And I never forgot it when we got to WCW.
17:26Eddie's booking success lands him on WCW's creative team, trading sole control for a seat on a committee.
17:34Weighing in to 220 pounds, Eddie Hot Stuff Gilbert!
17:39One of the worst things to be is be on a frigging booking committee.
17:44Because you have no control.
17:46And that's when Ric Flair got involved.
17:50Flair was the top star for World Championship Wrestling.
17:53And he demanded to be made the booker.
17:58Flair made the power play to get the booking job, got it.
18:00And it was real appreciative of their attention.
18:03I felt like it was being real, real, real kind of a little bit.
18:05Ric Flair didn't know that much about Tennessee wrestling.
18:08Ric Flair didn't know that much about Eddie Gilbert.
18:10He wanted people to carry out what he was asking them to do.
18:14They go to Memphis one night.
18:16Eddie Gilbert is booked to wrestle against Ron Simmons.
18:20So Flair sends the finish.
18:21Ron Simmons beat Eddie Gilbert.
18:23There must be some mistake.
18:25This is Memphis.
18:27He can't beat me in a preliminary match in Memphis.
18:30So Eddie changed the finish.
18:35Within a week, I got a phone call from Ric Flair.
18:38So he changed the finish.
18:40Who the f*** is this guy?
18:42I'm going to have to move him out.
18:45And that's when he told me,
18:47I'm fixing to have an opening on the creative team.
18:50Would you like to fill it?
18:51I had had aspirations of one day being a booker,
18:55but here was an opportunity right in front of me
18:58to start doing what I'd always wanted to do.
19:01But it was at the expense of Eddie losing the chance to do what he wanted to do.
19:05After overriding Ric Flair's planned finish to a match,
19:10Eddie is dismissed from the creative committee,
19:14his spot taken by a childhood friend.
19:17Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Cornette will have a lot to say.
19:19We never had a face-to-face disagreement.
19:23However, Eddie told the story that,
19:26well, I showed up at the booking meeting
19:29and there was Jim Cornette sitting in my chair.
19:32Actually, no.
19:34Eddie never came in to see me there
19:36because he already knew he was done,
19:37regardless of whether I got the job or not.
19:39But I've heard it said by people close to him
19:43that that demotion pretty much broke his heart.
19:46I just want to get out.
19:47Jim Cornette let me out on the contrary
19:49and I came back in November.
19:49It's 1990.
19:51That's when I got my first full-time booking job in Memphis.
19:55Hot stuff, Eddie Gilbert.
19:56Surprise, surprise, surprise.
19:58What a surprise.
19:59Yes, indeed.
20:00Returning to his home territory in Memphis,
20:04Eddie solidifies his legacy as an innovator,
20:06pushing the boundaries between reality and fiction even further.
20:10He knew the fans were getting smarter
20:13and he was trying to do cutting-edge stuff.
20:16I thought, oh, hey.
20:19Jim Lawler was shooting that angle.
20:21Jerry Jarrett said, well,
20:22what have y'all not done to him?
20:24Eddie said, well, I hadn't run over him.
20:27Wait a minute.
20:27Eddie, you gonna do what?
20:29Now, you may think I'm crazy.
20:31If I came at you with a car,
20:33you think you could jump and tie him in all the way?
20:35It looks good.
20:36It looks good.
20:36Lawler says, man, I love it.
20:39Dang, he actually wants to do this.
20:41The only problem was we was going way too fast.
20:45Hey, look out.
20:47Whoa.
20:48Oh, holy shit.
20:49Excuse my language.
20:51And what I said to him is, do you think he's okay?
20:53Thank goodness.
20:54No, I don't think he's okay.
20:56Calling for some help from there.
20:58Well, there's Jerry Calhoun.
20:59The fans at home called the police department
21:02and said they had a hit and run.
21:05They was gonna arrest us.
21:06So Lawler had to come out and actually tell the police
21:09it's not their fault.
21:11And I even said, even if I had to go to jail for a week,
21:14if you didn't get a wrestling all over,
21:15you had to just about do anything to your business.
21:17People hated us for that.
21:19And I mean, we wanted them not to like us.
21:22But that goes into where you're getting to the point
21:25where it's almost went too far.
21:27One night, me and Eddie, we went to get in the car.
21:29And I heard Eddie say, hurry up.
21:31A guy's coming with a knife.
21:32What?
21:33He had a butcher knife and he's running.
21:35And so I start trying to get the key in the car.
21:38And I heard Eddie say, hurry up, hurry up.
21:39And he got right almost to Eddie.
21:43There was cops at the fence.
21:44And the police officer saw that.
21:46He got them before they got to us.
21:48Here's the thing.
21:52A lot of people don't understand this.
21:54Look at your TV today and then go back and see what we did.
21:58He was ahead of his time for so many years.
22:01Oh, come on!
22:02And it was stuff that he thought about all the time.
22:04Rotten, despicable, devious mind.
22:06He's a perfectionist at work.
22:08And he was a perfectionist at booking.
22:10And a lot of people will say, well,
22:11that's why you wind up with burnout.
22:14I don't think he was the booker at one spot
22:19more than six months at anywhere.
22:21Most times that I was successful, I didn't really know what.
22:24We saw Memphis jump back up again,
22:26so went to Alabama, changed everything.
22:29But there's always those few that think
22:31they can do the job a little bit better.
22:33That power stroke goes on from day one
22:35and the booker takes over.
22:37And then after a while, he's frustrating.
22:39And it's not worth it.
22:41Be all for it.
22:42Yeah.
22:44As Eddie bounces from promotion to promotion,
22:48he enters a romantic relationship
22:50with WCW star Missy Hyatt.
22:53Meow.
22:55Missy Hyatt was one of the first women in wrestling
22:59that was both attractive and used
23:01as the valet slash manager slash confidant
23:05of many of the top heels.
23:07And then, of course, we got adorable Eddie Gilbert.
23:10And then Eddie and Missy became a couple in real life.
23:13After he got off the booking committee in WCW,
23:17I bought him a boat, hoping that, you know,
23:19maybe he'd go fishing and relax.
23:22He took it out maybe twice.
23:24He didn't have a hobby.
23:25His hobby and his work and everything was wrestling.
23:28I remember my dad was going to go,
23:29good luck.
23:32How long did he last?
23:33The whole marriage and everything,
23:35maybe a year and a half or something like that.
23:36I hate you and I hate everybody.
23:40He liked beautiful ladies.
23:42From Milan, Italy, the AWA ladies world champion.
23:49I got the opportunity to be in the ring with Eddie.
23:53And that's when everything started between him and I.
23:56Hi, I'm Medusa, M-A-D-U-S-A.
23:59Made in the USA, baby.
24:00And I've been in this business over 40 years.
24:04And I was married to Eddie Gilbert.
24:06It was Eddie, myself, against Mick Foley and Luna Vachon.
24:13Right then and there, I'm like,
24:16God, there's something about this guy and his cockiness.
24:19We just hit it off.
24:21One thing led to another and he's like,
24:24do you want to get married?
24:25And I'm like, what?
24:27What?
24:28Yeah, let's just do it.
24:30And we did.
24:31His family was so loving and so open to me.
24:37What do you got there?
24:38Oh, do you know what I did in?
24:39Not at all.
24:40And I felt welcomed.
24:43His dad.
24:45There's more action going on.
24:47You know, you're the only one that's opening up.
24:49And his mom was his world.
24:51And little Dougie at the time.
24:53What do you got over here?
24:55My neighbor, you got me.
24:57Oh, he loved his family.
24:58Goals, grab every book.
25:02They got all the shirts, like shirts.
25:03It was healthy.
25:05That's how I felt.
25:07I owe you a wiener.
25:08My marriage overall was wonderful from the beginning.
25:12And towards the end, I knew it wasn't the Eddie that I grew to love and was in love with.
25:19If it was because of the pain of the business physically and his choices to get rid of the pain, then, you know, that's what he did.
25:28And it just changed him.
25:29I just got done making dinner.
25:33We sat down to eat and he fell asleep at the dinner table and his food.
25:37I did see him fall asleep at the table one time.
25:43I mean, I tried to talk to him about it.
25:46He kind of shut it down like, it's none of your business.
25:50And it wasn't my business.
25:51I didn't really see too much wrong with it, which I look at it today and I can see that maybe it was a little bit wrong.
25:59But now I see so much other stuff so much worse than anything that was going on with Eddie.
26:06So I guess I just took that as everything was kind of normal.
26:11It wasn't just being a rock star that caused him to do this.
26:16It was trying to overcome serious injuries to get back in the ring.
26:21The pills taken over Eddie.
26:24That wasn't who Eddie was, though.
26:28He wanted to get better.
26:31It just didn't happen.
26:41Back is Jack and Eddie Gilbert.
26:42They probably know a physical punishment.
26:44They're both going to endure.
26:46Eddie and I had the best feud of the independent scene.
26:50Oh, I almost ripped his head off of him.
26:53The good news and matches with Kattis were so on there for you.
26:55To make this legal, we have to hurt each other.
26:58We knew that we couldn't go out there and do any less.
27:01We would take too much pride in what we do.
27:04What he loved was bringing excitement to the television screen.
27:09It just laid our bodies on line for each other.
27:11Kattis, the barbed wire around his face.
27:13He's got to stop this match right now.
27:15Stop it now.
27:16Our business brings with it constant pain.
27:21I did not know that he was having trouble with pills.
27:26Eddie was part of an era where not as much was known about pain medication.
27:31It wasn't really frowned upon at that time, but it's easy to abuse.
27:35He would say he was in pain, but I never knew the severity.
27:44He kept everything so inside.
27:47The hardest thing he did was sign those divorce papers.
27:53He told me straight out, I need to fix this.
27:56I need to get myself better.
27:58And it was Eddie's choice.
28:03I guess what I told myself at that time, the only thing I could say is that I found my way to say okay and let go.
28:11She's a really good person.
28:16I think she deserves getting out of business when she can.
28:20At that time, you know, the early 90s, a lot of things were falling apart for Eddie.
28:26Almost all the territories had gone out of business.
28:29So at that point, he really didn't have a lot of options of the old-fashioned territories, places to go anymore.
28:35Here we are at the ECW Arena in the heart of South Philadelphia.
28:39It's June 19th.
28:40Facing setbacks in his personal and professional life, Eddie Gilbert moves to Philadelphia, betting on a new promotion led by a virtual unknown in the business.
28:51We're ready to go. Tonight's the night.
28:53I grew up watching the WWWF, and there was something called believability.
28:58What happened was, as time went on, it became a cartoon.
29:01Hi, my name is Todd Gordon, and I am the founder and originator of Extreme Championship Wrestling, ECW.
29:10I worked side-by-side with Eddie Gilbert to get this promotion off the ground.
29:13You should be stuck on the top, right? Believe! Oh!
29:15I just want to see something that I would enjoy so that I could believe it.
29:18This is getting out of hand, fellas!
29:20My goal was to put on a believable, hard-hitting product.
29:23A great night, and it's going to get even better as we go on week to week. Stick with it, Jay Sully.
29:27You know, Philadelphia, they are the meanest people I've ever seen.
29:34These people don't even like ice cream. I'm not bullshitting you.
29:38So, when you bring that part of Eddie being a heel to them, well, they just eat that shit right up.
29:45Eddie Gordon had a lot of big names and put together the matches. He was very good at it.
29:49I'm coming for you, Eddie Gilbert.
29:51He wanted to be the king of Philadelphia as Jerry was the king of Memphis.
29:54Yes! Me! Hot stuff, Eddie Gilbert, the king of Philadelphia!
29:59We were doing that kind of hard work stuff. He took it to another level.
30:04Oh, my heart! Somebody called out!
30:06Eddie would say, this is wrestling. You can do anything.
30:09I carried that over years later.
30:11So, I want Sam to come out smoking a cigarette.
30:14What are you, crazy? You can't do that.
30:16Who says you can't?
30:19You did it.
30:20You became an icon.
30:22That was Eddie.
30:23Eddie gave us that ground floor to build on.
30:26Without Eddie, there's no ground floor.
30:28Without Eddie, there's no ECW, really.
30:32The king.
30:33Hot stuff.
30:34Eddie Gilbert.
30:36Eddie brings ECW to new heights.
30:38But it's his friend, Paul Heyman, who will have the biggest impact on wrestling's future.
30:44Ladies and gentlemen, or you people of Philadelphia.
30:48Today, Paul Heyman is the most brilliant manager on the professional wrestling scene.
30:54In those days, Paul Heyman always wanted to be the booker.
30:58So, he started shadowing Eddie Gilbert.
31:00Paul was a photographer who did interviews with me when he was, like, 13 when I was in WWE.
31:05You know, Paul is like me a lot of times, he'll say things that maybe he should, but that he does.
31:11That's enough.
31:12Back then, Eddie Gilbert and I were thick as thieves.
31:15You know, he was my brother.
31:16He was my mentor.
31:18He was my best friend.
31:20And he was so magnificent as a booker.
31:25They were together in Alabama.
31:26They were together in Georgia.
31:27They were everywhere.
31:28It was a good combination.
31:30It worked.
31:30It was probably six, seven months in, when all of a sudden, it was, you know, where's Eddie?
31:37It's supposed to be here at 2 o'clock, and he's rolling around 3 through 30.
31:41He wasn't kidding around and carrying on.
31:44It's a different change in his whole demeanor.
31:46I wasn't that familiar with what drugs, painkillers, the effect they had on people's personalities.
31:55You get in the ring with anybody, and if he wasn't bleeding, his opponent was.
31:59Those things don't just end when the show ends.
32:02They all turn to painkillers for that.
32:04It is very easy to fall into that trap.
32:08He had lost that joe de vie.
32:10He had lost that fun side.
32:12This was not the same Eddie that had contributed so much to the business.
32:17So it was falling apart for Eddie bad.
32:21As Eddie spirals into addiction, Paul Heyman pushes forward with plans to take ECW National.
32:29Paul was working with Jim Crockett, and he was very excited about it.
32:33Eddie thought that me, Paul, and Crockett were going to go off and leave him in the lurch.
32:37At this point, he was really in the depth of his despair.
32:42Paranoia?
32:43He said, yeah.
32:44Well, guess what?
32:45We quit.
32:46We've got a huge show coming up.
32:49Ultra Clash is our big, big, big event.
32:51It's going to be the biggest, hottest show in the history of Philadelphia wrestling.
32:55That's right.
32:55Even though he's going to still be on the show.
32:57But it didn't matter.
32:59Sometimes you're that high or that buzz.
33:01You think reality is completely different from what reality is.
33:04And he had his own reality at that point.
33:06Welcome to a very special Ultra Clash preview edition of Eastern Championship Wrestling.
33:15Fearing that he's losing control of ECW, Eddie Gilbert storms out of the company just days before a major show.
33:22Two days later, Eddie called me up and he said, hey boss, I'm sorry.
33:26I'm being stupid.
33:28So I'll be there Saturday night.
33:30And I had to tell him, Eddie.
33:31At Ultra Clash, there will be a major change.
33:35That's correct.
33:36You quit five days before the show.
33:38I had to do something.
33:39I had to replace you.
33:40That man who will be the partner on September the 18th with Abdul the Butcher is none other than Kevin Sullivan.
33:48He said, okay, can I come to the show, Saturday night anyway, and say goodbye to everybody?
33:54I said, sure.
33:56He told me he was going to come and cut a promo, which nobody else knew that.
34:01What's this?
34:02That's hot stuff, Eddie Gilbert.
34:05What's he doing here?
34:06He's not scheduled to wrestle.
34:07He told the people that he wanted to thank them for coming out and supporting ECW and supporting him and everything.
34:14And all of a sudden, they started hollering in the back, cut the mic, cut the mic, cut the mic.
34:20Paul lost it in the locker room.
34:22He said he tried to screw me, but it was just a long goodbye.
34:25Why would you want to cut the mic on a guy that's just telling the people thanks for supporting the company and him?
34:31And that's what kind of pissed me off.
34:34So there was a bath there.
34:35So I thought I'd tell them what I had to say.
34:41I just swung bad.
34:43I hid everything in there and broke it.
34:45A couple people come up that was my friends.
34:48I said, man, everything okay?
34:50I said, man, everything's fine.
34:52He left, and Paul and Eddie really never spoke again after that.
34:58That was the end of the relationship.
35:00They were best friends.
35:01Made no sense.
35:02It was, uh, I think, in the end, uh, Holly learned too well.
35:10Holly was better.
35:12Oh, my goodness.
35:13It's Eddie Gilbert.
35:15After Eddie Gilbert's departure, Paul Heyman propels ECW to heights few wrestling companies will ever reach.
35:22This is wrestling the way it's going to be, and the way we know that you like it.
35:28Rebranding Eastern Championship Wrestling into the iconic Extreme Championship Wrestling.
35:33With nothing left to lose, Eddie taps into his fan base, once again setting a trend that will influence the future.
35:43Eddie wanted recognition.
35:46He wanted to be able to plead his case.
35:49Eddie had been especially popular with the hardcore smart fans, the ones that knew the behind the scenes, the ones that knew how everything worked.
35:57I'm going to, a lot of this stuff is going to be out of order and stuff because later on.
36:00One of them basically sat Eddie down in a hotel room and shot the first shoot interview.
36:08First off, why don't you give a...
36:10Where one of the personalities involved in wrestling sat there and told inside stories of how it was done.
36:17I did a few angles with John.
36:18I'd like to tell you about...
36:19In those days, believability in the ring was the most important.
36:22If the people know how they're being tricked, it'll kill the business.
36:27It got some people raising their eyes at, you know, Eddie Gilbert did that.
36:32What's been your relationship with Waller?
36:34Yeah, I think, I think it's, I think probably best described as well.
36:38It was about time that he did because everybody out there thought they know everything about our business and they, they don't.
36:45When he saw an opportunity, he took advantage of it before anybody else.
36:49About 10 years after he done it, everybody and their brother started doing it.
36:54Gilbert laid the Russian flag on Bill Watts.
36:57Eddie hated Kevin Sullivan.
36:58Bravo.
36:59Marker.
37:00Eddie was the first one in the business to recognize that.
37:04But this was 1994.
37:07People in the business didn't do that.
37:09But that was all that Eddie had left.
37:11The smart fans loved his booking.
37:13But the upper echelon in the major companies, they didn't really know or care.
37:18I was running Smoky Mountain Wrestling out of Knoxville, Tennessee.
37:26I called Eddie.
37:29I said, Eddie, you've got a great mind.
37:33Let's see if we can put this thing together.
37:35I can't believe what I'm seeing here.
37:37Hot stuff Eddie Gilbert is here.
37:38And what are you doing here in Smoky Mountain Wrestling?
37:42I didn't know you were going to be here.
37:44Well, he came to the TV taping.
37:46Just to be honest with you, I didn't really know I was going to be here either, but.
37:49Came out and had a match with Ricky Morton.
37:52Reversal of the Irish whip.
37:54And he brought him out in a power slam.
37:55He looked great.
37:56He was ready to go.
37:59And he told me, we're going to shoot this angle tonight.
38:02We'll be right here next week.
38:03Show us what you got.
38:04Hot stuff.
38:05Maybe we won't go through with it.
38:07Because I have an opportunity in Puerto Rico to do what I love.
38:14And that's booking.
38:15I was proud for it.
38:17And I said, go for it.
38:19If you don't come back, I'll cover it up.
38:22And bless my heart, he never came back.
38:24After that first TV taping, I never saw Eddie Gilbert again.
38:29He was dead three months later.
38:33On Vice.
38:34Looking to make a fresh start and leave his demons behind, Eddie Gilbert heads to work
38:40in Puerto Rico.
38:41He looked at it as a great opportunity to turn it around.
38:46Carlos Sloan had offered him a deal.
38:49Carlos was wanting somebody with different ideas, something fresh.
38:52He was real excited.
38:53This is the briefcase that my brother carried around all the way to his Puerto Rico days.
39:05February 18, 1995.
39:08Eddie Gilbert versus Ted the Bear.
39:10So that's the bear that my brother wrestled.
39:13I'm going against a bear.
39:15I'm going against a bear.
39:17You're going against a bear.
39:19I can't go against a bear, no.
39:20He was trying to get it popped again and where everybody could make money and everybody
39:24would be happy.
39:25He asked me, he said, you want to come?
39:28I said, give me a minute to think on it.
39:30I'm sure it won't be too long.
39:33But it would be the last territory that he ever booked.
39:39The next day, somebody called and told me, they found your brother in his apartment laying
39:49across the bed with earphones on and music, just laying back like he'd laid back to go
39:55to sleep and rest.
39:57Really peaceful.
40:00Weeks after arriving in Puerto Rico, tragic news arrives back home.
40:05The wrestling world was saddened by the death this past week.
40:08Eddie Gilbert.
40:09We were notified that on February 18th in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Eddie had passed away
40:14of apparent heart failure.
40:17When you know somebody in his early 30s, the first thing you're going to think is, was it
40:22drugs?
40:23Especially in Puerto Rico.
40:25In Puerto Rico, you don't have to have a script to do nothing.
40:28All you have to do is walk into the drugstore.
40:31Get anything you want.
40:34So the first thing they don't say, oh, you know what he was doing.
40:38Well, no, you don't know what he was doing.
40:40Of course, there's speculation on drugs, ODing.
40:44But he had a bad heart, too.
40:45And they list the cause of death as the heart attack.
40:48Anybody could have made up anything.
40:50It spreads like it's gospel through the entire industry.
40:52But I really learned to take everything I hear like that with a grain of salt.
40:57I'm there to protect Eddie first before I start believing rumors and speculations.
41:03We ain't going to say we was choir boys.
41:05We probably did some things we shouldn't have done.
41:07But I'm not making an excuse.
41:10I'm just telling you.
41:11He had the car wreck.
41:12Half of his heart, it would never work again.
41:16And if it wasn't working right, it had to have a strain on it.
41:20And that never quit until he passed away.
41:25If Eddie was still alive, he'd be one month older than I am sitting here right now.
41:35We kept in contact.
41:37We wrote letters to each other.
41:39And this one here that I kept was probably one of the end ones.
41:44He starts off with Debra Ann.
41:50Debra, you have been a terrific friend, lover, companion, and most of all, best and wonderful wife.
42:01I just wish I had realized that before it got too out of hand.
42:07I have nothing but the most respect for you as a person.
42:11And your abilities in the ring and also in the...
42:16If you need someone to talk to at any time, night or day, please don't hesitate to give me a call.
42:27I mean that.
42:29And that was one of the last letters that I received from Eddie.
42:34He was a good person.
42:35And he met well.
42:41You know, Eddie passed away 30 years ago.
42:43And he's still down.
42:45It's one of the best.
42:47And he died loving what he did.
42:51So when you step in that ring, it's like we're on Broadway.
42:58And we can give you part of our soul.
43:02He gave his heart and soul to you, Pete.
43:06Remember him for that.
43:09Eddie never really wanted much in return.
43:12He just wanted this business.
43:14I was born to be the king.
43:18This year, it would be 30 years since my brother's passing.
43:22I wish he could be here.
43:24And I love him.
43:26And I know how really proud he was of me.
43:31And he done what he loved to the last day of his life.
43:38He was born to be the king.
43:38He was born to be the king.
43:39He was born to be the king.
43:40And he was born to be the king.
43:41He was born to be the king.
43:42And he was born to be the king.
43:43And he was born to be the king.
43:44And he was born to be the king.
43:45And he was born to be the king.
43:46And he was born to be the king.
43:47And he was born to be the king.
43:48And he was born to be the king.
43:49And he was born to be the king.
43:50And he was born to be the king.
43:51And he was born to be the king.
43:52And he was born to be the king.
43:53And he was born to be the king.
43:54And he was born to be the king.
43:55And he was born to be the king.
43:56And he was born to be the king.