Wrestling / Eddie Gilbert

"Sons often find themselves living in the shadows of their fathers. Sometimes those shadows shield. Sometimes those shadows swallow. From time to time a son steps out of those shadows and when he does, the shadows he casts often reach beyond the point of measuring."

—Tim S. Dills, speaking about Gilbert, Kayfabe Memories

Thomas Edward Gilbert Jr. (August 14, 1961 – February 18, 1995) was an American professional wrestler, manager and booker from Lexington, TN as "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert. He was best known for his work in the Memphis area, usually feuding with Jerry Lawler. He also was the original booker for NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling. After a run in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1994, he left to book in Puerto Rico, where he died on February 18, 1995. He also competed for WWE in the early 1980s as a Jobber, for WCW, for the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico, for the Global Wrestling Federation in Dallas, TX, for the hardcore W*ING and IWA promotions in Japan, for various National Wrestling Alliance territories, for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and for "Cowboy" Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling/UWF promotions. Among his achievements, he is a former NWA ECW Tag Team Champion with his brother Doug (under a mask as the Dark Patriot), a former 4x USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion, a former NWA United States Tag Team Champion with Rick Steiner, and a 2x UWF World Tag Team Champion with Sting. He also had a famous three-match series with Cactus Jack in 1991 for the Tri-States Wrestling Alliance in Philadelphia.

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"Hot Trope International":

• Arch-Enemy: Jerry Lawler, Terry Funk.
• Bash Brothers: with his father Tommy and/or brother Doug, with Ricky Morton, with Tommy Rich
• Captain Ersatz: As Michael Myers, with Doug as Freddy Krueger in the hardcore W*ING promotion in Japan. See below under Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
• Car Fu: To Jerry Lawler in the parking lot of the TV studio in Memphis, after Eddie and brother Doug had been "fired" from the promotion.
• Finishing Move: The Hot Shot (ring-rope clothesline, later known as "Stunning" Steve Austin's Stun Gun)
• Food Fight: In the Tupelo Concession Stand Brawls in Memphis
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: In Japan.
  • Also managed the Russians (Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff and Kortsia Korchenko) in Mid-South and took part in the famous angle where they buried "Cowboy" Bill Watts under a Soviet flag.
• Game-Breaking Injury: In a car crash while he was working for WWE in the early 1980s. It's believed that this caused the painkiller addiction that ultimately killed him.
  • Determinator: He suffered from a bad neck for much of his career and so he would take very dramatic bumps, throwing his whole body into them in order to protect his neck.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door
• Humiliating Wager: He and Madusa beat Cactus Jack and Luna Vachon in a tag team hair vs hair match while touring Japan.
• It Runs in the Family
• It's All About Me: Once during a match in ECW between NWA ECW Heavyweight Champion Don Muraco (w/Paul E. Dangerously) vs. the Sandman in 1993, he was doing commentary and said that "ECW" stood for "Eddie's Championship Wrestling."
• Jerkass: As a Heel.
• Parts Unknown: "Every Woman's Dream"
• Playing with Fire: Used fireballs as weapons.
• Power Stable: Had a few, most notably the First Family in Mid-South, which became Hyatt and Hot Stuff International and featured a young Sting and Rick Steiner.
  • He had a First Family in the GWF in Dallas with Barry Horowitz and Scott Anthony (Raven).
  • He also had a Hot Stuff International in the early days of ECW, with Doug (as the Dark Patriot), Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco, which merged with Paul E. Dangerously to become the Dangerous Alliance, adding Shane Douglas.
  • He was a member of Jimmy Hart's the First Family in Memphis.
  • Gilbert's Army in Memphis, with the Phantom of the Opera (Tommy Gilbert), Jerry Bryant and Lt. Frazier (Stan Frazier, aka WWE's Uncle Elmer among a million other names.) It didn't last long, as Gilbert left for Mid-South and Frazier went up to WWE.
  • The Memphis Mafia in the USWA (Gilbert, "Dirty White Boy" Tony Anthony, Joey Maggs, Billy Joe Travis, Brian Christopher and Doug Gilbert.)
• Red Baron: "Hot Stuff"
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Worked as a booker for Bill Watts' UWF, in the Continental Wrestling Federation in Alabama, in Memphis and in ECW. He won The Wrestling Observer Newsletter's "Best Booker" Award in 1988.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Walked out on ECW after a dispute with Tod Gordon right before UltraClash 93, but did a surprise run-in during the Terry Funk/Stan Hansen vs. Kevin Sullivan/Abdullah the Butcher Bunkhouse Brawl match, leading to a DQ. ECW announcer Joey Styles explained this by saying how, in Eastern Championship Wrestling, wrestlers can use weapons but you can't have outside interference.
  • While wrestling for W*ING, he and Doug felt they were being misused, so they pulled a shoot in the middle of a match. Doug, wrestling as "Freddy Krueger", let Eddie, as "Michael Myers", roll him up for the pin in a match that Doug had been booked to win. They unmasked, said that they were really brothers and verbally buried the promotion and pledged their allegiance to the mainstream All Japan Pro Wrestling.
• Tag Team:
  • With Ricky Morton
  • With Tommy Rich
  • With Doug.
• Wrestling Family: Grandfather Arlie, father Tommy and brother Doug. He was also married to both Missy Hyatt and to Madusa at different points in his life.