[1990-09-08-USWA-Memphis TV] Bill Dundee, Jerry Lawler and the Gilberts

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Bill Dundee cuts a local promo for the Evansville market.

 

Then we get a clip of a Lawler/Gilbert match from MSC. It looks like it was worked as a revenge match, as Lawler is all fired up. Great stuff. Sam Lowe (or Sam Bass, depending on the minute) accidentally sprays Gilbert in the eyes with something meant for Lawler, and Gilbert loses the ambulance match.

 

Back in the studio, Lawler shows a clip from another house show in Missouri the night before, with him facing Doug Gilbert. Referee Greg Wayne won't count, then Gilbert comes in the ring to attack Lawler. They work over Lawler's knee, with Lawler still selling the damage in the studio, saying he doesn't know how much more of his legs he could take of this. Brickhouse Brown tries to make the save and DWB hangs him by a noose over the ring rope. Yeah. Wild stuff, with Eddie Marlin taking more bumps and BUDDY WAYNE even getting involved. Completely chaotic stuff, and nice change of pace for something meaningful not to happen at Mid South Coliseum.

 

Loved all of this.

[PeteF3]

Dundee hypes a tag match against Gilbert & Anthony.

 

Lawler comes out to introduce MSC highlights of him vs. Gilbert in an Ambulance Match. Why even have a referee in this match? Oh, so he can get bumped, so Sam Lowe can interfere...legally? Gilbert accidentally gets sprayed in the eyes, which is enough to require a stretcher and ambulance to end the match.

 

The next few nights, the scheduled Lawler/Gilbert match doesn't take place as Gilbert is still blinded, so Doug Gilbert has to take his place for a spot show in Missouri. This is all set up masterfully, as Jerry Calhoun was injured in the previous match and thus Buddy Wayne's son Greg steps in as an emergency replacement. Wayne won't count a pinfall and Eddie does a Sandman and rips the glasses and bandages off to attack Lawler. Lawler makes a masterful comparison to obsessed Hollywood stalker fans, as Gilbert tries to re-break the leg that Lawler broke years ago and was injured by the car. Downtown Bruno and his gang are barricading the babyface locker room door, but intentionally let Brickhouse Brown through so the Dirty White Boy can attack him and hang him with a fucking NOOSE. Distasteful as it is, that's a very clever plan. Jerry Calhoun tries to intervene and gets decked by Greg Wayne, Eddie Marlin tries to intervene and gets decked by Buddy Wayne. A fantastic, chaotic scene and Eddie really is put over as a diabolical schemer.

[soup23]

This was great stuff all around. A huge collection of people but lawler's demeanor in explaining it all really put it over. Another great USWA segment for 1990 and I am glad they were able to keep some steam after botching a lot of the stuff last week.

[Kevin Ridge]

Dundee doesn’t understand what is up with Eddie and that is dad is probably disappointed in him. He wants to beat up Anthony to get rid of him.

 

Some young female fan looked to want to get a hug from Lawler but he restrained himself and avoided it. Clips of match from monday. Lawler ends up spraying some substance in Gilbert’s eyes. This ends the match as Eddie gets taken out in an ambulance. Eddie hasn’t been able to fight since due to eye sight issues. Match from last night of Lawler versus Doug Gilbert. Referee refused to count pinfall and Eddie’s eyesight seems to cure itself as he attacks Lawler. DWB hangs Brickhouse Brown over the ropes. Good stuff all around.

[garretta]

This is the kind of chaos Memphis was always able to pull off so believably. What really makes it good is that Lawler, as angry as we all know he is, was able to calmly explain what we were seeing in the video and analyze why he thought it happened. I've seen him do segments like this before, and they're always gold. They do so much more to hook fans and sell matches than your typical screaming wrestling promo. I love how he compares Eddie to an obsessed Hollywood stalker who's out to ruin the person that they supposedly idolize, which was actually true on some level if the backstage gossip is to be believed. The brief allusions to past history going all the way back to Lawler's broken leg over ten years before are also a touch of genius.

 

I feel silly calling this a promo or interview in the traditional sense; let's call this one of the best "talking segments" of the year so far.

[GSR]

Bill Dundee says how Eddie Gilbert is going around running people over in cars, and that the Dirty White Boy has got a rope that he’s putting around people’s necks trying to hang them. He doesn’t know what they think this is, but it’s still wrestling. Eddie Gilbert should know better because his dad, Tommy Gilbert, bought him up right and he was one of the best wrestlers there is. He can’t be proud of him though. He tells the White Boy he’s been looking at him all summer, he’s tired of looking at him, so maybe if ‘The Superstar’ and Brickhouse Brown beat him up good enough he’ll go away and won’t come back! He’s sick of looking at him and hopes that the Dirty White Girl will be at ringside too because he hasn’t forgotten her running Tessa out of town either.

[GSR]

Dave Brown says that this feud between Jerry Lawler and Eddie Gilbert has been going on all over the territory in recent weeks and he wants to get ‘The King’ over to talk some about the situation. Lawler says how it’s really been getting out of hand and he doesn’t know how much more his legs are going to be able to take. Everyone saw what happened in the parking lot and he thought that would be the end of his devious stunts, but it seems like there is no end to what Eddie Gilbert will try to pull. Last week at the Mid-South Coliseum they had an ‘ambulance match’, which was Gilbert’s idea, and the match would continue until someone is put in an ambulance and taken to hospital. They have video of this match, but ‘The King’ wants everyone to be aware of what Eddie Gilbert had in store for him, that he went out with the full intention of trying to put something in his eyes that would either permanently blind him, or do serious damage to his vision. Fortunately for him, that plan backfired.

 

Highlights of the ‘ambulance match’ from the Coliseum air. It looks like a fantastic match from the clips we see with the two of them fighting at ringside, Lawler with a DDT to ‘Hot Stuff’ on a chair and a piledriver on him too. Gilbert clobbers Lawler with one of Sam Lowe’s cowboy boots and a piledriver for ‘The King’. A great series of punches from Gilbert until Lawler pulls down the strap and fires back with some of his own. Jerry Calhoun gets bumped and Sam Lowe gets in the ring. Gilbert holds Lawler so Lowe can spray something in his face but ‘The King’ ducks and it goes in ‘Hot Stuff’s’ eyes instead. Lawler slugs Lowe, grabs the bottle and sprays it again in Gilbert’s eyes and he is taken out of there on a stretcher and away in the ambulance.

 

Back in the studio and Lawler says how things keep happening and it’s like Eddie Gilbert is obsessed with him. He then compares him to one of these fans from Hollywood where they’re so obsessed that they try to take the life of the person they’re a fan of. Eddie Gilbert has followed his career, patterned himself after him, but he seems intent on getting him out of the way. He’s even changed Sam Lowe’s name to Sam Bass, the name of his former manager. After what happened in Memphis he was supposed to wrestle him again in Trenton, TN on Tuesday, but he came out with patches on his eyes and said that he couldn’t wrestle because his vision was blinded. Last night he was due to wrestle Gilbert once more at a town in Missouri, but the same thing happened and they substituted his brother Doug into the match. He has footage of this and wants to show everyone what happened.

 

Looks like handheld footage of this match from Missouri, and ‘The King’ explains that Jerry Calhoun was supposed to be officiating but he got injured in a previous match and Greg Wayne, Buddy’s son, took his place. Lawler decks Doug with a chain (that Sam Lowe had given to Doug) and he makes the cover but Greg won’t count. Eddie Gilbert enters the ring, takes off his eye patches and nails ‘The King’ with a chair. The three of them start trying to re-break Lawler’s leg as Eddie knew it had been broken before and injured by the car. Brian Lee, Don Harris and Downtown Bruno were blocking the dressing room door to prevent anyone from coming to help ‘The King’, but they let Brickhouse Brown through who was able to help him for a bit. They had a reason for that though, and it was so the Dirty White Boy could attack him. Anthony has a noose with him and tries to hang Brown while Gilbert continues to smash the chair into Lawler’s leg. Jerry Calhoun comes to try and help but he’s attacked by Greg Wayne. Eddie Marlin is next to try and put a stop to this, but when he puts his hands on Greg to get him off Calhoun it just brings out Buddy Wayne who slugs Marlin.

 

Lawler says how Eddie Gilbert must have gotten together with everyone to orchestrate that attack which left himself, Brickhouse Brown, Jerry Calhoun and Eddie Marlin all laid out in the ring. Marlin has said though that due to what happened in Missouri, Eddie Gilbert is not allowed in the studio today. He tells Gilbert that he has friends too, and that he may have won the battle but he hasn’t won the war. He’s going at him this week with one intention in mind, and that’s to cripple him and put him out of wrestling for good.

 

This was just a fantastic few segments. From the ‘ambulance match’ to Lawler comparing Gilbert to a crazed stalker to the wild, chaotic footage from the Missouri house show. Even the little touches such as why no-one could come to help ‘The King’ in the beat down were explained perfectly and logically. Wonderful!

[dawho5]

Again I thought this post-match beating went on too long, but it is Memphis I guess. It wasn't in any way badly done. Lawler's promo is brilliant as always and I so wan to see some Lawler vs. Gilbert footage.