Memphis Wrestling (11.8.1980) Review

-Originally aired November 8, 1980.

-Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown. Tommy Rich will be defending the Southern Heavyweight Title right here on TV today, but we haven’t been told who the challenger will be…

EDDIE GILBERT vs. DAVID OSWALD
-Gilbert takes Oswald to the mat, then works the arm for a bit. It is STILL weird to me how bland young Eddie is. Backslide gives Eddie the three-count after a pretty uneventful outing.

-We get a special announcement from Louisville Gardens referee Thomas Marlin. Three weeks ago, he fined Tommy Rich $1000 to try to “straighten the boy out,” and then Rich left him a bloody mess. Thomas is aghast that something so terrible has happened because he’s known Tommy since he was 30 minutes old. Well, dang it, next Tuesday, Tommy Marlin pledges to be at the arena not as a referee, but as a wrestler, and he’s gonna give Tommy Rich the whippin’ his mommy and daddy shoulda given him.

-Last night in Tupelo, CWA World Heavyweight Champion Billy Robinson battled challenger Guy Mitchell. And they chose the WRONG side of the building to place the hard camera because we’re facing one damn empty block of seats. Billy Robinson backdrops Mitchell over the top rope and onto the floor at one point, and the referee gives Mitchell the win by DQ. They’re trying to frame this as a controversial ruling, but that’s a pretty damn clear infraction. Mitchell attacks Robinson with a chair after the bell.

-Lance Russell begins to throw it to commercial, but Robinson storms out angrily and says that he resents being made to look like he can’t win without backdropping a man to the floor and says he wants a match with Guy Mitchell ASAP to prove the point that he can win against Mitchell fairly, at any time. Robinson kinda shows a heel edge as he rants about this, complaining about having to make appearances in the small crappy towns of this territory and saying that for doing that, the LEAST Eddie Marlin can do is give him the rematch he wants.

-Back from the break, Eddie Marlin has worked some magic and rearranged the rest of the TV schedule so that we can just do the match right now.

-…But when Guy Mitchell and Jimmy Hart emerge, Mitchell is in street clothes and wearing a sling. He has an arm injury because of Robinson’s wanton disregard for the rules, so the match simply can’t happen. Robinson calls bullshit and tells him to get in the ring, but makes the mistake of turning his back. Mitchell whips off the sling and hits Robinson with it, and Robinson crashes to the floor, so it’s loaded with something. Robinson is bloodied, but he rallies and it turns into a fistfight. Mitchell retreats, and Eddie Marlin comes back out and promises Robinson that he’s getting the match.

RICK MORTON & KEN LUCAS vs. DAVID MCGEE & THE ANGEL
-Morton goes to the mat with McGee, and a backslide gets two. Angel tags in and he’s wearing a sinister glove. Rick ducks everything Angel tries to do until Angel slams him to the floor and clamps on a fat grab with the evil glove. Morton is close enough to the ropes to escape and tags in Ken Lucas. Lucas throws punches and Angel reaches into his tights, apparently to extra-super-duper load up the glove. Lucas snaps the arm repeatedly to stop him from actually doing anything.

-McGee tags in and Morton dropkicks him down. Lucas tags in and connects with a kneelift. Lucas works the arm and Angel desperately rushes in to do something with the loaded glove, but he gets chased out before he can do whatever he was planning. Angel loads it up even more before tagging in and giving Morton one good shot to the stomach. McGee goes in for the kill with a backdrop, but Morton surprises him with a sunset flip for three. That was pretty interesting, as it could have been just a standard squash and Angel just singlehandedly added so much shenanigans to it that it turned into a genuinely interesting bit of business.

-Tommy Rich and Jimmy Hart are excited about facing a mystery opponent because Lawler & Dundee hid from their opponents when they held the title. Rich agreed to a mystery opponent to make the point that he’ll fight anybody. Jimmy Hart produces a football helmet with eight names mixed in it, and Rich will face whatever opponent he draws from the helmet. He rattles off the names of the guys who are in the mix, and it’s all jobbers. And just to prove it’s as honest as possible, he lets Lance draw the name.

SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: WILDFIRE TOMMY RICH (Champion, with Jimmy Hart) vs. TONY BOYLES
-Rich is in RARE form here, demanding the crowd make more noise to make Boyles feel like as big a star as possible, because this is the only title match he’ll ever have. And then he attacks Boyles before the bell even though he’s just a punk jobber.

-Boyles surprises Rich with a hiptoss, and Rich just completely loses his mind and mauls Boyles from there, embarrassed about being made to look bad by a lowly jobber. Elbow to the jaw gets three, and Rich retains the gold. Oh, who are we kidding, it’s Memphis…retains the iron pyrite.

-Post-match, Lance realizes that Tommy left the helmet behind, so he and Dave go through all the names, and they’re ALL Tony Boyles, so Tommy was lying about even having the other jobbers in the helmet! That’s a heel.

EXPIRATION OF TIME: SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE, HANDSOME JIMMY VALIANT, ROBERT GIBSON, & CARL FERGIE vs. BEAUTIFUL BOBBY EATON, DR. BILL IRTIN, LARRY LATHAM, & JIMMY HART
-Touted as a special attraction, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Jimmy Hart wrestle on TV. FYI, Latham and Irwin are the Tag Team Champions at the time of the live broadcast of this show in Memphis, but this is the Louisville version and Memphis being Memphis, by the time it aired in Louisville the titles had changed hands twice!

-FALL ONE: Dundee catches Irwin with a big forearm for a one-count. Dundee hammers away at him, but Dundee gets caught in the heel corner and Jimmy works him over. Referee calls for the DQ already and it’s an eight-man brawl, with the faces cleaning house to end the show. We’re not getting a second fall, if you’re wondering.

5.9

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Tommy Rich's segment was fun, but there's this weird zombie-like feel to this promotion the longer that Jerry Lawler stays gone.