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Memphis Wrestling (2.26.1983) Review
Image Credit: Memphis Wrestling
Loading...-Originally aired February 26, 1983.
-Your hosts are the Lancester and the Davemeister.
-LAST WEEK: The Sheepherders picked a fight with special guest commentator Steve O. Lance is now with Steve O, who’s dressed to wrestle, along with Rick Morton and Bill Dundee. They’ve signed on for some no holds barred matches against the Sheepherders at a venue near you, and they have a tune-up match this week to get ready for those battles.
RICK MORTON & STEVE O vs. PAT HUTCHINSON & JESSE OWENS
-Faces work over Hutchinson’s leg. Owens tags in and gets stuck in a side headlock takedown. Lance runs down Steve O’s career after realizing that the fans in the area seriously thought he was just a commentator last week, and notes that he was out of the ring for a year and a half with a wrist injury and he’s still trying to get back on track. Airplane spin by O, and Morton drops a knee on Owens to wrap it up.
-Sheepherders are here to complain about an angle that we never saw–more of that weirdness from this territory–as Jonathan Boyd got his pants ripped off in retaliation for the attack last week, and Boyd is really annoyed because none of these yanks deserve to look at his bare ass. Ha!
-Jacques Rougeau cuts a promo with his boombox blaring the whole time. He’s ready for his match about Dutch Mantell. He expects the arena to be filled with Dutch’s supporters, mostly cows.
-Jimmy Hart introduces his new tag team, the Bruise Brothers, who enter the studio to the “Victim of the New Nitro Set” music from Botchamania. Jimmy Hart (who simply cannot stop calling these guys “The Blues Brothers”) found out that one of the scheduled opponents for these guys aren’t in the building for some reason this week, with Eddie Marlin giving some kind of flimsy excuse about car trouble. So Jimmy demands that the other scheduled jobber, who is in the building, come to the ring, and bring absolutely anybody along to be a partner.
THE BRUISE BROTHERS (with Jimmy Hart) vs. ROBERT REED & ??
-Reed shows up alone, a huge letdown for those of us who were expecting the surprise appearance of Abdullah’s cousin, Sam the Butcher, as a surprise partner for Robert Reed.
-Pork Chop Cash goes solo because no partner ever volunteers to join Reed. Cash elbows and punches away at Reed. Big kneedrop finishes. I bet you thought there was going to be some huge angle here but no, it appears that there seriously WAS a missing jobber and they had to rebook this!
-The rest of Jimmy’s men come out with balloons, party hats, and a ton of confetti. Koko Ware, who is named Koko Ware this week, is leaving the territory after agreeing to a Loser Leaves Town match against Bobby. They have a bunch of going away gifts for Koko, including a Jimmy Hart t-shirt and a one-way Greyhound bus ticket. Koko interrupts the going-away party with a baseball bat, and Lance sticks around to have words with “Sweet Brown Sugar” PICK A FUCKING NAME. Koko holds up the Mid-America belt that he took from Bobby and warns the family that he’s here to stay, not here to play.
-Michael St. John takes us to footage from the Mid-South Coliseum to examine a controversial incident. Terry Taylor is battling Austin Idol. Idol has Jimmy Hart in his corner, so Jerry Lawler comes to ringside to keep an eye on the troublemaker. Jimmy hops up on the apron to distract the referee and Taylor, and Idol tries to take advantage with a sneak attack, but to make things fair, Lawler trips Idol and prevents the attempted attack, and Taylor pins Idol seconds later. Idol is none too pleased about that and wraps a chain around his fist to give Lawler a brutal beating after the bout.
ABDULLAH THE GREAT (with Sonny King) vs. KEN RAPER
-You’d think after all the bruises inflicted by the legendary Dick the Bruiser, more people would be reluctant to wrestle a match against Ken Raper.
Abdullah pounds away at Raper while Sonny King sits in on commentary and tries to establish himself as the one manager alive who’s more mellow than Gary Hart. Powerslam by Abdullah gets the win.
-Jacques Rougeau comes dancing out here with his boom box again. Lance begs him to turn the volume down for the interview, and Jacques passive-aggressively turns the music down ENOUGH, but you still hear it all through the promo. He’s not happy with Dutch Mantell and Terry Taylor sharing one brain last week long enough to take away his title, and he runs them down in French before challenging Dutch to a no-DQ match, because he’s confident he can beat Dutch even with Dutch’s bullwhip and even with Terry Taylor hiding in Dutch’s pants!
THE GALAXIANS vs. BOBBY FULTON & BIG LOUIE WINSTON
-I mean, it’s Memphis so “BIG Louie” means he’s like 6’1″. Fulton and Galaxian we’ll say #1 trade some rapid-fire armdrags. Steve O drops in for guest commentary and emphasizes over and over again that he’s recovered from his injury and he’s ready to become a star again. I get the vibe that this isn’t an angle and that they really, really are concerned that the fans don’t buy into Steve as a star.
-Galaxians double-team Fulton and Fulton goes sky-high on a backdrop, and the height is even more impressive because the Galaxian is fairly short. Curious detail mentioned by Lance; this was touted as Jim Cornette’s new tag team but Cornette doesn’t seem to be around here. Probably car-pooling with Robert Reed’s partner.
-Big Louie is chopped down to size with shots to the throat and a series of elbows. Legdrop gets a one-count. Louie makes a comeback, but when he does, the Galaxians switch without tagging, and the illegal Galaxian sweeps the leg and pins Louie with a foot on the ropes.
EXPIRATION OF TIME: THE FABULOUS ONES vs. KENYA CONDORI & SABU (with Jimmy Hart)
-Quite a feature match for TV this week!
-FALL ONE: Keirn criss-crosses with Sabu and suckers Sabu into the Fabulous Ones’ side, where he gets popped in the nose by Stan Lane. Condori tags in and the Fabulous Ones flummox him by dancing instead of locking up. Lane applies an abdominal stretch. Sabu breaks it, but he gets knocked to the floor for it, which leaves Condori alone in the ring with both Fabs, and a clothesline gives the Fabs the win.
-We have enough time for a promo but not enough time for another fall, so we go to the Mid-South Coliseum, with the Fabulous Ones defending the Tag Team Titles against Jesse Barr & Adrian Street. Referee gets knocked loopy but counts a pinfall victory for the Fabulous Ones. There’s a post-match melee that ends with Street on top of a Fabulous One, and the referee is so dizzy that he thinks this is the pinfall that he counted, so he hands the belts to Street & Barr.
-Lance Russell announces that the AWA has ruled that the pinfall stands, regardless of the referee’s mistake. The Fabulous Ones are the rightful champions, and Adrian & Jesse will be fined $100 a day until they return the belts. He chats with the Fabs, who say it’s a little suspicious that all of a sudden, pro wrestling has a bunch of tag teams that come to the ring with music and kiss the women on their way into battle, and they just want to make sure we all remember which team invented that.
