Memphis Wrestling (3.22.1980) Review

-Originally aired March 22, 1980.

-Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown, back in the studio thankfully.

PAUL ELLERING & ALI HASSAN (Southern Tag Team Champions, with Jimmy Hart) vs. STEVE REGAL & BOBBY LYONS
-Lyons looks like somebody took Buddy Wayne’s body and glued Jack Black’s face to it.

-Regal gives Hassan a right hand. Hassan ties him in a side headlock for some double-teaming. Regal dodges a forearm and hiptosses him. Regal’s work here is done, so he tags in Bobby Lyons and Ellering just laughs at the pudgy jobber. Lyons hiptosses him around and Ellering complains about the hair pulling.

-Everybody tags. Regal dropkicks Hassan and keeps him on the mat with a side headlock. Hassan wriggles out and goes to headscissors. Hassan breaks out and switches to his own headscissors. I’m sorry, my brain is just not adapting to “Ali Hassan” at all. He’s always just going to be the screaming referee from the WWF to me, even with a gigantic beard.

-Lyons tags in, but misses Ellering’s own tag and gets blindsided by Hassan. Champs gang up on him. Lyons fights back with forearms and tags in Regal. Ellering tags in and Regal puts up a good fight, slamming him for a near-fall. Hassan pulls the emergency cord and starts using his sinister Sheik boot on Regal to take control, which works until it doesn’t.

-Backdrop by Regal gets two as we’re eight minutes deep into this match. Lyons tries a wristlock on Hassan, but if the spiked boot doesn’t work, you go to the OTHER emergency cord, so Hassan does. He hits Lyons in the nuts.

-Ellering tags in and gets into a fistfight with Lyons. Ellering stops him with a kneelift and tags Regal in. Regal cleans house and tags Lyons back in. Lyons is a bit too round to handle the roll-up spot that Ellering wants, so Ellering slams him and goes for an atomic drop, with Lyons sandbagging the shit out of him on that move, but Ellering gets the three-count to finish a surprisingly good 10-minute battle.

HANDSOME JIMMY VALIANT & KEN LUCAS vs. DENNIS UPTON & DAVID OSWALD
-Handsome Jimmy Valiant, still wearing a crown and a “king of wrestling” cape, struts to ringside and does his usual clown act. The premise here is that this is an odd couple pairing because Ken Lucas is just perpetually pissed off.

-Lucas punches Oswald repeatedly and brings in Handsome Jimmy. Upton tags in and Lucas makes him regret that, and some knees to the jaw by Lucas get the job done for a three-count.

-We go back to the Louisville Gardens to re-watch the epically shitty fireball that led to new tag team champions last week.

RICK MORTON vs. BUDDY WAYNE
-They go to the mat and Rick gets the upper hand with a hammerlock. Morton tries to work the leg but Wayne makes it to the ropes. Morton goes to a side headlock, but Wayne gets to his feet and whips Morton into the corner, and Morton HITS that corner and does the Slaughter bump from it. Wayne tries to capitalize, sending Morton into the ropes, but Morton turns it into a Thesz press for three.

EXPIRATION OF TIME: SONNY KING, DENNIS CONDREY, & “Dr. D” DAVID SCHULTZ vs. SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE & GIBSON BROTHERS
FALL ONE: Dundee and Condrey start. Say those names five times fast. Robert tags in early and goes to the mat with Condrey. Everybody tags a turn tagging in and out until we get King working over Ricky and applying a painful-looking facelock. So many guys just wrap their arm around the opponent’s head, I really notice and appreciate guys who make the effort to apply one that looks painful. Hercules had a good mean-looking facelock/headlock/chinlock too.

-Schultz tags in and gets elbowed around, so he gets out of there quickly and tags in King. He faces off against Dundee as Bill reminds us that King has a bad track record in matches against Dundee and it’s a sticking point for him. Fist fight breaks out, but Schultz sneaks in from the apron and engages in some shenanigans to help his partner.

-So King just mauls Dundee the moment he has a bit of an edge. Bill fights back and elbows him down, going for the pin, but King tags on his way down to the mat so Schultz heads in. Dundee tags out and Schultz takes a hard dropkick, as he’s just having a bad week all around.

– Collision on a double shoulderblock, and Ricky’s instantly in trouble. King vices the neck. Schultz comes in with an axehandle, but that causes Ricky to stumble into his own corner and tag his brother. Condrey comes in and whips Robert for a corner charge, but Robert turns it into a sunset flip for three….and yep, the show’s over. I hate the way they misuse this concept week after week after week.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

Really good batch of matches this week!