[1991-07-13-USWA-Memphis TV] Interview: Eric Embry

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Referee Paul Neighbors stopped the match on Monday night because of Embry's blood loss. Embry asks for him to come out and promises not to hurt him. He says he just wants to ask some questions. He wants to know if Neighbors loves him, likes him or hates him. He also wants to know why he stopped the match. Neighbors explains that he has to watch for the well being of the wrestlers. Embry asks him why he would do that when he said he doesn't love him or like him. He requests that in the future, Paul Neighbors hate him, so that he never stops one of his matches again. And to ensure that he hates him, he decks Neighbors and starts to cut off his ponytail! Eddie Marlin pulls him off and says if Embry ever lays his hands on him, he better bring his lunch! Embry challenges Marlin and Neighbors to a hair vs hair handicap match on Monday night. Marlin ups the ante and tells Embry that he's fired if he loses. This booking is tremendous. This is one of the greatest heel promos of all time, and I say that without any exaggeration. Marlin was great too. I was completely blown away by this.

[WingedEagle]

More Embry gold on the mic!

[PeteF3]

Holy crap, Embry just keeps topping himself. Instead of his usual screaming act, Embry is calm and collected in the wake of a controversial UTC defeat at the hands of Lawler, which somehow makes him more dangerous. Embry conclusively establishes that Dave Brown and all of the USWA brass don't like him, and then he brings out Paul Neighbors and asks why he called for a blood stoppage. Embry is incredulous that Neighbors was looking out for his well-being and in a "holy shit" segment goes all Bernard Shaw/Michael Dukakis on Neighbors, asking if Neighbors would intervene on a police officer beating on a burglar who had shot his kids and had his way with his wife. Embry demands that Neighbors never worry about his welfare again, so to ensure Neighbors' hatred he decks him and cuts off that ridiculous ponytail.

 

Eddie Marlin physically yanks Embry off of Neighbors before the haircutting can continue, and Embry calls him out on his promise to fight Embry if he touches him again. Embry makes the challenge: Neighbors and Marlin in a 2-on-1 handicap match against Embry, with all three men's hair on the line. Neighbors is fine with this since he'll have a partner, and eventually Embry browbeats Marlin into accepting the challenge as well...with the caveat that Embry will also be fired if he loses!

 

Marlin and Brown were both really good here--incidentally Brown should be a cinch shoo-in for Announcer of the Year the way things are going, since Ross and WCW have dropped off so badly. But, even after I've said it for several of his last few promos, this is Embry's best heel promo to date and maybe his best, period. The low-key Embry, whether threatening Skandor Akbar or trying to get answers out of Paul Neighbors, is exponentially more compelling and threatening than Embry the screamer. His various reactions to Eddie Marlin's comments--wisecracks at Marlin's experience, laughter, and the look of shock at the final added stip before regaining his composure--are all outstanding. This is the Memphis Segment of the Year so far, hands down.

[Kevin Ridge]

Embry is so convincing in his arguments about having his match stopped by the referee. He ends up knocking Neighbors down and cutting off some of his ponytail! Marlin yanks Embry off by the hair. Embry makes a challenge to both hair match. Marlin and Neighbors accept.

[soup23]

We finally get our money Eddie Marlin segment here. Embry was on another level here with his hair being flipped out just more to up the ante of the hair vs. hair match. The handicap match sounds like a shit load of fun and they better not weasel out of the stakes. My favorite line was Embry saying he could tell that Marlin had been in the business for 40 years. This was one of my favorite things in USWA this year.

[garretta]

Incredible. Imagine 1985 Roddy Piper challenging Jack Tunney and Dick Woerhle to a hair match and you'll see how mind-blowing this is. The best part is, even though Marlin throws in the stip about Embry being fired if he loses, he knows damn well he just walked into the biggest trap of his career, that Embry's gotten the best of him in the biggest way possible. Embry's so cocky at the end of the segment that he says Dave Brown will be next, and I'd love to have seen WMC give Dave permission to get in the ring with him if there had been some way to do it so he didn't have to bump, maybe in a tag with Lawler or something.

 

At any rate, this match is wow-worthy enough as it is. There's only one problem: the outcome is as foregone as it gets, and that's without reading the match lists for the rest of the yearbook. Embry's simply too hot right now to be driven out by anyone short of Lawler, and even if he wasn't, a matchmaker and a referee sure as hell aren't going to do it, even if the matchmaker is a former wrestler. Had I been a fan in Memphis at this time, I'd have gone to bed praying for a bait-and-switch to somehow get Lawler in there instead, because what we have now is destined to end horribly, and everyone (including the participants) knows it.

 

This is the kind of stuff that made a lot of people look down on Memphis, and it's hard to blame them, really. But Jarrett has a knack for presenting even the lamest angles believably and entertainingly, so I actually have high hopes for this. Too bad it didn't make the yearbook.

[dawho5]

I agree that we all know the conclusion. But Marlin pretty much lets us know that he's clued in to that with his retorts to Embry. Embry is absolutely brilliant in this promo.