[1993-10-09-USWA-TV] Interview: Jerry Lawler & Downtown Bruno / Interview: Vince McMahon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

After a little old fashioned Yankee bashing, Lawler announces he will counteract Vince's appearance in the corner of Savage at Mid South Coliseum with Downtown Bruno.

 

"That's how little I think of you, Vince McMahon."

 

Vince responds by tape.

[Kevin Ridge]

Vince could beat that crap out of Downtown Bruno. I do like the saying that Memphis Coliseum is the building Lawler built.

[PeteF3]

New York AND Pittsburgh-bashing. This is actually one of Bruno's better promos ever. I always mark out for the WMC studios singing along to Bruno's catchphrase, back when that concept was fresh.

 

Vince is quietly seething. "What a stunt to pull on one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time! SHAME ON YOU, JEFF JARRETT." Vince threatened litigation towards Eddie Marlin for a rematch. Great segments all around, as this was also one of Vince's best efforts. Living Macho-Vision!

 

Whoops, the Unified title was actually held up. Lawler whines about this a bit. Just beat Savage on Monday, Jerry. This brings down what was a terrific build to the rematch.

[garretta]

Nice to see Lawler and Bruno having a good time at the North's expense. There's nothing particularly clever about any of this, but the Memphis fans eat it up by the heaping spoonful and beg for more.

 

I think Vince must have forgotten that even Memphians watch TV. Cheap heat is cheap heat, but to claim that New Yorkers can sleep with their doors and windows open goes beyond the level of acceptable wrestling bullshit. He's turning into more of a cartoon as the weeks go on, and it's taking the edge off of his performances, much the same as would happen five years later against Austin.

 

Lawler admitting that he was just as afraid of the fire he throws as his opponents was a nice touch, but the false modesty ("Who's the ovation for?") rings a tad hollow. Still, it's so much better than the lounge lizard routine that we see from him in the WWF that I'm happy to overlook such trifles.

 

As a Pittsburgher, my ears perked up when Bruno said that Pittsburgh was almost as big a dump as New York, which it's really not. Still, it was fun listening to him put down the North and the WWF with almost as much gusto as Lawler did. I noticed that while Bruno acknowledged that he did some work for the WWF, the name "Harvey Wippleman" was never uttered, even though most of the fans in the studio certainly knew that they were the same man.

 

If there was any kind of real-life fight between Vince and Bruno, my money would be on Vince without question. But since Vince is going to be in Geeky Announcer mode at the MSC instead of Genetic Jackhammer mode, I would actually give Bruno a fighting chance against him.

 

Ever the gentleman, Dave had the class to look slightly uncomfortable when Lawler called all the wrestling fans of New York jerks, although you can tell that he's agreed with Lawler's assessment of Vince and most of the rest of the WWF guys.

 

I wonder what kind of reaction Lawler would have gotten at this point if he'd given Eddie Marlin the Unified belt right between the eyes. It sure looked like he was thinking about it. Even if they weren't prepared to go that far, I'll bet if he was given five minutes he could have made Eddie out to be the most contemptible stooge Vince ever put on his payroll. Of course, that would have wrecked Eddie's effectiveness on TV for a good long time, if not forever.

 

I liked Eddie's cover story for why they hadn't gotten the belt from Lawler yet, although why they waited until Saturday morning to hold the belt up is puzzling to say the least. If Vince's promo (which had probably been in the can for at least a week or two) hadn't mentioned the belt being held up, I'd have sworn that they'd just decided to do it that morning in order to promote interest in the rematch.

 

Vince is back in cool, calm, and collected mode here. I liked how he tried to spin the stuff with the chain, and his delivery of "Shame on you, Jeff Jarrett! Shame on you, Jerry Lawler!" was absolutely perfect. My favorite line was the one about seeing Savage in living Machovision, and I'd have loved it if he'd closed with "OOH YEAH! DIG IT!"

[soup23]

Lawler cuts another better promo than Savage in hyping the match. He announces Bruno in his corner as a sign of how little he thinks of Vince. Bruno comes out and cuts a good promo about how disgusting New York and Pittsburg is and how he had to retreat to the Memphis area. He even gets the crowd to chant along to "it be that way sometimes." Vince responds with another gloating promo that is kind of bizarre in tone but you could tell Vince loved doing it., Finally, we end with Eddie Marlin stripping Lalwer of the belt because of the way he won.