wrestling / Video Reviews
Memphis Wrestling (8.1.1981) Review
Image Credit: Memphis Wrestling
Loading...-Originally aired August 1, 1981…The reason I’m backtracking is because the file I opened had the date as August 1, 1982. It turns out that it was a whole year off, so we’re revisiting a few past angles and a few wrestlers who aren’t around the territory anymore.
-Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown.
-Lance kicks off the show by welcoming famous wrestling magazine photographer Jim Cornette to the show! And this isn’t really officially a debut for him, they’re actually just using him as a jumping-off point for this segment. The reason we’re gathered here today is because Fabulous Jackie Fargo has announced his retirement from the sport. To honor this legend, the magazine that Cornette works for is naming Fargo the Wrestler of the Decade.
-Jackie Fargo strolls out and jokes with everyone and thanks the fans for their support. One by one, all of the babyfaces walk out to shake hands with Jackie and congratulate him on a well-earned retirement. Promoter Eddie Marlin talks about idolizing Jackie when he was just a little boy, giving Jackie a laugh. Jackie starts getting choked up, and Lance puts an arm around him and wraps up the segment.
-Lance Russell reminds us that back in 1981, we were concerned with the Southern Heavyweight Title tournament, in which matches were definitely happening in tournament rounds all over the country in different states, with the winners from each state eventually pairing off and the finals to be held in Tennessee at some point, “when everyone can agree on a date.” We get a rundown of highlights from the Tennessee division matches at the Mid-South Coliseum. Bugsy McGraw advances over Dream Machine. Bill Dundee beats Onita. Steve Keirn pins Fuchi. Ron Bass gets a tainted win over The King due to Jimmy Hart’s interference. In the next round, Keirn defeats Bass. Bill Dundee dies on the way back to his home planet apparently, because we go straight to Keirn vs. Bugsy, and Bugsy gets the win with a weapon pulled from his tights.
-Lance is in the studio with Jimmy Hart and Bugsy McGraw. Bugsy is a frog who sees a fly, and he’s HONGRY!
-We go to the local house show promo, which happens to also be Lance interviewing Bugsy, and he is magnificently awful, declaring Jerry Lawler to be a noun. Well, he got the part of speech right, which means Bugsy is a better worker than Kevin Nash, I guess.
-Jimmy Hart introduces his new executive vice president, Chic Donovan, who will be managing the First Family’s new tag team, the Heart Breakers. Oh yeah, this was a blink-and-you-miss-it tenure. Jerry Lawler comes out and recaps his whole history with Jimmy Hart, the man that he brought into the wrestling business. Jerry is out of the Southern Heavyweight Title tournament because of Jimmy. So Jerry announces a new policy. From now on, any time that he knows that he and Jimmy Hart are in the same building, Jerry will beat the hell out of him…Starting now.
-And with that, fists are flying, with Jerry just mauling Jimmy, who’s already on crutches, and Lance’s response to this chaos is that he’d prefer the ass-kicking take place outside. This leads to a stream of other heels and faces coming out to fight each other.
HEARTBREAKERS (with Chic Donovan) vs. DAVID PRICE & PAT HUTCHINSON
-Now this is brilliant, everyone is so distracted by the riot on the floor that the Heartbreakers take advantage and launch a sneak attack on their opponents. Jimmy Hart returns to lament that Jerry Lawler molested him on television, which is certainly a choice of words. That brings out Lawler AGAIN to beat up Jimmy Hart and the riot starts all over again. And in a hilarious visual, Chic Donovan lost his pants at some point when we weren’t looking, so he just appears without pants during the brawl.
-We go to highlights of a ladder match in the Mid-South Coliseum, with Dutch Mantell battling Tojo Yamamoto. Funny thing, the rules in this case are that there’s a bullwhip hanging over the ring and the first one to climb the ladder and grab the whip can use it. Now normally that would be an “on a pole” match, but Lance Russell candidly tells us on commentary that it’s a ladder match because nobody thought Tojo was athletic enough to climb a pole! Tojo actually gets the pole first, but Dutch snatches it away and whips the hell out of him until Fuchi and Onita show up and attack Dutch for the DQ, wrapping the whip around his neck and strangling him until Steve Keirn and Bill Dundee come to the rescue.
JERRY “The King” LAWLER vs. BUDDY WAYNE
-The match barely gets started before the First Family storms the ring to attack Lawler, but they attack movie ninja style, which means one at a time instead of all at once, so Lawler is able to fight off all of them until they finally start ganging up on him and using weapons. Locker room empties out to make the save, but the damage is done and Lawler is out.
And as everybody is getting Lawler out of the ring to carry him back to the locker room, the First Family returns again to assault Lawler and beat up his helpers. The studio audience is APPALLED.
-Dream Machine cuts an Evil Dusty-style promo declaring that the King can’t be put back together again.
SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE & ROY ROGERS vs. MR. FUCHI & ONITA (with Tojo Yamamoto)
-Dundee grabs a folding chair and just heaves it at the Japanese contingent. Dundee’s not even dressed to wrestle, working in blue jeans because he’s volunteering to be Roy Rogers’ partner, due to Dream Machine’s recent heel turn leaving Rogers without his scheduled partner.
-Dundee gets caught on the wrong side of the ring, worked over by both guys and their manager. He escapes and tags in Rogers, but Rogers gets caught in much the same predicament. He slugs his way to freedom and tags Dundee back in, but Dundee gets double-teamed, with a chop from the turnbuckles getting a close two-count. Dundee clamps on a sleeper, but Tojo breaks it with a kendo stick for the DQ, and the locker room empties out again for another brawl!
