10 Times WWE Used Real Life Misery For Storyline Gains

8. Eddie Gilbert’s Neck

Eddie Gilbert
WCW

In 1983, Eddie Gilbert had made a miraculous recovery from a life-threatening broken neck, suffered in a car crash. Gilbert was an up-and-coming wrestler with buckets of potential and had been working up the card when the crash happened. A serious setback, but ‘Hot Stuff’ was able to recover and eventually return to the ring, thanks in part to the influence and guidance of Bob Backlund.

What came next was enough to win the Wrestling Observer’s Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic award for 1983. Gilbert was squashed by The Masked Superstar (Demolition Ax, for the curious): Superstar won after hitting two neckbreakers. The action then spilled to the outside, where the future tag champion hit Gilbert with a third neckbreaker. Gilbert hit the concrete floor and didn’t move, with the announcers immediately entering SERIOUS VOICE mode. The crowd was in shock, as Gilbert received what looked like very, very serious medical attention.

In 2020, this whole thing might not seem so bad. Injury angles are ten-a-penny, even more so when real-life issues are included. But this was 1983, a completely different time, and WWE’s willingness to exploit a real-life broken neck left a sour taste in the mouth. What makes it all worse is that Gilbert’s broken neck wasn’t even used to build the youngster; it was utilised to build a match between Backlund and The Masked Superstar.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.