February 27, 1995
- This issue is labeled as March 6th for some reason but it's obviously supposed to be the Feb. 27th issue. So I corrected the date here. But if you're ever looking for it in the WON archives, it'll be under March 6th.
- Eddie Gilbert passed away from a heart attack at age 33 last week in his apartment in Puerto Rico, where he was working as booker for Carlos Colon's WWC promotion. Dave launches into a lengthy obituary, about how Eddie dreamed of being a wrestler like his father and even no-showed his own high school graduation so he could wrestle on an indie show. Gilbert later built a reputation of burning bridges everywhere he went, most recently walking out on SMW to go book for WWC in Puerto Rico. His reputation for leaving promotions on bad terms was so well-established that the only reason they kept bringing him back was because he was such a creative booker and great worker. Jerry Lawler took Gilbert back so many times people lost count but recently, even USWA had finally had enough and wouldn't bring him back. Within the last year, Gilbert had been trying to find work everywhere and most promoters refused to hire him until Cornette finally took a chance on him, only for Gilbert to immediately burn him as well.
- After a car accident in 1983, Gilbert became a frequent user of painkillers and due to his small size, he was always paranoid about not being big enough and used steroids constantly. He was married to Missy Hyatt for awhile but their marriage fell apart largely due to the stresses of the business and Gilbert trying to hide steroid use from her. Hyatt talks about how Gilbert's natural weight was 175 but he would use steroids and would freak out if his weight ever dropped below 200. He was obsessed with trying to be the next Jerry Lawler and could never quite reach that headlining status and it ate him up. Despite leaving both promotions on somewhat bad terms, ECW and USWA are both expected to air tributes to Gilbert on their TV shows this week.
- The obit includes quotes from Tod Gordon, Paul Heyman, Lance Russell, Jim Cornette, Missy Hyatt, and others. In general, they talk about how close Gilbert's family was and how crushed they must be but Heyman talks about how he isn't surprised and always figured he'd get this call because Gilbert had a lot of demons and compares him to Kerry Von Erich as a tragic figure in the business. Gordon talks about how Gilbert grew up in the business and because of that, he was paranoid and didn't trust anyone: "He was raised in an environment (the pro wrestling world) where he learned never to believe anyone. So he lived his life paranoid of everyone and everything. He used to read the Observer and look for hidden meaning in every sentence and point it out to me. I would say to him, 'you don't really believe that,' but he did."
- Phil Mushnick wrote a column about WCW in the New York Post last week and it wasn't pretty. He wrote about the sleaziness of Gene Okerlund teasing a dead world champion to get Hotline calls and made sure to repeatedly mention Ted Turner's involvement. He also talked about the obvious steroid use in WCW, talked about Hulk Hogan's past steroid use and lies, and more. Due to the publicity of the article and how it placed the blame at the highest level (Ted Turner), the article shook WCW to the point that they reportedly changed the finish of the SuperBrawl main event. Speaking of...
- New Japan will be holding a press conference this week to announce the lineup for the upcoming NJPW/WCW show in North Korea. It's expected it will be headlined by the first ever Antonio Inoki vs. Ric Flair match.
- WCW has apparently delayed plans for their cruiserweight tournament. They were counting on Sabu agreeing to come in, but he really doesn't want to burn his ECW bridge and apparently turned them down which led to them finally just putting the whole thing on ice for now.
- WCW is still planning to run their own UFC-type PPV and have tentatively planned it for June. This pretty much eliminates any chance of them producing another AAA PPV, which was previously rumored for June.
- Even though SMW isn't part of the NWA, Dan Severn is being brought in to work an SMW show against Chris Candido because they need to get the NWA belt off of Candido before he starts with WWF this week and this was the only opportunity to book them both.
- A new promotion in Portland called Pacific Coast Championship Wrestling ran their first show this week and Roddy Piper made an appearance alongside longtime Portland promoter Don Owen. Piper didn't have his crutches this time, but still moved gingerly from his recent hip replacement surgery.
- Speaking of Piper, he has several movies coming out. One is called Jungleground, which he stars in and the other is called No Contest, which will feature Piper in a small role with comedian Andrew Dice Clay and Shannon Tweed.
- At an autograph session to promote his gym, Ric Flair was asked about Shane Douglas always calling him out. Flair essentially dismissed it and said he remembers when he was young and trying to make a name for himself and said you have to do whatever you can to get over.
- Speaking of Shane Douglas, he was apparently offered a chance to tryout to do commentary for Monday Night Raw.
- Dave notes that "WWF Superstar Virgil" will be debuting for Jim Crockett's promotion in Dallas. He actually put "WWF Superstar Virgil" in quotations. Has this joke been running way longer than I realized?
- WCW made a big appearance at the annual Toy Fair in New York, spending a ton of money on advertising their new toy line. Some called it a "Power Rangers-level of advertising." WWF advertising was pretty much an afterthought in comparison. Hogan, Randy Savage, and more showed up to represent WCW and were hugely popular. All the promotion was centered on burying WWF with the autograph lines urging people to "come over and meet real wrestlers." WWF sent Diesel and Bret Hart and their autograph lines were nothing compared to the WCW lines.
- WCW is still reportedly very interested in bringing in this Paul Wight guy but they haven't settled on a gimmick for him yet.
- At the latest Monday Night Raw tapings, Unabomb from SMW (Glen Jacobs) got a tryout, using the name Mike Unabomb. Also, Sid Vicious debuted as Shawn Michaels' new boyguard, using just the name "Sid" for now.
- Despite rumors that even Dave himself reported on, there was apparently never even any consideration of bringing Jesse Ventura back to WWF to do commentary. It was a rumor that started "on computer bulletin boards" that spread out of control to the point that some within WWF believed it to be true and from there, word trickled down to Dave and even he got tricked by it. Damn those rascally computer bulletin boards!