Talk about it here.

The Bonnie Blackstone insert promo is so funny to me, despite not really being funny.

 

Sort of similar to Lawler vs monster, as BBJ takes a chairshot to the back and an unprotected chairshot, selling neither. Bruce Pritchard is at ringside managing BBJ. It's always been fascinating to me how he has come and gone so many times from Vince over the years, yet when he comes back, he always ends up back in the inner circle.

 

I don't know if Gilbert is a babyface now, or if he's the de facto babyface.

 

BBJ goes over clean, basically squashing Gilbert, but there's controversy in the finish, as Gilbert never submitted.

 

Terry Garvin comes in post-match to stand up for Gilbert. Gilbert thanks Garvin for his help, but as the result of a pre-match promo, Gilbert has to kiss Pritchard's feet.

I'm pretty sure Gilbert turned babyface as he hit a heel ref that Bruce hired with a fireball. The Lawler vs Monster analogy is right on here. BBJ and Prichard are just awful but luckily it's short. Gilbert did his best.

I thought Gilbert made BBJ look great. Anyone know who he is. The Lawler comparison is right on.

I thought this was an oddly fun angle thingy, and thiis + Horowitz kind of makes me want to seek out full Global shows. That big dude looked kind of shitty, though.

Prichard looks like he should be a member of Dokken with that hair. This was a fun David vs. Goliath sort of match, although it was disappointing to see Gilbert adhere to the stip. If he really wanted to emulate Lawler, he'd have thrown a fireball at BBJ and hit the bricks

Brought to you from the Global Dome! When I was younger and watching Global on ESPN, I bought into the global dome. Little did I know it wasn't all that global. But hey, that's what being an 11 year old mark is all about.

Big Bad John is some big dude in street clothes working a sort-of Festus gimmick, as he's rendered docile by a towel being put over his head. Boni Blackstone is at ringside along with Tracy Chapman or perhaps her long-lost twin sister, and they're both intensely curious as to where Prichard found this guy.

 

John is an oaf who can barely run the ropes, but Gilbert carries this to something decent. They tease an opening when John messes up his knee, but he quickly comes back to lock Gilbert in a backbreaker and despite Eddie shaking his head no, the referee calls for the bell. Wow, THREE Montreal screwjob finishes (counting each fall of the hair vs. hair match) in the span of two weeks.

 

Terry Garvin protests, but Gilbert honors the pre-match stip to kiss the feet of Bruce Prichard, who is making almost no attempt to disguise his Brother Love voice. I keep expecting Gilbert to have something up his sleeve, but nope. And then John levels him again afterward and locks him in the backbreaker again, as Terry Garvin is unable to break the hold with chairshots. We get that magic ESPN editing on the post-match shots but Gilbert whacked John in full view of the camera twice during the match for all of us to see.

 

Gilbert seems to be doing a very good job of booking Global at this point. He used John as effectively as possible and it's striking how much late-'90s and '00s stuff is showing up at this point.

I didn't like this at all. The "controversial" finish wasn't needed, as Big Bad John was in absolutely no danger at any time. Eddie looked like a jobber out there, and it all came to nothing in the end, as Big Bad John went nowhere, at least not under that gimmick.

 

Were they trying to present Esposito or whatever that ref's name was as being on the take from Bruce? It seemed like they were, but if so, James Beard went along with his decision way too quickly, which made Garvin look like a sore loser on Eddie's behalf. I was waiting for a fireball or a crotch shot too, but Eddie went along with the stip, cracking only after Bruce slapped his face. Then we had Big Bad John making Eddie and Garvin both look ridiculous again with his unbreakable backbreaker. Add all this to the fact that I think "kiss my foot" matches are legit disgusting and have no business being booked, and you can see why this is my least favorite match on the set thus far.

 

Bruce should have just come out as some variation of Brother Love. There was no way for him to disguise his voice; it was too well known. He should have tried dressing in blue instead of red and calling everyone "my children" and see if that kept Vince's lawyers off his back instead of looking like an aging hippie.

 

The interview with Boni wasn't a bad idea, but someone should have clued her in that Bruce would be at ringside instead of the announce table. Hearing her ask "Where did you find him, Bruce?" and Craig answering by continuing his match call without acknowledging the question at all made the production look amateurish and slipshod, not a show on what was even then one of the top cable networks in the country.

Eddie got a lot out of BBJ who, as mentioned, could barely run the ropes. I guess you work with what you've got on a budget. Count me in as surprised Eddie didn't throw fire or hit Pritchard in the balls as well. How is this going to effect the Eddie/Horowitz relationship?