[1990-10-08-USWA-World Title Tournament] Jeff Jarrett vs Eddie Gilbert

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

We're three for three. This on goes to the 10-minute time limit draw. The winner will be determined by flip of a coin, which is incredibly lame. I liked how they were doing actual wrestling exchanges, but tempers were flaring and the match kept threatening to boil over. This was a great way to keep interest in this feud, which was only beginning, as it was too early to settle anything between them. More of a tease of what they could do than a great match, but it showed a lot of promise.

[PeteF3]

That's absurd that they couldn't book a "first man off his feet" finish like they said they were going to do when the rules changes were introduced. And these guys could have worked a great sequence around that. This was good stuff before that and a nice change of pace from the first two matches on tape.

[soup23]

Perfect feud starter match with good chain wrestling and snippets of brawling. 10 minutes flew by and the coin flip was incredibly stupid. To play fantasy booker, it might have been smart if immediately after the bell, Gilbert would have thrown a fireball at Jarrett and the officials determine that he can't continue.

[Kevin Ridge]

I thought we would be getting an intense brawl coming off their TV studio angle. More of a technical match. Gilbert takes a couple breathers. They do another face pinning the heel visually but referee being distracted by manager. Ten min time limit draw which is too short. Yuck! They decided the winner to advance in a World Title tournament by coin toss. Jarrett loses and finally shows fire in match and attacks Gilbert after. This wasn’t what I was expecting. Match was technically fine but finish and lack of hatred pulled it down.

[garretta]

This is a match that should have logically taken place before the big studio angle between these two; in fact, it would have been an excellent place from which to ignite the feud, considering what happened in the postmatch. Jeff's lucky that he didn't accidentally heel himself with his attack on Eddie; he might have drawn a few boos if it had been anyone but Eddie. At least he got to pound on Sam Lowe, who like Bruno in the last match was far too involved for this particular card. If this was a regular MSC card and a Jarrett/Gilbert grudge match, his interjections would have been expected, but in a Unified title tournament, managers shouldn't be interfering as liberally as we've seen so far.

 

Joe was dead on with his comment about Memphis bringing out the worst in Eddie; his run with Watts was close, but Missy was a big part of why he was hated there. He's getting the job done all by himself here in one of the classic heel runs in a territory that's had so many of them over the years.

 

I liked the technical wrestling that we saw throughout; it reminded us that both of these guys can get it done in the ring without question. Jeff's actions after the match seemed a little cowardly, but I notice that Eddie was holding his knee as TV went to commercial, which should play heavily into his quarterfinal bout with Idol.

 

I think the coin flip decision was done mainly to save time; they could only take ten minutes per bout if they wanted to fit twenty matches into a single card. They could have spread it out a little; maybe have the first round (which was nine matches) one week and the other four (which totaled eleven matches) the following week. Or just had one round a week with regular undercard bouts; it's not like they needed the title to draw the house as long as Lawler was around.

[drew wardlaw]

I liked this one too. A bit more technical than were used to seeing here, and that's not a bad thing. I'm really having trouble getting behind Jarrett, but Eddie Gilbert is really good. Kind of a lame finish, but I'm not too annoyed.

[dawho5]

This makes sense given the argument the had earlier in the week. They both are out to prove they deserve to be here more than the other. So they try to keep things as clean as possible before tempers start flaring.