wrestling / Video Reviews
Memphis Wrestling (11.13.1982) Review
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...-Originally aired November 13, 1982.
-Your hosts are Dave Brown and an empty chair because Lance is on vacation.
-And in a teaser of things to come a decade later, Jerry Lawler has to come out and patch up a kayfabe hole. Remember how he was just on World Championship Wrestling playing heel in a feud with babyface Roddy Piper? Well, a bunch of fans in the Memphis area who have cable saw it and are wondering why the HELL Jerry Lawler behaves that way on the Atlanta wrestling show when he’s such a nice man on the Memphis wrestling show.
-So first of all, Lawler wants to say that Gordon Solie is a moron and WTBS would be well-served to get Lance & Dave down there to call commentary. But also, Lawler visited Georgia a year ago and found Roddy Piper just completely irritating. So this year, Georgia invited him for a tour of the area, and Lawler threw out a challenge to Piper because Piper annoyed him so much on his 1981 tour. So it turns out Piper’s been acting weird lately and suddenly Georgia fans like him, but you know what? Jerry Lawler isn’t buying it, and he’s going to keep going to Atlanta and battling Roddy Piper no matter how much the fans hate him for it.
-Jim Cornette is here with his new charge, Jesse Barr. I hope you’re sitting down for this, but Jesse was supposed to compete in the 1980s but POLITICS ruined everything. Why, oh, why were so many wrestlers deprived of their Olympic prospects in 1980? Damn you, Carter! Jesse has agreed to be managed by Jim Cornette, because Mama Cornette is making a deal with her baby boy. If he can prove that he can guide a wrestler to the Mid-America Title, then Mama Cornette will open her purse strings and pay whatever it takes for Cornette to sign Nick Bockwinkel.
JESSE BARR (with Jim Cornette) vs. AARON HOLT
-AARON HOLT!
-Jesse takes Holt down, riding him around the mat and rubbing his face in the canvas. Backbreaker and a suplex, and a reaaaaaally awkward belly-to-belly (Holt takes the blame for that one) gives Barr a win for his big debut.
SHEEPHERDERS vs. DON DONOVAN & PAT HUTCHINSON
-Jonathan Boyd hammers on Hutchinson, Williams does likewise. Donovan tags in and takes his bumps. Can’t find ANYTHING on Donovan in the meantime. Neat finish sees Boyd hoist Williams onto his own shoulders, and drop a knee onto Donovan with 250 pounds of extra weight behind it. Simple, but it makes sense and it looked really effective.
-We go to pre-taped words with Lance Russell at the mike to chat with Nick Bockwinkel and his current Memphis representation, Jimmy Hart. Jimmy reminds us that a few months ago, Jerry Lawler put up his hair against Kamala, with the winner getting a shot at Ric Flair’s NWA World Title. Jimmy Hart interfered, reasoning that Jerry would owe him a favor for that. Jerry disagrees, so Jimmy went in another direction, managing Nick Bockwinkel and guiding him to the Southern Heavyweight Title by way of a tainted win over Lawler, so Lawler’s out one title belt, Ric Flair has no commitments to the CWA at this time, and Bockwinkel has decided, “You know what? Screw Lawler.” So he’s not offering a rematch.
JERRY “The King” LAWLER & SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE vs. THE MASKED MARAUDERS
-Marauders are allegedly Sammy Holt and Ken Raper under masks, according to certain Wikilly-inclined sources of information.
-Lawler heaves one of the scrawny Marauders across the ring. Marauder let’s say #1 snapmares him down to the mat. Lawler recovers and tags Dundee in. #2 makes the mistake of distracting the referee, so Lawler & Dundee double-team his partner. This is actually a neat spot because it ties into a point that Lawler made in his Georgia explanation early in the show–the fans say he acts like a good guy or acts like a bad guy, but Lawler said that doesn’t make sense to him because he’s always wrestled the same style whether he’s in a city where fans love him or hate him. So point made, Lawler’s a babyface here but just did a totally heel thing, because it’s just his style.
-Lawler keeps hammering on a Marauder until he’s backed into a corner, then tags in Dundee, who slingshots himself over a Marauder and sunset flips him for three.
THE FABULOUS ONES vs. FRENCH ANGEL & JESSE OWENS
-Stan Lane hiptosses the Angel and struts around. Steve Keirn (I swear, I have to Google that name every time I write about him) knocks Owens out to the floor. Lane tags back in and clamps on a chinlock. Russian legsweep by Lane, but Dave Brown has never seen the move before so it’s a suplex. Keirn springboards himself off his partner’s back to give Owens a Polish hammer for the win. Jonathan Boyd runs out quickly to rant about what a crappy tag team the Americans just defeated.
EXPIRATION OF TIME: TERRY TAYLOR, JACQUES ROUGEAU, BUDDY LANDEL, & BOBBY FULTON vs. SWEET BROWN SUGAR, BOBBY EATON, & NEW YORK DOLLS (with Jimmy Hart)
-What a grab bag on the face side.
FALL ONE: Landel, still with natural brown hair, is here to impress someone, press slamming Sugar to the mat and then tagging in Terry Taylor. Taylor backdrops Dream Machine, who gets out right away and tags in Bobby Eaton. Rougeau dropkicks him down. Eaton fights back with a kneelift. Rougeau seems to be setting him up for something, so Jimmy calls Eaton out to the floor just to bring the match to a halt and stop whatever Rougeau was getting ready for.
-Landel & McGraw square off next. Landel dodges a dropkick and tags in Fulton. Jimmy Hart’s men are just getting dominated, and they’ve finally had enough and instigate a brawl . Referee tries to restore order, but there are eight guys, so a chair and a cane get used before everything settles down. Machine seems to have easy pickings with Fulton, but Fulton avoids an elbow drop and stays alive. First Family keeps the ring cut in half and prevent Fulton from escaping while they keep up the assault. Neckbreaker by Sugar gets the win.
