[1991-05-04-USWA-Memphis TV] Eric Embry and Eddie Gilbert

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes of a Mid South Coliseum match between the two that looks to have been pretty bloody. Embry piledrives Gilbert on a briefcase and beats up the referee. Miss Texas enters the ring with barbed wire, and Gilbert is wrapped in it while they grate it all over him and Miss Texas slaps him. Good Lord! Eddie Marlin mercifully puts a stop to all of this and ends up in a screaming match with Embry on the house mic. This was a horrifying angle that feels like it should be more remembered.

 

Back in the studio, Embry, Pritchard and Miss Texas gloat about what they did on Monday night. Embry may have been electrocuted before this interview, based on his hairstyle. They are pretty obviously building to a barbed wire match with these two. Embry continues taking shots at a resting Lawler, taking credit for sidelining him, to keep a Lawler/Embry feud fresh in people's minds for Lawler's eventual return.

 

Embry is a good booker.

[shoe]

What can I say but another good segment that so wants me to see the coal miner's barbed wire glove match.

[PeteF3]

Conclusion of the Texas Death Match. Both refs are out and Tojo Yamamoto tries to attack Gilbert with a kendo stick. That goes nowhere except for Tojo getting laid out with his own stick, but Embry comes out of nowhere with a chair. Embry makes sure neither ref is getting up and Miss Texas makes her first on-camera appearance, bringing strings of barbed wire to the ring, and they actually TIE Eddie Gilbert up in this so they can work him over. This is one creative beatdown even if it verges on torture porn, like something out of a Hostel or Saw sequel. Eddie Marlin comes to the ring and orders the match stopped. Embry is incensed and horrified that Marlin would have the nerve to stop a TEXAS Death Match, but Marlin reminds him that he's in Tennessee!

 

Embry delivers a great interview, gloating over all that he's done to the territory babyfaces, and tearing into Eddie Marlin and the people of Tennessee. Embry is heading into this upcoming barbed wire match like a kid getting to meet Santa Claus, or Kowabunga the Turtle. What a great, dickish mood for a heel to be in.

[Kevin Ridge]

Tojo with a weak kendo stick shot. Gilbert barely noticed. Least he didn’t have to sell it. Gilbert gives Gilbert a couple whacks in return. Embry beating up referees. Miss Texas brings in some barbed wire. They wrap it around Gilbert! Eddie is a total mess. Crazy stuff.

 

Embry tells Dave Brown that Lawler is done and now he was trying to get rid of Gilbert. Now we get a barbed wire match between the two.

[soup23]

Action looked hot and Embrys delivery was really good but him being an idiot to not understand the stipulation didn't sit that well with me.

[garretta]

The interview was prime stuff from Embry, as he's about as gleeful as I've ever seen a heel over what he did to Gilbert. What makes it all better is that he's not lying: Doug is gone, and Lawler is out (though not for good). The Texans rule the roost, or as Dr. Tom put it in his one apt line: "Today's a Texas day!"

 

As for the match clip, the barbed wire definitely pushed the envelope, but there have been so many endless heel beatdowns during the Tennessee/Texas feud that this one didn't do much for me. So Gilbert's getting the hell kicked out of him; what else is new under the sun? As usual, not a babyface is to be found, although not only is Gilbert carved up like a rack of ribs, but two referees have been knocked silly in the scuffle. At least let's have Ben Jordan and Freezer Thompson out here to make an attempt at a save. Hell, I'll take Dave Brown coming straight from the WMC studios. As it is, Eddie Marlin rings the bell to no avail whatsoever, then gets slapped by Embry for daring to stop a Texas death match. Tojo calls him off for the moment, but the damage has been done. (By the way, Tojo took a grand beating with his kendo stick courtesy of Gilbert; maybe he's in better shape than I thought.)

 

The bottom line is, I want to see the barbed wire match, in whatever form it is, but I want Embry to be shown as at least slightly vulnerable. He's more of a Superman as a heel than Lawler is as a face at this point, and that's saying several mouthfuls considering that this is Memphis. Again, I'm wondering why guys like Dundee and Gilbert have put up with it this long, considering that they're not exactly breaking the bank. I would imagine that Papa Jarrett's this close to losing his face locker room, and I can't blame any of them. Hopefully things turn around soon, for everyone's sake.

[dawho5]

Match looked really fun up until things went a bit too far. Was Paul E. watching and taking notes? Because this is starting to feel like ECW could spring up at any moment.