DVDVR Puerto Rico 80s Set: Disc 1: Ric Flair vs Tommy Gilbert (9/4/82)

Disc 1, Match 2: Ric Flair vs Tommy Gilbert (9/4/82)

The set stumbles us right into comfort food with this match. I'm playing off assumptions here as I don't think there's a good results resource for early 80s WWC out there? I could be wrong. I only googled a bit and what I came up with first was arm wrestling results. Therefore, I'm leaning towards the point of most reasonable, here. I could be wrong.

From the interview leading into this, this was to familiarize the crowd with Flair, giving him an opponent who he could communicate well with, who was used to a number of different US styles, who was familiar to the crowd. As best as I can tell, Tommy spent part of the year teaming with Eddie.

This was Flair vs mid-carder in a 10 minute TV match. You know what you're getting. What's interesting, then, is the deviations you get due to period, setting, and opponent. It's 82, so the hanging vertical suplex was a little more hanging, there was a side backbreaker, and I'd say there was just a little more attention to detail in specific spots. Flair showed his frustration towards Gilbert's comeback attempts beautifully here, escalating in meanness and terse body language. At one point, Gilbert managed a back body drop and Flair, in a fit of aggravation, immediately went for the same, only to eat a sunset flip. I always appreciate organic, reactive moments like that.

Gilbert earned that frustration too. He was inspired here. He's someone who was always able to show fire in certain situations, but, at age 42, it wasn't every day that he was able to get in the ring against the champ with a hot crowd behind him. The extra zip that he was able to bring to his rope running, or the extra height and explosiveness to hiss cross body, was well appreciated. They really milked the striking comeback attempts, too. I think my favorite little flourish was a lightning small package out of a headlock, just this opportunistic moment that really fit the match. I could be wrong about this, but the ring felt small to me, and it made me suddenly want to only ever see Flair in matches with smaller rings. Between that and Gilbert's continuously surprising acceleration, the match felt more visceral and brisk than I was expecting.

The biggest downside was the length, especially as it played into the finish. Cutting off one of the many comeback attempts, Flair finally started on the leg. He got two shots in before Gilbert fought back one last time, only to miss a corner charge, legs first, leading to the figure four. It felt like they went home early and the match would have benefited by another minute or so of leg work before Gilbert fought back. A match like this would always have a certain cap to it, but this still stood out despite being the sort of thing we've seen dozens of times.

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IWA Mid-South Interlude: Funk vs. Dougie and a Chain

Chain Match: Terry Funk vs. Doug Gilbert IWA-MS 3/13/97


ER: They already uploaded the fun Doug/Mantel vs. Gordy/Severn tag from the next year's Eddie memorial, and this was another one I wanted to see, from the original memorial show. Doug Gilbert is an odd wrestler. He is very likely an odd human being. I have seen many Doug matches where he looked like a terrible pro wrestler. He kind of looked like a terrible wrestler through parts of this. But Dougie brings something to the table that most guys can't even touch, and that is that he almost always looks angry, wild-eyed, and borderline unprofessional. He has an aura where you think something off the books could happen at any moment. It often doesn't, but there's always that chance, that look. He's a guy I'd rather know almost nothing about, outside of what is presented within the ring. I feel like if I found out Doug is a happily married father of three who owns a semi-successful Pep Boys franchise with two other guys, I would forever not care about another old Doug Gilbert match again. But I know next to nothing about Doug, other than what I've seen in the ring, and he almost always comes off as unhinged. 

So when he rushes Funk with the swinging chain to start the match, it is expected, and awesome. Funk really looks like he's desperately scrambling to get away from Doug as Doug chases him through the crowd. They toss chairs, fight outside, fight underneath a shaking roll-up door (and Funk is the best at taking half visible bumps into the roll-up door and then doing a Funk wobble as the door wobbles). We get some punches wrapped in a chain and - I don't know about any of you - but punches wrapped in a chain are some of my favorite things in wrestling. Funk takes a couple rough spills and comes off looking older than normal, strange since we all know how far away he was from being truly retired in 1997, strange seeing as he was on actual TV and PPV around this time. But here he crawls around in a way that is uncomfortable to see an old man crawling around and Doug pounces, and the ending is confusing and kinda stinks.

But thennnnnn Tommy Fucking Gilbert runs out and starts beating the shit out of Dory while Dory wears his stupid sweat shorts. Doug just wanders off and leaves Tommy to fight with Terry around the building, back to the merch, and then toss chairs at each other right next to Tommy's wife. Human perception is a funny thing. It's fascinating to think of how other humans view you, both physically and as a person. At this point in your life you're bored with your own looks. You see yourself every day, presumably know your best and worst features. But there are other people out there who view you in ways that you don't view yourself. Some positive, some negative. You may see yourself as a nice guy, someone you know may view you as a real jerk. And so I sat there wondering what Tommy Gilbert's wife thought of him, as he stood there not 5 feet away from her, wearing small red trunks, holding a chair up in self-defense as Terry Funk yelled at him, yelling that his son had no guts. There's her husband of over two decades, in his underwear, brandishing a chair, fighting another man in his 50s. "That's my guy. That's my Tommy." Later that night, she would raffle off a dead son's ring jacket.

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