Memphis Wrestling
June 23, 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: Larry Latham & Wayne Farris (6/15/1979)

Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

Danny Davis comes out in some cheap looking fatigues calling himself Private First Class (or PFC) of the King’s Army referring to Sonny King, not that bum Jerry Lawler. The more successful Pete Austin is, the more money the King’s army will make. The more money they make, the higher up the ranks in the King’s army that Danny Davis will go. Sounds like Davis is a victim of a pyramid scheme to me. Sonny King doesn’t even show up and gets the biggest piece of the winner’s purse that Austin and Davis did all the work to get.

• Randy Tyler vs. Pete Austin (w/Danny Davis)
  

Tyler is all armdrags and armbars to start. When Austin escapes, Tyler NO-SELLS a turnbuckle smash and goes back to the armbar. To get out of this hold, Austin goes to the eyes and this time Tyler sells the turnbuckle smash, which actually looked pretty brutal. Austin is a big guy, but he’s just so uncoordinated in the ring. Tyler makes a comeback with a jumping back elbow. He drops an elbow on Austin and sees Davis get up on the apron. Tyler flips him into the ring and calls for the bell to DQ Austin. (4:06) Tyler cleans house on both guys and gets his hand raised. *

Lance Russell welcomes Randy Tyler to Memphis and wants to know where he’s been and what he’s been doing. Tyler says he’s been spending a lot of time in Oklahoma wrestling, which is true. I wonder if Bill Watts didn’t want Tyler around or Tyler didn’t want to be around Watts since he leaves when Watts buys up the Tri-State territory from Leroy McGuirk. Russell seems very impressed with Randy Tyler.

When we come back, Lance Russell takes us back to the Mid-South Coliseum from this past Monday night when Ken Wayne took on Eddie Gilbert. In the video, Russell describes the part of the match we don’t see as a scientific wrestling match. What we see is mostly a schoolyard brawl between these two. Ken’s father Buddy Wayne comes out to ringside and punches Eddie in the face when the ref isn’t looking. True to his word, Tommy Gilbert chases Buddy Wayne back to the dressing room after vowing to really put a hurting on Buddy if he ever lays a finger on his son. HA. Ken ends up getting the win over Eddie, but we don’t see the finish.

Eddie Marlin sits down in Lance’s seat and goes over the upcoming matches for the Memphis circuit. Only Eddie Marlin could make these matches sound boring.

Over to Lance Russell, he’s standing with Tommy and Eddie Gilbert for comments relating to the match we just saw. Tommy does all of the talking and says he can’t wait to slap around Buddy Wayne’s hogjaws. He also wants to pull down Ken Wayne’s pants and give him a good whooping so he’ll learn to show some respect for other people. Well, here comes the Wayne family. Buddy comes out wanting to bury the hatchet with the Gilberts and says he went too far and wants to apologize. Tommy will shake Buddy’s hand, but the matches they have booked together are still going to happen. As the Gilberts start to walk away, Buddy and Ken jump them from behind. The crowd SHRIEKS in fear for the Gilberts. Buddy handcuffs Tommy around the ringpost as he and Ken double-team Eddie inside the ring. All Tommy can do is struggle and watch his son get beat up. Good guys Koko Ware and Dallas Montgomery try to help out, but the Waynes cut them off. Eventually, Randy Tyler joins them and chases the Waynes away. Hard to tell if Eddie is opened up or not. They just sold Memphis on the match for Monday night.

After the break, Lance Russell meets with the southern tag champs Wayne Farris and Larry Latham. Farris describes the match from last Monday night with Jerry Lawler and Superstar Bill Dundee. Farris “put more bumps on Lawler’s head than Jimmy Carter’s got peanuts”. NICE. Russell points out that their next match with Lawler and Dundee is a non-title grudge match and that they are taking advantage of the 30-day title defense rule. Farris calls Russell a stooge for Lawler and wraps up the interview. Isn’t that their choice though, Lance? If you don’t have to defend your belts every Monday night, why would you do it? It doesn’t show cowardice – it shows smarts in my book. Work smarter, not harder. Duh.

Due to popular demand, they replay the famous Tupelo Concession Stand brawl. Can’t really blame them for showing it again as it was totally different than anything you had seen on wrestling at the time. THERE’S MUSTARD EVERYWHERE!

• Ron Bass vs. Bob Owens
  

Before the bell, Bass grabs Lance Russell and demands some interview time. Bass is pretty awesome, I must say. If you only know him from his WWF days, you’re missing out. Bass brags about winning multiple battle royals as of late and wonders why he’s not getting a southern heavyweight title shot against Robert Fuller. The southern heavyweight title is why he’s come to Memphis and all Fuller has to do is put his name down on the dotted line. All he wants is one match with Fuller because that is all it will take to claim that title. While he’s beating up Owens, Bass calls out to Robert Fuller. The STAMPEDE (running powerslam) wins in just :48. It’s only gonna take one time, Fuller!

Lance Russell brings out Jerry Lawler and Superstar Bill Dundee to respond to Wayne Farris’ comments earlier. He never answered the question about being scared of defending their tag titles. Dundee doesn’t seem too concerned about the belts right now. He just wants to put Latham and Farris out of the wrestling business. Lawler thinks Farris and Latham have repeated a lie so much that they now believe it as truth. Lawler still blames Jimmy Valiant for taking Wayne down the wrong path. He doesn’t want Wayne Farris in the wrestling business anymore and tells Farris to bring that other blonde guy with him to the Mid-South Coliseum so he can beat the hell out of both of them. WOO!

• 2/3 Falls: The Gestapo & Hans Schroeder vs. Koko Ware & Dallas Montgomery
  

FIRST FALL: Gestapo starts off with Koko. Why is this 2/3 falls? Seems a little random. Koko armdrags Gestapo a few times and tags out to Dallas where Gestapo gets more of the same. Tag to Schroeder, he looks to wear down and dominate Dallas with a headlock. Gestapo works the same hold, but Dallas manages an escape and hiptosses Gestapo away. Gestapo switches things up by getting a little rough with Dallas as he lays in a closed fist. Dallas gets put in the wrong corner, but sells a kick so hard that he flips all the way back into his corner to tag out to Koko. HA! Ware shows off his fantastic dropkicks. He delivers a monkey flip to Schroeder, but can’t capitalize. Schroeder applies a nerve hold until Koko gets antsy and stands back up. Tag to Gestapo, he wears down Koko with a headlock takedown. Ware fires back on Schroeder and tags in Dallas. He delivers some dropkicks, but you can’t be giving people dropkicks with Koko around because it magnifies how awful they look. Back to Koko, he works over Schroeder’s arm for a bit. Gestapo and Dallas come in and the Nazis really pound on Montgomery. Gestapo telegraphs a backdrop and Koko gets another hot tag. Gestapo cools him off with a Samoan Drop on Koko for the three-count at 10:59.

SECOND FALL: There’s only about six minutes left in the show, so don’t expect another fall after this one. Dave Brown says the team with the most falls at the end of the TV time limit will be the winner of the match. Since the match ended this way, Gestapo and Koko start the second fall. Gestapo controls with a headlock on the mat, but Koko and Dallas keep him in their corner with a hammerlock and an armbar. Gestapo finally gets away with a hiptoss and tags Schroeder. He slams Dallas and whips him into the ropes for a kick to the gut. Back to Koko, Gestapo keeps him at bay with an armbar. Koko shoulder butts out and gets a last ditch sunset flip on Gestapo, but only gets a one-count. Gestapo beats up on Koko until we reach the time limit, so Schroeder and Gestapo are your winners, I suppose. (17:14 total) This was just way too long. Maybe they ran out of wrestlers this week or somebody was a no-show. Either way, this just felt out of place and uninspired. *½

And that’s going to do it for this week. Join us next week for I DON’T KNOW, but the recap will come very soon.