wrestling / Video Reviews
Memphis Wrestling (10.22.1983) Review
Image Credit: Memphis Wrestling
Loading...-Originally aired October 22, 1983.
-Your hosts are Lance Russell & Dave Brown.
MOONDOGS (with Jimmy Hart) vs. JIM JAMISON & JESSE OWENS
-This is hyped as the Moondogs’ return after a suspension. Spot, who apparently bought a blow dryer and an entire crate of conditioner while he was gone, pounds on Jamison to start. He gives Rex a turn, and the guy who recorded this one is already bored and jumps right to the finish. Moondogs win.
-We go to the Mid-South Coliseum for the hospital elimination match, and just to recap, it’s (deep breath) Jerry Lawler, Austin Idol, Jimmy Valiant, Roughhouse Fargo, and the Fabulous Ones vs. Jesse Ventura, Buddy Landel, Norvell Austin, Dennis Condrey, and the Assassins. You bleed, you’re eliminated.
-It’s the same cheap-o tactic that the WWF around this period would do, where they booked tag team matches with a bunch of guys on each side, where the falls happen wham-wham-wham. In this case, Roughhouse Fargo, Jesse Ventura, and Jimmy Valiant all get busted open in the span of about 30 seconds, so they’re all gone. Fantastics have a kendo stick and go to work with it, which brings in all the guys to brawl as everyone suddenly realizes “Screw it, we can’t get DQed.” Buddy Landel, Steve Kiern, and an Assassin all get eliminated at the same time. I hope they’re just splicing the tape oddly because if this is how the match played out, it feels like the biggest ripoff ever. Half the wrestlers were eliminated with two spots.
-Now we have a more obvious edit and we jump ahead, and it’s somehow down to Jerry Lawler against Austin and an Assassin. Lawler is fighting them off as Jimmy Hart waves the Moondogs down to the ring, and they bludgeon him with their bones. And it’s no-DQ, so that’s a legit elimination, and Lawler is the last man eliminated from his team. Austin Idol and the Fabulous Ones return to the ring with a trash can to get them out of there, but the damage is done and the First Family won it technically-fair-and-square.
-Jerry Lawler cuts a promo from hospital room, with the incredibly odd explanation that he’s in the hospital because he had a nagging illness unrelated to the hospital elimination match and his doctor advised him to just check into the hospital until his next match to clear it up as best as he can. That’s so weird that I actually believe that this is a legit explanation but…why NOT just say it’s from injuries in your match to heat up whatever the next part of the story is?
-Superstar Bill Dundee is live in the studio, but before he even gets one word out, the Moondogs and Jimmy Hart reappear. Dundee knows exactly where this is going, so he grabs a chair, but then puts it down for no adaquately-explored reason, but the Moondogs bust him open next. Well, I think I just figured out Monday night’s main event.
-Lance is here with Koko Ware, who’s forelorn because Koko lost the Jr. Heavyweight Title back to Tommy Rogers. Koko is gracious about the defeat. He makes a remark about getting the impression that Eddie Marlin had to twist Tommy’s arm to give Koko the original title shot to begin with. Tommy Rogers comes out and says that if that’s what Koko heard, Tommy wants to squash that right now. He’s a fighting champion, and besides, Lance just pointed out that these guys are 1-1 against each other now. So Tommy offers to…
-But first, here’s Jimmy Hart. Jimmy thinks Tommy’s an impression rising star, and that title proves it. So he offers Tommy a spot in the First Family. But Tommy doesn’t want a manager, doesn’t need a manager, and definitely doesn’t trust Jimmy Hart. He walks off, and Jimmy oddly declares that he’ll be in Tommy’s corner on Monday night, even if it’s uninvited, just to pitch himself to Tommy and prove his worth as a manager.
-The Assassins are out here with Jimmy Hart. They want the Tag Team Titles back from the Fabulous Ones, and they’re willing to put up their masks against the titles.
-Some quick footage from the Mid-South Coliseum. Bobby Eaton is taking on Cornette & Hart in a handicap match, and I hope you’re sitting down, but there’s a ref bump. Assassin interferes OH SNAP IT’S THIS MATCH! I’ve heard Cornette tell the story but didn’t make the connection until just now. So there’s a box full of money as part of the stipulations for the match. Assassin knocks out Bobby and helps the managers get a tainted win, surprise surprise. Bobby fights back after the bell and grabs the box of money and throws it to the fans.
-Now…what they PROBABLY had in mind was something like Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania I, where a few handfuls would get thrown out and then Hart or Cornette would steal the box back and run away with it. But this is the Mid-South Coliseum, where ringside doesn’t have barricades. Just those stanchions with cords running through them. And in the blink of an eye, there are 100 rambunctious and possibly drunk fans IN THE RING and the managers are surrounded. Lance Russell utters a very understated “Uh-oh…” and then the commentary just stops. That’s as much of the footage as airs, but Cornette’s recollection is that somebody never identified just knocked him the fuck out in the melee before the police were finally able to clear the ring.
-Back to Mid-South Coliseum with Ricky Gibson and the Rock & Roll Express joining forces against Norvell Austin, Dennis Condrey, and Buddy Landel, and it’s just a garden variety “Referee’s lost control of this one, Brain” situation. All six men battle in the ring, nobody will clear out, and the referee has finally had enough and calls it a double-DQ.
-Fabulous Ones accept the challenge of the Assassins.
-We have an angle that’s snipped out the match in the middle of it. The Assassins wrestle, apparently, two jobbers for the Expiration of Time match this week. Assassins win the first fall. There’s still plenty of TV time remaining, but the Assassins injured their opponents so severely in Fall One that they aren’t coming back up. Jimmy demands two more opponents for them and offers a thousand dollars for any wrestlers who want to come out and fill up the rest of the broadcast time. So the Fabulous Ones rush out and clean house, and the Assassins run for their lives.
