[1991-10-05-USWA-Memphis TV] Jerry Lawler and Eddie Gilbert announcement

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Eddie Gilbert is back! Lawler does his awesome thing where he makes it seem like he's shooting and he's completely working. Lawler gets in some shots against the WWF and WCW (but more the WWF) and they are hyping a unification match between Lawler and Gilbert at Mid South Coliseum, pitting the GWF title against the USWA title. Things start off cordial enough, until Lawler goes there, and says Gilbert has spent his career copying Lawler instead of trying to be the best wrestler he can be, and Gilbert responds that he's not an imitator, he's the successor. They go to commercial still arguing. Effective.

[ajtroma]

Lawler really came off arrogant in this one.

[PeteF3]

It's incredible how Memphis can provide the goofiest shit side by side with the most realistic...uh..."pure sports build" you could ever imagine in pro wrestling. Quite the stylistic shift for this week's title match.

[Kevin Ridge]

Lawler very arrogant about the world championship of USWA world heavyweight title and how it is much better than WWF and WCW world titles. Gilbert talks about his GWF title versus Lawler's UWSA title.

[soup23]

These two being cordial with each other felt odd at first. Of course that doesn't last too long as Lawler starts to get more heated and Eddie is right there along with him. Really enjoyed the build to this unification match.

[garretta]

Which, of course, ends up going nowhere and settling nothing, just like almost every other unification match in wrestling history.

 

At any rate, Lawler and Gilbert try to keep things respectful, but they just can't pull it off, not that anyone really expected them to. I'm fairly sure they wanted to try and keep both men faces since Eddie was hugely popular when he left Memphis the last time, so we don't get any fisticuffs, but the same old arguments about imitation vs. succession when it comes to Lawler are made on both sides, and they come no closer to being settled now than they've ever been. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that one didn't challenge the other to step into the ring, but I see from the match listing that Lawler decided to take care of some other urgent business first.

 

If you've heard the history of the Unified title a hundred times like most of us, it gets a little tedious. But there are always new fans that need to know things like this, and besides, why pass up a free shot at Vince and Turner when it's sitting there right in front of you? The average Memphian probably wanted to see Lawler and Eddie get their hands on each other more than they wanted to see a title unification, though.

 

Did Global actually sanction this match as a unification bout, or was it a case of Eddie having a free Monday and deciding to take a date against Lawler and bring the belt with him to show off and be put over as an equal championship on TV? The reason I ask is that I have a hard time believing that Global would want to be put in a situation where it might have to recognize as champion a man who seems to be deathly allergic to the idea of wrestling in its main city (Dallas) like Lawler is.

[PeteF3]

This was definitely Gilbert working entirely on his own.

[dawho5]

Yeah I don't think anybody thought that Lawler and Gilbert were going to stay polite and well-mannered through that whole thing. The whole unified title spiel is old news at this point and I tend to just ignore it. Line of the segment was lawler asking, "If I put on some tights with flames on them and started calling myself "Hot Stuff would I be copying you?" Great stuff there.