We return to Dallas, Texas as we continue to follow the history of the legendary Global Wrestling Federation. When we last left off at the end of 1991, the Dark Patriot and his new manager Bruce Prichard had conspired to steal the North American Title from the Patriot and drive the American Hero from the GWF forever, Tug Taylor and his son Chaz had won a family feud against the Dirty Davis Brothers, The Wild Bunch had defeated their rivals the Coast To Coast Connection for the GWF Tag Team Title, and GWF Commissioner Max Andrews had been revealed as the mysterious leader of the Cartel.

However, many of the most important events of 1992 would revolve around Eddie Gilbert, who had first appeared as an interfering nuisance in a North American Title match, but had ended the year as GWF Television Champion. It was that title for which Gilbert was locked in a heated war with Terry Garvin, who had Gilbert's number and his eyes firmly set on becoming the TV Champion...

Part I: The Gilbert-Garvin Feud, Part II

When we last left off in 1991, Eddie Gilbert had come to the GWF and, through a series of devious manipulations, wound up with the Television Title around his waist. Things were going just fine until he was upset in a non-title match by Terry Garvin. Garvin got a series of title shots over the next several weeks with various stipulations involved, but Gilbert managed to hold onto the title by any means necessary each time out.

Garvin got one last shot at the title as 1992 began, and in this match the first man to throw a punch would lose the match, and the title could change hands on a DQ or countout. Gilbert, who had repeatedly relied on foreign objects, disqualifications, and countouts to retains his title against Garvin would seem to be at a disadvantage now that he was forced to face Garvin on a level playing field, but shockingly was cleanly defeated by Gilbert. Garvin brought his game to the title match and clearly walked in expecting to win the TV Title, but realized that he had been fairly defeated and made no excuses. He asked Gilbert why he couldn't always wrestle like that instead of cheating all the time, to which Gilbert had no answer. He told Gilbert that he respected him, but that Gilbert would see him again down the line.

That rematch happened before either of them probably expected, as they met in the finals of a tournament held mere weeks later to determine the #1 contender to the North American Title held by the Dark Patriot. They had yet another great match with another new twist on the finish, as the match ended in a double knockout. However, the GWF required a #1 contender, so the first man back to his feet would win the match and the tournment, and both men frantically struggled to get up first, but in the end Gilbert made it to his feet before Garvin and became the #1 contender.

With two clean victories over Garvin, Gilbert had decisively won the feud, and was now in line to challenge the Dark Patriot for the GWF's top title.

Part II: The Wild Bunch Disintegrates

Wild Bunch members Wild Bill Irwin and Black Bart had closed 1991 by defeating Coast To Coast Connection members John Tatum and Rod Price for the GWF Tag Team Title, but had not seen the last of their hated enemies. As the new year opened, the Connection was granted another shot at the title, but the Wild Bunch would only grant them a rematch if Price and Tatum agreed to split as a team if they lost. Tatum and Price were very upset with manager Skandar Akbar about signing them into a match like this, but Akbar told them not to worry, he had a plan.

Irwin spent most of the rematch getting beat up, with Bart casually standing in the corner watching his partner fall victim to repeated double team attacks by the Connection. Finally Irwin got both opponents down and reached to make the life-saving tag to his partner, but instead of taking the hot tag, Black Bart hit Irwin with his own lucky horseshoe and knocked him out. The rest was academic, the Connection scored the win and regained the title, following which we got to see a backstage promo showing Akbar in the back with Bart where Akbar revealed that he had paid Bart off to turn on his partner and join his side.

Bart was determined to take out his former comrades, and shortly after turning on Irwin, Bart defeated Rattlesnake and put him out of action in the North American Title Contender's tournament. Irwin was now on his own, and despite some tag team wins over Bart, he was defeated by Bart in a match to crown a GWF Brass Knucks Champion. Bart didn't enjoy a long reign, as Irwin soon returned the favor and defeated Bart for the Brass Knucks Title to win the feud and prove himself the dominant member of the former Wild Bunch.

Part III: Eddie Gilbert vs The Dark Patriot

Life was good for Eddie Gilbert in the early spring of 1992. He was Television Champion, he had exorcised the demon of Terry Garvin by cleanly winning the feud, and he was now the #1 contender for the North American Title held by the Dark Patriot. However, things would soon take an ugly turn as his friend Bruce Prichard, who just happened to be the manager of the Dark Patriot, said that there was no reason for the two men to fight and offered to let Gilbert walk away from his title shot without a fight. Gilbert said thanks, but he wanted his shot and he was coming for the North American Title.

Gilbert dominated the match with the Dark Patriot and was well on his way to victory when his "friend" Bruce Prichard came in and interfered, drawing the DQ. Gilbert was incensed at Prichard, but before he even knew what was happening, Scott Anthony and Barry Horowitz, who Gilbert also thought were his friends, ran in and the four men beat Gilbert down.

As if Gilbert didn't have enough problems already, he also had managed to get new referee Sam Esposito on his bad side. In a match against Big Bad John where Gilbert would have to kiss Prichard's feet if he lost, Esposito called a submission on Gilbert while he was in an abdominal stretch. Gilbert said that he knew he didn't submit, but he was a man of his word and kissed Prichard's feet. Soon after this, Gilbert was wrestling Barry Horowitz and Esposito flagrantly interfered with Gilbert's attempts to win the match. Gilbert finally had had enough and struck Esposito, and he may have felt vindicated at the time, but it came back to bite him when Esposito used Gilbert's attack as grounds to petition the GWF to strip him of the TV Title, which the GWF agreed with. Gilbert lost the TV Title without ever being defeated for it.

Gilbert soon got another shot at the Dark Patriot, and thanks to help from his former rival Terry Garvin, Gilbert actually beat Dark Patriot for the title but then had the decision reversed on him when Sam Esposito again got involved and told referee James Beard about Garvin's interference. Gilbert would remain a thorn in the side of the Dark Patriot, costing him a win against Garvin when he was referee of a DP-Garvin non-title match, and then teamed with Garvin and referee Beard against the Dark Patriot, the Viper, and Bruce Prichard. Gilbert's team won.

Soon after this, in a non-televised match, Gilbert finally beat the Dark Patriot for the North American Title. The two men met one final time, this time with Gilbert putting the North American Title on the line against the Dark Patriot's mask. Gilbert again beat the Dark Patriot, and when the Dark Patriot finally unmasked, he revealed...another mask underneath. He had adhered to the stipulation of his match and unmasked, but had not revealed his identity. The Dark Patriot decided to leave the GWF after that match rather than continue battling Gilbert, but had Gilbert truly won the feud?

Part IV: The Goodfellas

Since Wild Bill Irwin and Black Bart had split up, they were no longer a threat to the Coast To Coast Connection now that they were again GWF Tag Team Champions. Instead, their first challenge came from the team of Scott Putski & Gary Young, who had not forgotten about his run-in with the Connection the previous year. After several failed attempts to win the title Young and Putski were granted one final title shot, but Gary Young was injured the night of the title match and was unable to compete. Although the Connection expected a 2-on-1 massacre like when they first won the title, Putski was joined by his friend Terry Simms (the former Terry Garvin, who had now decided to compete under his real name). The makeshift pair defeated the Connection that night to win the Tag Team Title.

Several weeks later, after Young had recovered from the injury, he teamed with Putski & Simms against the Connection and Steven Dane. Young, Putski, and Simms won the match, but Young was still upset about being cheated out of his shot at the Tag Team Title. He took out his frustrations by laying out Putski and walking out on he and his new partner. Young rejoined Akbar, his former manager, and he and new tag team partner Steven Dane laid out a challenge for the Tag Team Title to Putski & Simms.

The Goodfellas, as Young & Dane called themselves, faced the champions in a match with an inconclusive double pin finish and the title was held up, but then defeated Putski & Simms in a rematch and won the title. Putski & Simms chose not to pursue a rematch, but things were far from calm in the Akbar camp. Now that he was managing both the new champions and the Coast To Coast Connection, he decided that he was going to have to cut one team, and it sure wasn't going to be the champs. He sold the contracts of John Tatum and Rod Price to Bruce Prichard, but the Coast To Coast Connection was not pleased with this and not only refused to take Prichard on as manager, but also decided to challenge the Goodfellas for the title. Unfortunately, the feud never really got off the ground. The two teams exchanged a couple of victories but the Goodfellas were soon defeated by Native American team the Tribal Nation, Chris and Mark Youngblood, and the Connection-Goodfellas feud pretty much died out after that.

Part V: Title Woes

By this point you've probably noticed that a lot of feuds in the GWF came to an abrupt end when one person or another left the company. Joe Pedicino claimed to have a Nigerian millionaire financially backing the company (perhaps making him the first victim of the Nigerian Prince e-mail scam), but it would seem that the Nigerian backer wasn't being as free with his money as Pedicino probably hoped, and the most glaring issue the GWF had with affording to pay their talent came in the form of constant problems with hanging on to a North American Champion.

These problems really started to become apparent in May of 1992 when Eddie Gilbert no-showed a title defense against Johnny Mantell. In reality, Gilbert had already quit the company days earlier over money issues and had returned to Memphis, but he was stripped of the title in storylines after failing to meet a ten count to get to the ring to defend against Mantell. Mantell won an impromptu challenge from Terry Simms, but was not officially the North American Champion. Mantell continued a strong push by defeating Bill Irwin in a Loser Leaves The GWF match, following which Mantell faced and was defeated by Scott Putski in a match to crown an official North American Champion.

After a series of brawls against Mantell which mostly ended in disqualifications, Putski himself no-showed a title defense against Rod Price, although he had actually been fired shortly beforehand. This time there was no argument about it, Putski was determined to have forfeited the match and Price was awarded the title by forfeit, much to the delight of he and his new manager, Gary Hart. Hart was a longtime fixture in the Dallas territory and his involvement with the GWF could be seen as nothing but a positive, and the fact that the GWF had put the North American Title on Rod Price, one of the few guys who had stuck with the company the whole time while everybody else blew out the door, gave some hope that there might finally be some stability, but the writing was on the wall: the GWF was facing serious financial problems and the situation wasn't going to get any better.

Part VI: A Few More Things

Aside from all the other happenings in the GWF in 1992, we also got to see:

-"The Winner" Barry Horowitz

Horowitz, renowned worldwide as one of the most famous jobbers of all time, scored a single win over Terry Daniels, and it instantly went to his head. He began referring to himself as The Winner, and even put his win over Daniels out on home video for $19.95. (no, not really) He soon fell under the management of Bruce Prichard, who helped him defeat Jerry Lynn for the Light Heavyweight Title. Yes, you read that right: Barry Horowitz pinned Jerry Lynn to win the GWF Light Heavyweight Title. His overconfidence became his biggest weakness, as he soon lost the title to Ben Jordan due to a prematch stipulation where if Horowitz didn't beat Jordan twice in ten minutes, he would lose the title. Horowitz regained the title from Jordan days later, again with help from Prichard. He ended up losing the LHW Title for the last time to "Nightmare" Danny Davis (The future co-owner of OVW, not to be confused with the WWF referee turned wrestler), and left the GWF for the bright lights of the WWF where, years later, he would revive the "Winner" gimmick during his feud with Chris "Skip" Candido.

-Sam Houston vs The Viper

Houston, the half brother of Jake "The Snake" Roberts and former WWF Women's Champion Rockin' Robin, came to the GWF in 1992 and almost immediately found himself in a feud with Bull Pain. Although Bull Pain dominated Houston with repeated victories, Houston was able to come back and claim the vacant TV Title in a 15 man elimination tag match. His main challenge came in the form of the Viper, a masked man who hung around in weird places (like in the ceiling and under desks) They met in a TV Title vs Mask match, which was won by Houston, who yanked Viper's mask off and revealed him to be Mike Davis, returning to the GWF months after losing his feud against the Taylors. Davis lost his mind following this setback, and became known as "Maniac" Mike Davis, which was basically a goofball gimmick that had him dressing in weird outfits and acting like a loon. The two men continued to feud through the end of 1992.

-Terry Simms

Following his feud with Eddie Gilbert, Terry Garvin came out in an interview and stated that, because of pressures from outside of wrestling, he would be competing under his real name of Terry Simms from that point on. As we saw earlier, he had a short run with the GWF Tag Team Title, but his year didn't end there. He won a mini-tournament for the vacant Light Heavyweight Title with wins over Billy Joe Travis and Chaz, however his victory over Chaz in the finals was by an injury default when Chaz's bad knee went out on him. As soon as he was healthy, Simms granted his former tag team partner the first shot at the LHW Title. Simms won the match when he got his shoulder up after Chaz delivered a German suplex with a bridge. After the win over Chaz, he would run into trouble in the form of Alex Porteau, who first defeated Simms in a non-title I Quit match when Porteau's partner Shaun Summers snuck out to ringside and impersonated Simms by yelling "I Quit" into a microphone while Simms was out of the line of sight of the referee. Porteau posted a second victory over Simms shortly afterward when, after Simms missed a flying bodypress, Porteau grabbed a handful of tights and put Simms down to win his first LHW Title.

-The Ebony Experience

Future WCW stars Booker T and Stevie Ray spent part of their early careers in the GWF, teaming as the Ebony Experience. The two men immediately impressed everybody with their size, strength, and shocking speed and agility for men their size. After co-winning a $2000 battle royal, they defeated the Goodfellas, who had just regained the title themselves, for the GWF Tag Team Title.

Part VII: Conclusion

The GWF lost their TV deal with ESPN in late 1992, and was basically a walking corpse for the remainder of its existence. Pedicino sold off the GWF to a man named Grey Pierson, who wasn't able to run the GWF any more successfully than Pedicino had.

Still, the effort was made to try and salvage something from the once-promising company and continue whatever storylines were left over from the Pedicino days. Sam Houston got suspended and was stripped of the TV Title, Mike Davis ended up beating the Midnight Rider (Houston under a mask) to win the title, then lost of to Manny Villalobos. The title was abandoned in late 1992. As for the Light Heavyweight Title, that was basically dominated by Porteau for the rest of the GWF's existence, as Porteau went on to hold the title four times through 1994. Gary Young & Steven Dane had the Tag Team Title they had lost to the Tribal Nation returned to them on a technicality, but were again defeated days later, this time by the Ebony Experience. The Ebony Experience held the title three times, and Stevie Ray also held the North American Title for several months in early 1993 before losing the title back to Rod Price.

Towards the end of the GWF, several older World Class stars were brought back in in an attempt to revitalize the dying territory. Chris Adams and Iceman King Parsons both came in and had runs with the North American Title, and the Michael Hayes-less Freebirds team of Terry Gordy and Jimmy Garvin held the Tag Team Title, but the writing was on the wall. The Global Wrestling Federation finally closed its doors once and for all in September of 1994.

It's a shame that a company that showed so much promise and early momentum and even had a TV deal with ESPN fell by the wayside so quickly, but the fact is that the GWF's legacy is forever cemented just because of the wrestlers whose careers it helped get off the ground. You can draw a lot of comparisons between the GWF and ECW, and one of the similarities is that both companies were platforms from which young wrestlers developed before moving on to national stardom, and also a place where veteran wrestlers who were past their time in the national spotlight came to prove they still had something in the tank. The Patriot, Sean Waltman, Jerry Lynn, Stevie Ray & Booker T, Raven, Mick Foley, and Marcus Bagwell all passed through and not all of them became major players in the GWF, but it was a platform for exposure they would not have otherwise gotten. At the same time, veterans like Wild Bill Irwin, Gary Young, John Tatum, Gary Hart, and Johnny Mantell had a place to make a mark in the twilight of their careers. For the fans watching, it was a great ride with hot feuds and one of the last places you'd find solid, old school wrestling.

Unfortunately, it was not a company that had the ability to sustain itself because, in much the same way as a lot of ECW fans lived and died by that company, there was a time when the Dallas fans were equally devoted to World Class, but that rabid fanbase had largely died off by the time the GWF had come around. Also like ECW, money problems and an inability to pay the wrestlers led to the end of the company. The example of the GWF is a strong lesson to learn because, for all the hype and expectations, the GWF barely made it three years before going under, and is a stark example of why people are skeptical when companies like H2Wrestling and the WWP pop up and talk about how they are going to open up shop and immediately become major players.

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