Memphis Wrestling Patriarch Eddie Marlin Passes Away at 89

Sad day for fans of Memphis wrestling from the 1960s and 1970s, as Eddie Marlin, considered one of the torchbearers for the region’s wrestling roots and patriarch of the Jarrett wrestling family has passed away at the age of 89. Eddie Marlin was the father-in-law of Memphis promoter Jerry Jarrett and grandfather of WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett.

I’m said to say Eddie Marlin passed away at 5am this morning.

I waited to all the family were told until I made this post.

I will do a FB Live Tonight 8:30 Central.

— Randy Hales (@Rbhales) August 15, 2019

Eddie Marlin was born in Nashville, Tennessee and began wrestling during the glory days of the 1950s and the birth of pro wrestling on television. He worked multiple Southern promotions within the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), but he found his early success working with Nick Gulas in NWA Mid-America, which covered the Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama territories. He initially wrestled under a mask as The Mummy, before unmasking to wrestle under his real name.

He was a tag team specialist, first capturing gold as the NWA World Tag Team Champions alongside Jackie Fargo. But it would be partnering with Tommy Gilbert (father of “Hot Stuff” Eddie & Doug Gilbert) where Marlin would find his true magic. The duo would become 3x NWA Mid-America Tag Team Champions and 4x NWA Mid-America Southern Tag Team Champions throughout the 1970s.

In 1977, he went into semi-retirement, joining his son-in-law Jerry Jarrett in Continental Wrestling Association (CWA). Jarrett, like Marlin, also worked for Gulas in NWA Mid-America, but had grown tired with Gulas pushing his less talented son, George Gulas, as the next big thing. Marlin entered the office to help book and promote in the CWA, which was taking over the territory that NWA Mid-America had occupied for over 35 years. The CWA was not affiliated with the NWA (although did interact occasionally). Eddie Marlin would also assume the on-air authority figure as the General Manager of CWA.

Marlin would still make frequent returns to the ring in CWA, sometimes siding with his former tag partner Gilbert, at others feuding against. In 1989, he would follow Jarrett to his new endeavor with Jerry “The King” Lawler (following the buy out of World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas), United States Wrestling Association (USWA), where he would carry similar duties as in CWA, before retiring from the ring in the early 1990s.

Last Word on Pro Wrestling offers its condolences to the entire Marlin and Jarrett family and Eddie’s friends and peers during this time.

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