7. Eddie Gilbert
7. Eddie Gilbert
While these two occasionally crossed paths in front of audiences, this was far more of a behind-the-scenes deal. In fact, it would be fair to say that Paul Heyman was an Eddie Gilbert guy. In 1987, following the epic Lawler feud, Heyman resurfaced in the Continental Wrestling Federation out of Alabama. Here he was a part of Gilbert’s Hot Stuff Inc. stable. Gilbert was the booker in CWF and appointed Heyman as his assistant. Gilbert was an innovative booker, often pushing the boundaries and involving wild arena-wide brawls into his storylines. A good Eddie Gilbert BOOKED storyline would be utterly chaotic. One of Gilbert’s most infamous angles was in 1990 in Memphis, where, on live TV, he actually ran Jerry Lawler over in the parking lot after being fired earlier on the show. This prompted some viewers at home, watching aghast as their hero was knocked down, to call the police and report a crime. Lawler was forced to come clean to the police and had to appear on TV much sooner than he’d have liked to show that his condition wasn’t life threatening, saving Gilbert from legitimate arrest from Memphis’s finest.
In 1993, Gilbert and his brother Doug showed up in the latest NWA promotion, Eastern Championship Wrestling, where he once again was booker. ECW became infamous even in these early days for wild brawls. It was great fodder for the Apter magazines, with photos of brawls all over bars and nightclubs during adult orientated wrestling shows being splashed across the pages. Later on that year, Gilbert handed the reigns of ECW BOOKING over to Heyman. Eastern Championship Wrestling became Extreme Championship Wrestling, the antithesis to the family oriented WWF and WCW at the time. The Gilbert influence was clear to see in Heyman’s booking, as ECW became arguably the most influential promotion in modern times, fuelling the Attitude era in the WWF and introducing numerous international stars to the mainstream US audience.
via www.whatculture.com
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