Memphis Wrestling
June 9, 1979
Memphis, TN
WMC-5 TV Studio

The current Memphis wrestling champions are as follows:
AWA World Champion: Nick Bockwinkel (11/8/1975)
AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion: Robert Fuller (6/4/1979)
AWA Southern Tag Team Champions: Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee (6/4/1979)

Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

• Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. Danny Davis & Sputnik Monroe Jr.
  

Non-title match, obvs. Lawler and Dundee defeated the former tag champs Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka last Monday night. Pretty interesting how much Sputnik Monroe Jr. looks like the senior version. Davis and Dundee trade some arm holds and act like they want to start brawling. Tag to Lawler, the tag champs give Davis a double backdrop. That’s all he can stand for now as he tags out. Lawler goes after the leg until he cowers over to the ropes for a break. Dundee tags in and slams Monroe over to his corner for a tag. Dundee takes Davis over to Lawler and lets the King take control. Davis punches at Lawler and gets plenty of punches in return to show off Lawler’s amazing punches. Tag to Monroe, Lawler punches him down as well. After a brief conference between the heels, Lawler gets suckered into their corner which brings in Dundee to keep the ref busy. Davis holds Lawler while Monroe climbs to the middle rope to lower the boom, but Lawler breaks free and goes after Monroe while Davis just retreats to the apron. A bunch more punches from Lawler and he tags out to Dundee. Monroe gets blasted with a knockdown from Dundee and that’s enough to secure a three-count. (6:07) Man, Davis is not a very good partner. Just let Monroe get whooped there at the end. Just a JTTS match.

Lance Russell congratulates Lawler and Dundee for regaining the southern tag titles from Fuji and Tanaka. Russell mentions that Fuji and Tanaka have been protesting the title change to the AWA due to Dundee being a substitute, but they don’t seem to have a case. They take a look at some clips of the title change. Fuji is shown cheating to gain an advantage over Lawler by scratching his eyes with something. Russell says something about the ceremonial salt, but that doesn’t really make any sense to me. We get a piece of the face in peril segment on Lawler until Fuji misses a corner charge and hits the ringpost. There’s a little diamond-shaped split-screen scene where Lawler is shown in the studio reacting to what’s happening. Dundee gets a tag and he gets some diamond split-screen time. Another face in peril segment including nerve holds. With ref Jerry Calhoun’s help, Lawler gets a hot tag from Dundee. Holy crap that’s some bias officiating. Lawler punches on both Fuji and Tanaka. Fuji breaks up a pin and slams Lawler for what looks like the Whoopie Cushion finish, but Lawler moves and pins Fuji who wasn’t the legal man to win the southern tag titles. Back to the studio, Lawler and Dundee ask Russell to come back out later and talk some more.

When we return from break, Russell runs down the card for next Monday night. The Mongolian Stomper and Robert Fuller will meet over the AWA Southern heavyweight title. If Stomper loses, he must leave the Memphis area. Lawler and Dundee come back by to talk about Thunderbolt Patterson. Since we didn’t have the full episode from last week, we can only assume Lawler’s partner was supposed to be Thunderbolt Patterson instead of Superstar Bill Dundee, but he never showed up for whatever reason. An odd pairing, for sure – Lawler and Patterson. Lawler calls Thunderbolt a tad gay for holding hands with him last week and makes a comment about his big eyes. I guess some people in certain circles would say Lawler buries Thunderbolt here. Patterson would never return to the Memphis territory and I have no idea what happened for this bridge to be burned, but it does seem to be the case. As for last Monday night, Dundee had already wrestled a chain match with Dick Slater earlier in the show, but Dundee puts Lawler over for essentially beating Fuji and Tanaka all by himself. Lawler says he and Dundee make a good team. They don’t take things too seriously and think alike in the ring. All they are interesting in is winning the match. They are all excited for the return match with Fuji and Tanaka for this coming Monday. Before they leave, Lawler plugs his radio show at 11PM that night although he apparently can’t say which station he’s on.

• Larry Latham & Wayne Farris vs. Tony Charles & Tommy Gilbert Jr.
  

The Blond Bombers, ladies and gents. As the comment on YouTube says, we have young versions of Moondog Spot, the Honky Tonk Man, and Eddie Gilbert all in the same match. World Class fans might know Tony Charles best as the man under the mask of Checkmate. Charles mat wrestles circles around Latham and Farris to start. There’s just absolutely nothing the Blond Bombers can do with Charles. After about four minutes of this, Charles lets Gilbert have a shot. Gilbert is not quite 18 years old at this point and hasn’t even wrestled in the Mid-South Coliseum yet, so it’s safe to assume this is one of his earliest TV matches. He works the leg of Farris and when Farris gets a little too close to Latham, Charles tags in and wears Farris down some more. Back to Gilbert, he lets Farris squirm over to Latham for a tag, but goes right after the leg of Latham as well. Russell and Brown talk about eager and scrappy Gilbert is. He falls for one of the Bombers traps as Latham squirms over to Farris for a tag and grabs a chunk of Gilbert’s hair so he can’t move away from Farris knocking him on the head. From there, the Blond Bombers cut the ring in half and work this kid over trying to get him to submit by pulling back on his arms rather than pin him. THEY GONNA BREAK HIM. With about two minutes left, Gilbert turns the hold around on Latham and makes the desperate hot tag to Charles. While Charles is running the ropes looking to put Latham away, Farris got knocked to the floor and holds the ropes so that Charles goes crashing out on the floor holding his knee. The Blond Bombers then go back to destroying poor Gilbert with double-team moves. Just when there’s just seconds left before the time limit draw, Tommy Gilbert Sr. runs out to save his kid only to draw the DQ ending. (14:58) You waited this long, Tommy. You couldn’t have waited two more seconds to save your son? Oh well. Russell mentioned during the middle of the match about a spring under the ring gave way and was sticking out under the ring where Charles fell towards the end, but I can’t see it from the footage we have. We’ll just take his word for it. **

Ahh, now they show an up-close camera shot of the support beam sticking out.

• Rick Oliver vs. Dallas Montgomery
  

Yes, Portland fans. This is Rip Oliver. Dallas tries to beat Oliver to start, but doesn’t have the balls to finish him off. Oliver has enough of his nonsense and generally beats the crap out of him. Big slam and a sharp looking elbow drop gets the win in 2:13. After the bell, Montgomery still wants to fight, but Oliver doesn’t fight unless he’s getting paid and ducks out. Smart man.

Next up, we see clips of Robert Fuller dethroning the Mongolian Stomper of the Southern heavyweight title from last Monday night. At one point, ref Jerry Calhoun and Gorgeous George Jr. collide and Fuller applies the inside toe hold on Stomper presumably winning the match without the ref knowing. Gorgeous hops in the ring and tries to stomp Fuller, but he catches the foot and releases the hold to beat up George. Some heel miscommunication ensues and George whacks Stomper with the riding crop. Instead of breaking up the pin, George crawls out of the ring while Calhoun counts the pinfall. I hate when managers just give up and leave the ring like that. Man, Fuller really had Stomper’s number at this point. This sets up the main event for this Monday night.

Before we go, the AWA southern heavyweight champ Robert Fuller talks with Lance Russell. They play a pre-recorded interview with the Mongolian Stomper and Gorgeous George Jr. His empire is falling apart! First the tag titles and now the heavyweight title! George’s confidence appears to be shot. Anyways, this interview gets cut short on the video we have, but it looked pretty interesting. With this much paranoia, clearly Gorgeous George Jr. is on his way out of Memphis.

And that’ll do it for this week. Next time, we’ll see clips of the famous Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl!