[1990-09-01-USWA-Memphis TV] Eddie Gilbert goes for a drive

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

We start with the finish of a battle royal in Mid South Coliseum with Eddie Gilbert and friends working over Brickhouse Brown. Eddie Marlin is telling him he will be fined if he doesn't stop on the house mic and it's not enough to get him to stop doing anything. Marlin finally gets attacked and eats a chairshot from Gilbert. FINALLY (why does it always take babyfaces so long to stop these things?), Lawler makes a one-man save and Brickhouse recovers enough to help.

 

Back at the studio, Gilbert is on fire, saying he doesn't like it when people tell him what to do. Eddie Marlin is out to announce that he has made a cowboy boot match with Sam Lowe! He tells Gilbert in no uncertain terms that the only reason Gilbert wasn't fired was because Lawler and Brown assured him they could do more damage to him in the ring. This gets a chuckle out of Gilbert, who tells him he wouldn't be able to sell tickets without him. He says this in different ways a few times, and Marlin finally has enough and FIRES HIM and kicks him out of the studio! He escorts him into the parking lot, where Gilbert shoves Marlin to the ground. Lawler comes out to see him out, and Gilbert gets behind the wheel and FLOORS Lawler before peeling out of the parking lot. Lawler takes an incredible bump and was supposedly black and blue for a few days after this.

 

All-time classic angle in so many ways, but it was not successful at all. According to the WON at the time, local fans thought running someone over with a car was so over the top that it all seemed fake. You do hear laughing in the studio as an immediate reaction, which I'm sure wasn't the desired reaction.

[PeteF3]

Eddie STILL isn't getting his $5,000. Gilbert believed that Brickhouse Brown would split the prize money with him, but Brown eliminates him instead. That leads to a big beatdown on Brickhouse and Gilbert taking the check. Eddie Marlin's threats of a fine don't work, and when he climbs into the ring, he pays for it. Eventually he manages to get the mic and scream Lawler's name, and the King makes the save. The announcers actually do attempt to cover the delay, explaining that the other battle royal participants were showering and/or going home after being eliminated.

 

This Monday: the Gilberts vs. Lawler & Brickhouse, and Eddie Marlin vs. Sam Lowe in a cowboy boot match. Holy shit, that sounds fantastic. Gilbert declares that he and Doug ARE the USWA and without them, this rinky-dink promotion would be playing in front of empty arenas. Marlin finally calls their bluff and evicts them from the studio. Oh yes, THIS angle. As Jerry Lawler comes out to see them off, Eddie suddenly floors the gas pedal and Lawler goes fucking FLYING. Dave Brown is so shocked that he undersells it to such a degree that it's some pretty unintentionally brilliant understated announcing. Apparently the car was only supposed to paintbrush Lawler--instead we came close to live televised vehicular homicide.

[soup23]

So this is when this happens. I knew this was coming but didn't know when. Incredible angle and bump taken by lawler. Honestly, behind the first Snowman angle as my favorite thing of the year. Shame it didn't draw.

[Kevin Ridge]

Brickhouse Brown wins a battle royal using an atomic drop to eliminate Eddie Gilbert. Brown gets beat down and Gilbert steals the $5K check. Marlin gets wise and then gets his ass kicked. Lawler saves Brickhouse and Marlin.

 

Gilbert is getting tired of Lawler trying to save they day all the time. Stay out of his business. Marlin says him and Sam Rowe will meet in the ring. He wanted to fire the Gilberts but Lawler and Brown wanted to have a match instead. Eddie disagrees because right now the Gilberts are USWA. Marlin tells Eddie to take a hike and get out the door. Marlin and Eddie get in a shoving match in the parking lot. Lawler backs up Marlin who was knock down. Eddie gets in his car and then runs over Lawler!! Wow. He’s able to get to his feet though.

 

Was waiting the whole year for this one.

[ajtroma]

IIRC, the Evansville tape was aired on Sunday instead of the usual Saturday. It happened time to time so you always had to consult your weekly TV listings if you couldnt make the Coliseum on Wednesday (they always announced if it was not in the regular slot). There ended up being a HELLUVA lot of word of mouth on this one. The next week's ratings had to be way up.

 

If you look for it, its painfully obvious that Lawler had huge elbow and kneepads under his clothes (not that I blame him). I hated that one asshole in the audience verbally shitting on the whole deal. A nice hushed silence would have been so good here.

 

The story I've heard was that they borrowed Brian Lee's car and did pretty good damage to the windshield. Eddie had to drive around Memphis for a little bit since the fans in Memphis so thoughtfully called the police and an ambulance. To have seen Brian Lee's reaction to this...

[garretta]

The bump from Lawler looked magnificent, and God bless Eddie Marlin for still being able to take a beating like that at his age. He must have been one tough son of a bitch.

 

I'm not really sure why they felt they had to go as far as this; even the intended sideswiping was probably too brutal to put on TV. If you wanted to do something like this, you could have had Lawler simply say that Gilbert had tried to run him down right after the match and left him bruised; I think it would have gotten a much more heated reaction than actually seeing it happen on live TV did. You could then run the whole rest of the angle, including Eddie's "firing". I don't know what you do for an MSC main event in that case; obviously the Gilberts wrestled two days later, so however they explained it in real life would have been sufficient.

 

My one problem with having Marlin as the on-screen authority figure is that every big star in the promotion can outtalk him during confrontations. Lawler made him look like a fool earlier in the year, and now Gilbert's doing the same. They need to have him make his announcements by videotape and let Dave Brown or whoever's announcing take the flack live. At least Dave knows how to talk to a camera.

 

Can't wait to watch the other segments from this show to see how they dealt with the aftermath.

[drew wardlaw]

My wife was in the room during the segment and kind of screamed when Lawler get hit. She was just casually paying attention and thought it was real. Once again, Lawler is incredible.

[GSR]

End of a $5,000 Battle Royale from the Mid-South Coliseum. Eddie Gilbert had offered to split the money with Brickhouse Brown but Brown wants no part of that, and quickly eliminates Gilbert after an atomic drop sends him flying over the top rope to the floor. Doug Gilbert and Sam Lowe jump Brickhouse after the match, Eddie nails Calhoun and the three of them give Brown a spike piledriver. Eddie steals his cheque, and the three of them continue to attack him until Eddie Marlin comes out and tells them that if they don’t stop they will be suspended. ‘Hot Stuff’ is not worried about no fine, and they carry on attacking him until Marlin gets in the ring. He is immediately jumped by Doug and Sam Lowe, and Eddie then clocks him in the head with a chair. Marlin is busted open by now but is able to get out of there and calls for Jerry Lawler to come and help over the house mic. Lowe gets back hold of him and puts the boots to him while the Gilberts take care of Brown. ‘The King’ is finally out, he pulls down the strap and unloads on the heels. Brickhouse is able to get back to his feet and the two of them are able to clear the ring. A chaotic scene and great stuff at the end with the attack on Eddie Marlin and him calling Jerry Lawler for help.

 

In the studio and Dave Brown has the Gilberts and Sam Lowe with him, and says thank goodness Jerry Lawler got there to help out after such an incredibly disgusting display. Eddie says that the people didn’t get to see what happened first in that video though! He thought Brickhouse Brown was like a brother to him, that they would split the money, but he turned on him in front of all those people! He warns ‘old man’ Eddie Marlin to stay out of his business and when he gets on the microphone and tells him to stop, he’s just going to do it harder because he’s always been a little bit rebellious. Marlin is out to confront them and first of all tells Sam Lowe that he shouldn’t even be on camera, he should be taking pictures with his camera at ringside. As he is though, he’s going to be in a match with him and he’s going to take his cowboy boot and bust his head open Monday night. He tells Eddie that he should have fired him last week, but he didn’t because Jerry Lawler and Brickhouse Brown reckoned they could do more damage to him in the ring. Gilbert is not having any of that, and tells him the only reason he didn’t fire him is because they are the USWA now! They would sell diddly squat if it wasn’t for him and his brother, they’d have an empty arena with no-one coming to the matches. The people don’t care about Jerry Lawler, Brickhouse Brown, Bill Dundee or Jeff Jarrett, they care about the Gilberts as they’re the stars here! The ratings have been up since he came back and the crowds have been coming in to see him. He is irreplaceable, they can’t do without him and they’re lucky he’s even working for this ‘rinky dink promotion’. Marlin calls his bluff and tells him if it’s so ‘rinky dink’ he doesn’t have to be here. He escorts them out of there while Eddie is saying that he can’t fire him. The cameras follow them to the parking lot to make sure that they get out of the building, while ‘Hot Stuff’ and Marlin to continue to argue. They get into a shoving match and Gilbert ends up pushing him over and puts a boot to him. Jerry Lawler is out there to help Marlin and Gilbert backs off and gets in his brother’s car. He floors the car and drives straight at them. Marlin just about gets out the way but he hits ‘The King’ who goes flying over the bonnet!!! Marlin checks on him and then Jerry Calhoun, Bill Dundee and a few other wrestlers rush out to help Lawler to his feet and back into the building.

 

Holy fuck! I would like to know what prompted ‘The King’ to do that because the risk to reward margins must have been very slim. You can tell he’s wearing knee pads to try and offer some form or protection, but he’s lucky he never cracked his head on the concrete or was seriously hurt. Not much shocks me in wrestling any more, but I’ve watched this several times and it’s shocked me every one.

[dawho5]

Sick and ultimately unnecessary bump by Lawler, but the guy loved the big bumps so I doubt he was going to be dissuaded. How he wasn't more hurt than he was is beyond me.