[1999-06-12-MPPW-TV] Dirty White Boy, Doug Gilbert and Randy Hales

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Doug Gilbert debuts in Power Pro as a babyface, coming to the rescue of the Dirty White Boy, who found himself in a situation getting attacked by a group of heels. Dave Brown points out that he has nothing to do with Power Pro and isn't under contract, so he's pretty surprised that he showed up. Dirty White Girl is there too. Good to see DWB in particular. I haven't seen him since TL Hopper. Dave Brown doesn't trust Gilbert when he threatens to reveal all sorts of things about Power Pro and doesn't want to let him talk and keeps trying to cut him off. He has his mic killed too. Randy Hales comes out and tells DWB firmly that Doug Gilbert is not part of the deal and will never work for Power Pro. He has made threats on people's lives and Hales doesn't take that lightly. He talks about Gilbert working opposition. Dave is trying to remind everyone this is live television and that people should watch what they say and cooler heads prevail.

 

We see Doug in the parking lot saying he can NOT get in any more legal trouble and he has to leave since they are threatening to arrest him. Dave begs the cameraman to stop filming this. DWB comes out later to confront Hales about this in front of everyone, as all he wanted to do was get some help when he was outnumbered and that's it. Hales says he hates what has happened to him, but Doug Gilbert can't be trusted and is out of control. DWB says he's not going to look so great tonight in Jonesboro when half of his main event refuses to show up, and that's what will happen unless Doug is in his corner. Hales begs him to reconsider and offers to find him a partner and DWB won't budge. DWB says that's fine, they'll go to the airport and catch a flight back to Bucksnort. Period. The heels, led by JR Smooth, take this opportunity to attack DWB yet again. Hales looks on helpless and finally goes to the parking lot and begrudgingly tells Doug he can come back in. He clears the ring with a chair and the heels bail. Kimberly, who was handcuffed during all of this, is especially peeved at Hales for letting this get out of control. And now it looks like DWB has been seriously hurt. Things get heated again and Hales kicks him out again. This ends with Gilbert promising he'll be in Jonesboro tonight and will buy a ticket if that's what he has to do to get in.

 

Memphis still gets the fake shoot concept better than anyone else after all these years. I specifically appreciate that this seemed more "real" than everything else, but everything else was never once presented or implied as fake. In fact, they wove the two things together perfectly. This was a great segment, mostly thanks to Dave Brown. Probably the best-executed and well-booked angle of 1999, as crazy as that sounds.

[tim]

This was a great angle and I'd really love to see the match this is building to. It's good TV and edgy for the product, the sort of angle that would fit in with the best of the MNW stuff in that regard, but at the same time does a fantastic job specifically building up to one match. The performances from everyone were great, the layout was great, it all made sense and was exciting. Definitely one of the best angles and TV segments of the year.

[soup23]

Memphis does it again. Just as last week was pretty week with not a whole lot going on, we get this great series of vignettes. Dave Brown was awesome not letting Doug have the live mic. We also get a great dilemma that Randy Hales goes through culminating in getting Doug from the parking lot and sending him in. I am so glad to see DWB had something left in the tank. After everything Hales is still unsure as Gilbert is yelling as a loose cannon and Randy says this is why he didn't want him in the company. We follow the crew to the parking lot and it ends the show in great suspense. Dave Brown was outstanding throughout all of this.

[Tim Evans]

I don't know if you guys noticed but one of the heels was the future Jamal/Umaga in what must have been one of his first appearances. DWB is still awesome after his TL Hopper run. This was crazy but not so crazy it's laughable. If I remember right, Doug Gilbert worked the first Kick ass wrestling show and cut a scathing promo on Randy Hales so it surprises me that he would show up. Dave Brown deserves a emmy for his performance. Great angle all around.

[PeteF3]

So many weird little things to get through before we get to the big stuff. The sudden presence of the Dirty White Boy, and Kimberly, neither of which I could have expected. I also had no idea that "BSK" was used as a kayfabe stable name at any point anywhere.

 

Easily the best Power Pro segment ever to this point and one of the best segments of the year. This isn't far behind the all-time classic Memphis Yearbook segments like Lawler/Snowman and the big Jarrett/Gilbert confrontation. Doug Gilbert makes a surprise appearance clearly playing off real-life animosity between him and the PPW camp, as Dave Brown channels his distaste for the likes of Scott Bowden and takes that same tone of voice when dealing with Gilbert attempting to use a live mic. Knowing now that many of Brown's arguments with Bowden were shoots, this had *me* thinking that Dave was shooting again. It takes on another level with all the talk of Gilbert being a "loose cannon" who can't be trusted with a live mic knowing what's to come in that regard. And as pointed out, none of this is too inside-baseball for anyone to grasp. I don't know what the backstory is here, but I didn't need to--I could tell just from everyone's tone and the little bit of backstory that the heat between Gilbert and Hales was very much real. The highs in Memphis get fewer and farther between as the '90s go on, but this segment proved that when they get the opportunity they can still knock an angle out of the park.