Memphis Wrestling (4.4.1981) Review

-Originally aired April 4, 1981.

-Your Memphis Wrestling hosts are Lance Russell & Dave Brown.

DREAM MACHINE vs. THE ANGEL (with Jimmy Hart)
-Dream Machine is in his element here because his whole persona is aping Dusty Rhodes, and being babyface means he can cut loose and do every element of it.

-Machine works Angel’s arm. Angel goes to the eyes and goes after the throat. Machine fights back, so Angel gets dirty with his tactics again. Referee gets bumped while trying to block a punch and Jimmy Hart tries to capitalize with a sinister cane shot, but it turns out that the referee isn’t really out cold, he’s just groggy, so he sees everything and calls for the DQ. Angel cleans house with the cane post-match.

-Tojo is here with Mr. Onita and Mr. Fuchi. They’re trying to ease Tojo into a manager role here, and it’s exactly the same issue as Mr. Fuji in the WWF, where they’ve given a mouthpiece role do the guy with THE least aptitude for talking in the entire promotion. And here comes Jimmy Hart, who’s kinda WTF because, not only is he a manager himself, he’s TOJO’s manager, so what is Tojo doing signing guys to his own deals? Tojo offers a decent point–Jimmy doesn’t know Japanese culture or language so he can’t really engage with these guys. Tojo is filling a gap that Jimmy never could. Jimmy won’t take that for an answer and tries to haggle a deal where they’ll share the new guys, but Tojo just waves him off, and Jimmy is a little flustered about being left out of this deal.

DUTCH MANTELL vs. TOM MALEY
-Mantell knocks Maley around. Atomic drop and a knee to the back by Dutch. Big elbow by Dutch gets the three-count.

-Jerry Lawler is here in his ring gear, for his first TV studio match in 13 months. Lawler notes that he’s currently ranked #3 for world title contention, which took him by surprise because he was prioritizing revenge on Jimmy Hart for the past six months, and he didn’t realize that all the victories that he rolled up against Hart’s men had affected his ranking so much.

JERRY “The King” LAWLER vs. GYPSY JOE (with Jimmy Hart)
-So naturally, Joe targets the leg. The extra layer of story here is that Jimmy Hart’s First Family has been decimated ever since Lawler returned and it’s pretty much down to Angel and Joe, so Jimmy needs a win here to salvage his dwindling prospects. Punching and biting by Joe. Lawler starts making a comeback, but when the strap comes down, it’s time to take action, so Angel hits the ring and Lawler takes a beating from what’s left of the family. Lawler makes his own save and cleans house with a chair.

-We head to Mid-South Coliseum for highlights of action pitting Jerry Lawler against Terry Funk, and Funk takes an absolutely epic bump, getting Irish whipped into the corner, flipping upside down, faceplanting, staggering out to the floor, knocking over a barricade, staggering back in, and tripping over the rope that got tied around his foot while he was knocking over the barricade, all in a single fluid motion. Funk finally gets things going, but misses a fist drop. Lawler throws punches and Terry does another master sell job of that, knocking over the barricades as he tumbles out of the ring, and it’s hard to tell because of the video quality, but I’m pretty sure that Baby Jim Cornette is the photographer frantically circling the ring getting shots of all the craziness.

-Jerry hulks up and lights Terry up with a series of punches, and Funk gets desperate and starts ripping up Lawler’s tights to get to his kneepad and remove it. With that, Funk applies the spinning toehold. Lawler punches Funk right between the eyes and dazes him hard enough to force the release. Jimmy Hart heaves a chair into the ring, but Lawler intercepts it and goes apeshit on Funk’s leg with it. Funk crawls for his life to get away from Lawler, but Lawler just follows him up the aisle and keeps going nuts on him with the chair as the bell sounds.

EXPIRATION OF TIME: MR. ONITA & MR. FUCHI (with Tojo Yamamoto) vs. EDDIE GILBERT & VINNIE ROMEO
-FALL ONE: Chops by the Japanese contingent. Eddie takes a beating from them until he tags in Romeo, who has a GREAT name for a generic jobber and looks like a “Vinnie Romeo.” With that mustache, all he’s missing is a suit with a gold chain and a shirt that has only, like, two buttons fastened on it, and they might have had something with him. Romeo takes his chops, and about six minutes of that is enough to put things away.

FALL TWo; lol no

7.4

The final score: review Good

The 411

Bless you, Terry Funk.