Memphis Wrestling
July 7, 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: Ron Bass (7/2/1979)
AWA Southern Tag Team Champions: Larry Latham & Wayne Farris (6/15/1979)

We continue our journey through Memphis! Partial episode here this week.

Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

Ron Bass is the *new* AWA southern heavyweight champion. He comes out ranting and raving how Robert Fuller didn’t have the guts to sign a match with him, but here he is as the champion. He mentions beating Fuller for the belt in Bluefield, West Virginia, although other results say he pinned Randy Tyler for the title this past Monday in Memphis, so the title lineage is a little unclear. Anyways, Bass plans on mowing down all the contenders and eventually winning the AWA world title as well. They show footage of last Monday night when Tyler is making a comeback on Bass and nearly beating the man. Tyler though, gets hit with the STAMPEDE SLAM, and gets his foot on the bottom rope to prevent the pinfall. Ref Jerry Calhoun’s hand goes down for the three count, but changes his mind when he sees Tyler’s foot on the rope. Tyler fires back on Bass and Bass has to throw Tyler into the ref so he can pull out his foreign object. Tyler gets the object away from Bass and starts beating on Bass until he bleeds. AWESOME. Nevertheless, Tyler wakes up the ref and gets caught with the Ric Flair corner pin to lose the match and award the southern heavyweight title to Bass. With as close a match as this was, Russell wonders how long Bass can hold onto the championship title.

• Ron Bass & Pete Austin (w/Danny Davis) vs. Eddie Boulder & Dallas Montgomery
  

Eddie Boulder – the future Brutus Beefcake – never had a chance from the get-go since Bass and Austin beat him to a bloody pulp. Boulder is wearing some long blonde hair and black attire just like his pal Terry Boulder. Ref Jerry Calhoun ends up calling for the bell because this is not going to stop. (2:30 shown) Over to Russell, Ron Bass brags about beating up a ‘pretty boy’.

Jerry Lawler sends in a video message from Jackie Fargo’s house. His absence from TV this week is due to wrestling in other areas to try and climb the ladder to an AWA world title shot. They are very upset after losing to the Blond Bombers last Monday night. They underestimated these boys. This week though, they tell the Blond Bombers and Danny Davis to bring everything they got, because that’s what it take to beat them. Fargo gives his word to Lawler and to the fans that they won’t get beat again. SO BE THERE.

• Steve Regal, Eddie & Tommy Gilbert vs. The Blond Bombers & Danny Davis
  

This is not *that* Steve Regal. All we get is about ninety seconds of a bunch of arm work from Regal and the Gilberts on the Blond Bombers. I’m going to guess that the Bombers and Davis win in the end building up to Monday night, but whatevs.

• 2/3 Falls: Buddy & Ken Wayne vs. Superstar Bill Dundee & Ricky Morton
  

FIRST FALL: Ricky Morton looks like a dark-haired teenager here. From what we understand from Russell, this is the Memphis TV debut of Ricky Morton. Ken and Morton do some sitouts and basic wrestling stuff to start. Morton acts like an inexperienced rookie missing a dropkick on Ken. Tag to Buddy, he doesn’t seem to want to go toe-to-toe with Morton and bails out to the floor. In comes Ken, he flips out of a backdrop and lands on his feet. Ken does a little strutting after that. Morton tags in Dundee. Ken tries the same counter and eats a dropkick before he can start to strut. Tag to Morton and Dundee goes after Buddy. Morton ducks his head for a backdrop and gets kicked in the brain as Ken jumps on top of him for the three-count to win the first fall at 2:17. Russell and Brown are thrown by how short that was.

SECOND FALL: Ken looks to fight Dundee and can’t hang. Dundee pounds the poor guy and tags in Morton as the beating on Ken continues. Buddy isn’t refusing tags, but he isn’t exactly reaching his arm out to his son here. While Dundee is antagonizing Buddy, Ken catches Dundee with a cheapshot and tags his daddy since he’s down on the mat. Once he’s up though, Buddy is back over to Ken for a tag. Now Morton plays face in peril as the Waynes really do a number on the guy. Dundee chases the illegal man out of and around the ring when the interference is just more than he can handle. Finally, Morton makes the HOT TAG TO DUNDEE. They try to set up the finish, but poor Morton and Ken are pretty green. They try the same finish from the last match, but this time Morton avoids the kick to the head. Ken falls on his backside and takes an elbow drop from Morton. Meanwhile, Dundee scares Buddy back down into his corner while Morton covers Ken to win the second fall at 8:53.

THIRD FALL: No third fall available on this episode. WHO WON? Did we just run out of TV time? I guess we will never know. I’m betting the Gilberts come out and help Morton and Dundee after the Waynes get themselves DQ’ed. That’s my guess.

Next week: Jerry Lawler will be back! Plus, the Fabulous Freebirds make their Memphis TV debut! The Blond Bombers! Ron Bass! DON’T MISS IT.