wrestling / Video Reviews
Memphis Wrestling (3.1.1980) Review
Image Credit: Memphis Wrestling/YouTube
Loading...-Originally aired March 1, 1980.
-Your hosts are Lance Russell’s jacket and Dave Brown. Lance’s jacket has a mosaic design on it and it could blow out your TV.
We get a local commercial for World’s Greatest Professional Wrestling, tonight at the Armory! In the triple main event, Former Cleveland Brown Big Walter Johnson vs. Joe Valliant, The Von Brauners defend the U.S. Tag Team Titles against Joe Ball & Bill Helm, and Dale Mann vs. Ron Starr! AND The Wrestling Bear will be in action! I’m glad this is the World’s GREATEST Professional Wrestling, because the Pretty Good Card must be atrocious.
GIBSON BROTHERS vs. BUDDY WAYNE & DAVID OSWALD
-Wayne gets knocked around and hastily tags out. Oswald manages to get a stepover, but Ricky escapes and reverses. Robert tags in and the brothers pick their target and stay on the leg. Wayne tags back in and I feel like this guy has lost all his magic without his idiot son around for him to play off of. Robert gets caught in the bad corner and worked over. Ricky tags his brother and backdrops Oswald into position for an elbow from Robert for the three-count.
-Off to the Mid-South Coliseum now, with Sonny King & Shaft vs. Sugar Bear Harris & Ray Candy. We have a wrestler named Shaft?! It appears the dynamic here is that it’s all heels but the fans are siding with Harris and Candy. Sonny uses some hidden rope to choke Harris, and Candy gets so frustrated with that, Candy just unwraps the tape from his knee and garrotes Sonny until the referee calls for the DQ. All four men brawl after the bell.
-House show hype! Paul Ellering has stolen Jimmy Valiant’s crown, and Valiant’s gonna do something about it in Louisville!
-Back to the studio, we have new Southern Tag Team Champions, Ken Lucas and Billy Robinson. They’re going to take on all comers! We go to the Mid-South Coliseum to see how they captured the title. The Assassins attempt to cheat with the loaded mask, but they employ the wise strategy of just not letting the guy with the loaded mask get in the ring, and the unloaded Assassin gets rolled up for a pin.
HANDSOME JIMMY VALIANT & SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE vs. “Dr. D” DAVID SCHULTZ & DENNIS CONDREY
-Valiant strolls to the ring wearing a crown, so I feel like that house show promo tipped off an angle for us. Schultz’s out-of-control afro is already the highlight of this match. Dundee hiptosses Schultz across the ring. Condrey tags in, and right on cue, here comes Jimmy Hart, who pilfers Valiant’s crown from the commentary table and then rushes off, and when Valiant realizes the crown is missing, he has trouble concentrating on the match. He tags Dundee in and then turns his back and talks to the fans, who are all giving him reports on what happened to his crown.
-D and C work over Dundee, and for once, a babyface complaining actually nets positive results, as the referee spends so much time arguing with Valiant that he totally misses a pinfall attempt and Dundee gets a rest as a result. Dundee revives with a slam and a knee on Schultz for the two-count. Tag to Valiant, who handles Schultz with ease and double-teams him with Dundee.
-Condrey offers a handshake on one knee, and Dundee is the rare breed of smart babyface, just kicking him and getting a two-count. They collide on a double shoulderblock and Condrey makes the tag first. Schultz cuts off Dundee and suplexes him for two. Heels try some double-teaming, but accidentally collide with each other. Faces Irish whip them together, but Condrey sneaks in one last cheap shot as the referee tries to restore order. That looks to finish it, but all four men end up in the ring again and the referee needs to restore order again, rescuing Dundee for a little bit longer.
-Great spot, as Condrey and Schultz let Dundee recover long enough to get to his feet and they wait for him to ALLLLLLMOST make the tag before they finally attack him from behind, which they could have done any time, but they just wanted to give him false hope first. Dundee gets double-teamed for a two-count. Condrey goes for a piledriver, but Dundee backdrops out and makes the hot tag to Handsome Jimmy as we get a one-minute warning from the commentators. Faces battering-ram the heels’ skulls together, and Handsome Jimmy, with 15 seconds to go, applies a nerve hold. Great strategy. Bell sounds for the draw. All action until the very end.
-Condrey and Schultz stick around after the bell because Schultz demands that we watch one-on-one action from Mid-South Coliseum with him battling Robert Gibson. Schultz appears to be a beaten man, with Robert going for a stepover toehold until Dennis Condrey runs in (“That’s me!” Condrey yells as he watches himself on the monitor) and insists that he saw Gibson with brass knuckles in his hand. They gang up on Robert until big brother Ricky breaks up the party and chases them off.
-So later in the night, it’s Condrey vs. Ricky, and they mirror the previous finish, with Schultz breaking up the impending win and Robert coming to the rescue. These fellers want a tag team match to settle this right now!
-We go to commercial, and we come back with Condrey and Schultz still out here and refusing to leave until “the goo-goo-eyed freaks” get back out here for this match. Rick comes out in his street clothes and agrees to a fight, and suddenly, Condrey and Schultz clarify that they actually just meant little brother Robert, they don’t really want a fight with Ricky.
-So Ricky disappears to the locker room and returns with Robert, and Robert appears to be the victim of a rib, as he’s in his tights but working the match completely barefoot, and the commentators are totally ignoring the bare feet. Condrey agrees to leave ringside if Ricky will leave ringside too.
ROBERT GIBSON vs. “Dr. D” DAVID SCHULTZ
-And I’ve barely finished typing the names when Condrey just comes right back out and draws the DQ by attacking Robert. Robert is getting double-teamed, but Ricky can’t rescue his brother because Jimmy Hart mysteriously showed up for no reason during this match and wrapped his four limbs around Ricky’s legs to keep him from walking. Robert is laid out and bloodied by the time Ricky finally gets in there, and Condrey, Schultz, and Hart leave the studio together.
-Jimmy Hart strolls in with the Sheik and Paul Ellering. Ellering comes with crown as illustrated and brags about how the crown actually fits him properly, which is why he won’t give it back. As his first royal proclamation, he decrees that Lance has to go by the name “Lance Muscle.” Welp, guess I have my new Tinder handle.
