[1992-03-20-GWF] Eddie Gilbert vs Barry Horowitz

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Another case of Gilbert being ahead of his time. He's facing Barry Horowitz with a referee against him, Pritchard at ringside ... ultimate deck stacking that reminds me of a Raw main event from 1998. It's very Austin/McMahon. This is a match built around that -- mostly clowning, but highly entertaining.

[Tim Evans]

This is like Memphis mixed with Monterrey wrestling. Fun stuff.

[shoe]

The angle got over, and Gilbert was ahead of his time. This was fun.

[Eduardo]

Gilbert's performance is really entertaining here. Loved watching his reactions and expressions to everything that was going on. Glad this was thrown on there, Gilbert is a lot of fun here.

[Kevin Ridge]

I like the referee repeatedly trying to let Gilbert know that his the referee by showing off the patch on his shirt. Who could miss that thing? Fun little match with the heeling up ref working against Gilbert.

[MikeCampbell]

Loss said it best, this is right out of an Austin/McMahon angle from a 1998 RAW. The only thing that could have made this better would be the ref ringing the bell on a headlock and saying that Eddie quit.

[WingedEagle]

Loved the ref pointing out his official's patch. Gilbert does a great job working the role of the babyface with the decked stacked against him, but I had a hard time getting into this. Not in love with the work of the others, it didn't come across as serious as it should and try as I may I just can't get into Barry Horowitz as a credible heel.

 

**

[ajtroma]

I was SO into GWF at this time. My GWF tapes from then, first run off ESPN, GONE! Pissed at myself!

[PeteF3]

There's so much stalling here that it makes Lawler vs. Embry look like an AJW main event, but it's a different type of stalling than the usual Sportatorium bullshit. The GWF was just crawling with evil authority figures and crooked referees, so yes, this definitely continues the late-'90s-style booking. I think this led to a 6-man with Esposito and James Beard on opposite teams, which would be another booking staple we'd see in the future.

[ajtroma]

If I recall correctly, it was Bruce Prichard and not Esposito that would be in the future six-man.

[xlynwoodx]

I love this ref. Reminding everyone that HE was the referee, showing the patch over and over...that was fun. Also always enjoy the overselling of the sunset flip, Horowitz looked like a redwood sloooowly falling over.

[garretta]

A screwjob this obvious isn't enjoyable to watch at all. I've seen this compared to the Austin/McMahon storyline, which I was no fan of at all in the brief looks I took here and there while at college, but that was done better than this was. There was way too much physical involvement by Esposito, even for a paid-off ref, and I wanted Eddie to rip that silly patch off and shove it down his throat. When he didn't, I wondered if this was the same man who tried to commit vehicular homicide on Jerry Lawler. He looked like a wimp, Horowitz got nothing at all out of this, and we didn't even see much out of Prichard, who was supposedly behind it all.

 

If this was supposed to be brilliant booking, its brilliance is totally lost on me. If this is what Eddie would have brought to the business had he lived, I'm glad we missed out, no disrespect intended. This kind of crap is what took the fun out of wrestling for me, and I'm shocked to see that someone other than Vince McMahon started it. I expect schlock out of someone like him who has such contempt for the business and wishes it were something else with all his heart; I don't expect it from a kayfabe lifer like Eddie.

[dawho5]

This was kind of like the Viper interview for me.  Schticky wrestling fun.  It's nothing brilliant, but I thought it was well-executed enough to work.  The Sportatorium crowd, small as it might be, was buying into it too.