[1991-08-24-USWA-Memphis TV] Dirty White Boy and Eric Embry / Chris Love & Dragon Master debut / Interview: Humongous

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

DWB still has a limp, but he is ready to go. He has a waiver (folded up in his pocket?) that will allow him to return to the ring, but releases the USWA from liability. Embry is out quickly and says they don't have to wait on Eddie Marlin. He tells him to go to the ring and Embry attacks him right away. DWB rallies a comeback, but Tony Pritchard attacks him from behind. They are about to take his knee out with a chair, but JIMMY VALIANT has seen enough and clears the ring with a garbage can. Have we moved on from Lawler/Embry without giving it a definitive conclusion?

 

Next up, Bert Prentice is out as Christopher Love and brings a huge crate to debut the Dragon Master. He talks about Lawler putting the AWA and World Class out of business because Lawler is not a box office draw again. He talks about dropping gates in the USWA (!) and tells Lawler he just got his two weeks notice. If he doesn't quit in two weeks, the Dragon Master will take him out. This looks almost exactly like the Ricky Steamboat costume later in the year when he returns at the November Clash, so I hope I remember to make jokes. Love refuses to reveal the true identity of the Dragon Master until the time is right.

 

Finally, Humongous is out for an interview, looking nothing like Sid. He just looks like a muscular dude in a Wal-Mart mask. Is that Debbie Combs? She fawns over his body and is obviously attempting to distract him for a sneak attack. She manages to unmask Humongous as Randy Lewis and Bull Pain attacks him from behind. WTF is this?? Jeff Jarrett and Robert Fuller make the save.

[ajtroma]

The Humongous part is really humorous. For three weeks, they'd been running the old videos of the original Humongous from 1984 and then a 1989 video of Sid Vicious as Lord Humongous. Then...this guy shows up. His match in the Memphis studio (vs the Scorpion) was so bad that it didnt make the tape to the other towns in the circuit. Children were openly laughing at the botches in that one.

 

Then Samantha unmasks the guy. Dave and Michael are all like "Is that...is that 'He-Man' Randy Lewis? It is Randy Lewis!", like anyone knew who the hell Randy Lewis was.

[PeteF3]

We open with a Memphis-angle-by-numbers, as Eric Embry interrupts a DWB promo to challenge him to an impromptu match, and of course Anthony turns his back and gets nailed. Prichard cuts off a DWB comeback until JIMMY VALIANT makes his return to make the save. Presumably that means a tag match this coming Monday.

 

Christopher "Honey" Love is out with a big black box, and announces that his dear friend Eddie Marlin has hired him as a consultant to deal with the USWA's plummeting gate receipts and this is some crazily self-referential shit going down. Jerry Lawler has been the common denominator in the demise of the AWA, World Class, and "who knows how many other promotions." Wait, were Chris Cruise & The Creator lying to me when they talked up Lawler as a box office draw?? I feel we should have Eddie Marlin moderate another debate. Lawler has been given two weeks' notice or else he'll have to deal with the Dragon Master. Love makes a huge deal about how this guy is a legitimate 7' 3" and not one of those guys hyped as being 7' who's only 5' 10". He's big but I'm pretty sure he's not that big. Underneath all the freak show gimmickry is somebody evidently unleashing some genuine feelings. And yes, it appears that Memphis Crash TV has killed the Lawler/Embry feud before its time, just like it did Lawler/Gilbert. With how quickly television moved, how creative the angles could be, how compelling these guys were as talkers, and how the promotion was decaying, I don't get the reluctance to properly blow any of these programs off properly. Embry wasn't going to get killed as a draw any more than he already was just because he lost decisively to Lawler.

 

And now out comes HUMONGOUS, and you can tell he lives up to his name because Dave Brown towers over him. Samantha Pain is out to play the Sherri to his Warrior, and with some help from Bull Pain manages to get his mask off. Brown and St. John matter-of-factly remark that it's "He-Man" Randy Lewis with all the excitement and shock of a Chauncey & Edgar bit. Somehow the WWF and USWA are morphing into one another, assuming the other's characteristics.

[Kevin Ridge]

Anthony hasn't hit his level as a face yet. He was still a few years away from SMW when he got going. I always get a kick out of these wrestlers who blatantly turn their back on their opponent and get cracked in the head for it. Valiant comes to the aid of Dirty White Boy.

 

Christopher Live is new to me. His crew brings out a casket. Undertaker and Paul Bearer would be proud of this. He says Lawler is not a box office draw. Jerry gets his two week notice. Downsizing sucks. Dragon Master's mask takes up about half of the screen.

 

Somebody please give Humongous direction on where the camera is. Cracking up at Pete's comment about Dave Brown being bigger than Humongous.

[soup23]

The DWB/Embry interplay wasn't bad but it did feel like a step down from the stuff we have seen and didn't set my world on fire even with Boogie Woogie coming out to clean house. Feels like the USWA is sort of bridging now into their next big feud.

 

Christopher Honey Love could only be a wrestling manager. Love lays it out there and says he is the savior of the USWA due to the king making other promotions go out of business. Love mixes in Honey about 5-6 times throughout this promo. Love gives Lawler a two week notice before he is fired. Love reveals the Dragon Master from the box. Love proclaims him as a 7 foot 3 giant. He takes off the dragon mask to reveal another mask. Love calls him an international star.

 

Humongous coming out and being eye to eye with Brown is hilarious. He talks to the crowd. Samantha comes out with the hair flowing. We get a Sherri proposition in the same vein as Rumble 91. They have a terrible struggle over the mask. Bull Pain attacks. The way they announce He Man Randy Lewis shows how much faith they put in this angle. Awful week for Memphis tv.

[garretta]

Nice to see Prichard helping Embry again.

 

Boogie Woogie's return was unexpected, but since Lawler's back on Freak Patrol, they need someone to help Anthony take on the Texas bunch, and he's as good as anyone.

 

Tony's a bit too softspoken to be a credible Memphis face. I know he can't brag and scream like the sleazeball he used to be, but he needs to show some fire to get the crowd behind him.

 

I'm not feeling Christopher Love at all. He looks like Steve McMichael and talks like a slightly more effeminate Paul Heyman, and I wouldn't have bought for a second that Eddie Marlin would hire him as a consultant for anything.

 

They can't decide what they want the Dragon Master to be: a Taker knockoff or an Andre clone, and so far he fails at both. I'm guessing that we're supposed to believe that it's one of three people under the Dragon Master mask: Taker, Andre, or Gigante, none of whom make a lick of sense in this context and all of whom are employed elsewhere.

 

Who the hell is "He-Man" Randy Lewis, and if he was going to be unmasked so quickly, why put the Humongous mask on him to start with? Come to think of it, I haven't heard of Bull Pain or Samantha, either. Who are they, what was the point of what we just saw, and why were Jeff and Fuller anywhere near it, even to make a save? The only thing I can think of is that another wrestler who was scheduled for an interview either didn't show up or had to leave early, thus leaving the show with time to fill.

[JKWebb]

Wow. That "He-Man" Randy Lewis hulk-up was about the funniest thing I've ever seen. I don't even know what to say about the Dragon Master. I don't know what to say about Samantha trying semi-make out with, or possibly attempt to the remove the mask, of Humongous. The announcers aren't even excited it's Randy Lewis. First they think it is, then they are just like, "yep. it is." "sure is." No excitement. Which I don't know what they would be excited about. This will make you laugh, and also you will hope nobody else sees that you are watching this at the same time.

[dawho5]

Really bad week for Memphis TV. Christopher Love is really annoying. I realize he's supposed to be, but it's not in an entertaining way. The whole Humongous thing is just....Memphis in the worst way possible.