Memphis Wrestling
July 21, 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.

We are JIP with “The Hulk” Terry Boulder telling Ron Bass and Pete Austin just exactly what he plans to do with them come Monday night at the Mid-South Coliseum. He wants to squeeze the meanness out of them and turn what’s left of them over to the fine people of Memphis, brother. They already did it last week, but it’s going to happen this week as well. Eddie Boulder just stands there like a muscly-armed jobber. Cool stuff here though.

• Buddy & Ken Wayne vs. Koko Ware & Pat Hutchinson
  

I read about Ken Wayne recently pleading guilty to child exploitation charges after he was found with child porn. Ugh. What is with Memphis and liking kids? To be fair to Memphis, he was a resident of Horn Lake in Mississippi at the time of his arrest, which is a little way south of Mempho. He will spend the next 20 years of his life in prison. As for the match, it’s a quick one. Those Wayne boys dominate poor Hutchinson as Buddy gets the pin after a backbreaker in 2:11.

Eddie Marlin joins Dave Brown to run down the main events for the circuit this week.

The Fabulous Freebirds interrupt Lance Russell to ask him why they haven’t been on the show yet. Does Lance Russell not value his job? Every girl in Memphis is calling the studio begging to see the Freebirds. HOW DUMB ARE YOU, LANCE? I mean, the Freebirds are the best thing going, jack. Gordy brings up Jerry Lawler and Superstar Bill Dundee. After the beating they got last week, no wonder they haven’t been seen today. Hayes refers to his team as 500 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal, baby.

• TV Time Remaining: The Fabulous Freebirds vs. Steve Regal & Ricky Morton
  

FIRST FALL: Isn’t this interesting? Ricky Morton facing the Freebirds before he’s all about rock & roll. You’ve got one and a half of two of the top five tag teams ever here. Let that last sentence sink in there. And once again, it’s not *that* Steve Regal. There was a blonde guy in the 70s and 80s with the same name as the British snob, but had a completely different style and he’s a lot less talented. TV time remaining for this match. Regal controls Hayes to start with some basic stuff like armbars and headscissors and whatnot. The real story begins once Morton is tagged into the match. The Freebirds really make an example out of the kid keeping him on their side of the ring. They just will not let up on him. Even when there’s a possible comeback spot coming, Gordy or Hayes cut him off. The finish comes as Hayes backdrops Morton into a shoulderbreaker by Gordy to take care of Morton once and for all. (8:13) Morton can’t continue and Regal brings with him SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE to compete in the second fall.

SECOND FALL: Dundee doesn’t seem to fair as well as you might think. He gets owned a little bit for the first minute or so. Only about four minutes left here. Once again, Regal does just fine here against the Freebirds until Gordy puts him in the tree of woe in the Freebirds corner. That baits Dundee into the ring. While the ref is trying to break Regal loose, the Freebirds go after Dundee and double-team him until Jerry Lawler makes the save and the ref calls for the bell. (12:37 total) So the Freebirds win this one via DQ thanks to Lawler. I’m going to assume this had a 15-minute time limit instead of TV time. I’m a little confused myself. **½

• Larry Latham & Wayne Farris (w/Sgt. Davis) vs. Tommy & Eddie Gilbert
  

We are JIP here as Tommy Gilbert is punishing Farris with a cobra clutch. The Gilberts do a great job of keeping Farris down and on their side of the ring, but it’s the youngster Eddie who gets pushed back into the Blonde Bombers corner for the tag to Latham. They work over Eddie with chinlocks and elbow drops. Tommy tries to get his son to come back on these boys. Finally, Eddie reaches his father for the hot tag. When the match breaks down and Eddie comes into the ring to help his father, Danny Davis jumps in the ring and whacks Tommy with his army helmet. Farris rolls Tommy over and covers him for the win. (7:16 shown) Eddie explains what happened to the ref and they get their hands raised as the decision gets reversed. The Gilberts win via DQ. If this starts to happen more often, then there’s going to be a TON of angry guys who lost their championship this very same way all over the planet, amirite? **

Lance Russell announces that Memphis has been chosen as the host city for the Wrestling Fans International Association. After doing some Google searching, the WFIA was a real thing. Before there were the wrestling conventions of today, there was the WFIA and their conventions ran in the 1970s. Russell says we will hear from the President of the WFIA in just a little bit.

They replay the Jackie Fargo music video that aired a few weeks ago set to “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind, and Fire.

Danny Hodge joins Lance Russell at the WMC-5 desk. Why does he sound like Milton from Office Space? Hodge is in Memphis this week and on the show to promote the wrestling fan club convention. Hodge also promotes a book that he’s written that actually sounds quite interesting.

• Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. The Gestapo & Hans Schroeder
  

Lawler and Dundee take turns whooping on Gestapo and Schroeder. They really have very little trouble dealing with them here. Danny Hodge sticks around on commentary and gives his take on tag team wrestling psychology. Skip ahead to the finish, Lawler whips Gestapo into the ropes for a crossbody block by Dundee for the win. (4:30) Lawler and Dundee head over to talk with Hodge. Lawler says he’s been wrestling all over the country trying to get into the top ten contenders for the world title. He says now he’s in the top ten and Russell has yet to mention that. Russell feels there’s not a ton to celebrate since he’s just #10. After Lawler walks off and thanks Hodge, Dundee puts over Hodge as the “toughest guy to ever put on a pair of tights”.

We get a message from Jackie Fargo regarding Sgt. Danny Davis. He’s bringing his brother Roughhouse Fargo to help him take care of the Blonde Bombers and Danny Davis this Monday night. Back to the studio, Lance Russell has the Blonde Bombers and Danny Davis with him. Wayne Farris does the talking showing off Larry Latham’s burn on his neck at the hands of Jerry Lawler from last Monday night. They play on doing their talking in the ring, not sitting on their cans on a couch like Jackie Fargo. I’ve always heard about Roughhouse Fargo, but I’ve never seen any clips of him as far as I can remember.

• Ron Bass & Pete Austin vs. Randy Tyler & Dallas Montgomery
  

When Dave Brown fails to announce Ron Bass as the southern heavyweight champ, Bass corrects the man because that’s a ridiculous mistake. Guess we’ll never know who wins this one as the tape skips over to results from the August 13 show from the Mid-South Coliseum. We get some footage of the main event including Jimmy Valiant and Steve Regal taking on the Fabulous Freebirds in a No-DQ match. After Valiant KO’s Hayes with a foreign object, Valiant covers the man even though the ref is down. Another ref appears and counts the pinfall. Alrighty then!

That’s all of the July 1979 footage in this playlist. Next time, we’ll pick up in September 1979 for the first two weeks of Memphis wrestling, which is a shame because August 1979 has some very interesting things happening that we will discuss when we hit September.

Until next time, so long for now.