[1990-09-01-USWA-Memphis TV] Interview: Eddie Gilbert

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Gilbert has been re-hired. It seems like this could have at least played out over two weeks. Lawler/Snowman was awesome and in tune with the audience. This was a lot of hotshotting and bait-and-switch stuff, and the end result was a smaller house. They make this about Eddie Marlin explaining why he's not firing him, but there should really be explanation for why the police weren't involved, considering that Gilbert just committed a crime.

[PeteF3]

Lawler forces Marlin's hand into re-hiring the Gilberts by threatening to quit himself. Eddie cuts an awesome promo that turns Lawler's accusations about attempted homicide into a shot about Andy Kaufman, his past of idolizing the King, and his goal of having the Gilberts go down in the same class as the Funks and the Briscos, all in 30 seconds. But yes, this is extremely rushed, even by Memphis standards. The fallout from the Marlin attack alone should have eaten up a week or two at least. Instead that's brushed to the side almost immediately.

[soup23]

Way way rushed and really disappointing as everything save the Cowabunga shit could have worked if some time would have been given to the overall angle.

[Kevin Ridge]

Eddie says he was not trying to hurt Lawler but that he got in the way. He makes comments regarding Lawler killing Andy Kaufman. Marlin gave into not firing the Gilberts as Lawler had threatened to quite other wise. Things are happening too quickly.

[garretta]

What part of this equation are you guys not getting? Lawler needed to keep Eddie from going to jail and still save a halfway decent house for the MSC forty-eight hours away. He didn't have time to let things play out; It needed to happen exactly as it did, rushed or not. Otherwise, the Memphis PD was apparently ready to arrest Gilbert on sight.

 

What should Lawler have done, let Gilbert go to jail so we could spend the show worrying about Eddie Marlin, who's too damn old to be taking bumps anyway, getting lovetapped with a chair? Screw Eddie freakin' Marlin and the rocking chair he should have been sitting in; Lawler should have been acting as his own onscreen matchmaker and authority figure by now anyway, since everyone probably knew he was doing the booking if they chose to know it. And anyway, the whole thing was Gilbert's fault for giving the car too much gas.

 

Kudos to the King for getting the USWA out of a potentially crippling situation with as little collateral damage as possible. One week's house is a small price to pay for preserving your overall livelihood.

[PeteF3]

I would say the correct answer would be "find another angle to book that doesn't potentially involve the police."

[drew wardlaw]

Gilbert is already hired back. That's too bad, I was hoping they'd stretch it out for a bit.

[GSR]

The Gilberts and Sam Lowe return to the studio and Dave Brown tells Eddie that they’re not supposed to be here now, ‘Eddie Marlin has fired you, collect your bags and get out of here!’ Gilbert says that Eddie Marlin has fired him, but from what he’s heard, he’s already been rehired. Jerry Lawler, Brickhouse Brown and Eddie Marlin want to label him a killer? He didn’t mean to run him over, he wouldn’t intentionally do that, he just got in his way. Jerry Lawler is a killer though, he’s the one who killed Andy Kaufman! He says that when he was a little kid he used to put Jerry Lawler’s picture up in his room, he used to look up to him, he wanted to be ‘The King’. For that goal to be accomplished he’s got to eliminate him, and he’s going to do whatever it takes. On Monday the Gilberts are going to go down in the history books, just like the Funks and just like the Briscos, because he is ‘Mr Memphis’. They leave and Eddie Marlin says to Dave that the only reason he didn’t stop that interview was because he’s been in the back talking to Jerry Lawler and ‘The King’ told him that if he fires the Gilberts he’s quitting as of today. He didn’t want him to leave so agreed to let them have the match.

 

Have to agree with the comments that this angle should have been dragged out and not all happened in the one TV episode. I’ve never been one for fantasy booking, but drafted something out in a five minutes last night:

 

Week 1 – Eddie Gilbert runs down Jerry Lawler

Week 2 – Jerry Lawler interview from his hospital bed

Week 3 – Jerry Lawler interview from home, he’s doing a bit of light exercise to get himself better

Week 4 – Jerry Lawler interview in the gym working out (possibly on a leg weight machine), announces he’ll be in the studio next week

Week 5 – Jerry Lawler is back in the studio and wants Eddie Gilbert. Eddie Marlin tells him that he fired him and he won’t be back.

Week 6 – Jerry Lawler tells Eddie Marlin that he can’t sleep, he keeps going over and over what happened when Eddie Gilbert ran him over. He needs some sort of closure for himself and to get some piece of mind. He’s done so much for the USWA, rarely asks for anything and asks Marlin if he can please rescind the firing. Eddie says that he’ll have to think about it and confer with the other Board of Officials and he’ll have a decision next week.

Week 7 – Eddie Marlin announces that after discussions with the Board of Directors he has decided to reverse his decision about Eddie Gilbert

Week 8 – Eddie Gilbert is back in the studio, bragging and boasting about everything. Eddie Marlin confronts him tells him he is only back because Jerry Lawler wanted him back and the two of them have a match Monday at the Coliseum

 

That’s is all very basic and not really fleshed out, but from one angle there is eight weeks of television, (and that’s before the match has even taken place). First match between them would be a DDQ and you can comfortable get another month of TV from the rematches with various stipulations in place.

[garretta]

Gret thought, Magnum, but how do you keep Eddie from being arrested and imprisoned before any of this takes place? You're not getting it any more than anyone else in this thread has. Eddie was going to jail for real ​if Lawler hadn't come back on the show and basically said (without using the actual words), "This is an angle, everyone. He didn't hurt me; I'm just trying to get you to come out and see us fake fight in two days." Business and proper wrestling build weren't even a consideration, nor should they have been.

 

On another note, eight weeks is far too long for a territory like Memphis to run one angle. Hell. Lawler went through three or four separate challengers in eight weeks many different times, One show is rushing it, but you need to have Lawler back in the studio and ready to wrestle within two weeks tops or business tanks. Maybe you can stretch it to three if you have Dundee take his part, and he's just about the only one who could. Besides, Eddie still needs to make a living, and Memphis won't pay him to sit at home. What if he goes somewhere else and likes it there over the eight weeks he's "suspended"? Who takes his place? Or do we just forget the whole thing?

 

Finally (and this is a nitpick): Lawler on a leg press machine? I seem to remember that the man bragged about never stepping into a gym in his life (except possibly for rehab of a legit injury), so why would he agree to do it for a fake ​injury when it's so much easier just to pop down to WMC and hold court?

[GSR]

As I was making my notes on the interview I originally put how someone like Cornette could have got a few months out of what Memphis did it one episode. I then had a try at writing something myself and it was heavily Cornette inspired, and a fair bit of the early weeks taken from the aftermath of the attack on Bob Armstrong as Rage in the Cage. I’ll try and address each of your points individually garretta.

 

In regards to Eddie Gilbert getting arrested for real, I went with the assumption that it wouldn’t get that far. This would happen off air, but Lawler would tell the police that he’s fine, it was an accident, it was wrestling, he doesn’t want to press charges, even if he has to say let me get my revenge in the ring. Depending how much the police ‘know’ about wrestling would determine how he plays it (either legit or kayfabing them), but end result is that Lawler stops Gilbert from going to jail by speaking with the police.

 

When I was planning my alternate version I did think about Gilbert, but only wrote what would happen with Lawler. My initial idea was that he would still get fired (either week 2 or week 4) but then stay at home until ‘the Board of Directors’ revoke the decision and he’s back in the studio. So keeping him off TV and having Lawler sell the idea of the match through his promos. Presuming that the USWA are not going to pay him to stay at home and he still needs to make a living, I amended what I had originally planned for Gilbert and knocked up the following:

 

Week 1 – Eddie Gilbert runs down Jerry Lawler

Week 2 – Dave Brown announces that Eddie Gilbert got arrested after what happened on the show last week. You would then have dashboard camera footage of an officer handcuffing and arresting Gilbert. The footage ends and Eddie Gilbert is out to join Dave Brown, and he explains that a hot shot lawyer type got him out. He could then cut the same promo he did about how it was just an accident, he didn’t mean to hit him etc. Eddie Marlin then joins them and says something like if the police aren’t going to do anything, he will. What he did last week wasn’t wrestling, he doesn’t want that on his show and he fires Gilbert.

Week 3 – Sam Lowe introduces his new find, ‘Mr Hot Stuff’. A masked man, who is quite clearly Eddie Gilbert. Marlin is obviously not happy, but Lowe keeps to his guns, that it’s not Eddie and ‘Mr Hot Stuff is allowed to wrestle. Marlin explains that the moment his identity is revealed, and it is confirmed that it is Eddie Gilbert, he’s out of here.

Week 4 – Mr Hot Stuff’s identity is revealed and Eddie Marlin tells him that he’s fired and out of here. This can be something as simple as him just accidentally losing his mask in a match while his opponent has him in a side headlock.

Week 5 – Eddie Gilbert ignores Eddie Marlin’s firing and is out at the start of the show to join Dave Brown. He says how since he was fired the ratings have gone down, the crowds are down at the Coliseum and the USWA needs him. Marlin is out to respond to this, says that he was fired for good reason and the USWA doesn’t need him at all. Security ends up escorting him out of the building and later in the show Jerry Lawler would cut the promo I outlined on Week 5 for him.

Week 6 – Eddie Gilbert is out again at the start of the programme. He’s in a world of his own here almost delusional, saying how he saw Jerry Lawler out here last week, he’s clearly forgiven him and wants him back in the USWA. Marlin says that wasn’t what he said at all, Jerry Lawler hasn’t forgiven him and while he may want him back, he and the Board of Directors are the ones who make the decisions around here not Jerry Lawler, and he again gets escorted out of the building. Later in the show Lawler would cut the same promo I outlined in Week 6.

Week 7 – No Eddie Gilbert on the show this week at all.

Week 8 – Eddie Gilbert back in the studio bragging and boasting as I originally wrote.

 

Lawler on a leg machine was just a way to show he is rehabilitating. You don’t have to have him on the leg machine, you could easily have him jogging. A couple of ideas would be Lawler entering his house just after being for a run then cutting a promo, or ‘The King’ in his gym gear stretching prior to going for a run, then cutting the promo, before jogging out of his door.

 

Last point in regards to the length of the original storyline that I laid out. The eight week storyline could be condensed down to six weeks or even four, all depending on how you wanted to play it out. For the six week storyline I would combine what happened in weeks 3 and 4, and also forget week 7 where Eddie Marlin announces he’s been to see the Board of Directors. He would just make the decision himself and Lawler’s promo about needing closure would be the catalyst he needs to change his mind, and Gilbert is back in the studio the following week. The four week programme would combine what originally happened in weeks 2, 3 and 4 (and probably just have an interview from Lawler at home), would then combine what happened in weeks 5, 6 and 7 (for week 3 of this version) and then Gilbert is back on Week 4. Going down that route you would only need to keep Gilbert off TV for one week, or alternatively you could figure a storyline that he gets fired in Week 3 as opposed to Week 2.

 

I think that’s everything!

[garretta]

Great work, Magnum. All three of your scenarions (dour, six, and eight weeks) feel much more like Memphis while allowing Lawler to sell his injuries properly. I'd probably go with the four-week scenario simply because it's been proven that houses go down sharply when Lawler's not around. I might also keep Mr. Hot Stuff around a bit longer and have Lawler do the unmasking when he gets back, but that's just my twist. The way you had it would work just as well.

 

One question, if I may: I've noticed you comment on most promos and interviews, but not much on matches. Why is that?

[GSR]

The original plan when I started on the Yearbook was to watch all interviews, promos, videos first, and then binge on the matches afterwards. That changed as I started to watch a few matches (mainly Texas and Memphis stuff) when I had been enjoying the build up (such as Tatum/Dundee, Kerry/Borne, Lawler/Snowman, Austin/Adams). I have already seen the majority of the WWF and NWA stuff on the set, and didn't fancy revisiting when there was all this Memphis that was new to me and that I was looking forward to checking out.

 

Once I've finished December I'm going to go back and watch the matches and any interviews I missed. I'm almost certainly going to skip All Japan and probably Lucha, while I'm undecided on New Japan at the moment.

[garretta]

Good enough. Looking forward to your comments in the future!