[1993-07-10-NWA-Grand Slam II] Eddie Gilbert vs Road Warrior Hawk

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I'm not sure why, but this match was the molasses of this set for me. I didn't want to come back to it, because the match didn't excite me at all. This is weird in and of itself, since I was the reason this got included, as I remember John McAdam really liking it on his old tapelist.

 

So the match has its fun moments, but feels more like a quick TV match to set up a program than anything, even though it's a fancam. Gilbert tries to throw a fireball at Hawk and ends up blinding the ref. Some guy who looks like Verne Gagne that I don't think is runs in to calm Gilbert down and gets pummeled for his trouble.

 

Feels like it was over before it began, but it was fun to watch, and good to see these guys in '93. I remember Paul Heyman peddling some line in the Torch about how Hawk was resurgent around this time. There isn't a ton of footage of him available, so I can't speak to that, but he looked like the same old Hawk to me.

[Kevin Ridge]

I'm glad it ended up on the short side. Eddie got more offense before the match beating up the Hawk doll. Hawk launched Eddie at one point with an impressive chokeslam/throw. Gilbert was taking shots at some people ringside including a photographer. Not much concern for referee's health after the fireball. Just weakens the effect of it when you do that. Was thinking how Hawk could have gone to WCW and just reading now that he does show up in August.

[PeteF3]

I know it's New Year's Eve, but this year it's just another night before work again in the morning. Yearbook time it is!

 

Not really a great match, but they cut a quick pace with almost nothing in the way of stalling. Hawk does some no-sell shit but he also is pretty energetic here, moreso than he was for most of his WWF run. Also, it's not every day you get to see Hawk do a top-rope clothesline to a blow-up doll. Fairly clean finish to boot. Dennis Coraluzzo takes a beating after the match and Gilbert throws a tantrum on the mic. Does this make Hawk the new King of Philadelphia?

[soup23]

Weird match as Gilbert attacks a Hawk doll and then they do a very generic crowd brawling type match. Hawk never works with me in singles matches and Gilbert does a faux - Flair impersonation here which worked even less for me. *3/4

[garretta]

I'm not really sure what to make of this. It was an awful overall performance by Eddie, who seems to have learned from his idol Lawler how not to give a tinker's damn on indy shows. What made Eddie such a treat to watch in Memphis and Mid-South/UWF was that he blustered and screamed and stalled and infuriated everyone in sight, but when the time came to deliver in the ring, whether in a match or a beatdown, he did. He gave a damn and fought his heart out, and at the end of the day, you respected him even as you hated him.

 

Here, he put more effort into his postmatch antics than he did anything during the match itself, which was never going to be a classic but would have been compelling viewing if he'd tried to make it so. But he didn't, only using a few foreign object shots and a smattering of punches, then going for the fireball, which felt tacked on and unnecessary. I didn't get why he went after the fans at all, and while a tag match featuring he and Terry Funk as partners seems like a nice curiosity, nothing that happened in the match set it up whatsoever. The only seemingly truthful moment in the whole segment seemed to be when he calmly told the crowd that he didn't like them and wasn't coming back. Really, Eddie? Who gives a shit? Certainly you​ don't.

 

Hawk was no prize either, no-selling both a piledriver on the floor and repeated foreign object shots, but given his reputation and the fact that he was the legit hometown hero and was probably working this shot at least in part as a favor to old friends, Eddie ought to have known better than to try spots like that in the first place. I have no idea what else he could have done, but that's why Eddie's the worker and I'm not.

 

As an aside, Hawk not only won the match with Eddie, but also the doll-pummeling contest prior to it. His clothesline looked more devastating against the doll than it did against Eddie.

 

By the way, that was Hawk's trainer Eddie Sharkey who was the ref, if I heard Gilbert correctly after the match (which is debatable). I thought I heard something about Sharkey being done to a crisp or some such. Then again, who knows for sure with these handhelds? That was definitely Dennis Coraluzzo whom Gilbert was arguing with after the match.