[1990-09-15-TWA-Autumn Armageddon] Eddie Gilbert vs Cactus Jack

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Ring announcer Chris Cruise, Eddie Gilbert and Cactus Jack. Wow, Jim Herd was horrible at keeping talent around. The ring and lighting also sort of looks like a Worldwide taping from this time period, which just enhances that. Gilbert being announced as running over Jerry Lawler gets a few cheers, which is funny. They take a similar approach that they did in the March match, working the mat and doing a lot of wrestling before escalating to some brawling outside and big bumps at the end. I didn't enjoy this match nearly as much as I did that one. Perfectly fine match, but it didn't really feel like much was at stake. The crowd seemed to see this the same way, as they were pretty quiet during most of this.

[PeteF3]

Role reversal time from the first meeting, as Gilbert is in full Memphis heel mode and Cactus is working babyface. Long, not particularly interesting legwork by Cactus after an interesting transition that may have been improvised for all I know. Cactus seems to take the BO-RING chants to heart because then we almost immediately get the Cactus Clothesline and a fight on the floor. We go back and forth with some good offense from Gilbert along with some awkward spots before Gilbert wins refreshingly clean with the Hotshot. These guys have good chemistry but yeah, the TV match was better and I suspect there are better matches to come.

[soup23]

I was down on their first match more than most and this was worse than that. Opening 10 minutes were a waste. It improved overall when Cactus went to the floor but overall this was missing something.

[Kevin Ridge]

Chris Cruise doing the ring announcing. Todd Gordon hanging out ringside. Leapfrog is botch but they quickly make up for it by working on Gilbert’s leg. Cactus gets the figure four on! The crowd is annoyingly inpatient but I find myself waiting for it to pick up too. They go outside for a couple minutes but nothing out of control. Mostly a straight up wrestling match. Gilbert wins with the stungun. I liked their draw from WCW a more but it has been interesting to see Cactus do a bit more wrestling at this point of his career

[garretta]

When you think about the match these two could have had, the one they had here is extremely disappointing. Mick does some nice wrestling that you don't expect to see, but is that really what we want from Cactus Jack? Meanwhile, Eddie seems to have gotten Kingfish Disease, which causes performers to not give a damn on indy dates when they're the hottest star in Memphis.

 

Maybe it's because this is the opening match on the card and they'd been told beforehand to keep it basic, but this is so much less than it could have been in front of a full house at the Mid-South Coliseum, for example. At the very least, if Eddie running over Lawler is a hot enough angle to mention, it's a hot enough angle to justify moving this match into a position on the card where these two can really shine. As it was, the hottest thing we saw here was Mick's prematch promo, which looked like it caught the referee by surprise, as he'd already rung the bell to start the match.

 

By the way, for those wondering why Eddie's attempted murder of Lawler got cheers from the Philly crowd, remember that the last time he was seen in Philly (at least that we know of), he was playing a rather pathetic game of "hide the chain" with Kerry Von Erich. After that match, it's a wonder that some of the more maniacal members of the Philly faithful didn't try to beat Eddie to the punch five months early.

[drew wardlaw]

Chris Cruise! This felt like an exhibition match, knowing what these guys are up to in the other promotions. I did like the structure of the match, starting out with the mat wrestling and building from there, but it didn't have much to it.

[Willninho]

This match was blah. Is next year when they have their big feud because I was expecting things to get out of hand and they did not.