Icons of Wrestling: Pepper Gomez

Director: Dale & Claude Barnes
Distributor: TWC (The Wrestling Channel)
Released: 1/06
Featured Talent
Bonnie Gomez, Pepper Gomez, Dr. Mike Lano, Jim Melby, Paul Vachon, Jimmy Valiant

The Good
This series selected an interesting variety of talent to feature and Pepper Gomez is one of those curiosities. A top babyface in several territories with a great look, decent talent and great fire, Gomez is one of those legends who are certainly overlooked for some reason. This mini-documentary focuses largely on his life story with the pro-wrestling being part of the story. It talks about his childhood, the “Pepper” nickname, his time in the US Navy and how he broke in to pro-wrestling in the first part of this. Then it delves into his wives and family and eventually his health problems. The real strength of this is Mike Lano and Jim Melby explaining his strengths as a performer and essentially his legacy in pro-wrestling.

The Bad
This series loves to do convoluted historical tie-ins and here we have the development of the talkie and how that was the time when Pepper Gomez was b orn. It is a strange setup. The real flaw of this is two-fold it lacks a strong explanation of Gomez’s legacy and it only features two matches to showcase his ringwork. One match is a tag match from his prime, which is okay, but the other is a battle with Dick the Bruiser when he was nearing retirement due to physical ailments. This featurette is not wholly bad, but it is perhaps the least interesting from the “Icons” series.

The Rating: **3/4