Original subtitles

Eddie Gilbert knew what he needed to do to attract attention to himself.

He was a sneaky, conniving, dirty backstabber. He really thought he was

hot stuff.

Egotistical, arrogant, conceited, self -confident. He loved what the crowd.

Eddie himself was the complete opposite of that.

What he loved was...

Born into professional wrestling, Eddie Gilbert's vision and ambition had a

profound impact on the business he loved.

This is not wrestling. This is a street fight.

He would see the sift before the sift.

Eddie said, this is wrestling. You can do anything.

This is getting out of hand.

Sure enough, Eddie was right about Eddie. There's no easy step. He would

gone on to be one of the most influential minds in wrestling.

But... It didn't happen that way.

A rising star with undeniable charisma, Eddie's demons threatened his career

from the start. I've worked too hard and too long.

Eddie could burn a bridge better than anybody.

He has a history of going to territories and just leaving.

A small thing could set him off. I have been run out of any wrestling

organization I've ever been in.

For Eddie, coping with the chronic pain from a life -threatening injury came at

a devastating cost.

Night after night of putting your body through that abuse, I don't think that

pain ever left him.

We just want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to a real warrior.

You know, Eddie passed away 30 years ago, and he's still missed.

But this is a story of what if.

What if this didn't happen?

What if this didn't happen?

What if?

Eddie, we're on.

Eddie. Oh, okay.

Hello, everyone.

I think what the wrestling business lost was a great worker and a mind

that was about a generation ahead of what anybody else was at the time.

But I look at what my brother did and his angles and pushing the limits and

the guys that he helped in his short life. You and me, brother.

He lived 32 years.

He done more in that 32 than most people would do in 70. He made the best out of

all of them. And to me, that's where you tell the character of a person.

I'm Dangerous Doug Gilbert, and I've been in the wrestling business about 36

years. And my brother is Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert.

Tell them, Hot Stuff.

I looked up to Eddie. I mean, he was a idol of mine also.

He was a fun guy. I mean, he was my...

best friend, and Eddie looked out for me, and I was lucky enough to have that.

That's when we was partners in Memphis and everything. To me, that's really

cool. That's history.

It's like a museum.

His life and obsession was wrestling.

He thought about it all the time.

Let's kick some ass and draw some money. That was a big one.

When he was a kid, he would make cards out with his friends' names on it, and I

think that's when my dad realized he was actually really serious, serious about

the business.

Eddie's father, Tommy Gilbert, was one of the most popular wrestlers in the

Tennessee Territory from the late 60s through the early 80s. Eddie grew up

watching that, and that was what Eddie had his sights set on.

I'm Jim Cornette, and I was friends with Eddie Gilbert even before he began his

pro wrestling career.

We started in wrestling in the same way. Eddie began taking ringside pictures of

the matches in Memphis at the Mid -South Coliseum, and at the same age, I

started doing it in Louisville.

And we ran into each other at the matches and just instantly developed a

friendship. Eddie, I think, was 16.

Instead of saying, oh, I'm Tommy Gilbert's son, he would walk in with a

So that was how he was getting access to the dressing room. He was slowly,

slowly working his way in. He loved, loved the wrestling business.

My name is Dutch Mantell, commonly called Dirty Dutch, and I've been in

wrestling business for over 50 years, and I used to work with Eddie Gilbert.

better watch your big fat lip, Gilbert. He would watch Memphis live television

on Saturday morning at 11 o 'clock.

He would study how it was produced.

He would study when the commercials came on.

When Eddie turned 18, that's when he started his major league wrestling

as partners with his father, Tommy.

From Lexington, Tennessee, the Gilberts, Tommy and Eddie.

Tommy and Eddie Gilbert, father and son champions.

My brother was thrilled any time to do anything like this with my dad.

My dad was both of our heroes, and he wanted my dad to be proud of him. What

teamwork by the Gilberts? I mean, the real idol of my life was my dad.

So I got to have a lot of good matches with him. I still have him on tape. I

really enjoy watching back and forth and remember how it looked 10 years ago.

I was 12 now.

When he was training Eddie, it was for you to really say that you're great.

You've got to be able to work with any style.

Oh, the bloody Tommy Gilbert in the ring right now. Tommy Gilbert had been

trained by the old -timers. The way that they laid the blows in, you could hear

the smack of the meat and the flesh from the chief seats in the arena.

Tennessee wrestling is about brawling, fighting, blood and guts, personal

issues.

hatred, rivalries, animosity.

Hey, you guys save that for the ring.

And Eddie Gilbert fit right into that.

Here comes Eddie.

Look at that.

I just never got that chance of even up to 81 that I could show that I had any

kind of character at all. Until Ricky Morton and I had this chance to go to

Tupelo. And they went into the concession stand of the Tupelo Sports

had...

A knock -down, drag -out brawl involving furniture and confessions and hot dogs

and mustard. It was a very believable fight because I think even

the people involved in it believed it. They were knocking the shit out of each

other.

We was just hitting each other in the head with pots and pans and chairs.

I made that shit hurts, buddy.

I'm Ricky Morton, one half of the Rock and Roll Express, one of the greatest

babyface tag teams ever, and I was best friends with Eddie Gilbert.

You see, it was a hardcore match, really, but at that time, we didn't

that. As a matter of fact, that night is where Atsushi Onita got the idea for

hardcore wrestling that he took back to Japan.

and in the 90s made a fortune with, it came from that night in Tupelo,

Mississippi. What a ball.

Yeah, keep shooting it. We're not going to be able to show a lot of it, but just

keep shooting it.

He was always on fire.

Thank you very much. I'd like to say hello to all my friends and family and

everyone out there.

Let's face it, he was a good -looking kid.

My name is Darla Staggs, and I met Eddie Gilbert when he was 17 years old.

We were just good, good friends.

He went on to work for WWE.

It was a dream for him, and it was his road to stardom.

Memphis was great, but WWF, you know, it's Madison Square Garden.

I mean, what are you going to say? No.

Making his Madison Square Garden debut, Eddie Huber.

My brother brought me with him to New York.

I guess I was 12 or 11.

Doug and Eddie were close, very close.

Eddie was 18 years old, and he's hanging out with his 11 -year -old brother.

That says something to me.

Being a two -small -town country boy, seeing him in Madison Square Garden, I

really proud of that.

Eddie wasn't a big guy, and that actually helped him. He had great

You see, that was 80 getting his foot through the door. Right back on his feet

with a kick. You see that? You believe him?

Fans are loving that.

En route to a meeting with WWF's patriarch, a tragic series of events are

triggered.

Went to my room, got a shower, dripped.

It was already like 12 o 'clock, so I was tired. And I was already driving.

And all of a sudden, a shroom right out of the back of the truck.

We got a phone call at my house. It was like 1 to 2 in the morning.

And they said, Mr.

Gilbert, is your son Eddie? And she said, yes.

And they said, he's been in an accident.

They didn't even know that they could keep him alive.

He's in critical condition, and it broke his neck.

The steering wheel, I think, hit him right here in the solar plexus, like

over his heart.

They said he will never wrestle again.

His heart was like jello. It would never heal.

He wasn't even 22 years old yet.

And suddenly, his career may be over.

That was not acceptable.

It wasn't an option for Eddie.

No matter how catastrophic the injury was, he was going to get back in the

When something like that happens to you, it takes a long, long time to get over

that. It takes years.

Put yourself in that situation.

You still want that opportunity.

And so that's why you keep going.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome back the very popular Eddie Gilbert.

Three months later, able to start back wrestling again.

Such is the tenacity of this young man, Eddie Gilbert, who has made it all the

way back.

I can speak for myself.

You know, it was a hard, long road in our business.

Oh, you wonder if blows like that, if it would affect the neck. Apparently not.

When you have a car wreck, it breaks your neck.

They don't send you home with Tylenol Plus.

Do you understand me?

I'm sure he would be back in the ring if he was not ready.

It takes a tremendous amount of courage for a man that had a broken neck to come

back into wrestling.

Eddie came back to wrestling probably too quick, but he wanted to get back

before he lost his spot.

They did an angle based on the fact that the fans knew that he'd had a serious

neck injury, and they used the masked superstar to allegedly re -injure the

broken neck.

Oh, no!

Oh! Now, there's no need for anything like that.

See those scars there on the throat?

That was from the automobile accident.

And unfortunately, that is where Eddie met.

Dr. George Zahorian. I'm presently evaluating Eddie Gilbert following a

traumatic accident to the vertebrae of his neck.

Dr. George Zahorian was a doctor in Pennsylvania, was also appointed by the

Athletic Commission to be the doctor to give physicals and et cetera to all the

wrestlers. Anything that the wrestlers wanted, drugs, substances, whatever that

he could prescribe, there was your guy.

Now you've got Eddie Gilbert, who's had a severe neck injury.

What do you think is going to happen?

He was in a lot of pain from the wreck, but if doctors prescribed him something,

he would definitely take it.

When he was doing it to be able to work, I guess that was our justification.

As Eddie steps back into the ring, the WWF charts a new direction, jeopardizing

his climb to the top.

WWF at the time was like superheroes.

That was the Hulk Hogan starting there.

Everybody that was up there got bigger. Oh, look at that.

I didn't want to go that bodybuilder path, and Eddie didn't want to either.

Now, we might have did a little something to tone you up, but you caught

that circus act.

I think Eddie thought that some of the stuff they do in WWE was too much show

business and not enough realism.

I knew that meant that I was probably going to be probably buried.

And I thought to be the best career move was to leave and go back home to

Memphis to be a heel because I knew that when I started a business, it's all I

wanted to be. And I thought that was my calling.

Returning to the southern territories, Eddie reinvents himself as a villain and

creates his most iconic persona.

Eddie knew.

That in the 80s, the people expected more excitement, more action, more life,

more talking. I am the greatest wrestler, the prettiest face, the

of brains, professional wrestler. He had the flashy sequined jacket, frosted the

hair blonde, and he was wearing sunglasses.

Now he's this guy that looked like he just stepped off this new thing called

MTV.

A cocky heel that...

really thought he was hot stuff and was better than everybody else. Listen to

me, boy, when I'm talking to you. He came up with a pattern and a style that

all of his own.

Heaven won't take me, and hell's afraid I'll take over. My grandmother said to

me, he's so mean and dirty, I just hate him. If you hate him, that means he's

doing his job well.

But you know what? He's still the same sweet guy that he's always been. No,

not either.

It was an amalgamation of all of the heels that Eddie had watched over the

years. And it worked.

One of his idols was Jerry the King Lawler. Who's the greatest wrestler in

world and why am I? Who was the undisputed king of Memphis wrestling.

I am in rare form, and I guess you saw it right there, didn't you? The first

chance he got, he went to wrestle Jerry Lawler. Lawler, I want to tell you

something, brother. You're not hungry anymore. I am. He ultimately wanted to

follow in Jerry Lawler's footsteps as the king of Memphis wrestling.

Jerry Lawler, look what you've done to me. When opportunity comes, you've got

chase your dream.

Stop, Eddie Gilbert!

You're going to be real hot, brother!

Eddie had that in his mind. He knew that.

That's why he was successful down south.

Already a star in Memphis, Eddie gets his first shot at fulfilling his dream

becoming a company's booker in Louisiana, working for Bill Watt Mid

Brethren. The booker is basically the matchmaker. Even from the time he was a

teenager, Eddie already had that in his sights.

I knew I was 17, and no one was going to listen to me, so I had to wait until I

was 25, which was when I was still one of the youngest.

ever get a chance.

What's Eddie Gilbert doing out there?

They're getting ready to find out, I think.

Wrestling is more than just doing the moves.

Wrestling is telling a story.

I really think I need to set the record straight because I am not a communist,

ladies and gentlemen.

And Eddie, Eddie was very good at that.

You can do whatever you want to with this flag. I'd like to give it to you.

Everybody loved Bill Watson and the big cowboy baby face down there.

And everybody thought Eddie was going to do something trickier, low down.

When a great heel has a great baby face, they can tell a story that's

unbelievable.

Really got to work to get that feeling when you walk out that the

people hate you. What does the people want to pay to see?

They want to pay because they don't like you.

And they want to see the good guy eat the crap out of you.

If you had people like that, He was usually drawing good money. Listen to

crowd. They love it.

Eddie had some great guys there that went on to be superstars like Steen.

Steiner was there, ultimate warrior.

Dr. Death, Steve Williams.

All these guys were there under the guidance of Eddie Gilbert.

In his mind, he said, where can I take this guy?

Who can I book this guy with?

Because his mind never stopped.

And this is all of everyone. I'm thinking things are finally falling in

here. We were successful. The gates were good.

And the TV was turned around.

But then the buyout came right after that.

Bill Watts sold the company to Jim Crockett Promotions. And about a year

half later, Crockett Promotions had sold to Turner Broadcasting. They're kind of

personal. I love UWL.

I hated seeing the people lose jobs that did.

And I never forgot it. And we got to the WCW.

Eddie's booking success lands him on WCW's creative team, trading sole

for a seat on a committee.

One of the worst things to be is be

on a frigging booking committee because you have no control.

And that's when Ric Flair got involved.

Flair was the top star.

for world championship wrestling, and he demanded to be made the booker.

Ric Flair didn't know that much about Tennessee

wrestling. Ric Flair didn't know that much about Eddie Gilbert.

He wanted people to carry out what he was asking them to do.

They go to Memphis one night.

Eddie Gilbert is booked to wrestle against Ron Simmons.

So Flair sends the finish. Ron Simmons beat Eddie Gilbert.

There must be some mistake. This is Memphis.

He beat me in a preliminary match in Memphis.

So Eddie changed the finish.

Within a week, I got a phone call from Ric Flair.

So he changed the finish.

Who the f*** is this guy?

I'm going to have to move him out.

And that's what he told me. I'm fixing to have an opening on the creative team.

Would you like to fill it?

I had had aspirations of one day being a booker, but here was an opportunity

right in front of me to start doing what I'd always wanted to do.

But it was at the expense of Eddie losing the chance to do what he wanted

After overriding Ric Flair's planned finish to a match, Eddie is dismissed

the creative committee.

His spot taken by a childhood friend.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Cornette. We'll have a lot to say. We never had a

-to -face disagreement.

However, Eddie told the story that, well, I showed up at the booking meeting

there was Jim Cornette sitting in my chair.

Actually, no.

Eddie never came in to see me there because he already knew he was done,

regardless of whether I got the job or not.

I've heard it said by people close to him that that demotion pretty much broke

his heart.

I just wanted to get out. The gentleman let me out on a contract and I came back

in Memphis in 1990.

That's when I got my first full -time booking job in Memphis.

Hot stuff, Eddie Gilbert.

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

What a surprise, yes indeed.

Returning to his home territory in Memphis, Eddie solidifies his legacy as

innovator, pushing the boundaries between reality and fiction even

He knew the fans were getting smarter, and he was trying to do cutting -edge

stuff. I thought, hey.

Then the lawyer was shooting at Angle. Jerry, Jerry said, well, what have y

not done to him?

Eddie said, well, I haven't run over him.

Wait a minute. Eddie, you're going to do what?

Now, you may think I'm crazy.

If I came at you with a car, you think you could jump in time, you know, the

way. It looked good. It looked good.

The caller says, man, I love it.

Dang, he actually wants to do this.

The only problem was we was going way too fast.

Hey, look out.

Whoa.

Oh, holy shit. Excuse my language.

And what I said he's doing is, do you think he's okay?

Thank goodness.

No, I don't think he's okay.

Calling for some help from, well, there's Jerry Calhoun.

The fans at home called the police department and said they had a hit and

They was going restless.

So Lawler had to come out and tell the police it's not their fault.

And I even said, even if I had to go to jail for a week, if they'd get a

wrestling over, I was just about to do anything to get rid of this.

People hated us for that. And, I mean, we wanted them not to like us.

But that goes into where you're getting to the point where it's almost went too

far one night. Me and Eddie, we went to get in the car, and I heard Eddie say,

hurry up, a guy's coming with a knife.

What? Get a butcher knife.

And he's running.

And so I start trying to get the key in the car.

And I heard Eddie say, hurry up, hurry up.

He got right almost to Eddie.

There was cops at the fence and a police officer saw that.

He got them before they got to us.

Here's the thing, and a lot of people don't understand this. Look at your TV

today and then go back and see what we do.

He was ahead of his time for so many years. Oh, come on! And it was stuff

he thought about all the time. Rotten, despicable, devious mind.

He's a perfectionist at work, and he was a perfectionist at booking. And a lot

of people will say, well, that's why you wind up with burnout.

I don't think he was the booker at one spot more than six months, anywhere.

Most times when I was successful, I didn't really know I was.

We saw Memphis jump back up again, so I went to Alabama.

Changed everything.

But there's always those few that think they can do the job a little bit better.

That power struggle goes on from day one, and the booker takes over. And then

after a while, he's frustrated, and it's not worth it.

Yeah.

As Eddie bounces from promotion to promotion, he enters a romantic

with WCW star Missy Hyatt.

Meow.

Missy Hyatt was one of the first women in wrestling that was both attractive

used as the valet slash manager slash confidant of many of the top heels.

And then, of course, we got adorable Eddie Gilbert. And then Eddie and Missy

became a couple in real life.

After he got off the booking committee at WCW, I bought him a boat hoping that,

you know, maybe he'd go fishing and relax.

He took it out maybe twice.

He didn't have a hobby. His hobby and his work and everything was wrestling.

I remember my dad looked at me and said, Good luck.

How long did it last?

The whole marriage and everything. Maybe a year and a half or something like

that. I hate you and I hate everybody.

He liked beautiful ladies.

From Milan, Italy, the AWA Ladies World Champion.

I got the opportunity.

to be in the ring with Eddie, and that's when everything started between him and

I. Hi, I'm Medusa, M -A -D -U -S -A, made in the USA, baby, and I've been in

this business, hmm, over 40 years.

And I was married to Eddie Gilbert.

It was Eddie and myself against Mick Foley and Luna Vachon.

Right then and there, I'm like, God, there's something about this guy and his

cockiness.

We just hit it off.

One thing led to another and he's like, do you want to get married?

And I'm like, what?

What? Yeah, let's just do it. And we did.

His family was so loving and so open to me.

What do you got there?

Oh, do you know how to do that?

Not at all.

And I felt welcomed.

His dad.

And his mom, his world, and little Dougie at the time.

Oh,

he loved his family.

It was healthy.

That's how I felt.

My marriage overall was wonderful from the beginning.

And towards the end, I knew it wasn't the Eddie that I grew to love and was in

love with.

If it was because of the pain of the business physically and his choices to

rid of the pain, then, you know, that's what he did. And it just changed him.

I just got done making dinner. We sat down to eat, and he fell asleep at the

dinner table and his food.

I did see him.

Fall asleep at the table one time.

I mean, I tried to talk to him about it.

He kind of shut it down like it's none of your business. And it wasn't my

business.

I 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. But now I see so much other

much worse than anything that was going on with Eddie. So I guess I just took

that as everything was kind of.

It wasn't just being a rock star that caused him to do this. It was trying to

overcome serious injuries to get back in the ring.

The pills taken over Eddie.

That wasn't who Eddie was, though.

He wanted to get better.

It just didn't happen.

Cactus Jack and Eddie Gilbert, they probably know what physical punishment

they're both going to endure.

Eddie and I had the best feud of the independent scene.

Oh, I almost ripped his head off of him. The most massive cactus we saw in

Africa. To make this legal, we have to hurt each other.

We knew that we couldn't go out there and do any less. It takes you with pride

in what we do.

What he loved was bringing excitement to the television screen.

It just laid our bodies on the line for each other.

Our business

brings with it constant pain.

I did not know that he was having trouble with pills.

Eddie was part of an era where not as much was known about pain medication.

It wasn't really frowned upon at that time, but it's easy to abuse.

He would say he was in pain, but I never knew the severity.

He kept everything so inside.

The hardest thing he did was sign those divorce papers.

He told me straight out, I need to fix this. I need to get myself better.

And it was Eddie's choice.

I guess what I told myself at that time, the only thing I could... is that I

found my way to say okay and let go.

She's a really good person.

I think she deserves getting out of business when she can.

At that time, you know, the early 90s, a lot of things were falling apart for

Eddie. Almost all the territories had gone out of business. So at that point,

really didn't have a lot of options of the old -fashioned territories, places

go anymore.

Here we are at the ECW Arena in the heart of South Philadelphia. It's June

Facing setbacks in his personal and professional life, Eddie Gilbert moves

Philadelphia, betting on a new promotion led by a virtual unknown in the

business.

We're ready to go. Tonight's the night. I grew up watching the WWWF, and there

was something called believability.

What happened was, as time went on, it became a cartoon.

Hi, my name is Todd Gordon.

And I am the founder and originator of Extreme Championship Wrestling, ECW.

I worked side -by -side with Eddie Gilbert to get this promotion off the

I just wanted to do something that I would enjoy. I could believe it.

My goal was to put on a believable, hard -hitting product.

You know, Philadelphia, they

are the meanest.

people I ever see.

These people don't even like ice cream. I'm not bullshitting you.

So when you bring that part of Eddie being a heel to them, well, then you

eat that shit right up.

And he brought in a lot of big names and put together the matches. He was very

good at it. I'm coming for you, Eddie Gilbert. He wanted to be the king of

Philadelphia, and Jerry was the king of Memphis.

Yes, me.

Hot stuff, Eddie Gilbert, the king of Philadelphia.

We were doing that kind of hard work stuff.

He took it to another level.

Eddie would say, this is wrestling.

You can do anything.

I carried that over years later. So when Sam came out smoking a cigarette, What

are you, crazy? You can't do that.

Who says you can't?

He did it.

He became an icon.

That was Eddie.

Eddie gave us that ground floor to build on.

Without Eddie, there's no ground floor.

Without Eddie, there's no ECW, really.

The king, hot stuff, Eddie Gilbert.

Eddie brings ECW to new heights, but it's his friend Paul Heyman who will

the biggest impact on wrestling's future.

Ladies and gentlemen, or you people of Philadelphia.

Today, Paul Heyman is the most brilliant manager on the professional wrestling

scene. In those days, Paul Heyman always wanted to be the booker. So he started

shadowing Eddie Gilbert.

Paul was a photographer, did interviews with me when he was like 13, when I was

in WWF. You know, Paul is like me a lot of times. He will say things that maybe

he shouldn't.

Well, he does.

Back then, Eddie Gobin and I were thick as thieves. He was my brother. He was my

mentor. He was my best friend.

And he was so magnificent as a booker.

They were together in Alabama. They were together in Georgia.

They were together everywhere.

It was a good combination.

It worked.

It was probably six or seven months in when all of a sudden it was, you know,

where's Eddie?

It was supposed to be at 2 o 'clock, and he was rolling around 3 through 30.

He wasn't kidding around and carrying on.

The difference changed in his whole demeanor.

I wasn't that familiar with what drugs, painkillers, the effect they had on

people's personalities.

He'd get in the ring with anybody, and if he wasn't bleeding, his opponent was.

Those things don't just end when the show ends.

They all turned to painkillers for that. It is very easy to fall into that trap.

He had lost that zero degree.

He had lost that fun side.

This was not the same Eddie that had contributed so much to the business.

So it was falling apart for Eddie, bad.

As Eddie spirals into addiction, Paul Heyman pushes forward with plans to take

ECW National.

Paul was working with Jim Crockett, and he was very excited about it.

And he thought that me, Paul, and Crockett were going to go off and leave

the lurch.

At this point, he was really in the depth of his despair, paranoia. He said,

yeah, well, guess what? We quit.

We had a huge show coming up, Ultra Clash. It's our big, big, big event.

going to be the biggest, hottest show in the history of Philadelphia wrestling.

That's right. Even though he's going to still be on the show.

But it didn't matter.

Sometimes you're that high or that buzzed. You think reality is completely

different from what reality is.

And he had his own reality at that point.

Welcome to a very special Ultra Clash Preview edition of Eastern Championship

Wrestling. Fearing that he's losing control of ECW, Eddie Gilbert storms out

the company just days before a major show.

Two days later, Eddie calls me up and he said, Hey, boss, I'm sorry.

I've been stupid, so I'll be there Saturday night.

I had to tell him, Eddie.

At Ultra Clash, there will be a major change. That's correct.

You quit five days before the show.

I had to do something. I had to replace you.

That man who will be the partner on September the 18th with Abdul the

none other than Kevin Sullivan.

Is that okay?

Can I come to the show Saturday night anyway and say goodbye to everybody?

I said, sure.

He told me he was going to come and cut a promo, which nobody else knew that.

What's this?

That's hot stuff, Eddie Gilbert.

What's he doing here? He's not scheduled to wrestle.

He told the people that he wanted to thank them for coming out and supporting

ECW and supporting him and everything.

And all of a sudden, they started hollering in the back, cut the mic, cut

mic, cut the mic.

Paul lost it to Locker.

He said he tried to screw me, but it was just a long goodbye.

Why would you want to cut the mic on a guy that's just telling the people

for supporting the company and him? And that's what kind of pissed me off.

So there was a bat there.

So I thought I'd tell them what I had to say.

I just swung the bat, and I hit everything in there and broke it.

A couple people come up that was my friends.

I said, man, everything okay?

Man, everything's fine.

He left.

And Paul and Eddie really never spoke again after that. That was the end of

relationship. They were best friends.

It made no sense.

It was, I think, in the end, Holly learned too well.

Holly was dead. Oh, my goodness.

It's Eddie Gilbert.

After Eddie Gilbert's departure, Paul Heyman propels ECW to heights few

wrestling companies will ever reach.

This is wrestling the way it's going to be and the way we know that you like it.

Rebranding Eastern Championship Wrestling into the iconic Extreme

Wrestling.

With nothing left to lose, Eddie taps into his fan base, once again setting a

trend that will influence the future.

Eddie wanted recognition.

He wanted to be able to plead his case.

Eddie had been especially popular with the hardcore smart fans, the ones that

knew the behind the scenes, the ones that knew how everything worked.

One of them basically sat Eddie down in a hotel room and

shot the first shoot interview.

Where one of the personalities involved in wrestling sat there and told inside

stories of how it was done.

In those days, believability in the ring was the most important. If the people

know how they're being tricked, it'll kill the business.

It got some people raising their eyes that, you know, Eddie Gilbert did that?

What's been your relationship with Waller?

It was about time that he did, because everybody out there thought they know

everything about our business, and they don't. When he saw an opportunity, he

took advantage of it before anybody else.

About 10 years after he'd done it, everybody and their brother started

Eddie was the first one in the business to recognize

that. But this was 1994.

People in the business didn't do that. But that was all that Eddie had left.

The smart fans loved his booking, but the upper echelon and the major

they didn't really know or care.

I was running Smoky Mountain Wrestling out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

I called Eddie.

I said, Eddie, you've got a great mind.

Let's see if we can put this thing together.

I can't believe what I'm seeing here.

Hot stuff Eddie Gilbert is here. And what are you doing here in Smoky

Wrestling? I didn't know you were going to be here.

Well, he came to the TV taping. Just to be honest with you, I didn't really know

I was going to be here either. But came out and had a match with Ricky Morton.

He looked great.

He was ready to go.

And he told me, we're going to shoot this angle tonight.

We'll be right here next week. Show us what you got, hot stuff.

Maybe we won't go through with it because I have an opportunity in Puerto

to do what I love, and that's booking.

I was proud for him.

And I said, go for it.

If you don't come back, I'll cover it up.

And bless my heart, he never came back.

After that first TV taping, I never saw Eddie Gilbert again.

He was dead three months later.

Looking to make a fresh start and leave his demons behind, Eddie Gilbert heads

to work in Puerto Rico.

He looked at it as a great opportunity to turn it around.

Carlos Colon had offered him a deal.

Carlos was wanting somebody with different ideas, something fresh.

He was real excited.

This is the briefcase that my brother carried around all the way to his Puerto

Rico days.

February 18, 1995.

Eddie Gilbert versus Ted the Bear. So that's the bear that my brother

I'm going against the bear.

I'm going against the bear. I'm going against the bear. I can't go against the

bear, no! He was trying to get it popped again and where everybody could make

money and everybody would be happy.

He asked me, he said, you want to come?

I said, give me a minute to think on it, and I'm sure it won't be too long.

But it would be the last territory that he ever booked.

The next day, somebody called and told me, they found your brother in his

apartment laying across the bed with earphones on and music.

Just laying back like he'd laid back to go to sleep or rest.

Really peaceful.

Weeks after arriving in Puerto Rico, tragic news arrives back home.

The wrestling world was saddened by the death this past week of Eddie Gilbert.

We were notified that on February 18th in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Eddie had

passed away of apparent heart failure.

When you know somebody in his early 30s, the first thing you're going to think

is, Was it drugs?

Especially in Puerto Rico.

In Puerto Rico, you don't have to have a script to do nothing. All you have to

do is walk into the drugstore, get anything you want.

So the first thing they done say, oh, you know what he was doing?

Well, no, you don't know what he was doing.

Of course, there's speculation on drugs, ODing, but he had a bad heart too.

And they list the cause of death as the heart attack.

Anybody could have made up anything. It spreads like it's gospel through the

entire industry.

But I really learned to take everything I hear like that with a grain of salt.

I'm there to protect Eddie first before I start believing rumors and

speculation.

We ain't going to say we was choir boys.

We probably did some things we shouldn't have done.

But I'm not making an excuse. I'm just telling you, he had the car wreck.

Half of his heart, it would never work again.

And if it wasn't working right, it had to have a strain on it. And that never

quit until he passed away.

If Eddie was still alive, he'd be one month older than I am sitting here right

now.

We kept in contact.

We wrote letters to each other.

And this one here that I kept was probably one of the end ones.

He starts off with Deborah Ann.

Deborah, you have been a terrific friend, lover, companion, and

most of all, best and wonderful wife.

I just wish I had realized that before it got too out of hand.

I have nothing but the most respect for you as a person and your abilities in

the ring and also in the...

If you need someone to talk to at any time, night or day, please don't

to give me a call.

I mean that.

And that was one of the last letters that I received from Eddie.

He was a good person.

We met well.

You know, Eddie passed away 30 years ago.

And he's still down.

He's one of the best.

Loving what he did.

So when you step in that ring, it's like we're on Broadway.

And we can give you part of our soul.

He gave his heart and soul to you people.

Remember him for that.

Eddie never really wanted much in return.

He just wanted this business.

I was born to be the king.

This year, it would be 30 years since my brother's passing.

I wish he could be here, and I love him.

And I know how really proud he was of me, and

he had a huge heart.

He'd done what he loved to the last day of his life.