Memphis Wrestling (1.10.1981) Review

-Originally aired January 10, 1981.

-Your hosts are Lance Russell & Dave Brown.

-I want to have words with whoever originally recorded this broadcast and cut out Dick Clark’s commercial.

2 OUT OF 3 FALLS FOR SOME REASON: HANDSOME JIMMY VALIANT, TOJO YAMAMOTO, & DREAM MACHINE (with Jimmy Hart) vs. KOKO WARE, TOM MALEY, & PAT HUTCHINSON
-So far, it’s looking like introducing a TV Title to the territory was a great, well-thought-out idea for sprucing up the TV show.

-Jimmy starts with the reigning TV Champion. Koko hiptosses him around and clears the partners out with dropkicks. Valiant begs for mercy and suckers Koko, sweeping his leg and bringing him to the corner. Dream Machine elbows Koko down and drops a big leg on him.

-Tojo tags in and chops Koko. Heels keep Koko in the corner and keep beating on him until Koko slides between Valiant’s legs and hot-tags Tom Maley. Valiant slams him and Machine drops the elbow. Hutchinson tags in to take his share of the ass-kicking, and a big elbow by Valiant gets the three-count.

-During the rest period, Lance says that the flashback segments from last week proved so popular that today, we’re going to replay the segment from last year where Jimmy Hart introduced Paul Ellering as the new King of Wrestling. This promotion really smacks of “talent-depleted” these past few weeks and I’m hoping Jerry Jarrett just treats the change of a year that way. One high point of the interview: the crown doesn’t fit Ellering’s head, and the moment it falls off, Jimmy Hart goes off on Lance for knocking it loose.

-Local house show promo, and aaaaaaah, that explains everything–now that Jerry Lawler is healthy again, Paul Ellering IS coming back to the territory to go around the horn with him to pay off the whole angle.

-FALL TWO: And with the show a third of the way over, we begin fall two of our first match with everyone still just mauling Hutchinson. They punch Hutchinson hard enough that he lands in his own corner, so Koko tags himself in and takes on all three opponents, then tags in Tom Maley. Machine hammers and chokes away at Maley, and a big splash gets three.

DAVID PRICE vs. DAVID OSWALD
-So they’re still trying to figure out if they have something in Oswald, as the commentators note that he has slightly more experience, but he’s also prone to breaking rules as a shortcut. Oswald applies a front facelock, but as he does, Dream Machine baffles everyone in the building by storming into the ring and beating the hell out of BOTH Davids and clearing them out of the ring. He beats up the referee too!

-We watch a Paul Ellering highlight reel to re-establish his well-documented strength.

EXPIRATION OF TIME: TOMMY RICH, SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE & CARL FERGIE vs. THE ANGEL, DR. BILL IRWIN, & TONY RUSSO
-FALL ONE: Dundee takes Irwin down with mat wrestling, then picks a fight with Angel. He pays for it and gets double-teamed in the heel corner. Baaaaaack bodydrop by Irwin.

-Angel tags in, but Tommy Rich tags in too and they fight it out. Fergie and Russo go at it. Fergie gets the better end of it, so Russo throws a punch and gets the hell out as soon as he can. Angel slams Fergie for a two-count. Dundee tags in and gets assaulted in the heel corner by all three men. Russo tries to finish him with a knee, but Dundee moves and tags in Tommy Rich, and a sunset flip by Tommy takes the fall.

-During the rest period, we watch a past squash match by Paul Ellering just to remind us that yep, he’s strong.

FALL TWO: Lance declares that we don’t have much time left with 14 minutes remaining in the show, so we must be getting a highlight reel of Ellering’s entire workout regiment, warm-up, cooldown, and stealth injections in the LA Fitness bathroom included after this is over. Brawl erupts in the ring and the referee struggles for literally two or three minutes to restore order without ever actually calling for the bell. Backdrop by Dundee on Russo gets a two-count, and the bell expires for TV time. With 12 minutes left in the show.

-And we watch another match, this time Ellering vs. Bill Dundee, to fill the hour.

-And with seven minutes(!) remaining in the show, Jerry Lawler comes out to fill the hour with a promo. He’s glad to be back with all the great people in all the local towns. Also, Jimmy Hart WAS his friend, but that was a long time ago, things have changed, and Lawler’s not gonna forget how Jimmy just dumped him. And with that, the next four years of Jimmy Hart’s life are set in stone.

4.0

The final score: review Poor

The 411

Well, they have a direction, with Ellering coming out to the territory, but the booking and pacing of this show was just ODD.