Memphis Wrestling (7.19.1980) Review

-Originally aired July 19, 1980.

-Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

-We go to the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis for a CWA World Heavyweight Title match, so apparently that’s still a thing. Robinson is defending against Paul Ellering. Ellering works the leg, snapping it back and then forcing it into the mat repeatedly. Ellering just continues mangling the knee as we hit the 20-minute mark, and Robinson fights back with a one-legged monkey flip. Robinson starts working through the gamut of moves he can do with one good leg, but Ellering takes him down and locks on a toehold.

-Robinson still has some fight left in him and gets Robinson caught in a standing surfboard. He gets Ellering down on the mat and Ellering tries to kick out of the hold, but in the middle of the kicking motion, Robinson just ties the legs and pins him right there.

-Lance runs down a gimmicky house show coming up Tuesday night at the Louisville Gardens, a six-team double elimination match. Six tag teams competing. Teams #1 and #2 start in a regular tag team match. A team stays in the match until they’ve lost two falls, last team standing is the winner. Winners gets a shot at the CWA World Tag Team Title.

-Paul Ellering and Jimmy Hart are here and they’re getting ready for a Southern Heavyweight Title match. We go to pre-taped comments from Bill Dundee, the reigning champion, who initially refused to defend the title unless Ellering put his hair on the line. Ellering has balked at that stipulation, and Dundee has agreed to the match anyway, because Ellering his claiming that Dundee’s initial victory for the title was a fluke and that Dundee couldn’t beat him a second time. It’s more important to Dundee that Paul shuts up, so he’ll just defend the title and get his win, he doesn’t really care about Paul’s hair.

-Back in the studio, we get a very of-the-time rebuttal promo from Paul Ellering, who has a “Mr. Bill Dundee” doll, Mr. Bill from SNL with his hair colored jet black, and the crowd, who hated Ellering right up to this point, just laughs their asses off as Ellering switches on the high-pitched voice and acts out a whole little skit where he beats the shit out of Mr. Bill and rips his legs off. Even Lance Russell, LANCE RUSSELL, starts to break during this promo. Bonus points to the director, for making sure the camera is only on a very, very tight shot of the doll any time Mr. Bill talks. Shut the show down, we’re not following this.

MANCHURIANS (with Sputnik Monroe) vs. JOE STARK & MIKE MERONEY
-Manchurians are basically a Great Value version of the Mongols, with the same haircuts.

-Stark wrings the arm and takes down…one of them. I guess. They haven’t given them names yet. Stark is putting on a good show here, applying an armbar and maintaining control of it. Meroney tags in and takes a beating, so Stark was like the SD Jones of his team. Everything works out until he tags out.

-Manchurian stomps and chops Meroney. The other one tags in with a chinlock. And after a completely bland showing, these two have a pretty cool finisher, with one Manchurian doing something like a gourdbuster, with the other Manchurian genuflecting so the stomach hits the knee on the way down. Nice touch, as Stark tries to break the pin, but the Manchurians are so strong that they don’t budge, so the referee just counts three.

SONNY KING vs. TONY BOYLES
-Boyles looks so much like Robert Gibson that I typed the name before they put the lower-third graphic on the screen.

-Mat wrestling exhibition to start. From the commentary, Boyles is at the very very beginning of a push as an underdog, so he gets a little bit of shine. Nothing really remarkable happens here, it’s Sonny trying a hold and Tony escaping, and they just stick with that for several minutes until King just gets fed up and boots Boyles in the gut, then cradles him for three. The entire match felt like they were just warming up and then they just stopped right there. Six minutes of warm-up.

KEN LUCAS & RICK MORTON (Southern Tag Team Champions) vs. BUDDY WAYNE & DAVID OSWALD
-Quick tags by the champs as the commentators are surprised that two dissimilar wrestlers are such a successful team. Buddy Wayne tags in and picks on Ricky for a minute, but Lucas tags in and puts his fists in the air, and Buddy gets the hell away from him.

-Oswald tags in and the champs work his leg while Wayne implores him to make the tag, but he won’t stick his own arm out, so Oswald is just screwed in there. Whatever happens next, we totally miss it due to a breaking news bulletin. Residents are being evacuated from Muldraugh because of a train derailment that’s causing gas leaks. Oof. Hope that turned out OK.

4.8

The final score: review Poor

The 411

This show just DRAGGED aside from the Mr. Bill stuff.