wrestling / Video Reviews
Memphis Wrestling (3.8.1980) Review
Image Credit: Memphis Wrestling
Loading...-Originally aired March 8, 1980.
-Your hosts are Lance Russell & Dave Brown.
JERRY BRYANT & RICK MORTON vs. “Dr. D” DAVID SCHULTZ & DENNIS CONDREY
-Both commentators anticipate that this match will be a dandy, but neither one is willing to give it the full monty of southern athletic praise, a ring-a-ding dandy.
-Bryant and Schultz lock up and Schultz’s hair has achieved nearly 1.0 Gary Spivey proportions, which looks even more bizarre here because it’s NOT a wig.
-Condrey gets caught in a side headlock quickly, so he gets out of there and tags in Dr. Q-Tip…honestly, I should stop, David Schultz is one of those guys who gives a vibe that even as an old guy, he could whip your ass.
-Everybody tags and Morton works Condrey’s arm. Condrey is angry and pledges revenge for having his arm worked by Morton, planting the seeds for the next decade of tag team wrestling.
-Bryant tags back in and Condrey gives him a sharp knee to the belly, then a gutwrench for two. Morton hastily tags back in to bail out his partner. Schultz tags in and suplexes him for two. Morton tags out and Bryant’s a house of fire, dropkicking Schultz for two. Snapmare for another two. They hit the ropes at the same time and Schultz connects with a knee to the face. Bryant is out cold just from that, but Schultz gives his partner the honors and lets Condrey drop an elbow and get the three-count. Not a bad start to this week’s show.
-Tuesday night at the Louisville Gardens: Billy Robinson and Ken Lucas are defending the AWA Southern Tag Team Titles against Paul Ellering and Ali Hassan. They won’t TRY to defend, they WILL defend. And Handsome Jimmy is defending against Paul Ellering in a singles match, so that’s the kind of roster depth we’re dealing with Tuesday night at the Gardens. Bill Dundee will be handcuffed to Jimmy Hart for that bout, and Handsome Jimmy threatens to buy popcorn or something.
-Breaking news: Lance gives a long, long explanation of instant replays and the pluses and minuses, but the gist of the announcement is that Dusty finishes are now illegal in the CWA.
-We go to action from the Mid-South Coliseum, with Condrey and Schultz battling the Gibsons. Referee gets bumped by a careless David Schultz, who whips Rick into the official. Robert takes out David with a dropkick right as the referee revives, and the referee counts three. But the referee is so disoriented from the blow to the head that he raises Schultz’s hand and declares the heels the winners.
-Lance Russell revisits his point from earlier, explaining that there’s so much chaos and so much bending of the rules that no match would ever have a final decision if wrestlers were allowed to demand a review of the videotape every time a winner was declared.
-We stay in the Coliseum, this time with Valiant defending the CWA Title against Paul Ellering, who comes with crown as illustrated. Jimmy Hart passes his cane to Ellering and Ellering gives Valiant a hard shot to the back of the head, and that probably could have got him the win, but Ellering gets carried away and keeps hammering at him with the cane after the referee has turned around, so Valiant retains by DQ.
HANDSOME JIMMY VALIANT & STEVE REGAL vs. BUDDY WAYNE & DAVID OSWALD
-Regal takes Oswald to the mat. Oswald goes to the corner to get advice from Buddy Wayne, who is not nearly as much fun without his jock idiot son to play off of.
-Wayne tags in and gets tied up on the mat by Regal. Wayne throws punches and boots Regal down to turn things around. Oswald wants back in that action, but Handsome Jimmy tags in with his Popeye-on-ecstasy offense and gets the win with the big crappy elbow.
EXPIRATION OF TIME: RICKY & ROBERT GIBSON vs. PAUL ELLERING & ALI HASSAN (with Jimmy Hart)
FALL ONE: It’s still funny to me that they found the whitest, brown-hairedest wrestler imaginable to work a Middle East gimmick. Ricky works with him on the mat for a bit before Ellering comes in and tries overpowering him. Ricky surprises him with a slam. Everybody tags and Robert biels Hassan and the heels are getting flustered.
-Robert gets caught in the wrong corner and the heels take over until Robert just slips over and tags his brother. Ellering demands a test of strength and Ricky obliges. Ellering overpowers him until Ricky just stomps on his foot and forces a release.
-Hassan tags in and demands his own test of strength, and Ricky gets the better end of this one AND stomps on Hassan’s foot. Match keeps going from there as the expiration-of-time gimmick continues to be a huge disappointment to me. One of these days they need to do just a festival of crazy booking where the guys keep rolling up fall after fall after fall in rapid succession.
-Ellering and Ricky go to the mat, with neither man able to get an advantage. Robert tags back in and backdrops Paul. Ellering backs Robert into the corner and the heels gang up on him again, but again Robert is able to just get away and tag his brother. Fuller leglock suddenly looks to finish by for Robert, but David Schultz and Dennis Condrey hit the ring, and it’s a 4-on-1 attack until Bill Dundee and Jimmy Valiant show up, and your WarGames main event is set!…Wait, nevermind.
-And AGAIN, “oh whoops, our time is up, so that’s our only fall.”
