Memphis Wrestling
July 14, 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)

Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

• Larry Latham & Wayne Farris (w/Sgt. Danny Davis) vs. Ricky Morton & Dallas Montgomery
  

Non-title bout here, obvs. Morton and Montgomery are just a couple young scrubs here. The Blonde Bombers have some problems with these two guys though to start. Neither man can figure out them out until Morton ends up on the wrong side of town and the tag champs resort to double-teaming. They punish Morton with STEREO BACK ELBOWS, but Montgomery saves the day. They even give Morton the future Demolition Decapitation finish, but Dallas helps his partner from facing defeat. Montgomery gets a hot tag and leapfrogs over Farris at one point to run into a punch from the apron by Latham. Farris slams Montgomery a couple times and drops a couple more elbows on the man for the pinfall. (5:21) Morton is awful slow on the draw there to save his partner. Oh well. The tag champs underestimate the challengers and have to get more physical than maybe they first intended. Russell mentions how Danny Davis’ helmet looked a little looser this week after losing the hair match with Bill Dundee.

They take us back to Mid-South Coliseum from this past Monday night. Jackie Fargo, Jerry Lawler, and Superstar Bill Dundee were successful against the Blonde Bombers and Pete Austin (subbing for Danny Davis). After the bell though, Davis pours something out of his canteen in Fargo’s face. No word on what the liquid was though. They send us over to some comments from Jackie Fargo. His eyes are covered up with bandages. Although there is no permanent injury, he considers this his most horrible experience in wrestling due to not having any sight. He thanks all the fans for their support and can’t wait to get out of the bed. Still no word on what Danny Davis had in the canteen.

Next up, Lance Russell introduces us to the Freebirds. I guess using the word “Fabulous” to describe them would be a no-no in Memphis. Russell says Mike Hayes and Terry Gordy hail from California, which is interesting. Gordy serves as the mouthpiece and hypes up Michael Hayes as the possessor of the absolute most beautiful face on planet earth. Gordy cuts a promo closer to the Michael Hayes style here. Hayes is standing behind him with a towel over his head. He almost could have stayed backstage and had a similar effect. We will see that pretty face a little bit later.

• Ron Bass & Pete Austin vs. Pat Hutchinson & Koko Ware
  

Just too much size and strength on the part of Ron Bass and Pete Austin as they slam poor Pat Hutchinson around like he doesn’t even belong here. Koko doesn’t even make it inside the ring here. STAMPEDE powerslam on Hutchinson gets the win at 1:34.

Jerry Lawler and Superstar Bill Dundee head out to talk to Lance Russell. They face Larry Latham and Wayne Farris over the AWA southern tag belts. Lawler tells the people that he feels personally responsible for what happened to his hero Jackie Fargo since he’s the one who called Jackie to come help him with the Blonde Bombers. This coming Monday night, Lawler is going to make sure they pay for what they did to Fargo. He knows Jackie will return, but he will be collecting those dues in the meantime. Dundee seems more concerned with getting the tag championship back more than getting revenge. Hmm.

Next up, Lance Russell appears with Eddie Boulder. They replay the match where Bass and Austin beat Boulder to a bloody pulp last week. Back to the studio, Eddie Boulder reveals to us that The Hulk Terry Boulder is his brother. Anyways, this sets up a wonderful hype video for Terry Boulder. You just have to witness this starting at the 29:00 mark. HE IS NOT A TELEVISION ILLUSION. HE IS NOT AN ARTIST’S CONCEPTION. HE IS NOT A FIGMENT OF THE IMAGINATION. HE IS REAL. After the video, Eddie Boulder essentially tells Ron Bass and Pete Austin to just wait until his brother gets here on Monday night at the Mid-South Coliseum. The house picks up another 1,300 people this coming week and I wonder how much of that is due to the Hulk especially since the Memphis crowd had seen the Bombers against Lawler and Dundee quite a bit lately.

Time to give us the big Michael Hayes reveal. Gordy once again hypes this up to no end – obsessing over the cameramen having everything in position. And well, we get Michael Hayes. He picks up where Gordy leaves off and continues to talk up about how beautiful he is. Hayes already has the gift of gab reciting 70s lyrics and whatnot. He does refer to his team as the Fabulous Freebirds. This should be quite interesting, I must say. This is the oldest footage I’ve seen of the Freebirds, no doubt about it.

• Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy vs. Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee
  

FIRST FALL: The crowd already hates these two and who better to get them some more heat than to have them face Lawler and Dundee. This match will fill the TV time remaining. The team with the most falls wins however many that is. Hayes is strutting quite a bit which I’m sure angers some in Memphis. He starts against Dundee. Once they lock up, Dundee takes Hayes over to Lawler for a headlock. Hayes escapes and tags out as the Freebirds hold down Lawler with an armbar. The ‘Birds manage to cut the ring in half on him. Dundee gets the tag though and nails Hayes with a forearm shiver. That gets two. As Hayes gets up, he blind tags Gordy and backdrops Dundee into a shoulderbreaker from Gordy for the win proving to Memphis that the Freebirds are for REAL in just 4:00. Hayes walks over to Russell and Brown telling them that Gordy is the “Master of Disaster”.

SECOND FALL: While this was Terry Gordy’s first time in Memphis as a Freebird, this was not the first time he had been to Memphis. He had a babyface run here in the second half of 1977. Gordy and Hayes swarm Dundee sensing that he may be hurt and so they can go ahead two falls to none. They keep him on the ‘Birds side of town and really own him here to milk the hot tag. Gordy heels it up punching Dundee from the floor. Dundee manages to catch Gordy with a couple kicks to the head and falls over to Lawler for the tag. DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER on the ‘Birds! Once Lawler has everything under control, he tags in Dundee and goes after Hayes. Dundee drops a knee on Gordy, but lets him go tag Hayes. Lawler gets a tag as he wails away on that pretty face of Hayes to rile up the crowd. Back to Dundee, he flips over the ropes (the man is too short to do a sunset flip) and rolls up Hayes for the three-count to split up the falls at 13:23 total.

THIRD FALL: Only a few minutes left, so we have an idea of where the end is heading. Hayes is furious now and gets surprised with a backdrop by Dundee. He gets caught up in a sleeperhold, but Gordy helps Hayes back into his corner by nailing Dundee in the back. Hayes finds a flying elbow drop for two. Dundee continues to get abused by the ‘Birds setting up another hot tag to Lawler with a minute to go. Hayes and Gordy bail out to the floor and kill some of Lawler’s steam. Back inside, Lawler slams Gordy and the bell rings to bring this match to a close. (19:26 total) With one fall a piece, you can call this one a draw. These two teams continue to fight throughout the commercial break. Just craziness. Dundee finds a chair and whacks Gordy to get him off Lawler. Hayes gets a whack as well. THERE’S NO STOPPING THESE TWO TEAMS! The credits roll and everything! They’re still fighting! Russell hopes they will stop in time for next week’s show. Let’s hope so, Lance! Really good match here to put the Freebirds over as a team to be reckoned with in Memphis. Who better to put them over besides Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee? It’s incredible how good the ‘Birds were so soon in their run too. On name recognition alone, this is one you want to check out. ***¼

Until next time, so long for now.