[1991-02-22-USWA Texas] Jeff Jarrett vs Eddie Gilbert

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Some will love the Lawler match, the previous Jarrett match was excellent and this one is really good too. They all feel very distinct as well. Lots of really well done, very basic matwork. I think their previous match was better, but this isn't far behind. JC THE ICE BABY, who has already turned heel in Dallas apparently, runs out and trips Jarrett and holds his foot, but Jarrett still kicks out. Gilbert then hits him with a chain and Jarrett kicks out again, which is kind of a botched moment, more because of the referee and the timekeeper than because of Gilbert and Jarrett. Jamie finally runs in the ring and they summon Awesome Kong (no, not her) to attack Jarrett. He does a couple of splashes on his leg and is about to jump off the top rope when Travis and Dundee makes the save. Kong takes an impressive bump off the top rope for a guy that size. Good stuff, warts and all.

[shoe]

I liked the 1st match better, but this was real good. We get some fun action at the beginning. We get a commercial break and Jarrett is selling the leg . I wish we knew what happened. I dug Gilbert's leg work. I really liked when he would just punch the leg . They worked some fun figure four spots. We build to a finish that gets blown . Thankfully we have a fun run in so the blown finish is quickly forgotten. Another good match in this feud. I've liked all of the matches they have had in 90-91.

[PeteF3]

Another good match in a great feud, though not as good as the excellent first one. I love Gilbert taking Jarrett's leg out as he bumps off of a punch. Some good leg work follows and then a weird finish with James Beard and the timekeeper not sure whether to call for a DQ when Gilbert uses a foreign object. JC the Ice Baby runs in and that's the real DQ, then he calls out Awesome Kong to splash Jarrett's leg. Kong is about to dive off the top turnbuckle but Billy Travis and Bill Dundee make the save. Was not a big fan of Jarrett popping up to slam Kong off the top after his knee had just been splashed twice.

[Kevin Ridge]

Good little match outside the finish where the referee was confused with the early bell being rang. Awesome Kong drops a few splashes on Jarrett’s legs. Travis and Dundee save. Jarrett does a big slam to Awesome Kong. Still want Travis to go back to being a heel.

[soup23]

Agree with everyone else that this was a step down from the January match but still plenty good. I liked the use of basic but effective work that prevailed in here as a contrast to some of the innovative spots they pulled off in their first match. Finish being botched was disappointing but I did like the post match beatdown.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I loved the hell out of this until the ref blew the finish. I also enjoy the commentary trying so hard to legitimize Jarrett, as Mike is clearly reading scripted praise for him that leads to a mispronunciation of "plethora."

[garretta]

This didn't do much for me. Actually, this whole integration of the two parts of the USWA isn't doing much for me, and I'm one of the ones who wanted them to come together in the first place. What changed my mind? Hearing the fans in this match, for one thing. The Dallas fans couldn't care less about the Southern title; it's a Memphis belt, and while they've grown to like Jeff just fine, they have no investment in Eddie, or more accurately speaking, they have a sleazier, more despicable version of Eddie in Embry. So the promoters are trying to have Eddie work more basic matches to get the people used to him, and while the work here was fine, I expected more out of a feud I've seen be a thousand times more heated than this. Quite frankly, I don't want to see Eddie wrestle the likes of Jarrett and Lawler, I want to see him tear down the building with them, But that's not happening in Dallas (although his earlier match with Jarrett came closer than this one did), so Eddie's a bit out of place here.

 

The botched finish once Eddie hit Jeff with the chain was a huge mistake on Beard's part; he hasn't really impressed me as a ref so far. Any mistake that forces a wrestler to kick out of a chain shot is awful by definition. As for the beatdown, there's no one in that ring who should have been able to slam a 450-pound man from the top rope, especially not Jeff with his supposedly bad knee. I guess whoever booked the spot thought it would look awesome, and it would have if someone had been there who legitimately broke two hundred pounds and looked like they had muscles which were something more than decoration. That doesn't include either Bill Dundee or Billy Joe Travis, in case you were wondering.

 

I like the visual of Awesome Kong with Jamie; Jamie's the type of guy who's going to need a protector, and who better than a monster like that? Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll get to see him in Memphis.

 

"Magical, mystical fire"? Come on, Michael. I know you're trying to put Eddie's fireballs over as dangerous, but it's not like he's suddenly burping fire or something equally scary (although that would have been cool to see, no doubt).

[dawho5]

I'm with garretta here. Trying to have the same feuds across both is not working. The crowds are into different guys and it's gonna be a bit of a clusterfuck. That being said, good enough match for what they had to do. Jarrett's early years are surprisingly not offensive to me. Once 1996 or 1997 hits I'm out for good on him though.