Memphis Wrestling
December 15, 1979
Memphis, TN
WMC-5 TV Studio

The current Memphis wrestling champions are as follows:
AWA World Champion: Nick Bockwinkel (11/8/1975)
CWA World Champion: Jerry Lawler (11/8/1979)
AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion: Jackie Fargo (11/22/1979)
AWA Southern Tag Team Champions: The Assassins (12/2/1979)

Your hosts are Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

They show the very tail end of the Assassins against Billy Robinson and Paul Ellering from last Monday night. Robinson made the pin, but it was a non-title match since the match was “switched at the last minute” on last week’s show.

• Billy Robinson vs. Bub Smith
  

Robinson gets fancy with wristlocks to start. Just vintage Billy Robinson here. He delivers a devastating reverse neckbreaker that made the Rude Awakening look like a handshake. Gutwrench suplex sets up the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER for the win at 2:11. Right after the bell, the Assassins jump Robinson and try to break his arm just like they did to Hector Guerrero a few weeks back. Where is Paul Ellering? Ricky Morton and Koko Ware tries to help, but one Assassin keeps them at bay while the other is working over Robinson. Finally, Ellering comes out and gets help from Morton and Ware to run off the Assassins. Robinson gets helped out of the ring by the boys.

When we come back, Lance Russell tells us Billy Robinson’s elbow is really swollen.

Back to the Mid-South Coliseum for more action. Here we get footage of the CWA/AWA world title unification match between Jerry Lawler and Nick Bockwinkel. Since the match back in August went the full hour, there’s a NINETY minute time limit for this one. Looks like it would have been a really fun match to see in full. We see Lawler come back on Bockwinkel and lay in those awesome punches of his busting open Bock. As Bockwinkel comes back, he atomic drops Lawler clear out of the ring. While ref Jerry Calhoun checks on Lawler, Jimmy Hart wallops Bock with a chain around his fist. Lawler crawls on top of Bock for 1-2-NO! Bockwinkel makes him think he has the three count by tapping on his back, but he doesn’t. Lawler stands up to celebrate when Bock schoolboys him. Hart jumps on the apron to get Bock to come after him. When he does, Hart drops the chain into the ring for Lawler. He retrieves the chain, but Calhoun sees what Lawler has around his hand and blocks the blow on Bockwinkel. That’s enough evidence to DQ Lawler here. Neither title changes hands and all is the same as it was before this match had occurred.

• Ken Wayne vs. Paul Corea
  

This is our first look at Paul Corea here. WWWF fans will recognize him as jobber Paul Figueroa. He doesn’t spend very much time here in Memphis and we’ll probably never see him again here. He’s billed to be from South America even though he’s Puerto Rican. Corea does some weak somersaults onto Wayne. When Wayne gets up, he tries a cheap tights pulling schoolboy for two. They trade headlocks and headscissors holds. Wayne comes out of that and hits him with a slam. When he can’t pin Corea and the man starts a comeback, Wayne dumps him over the top rope for a DQ at 2:56. Corea gets the final word as he charges Wayne again and dropkicks him to the floor.

We check in with Hector Guerrero to see how his elbow is doing. HOW CONVENIENT. Anyways, he talks about how bad he wants the Assassins when he comes back.

We now go to an interview with Ken Lucas from two weeks ago before a non-title match against Jerry Lawler in the Louisville Gardens. Pretty by the numbers interview. But now we go to Jerry Lawler. Lawler says he’s never heard of Ken Lucas and thinks he ought to be arrested for impersonating a wrestler when he comes to town. Lawler gives this guy absolutely zero credibility. He’s been a big shot in the Nick Gulas territory for a while, but that’s about it. Now we hear from Jerry Lawler AFTER the match. His face is busted to bits and he’s got a bandage over his right eye. HA. Lawler is super serious now. He’s been beat up and injured many times before, but he’s never had his face banged up like this. He’s vowing revenge and telling Ken Lucas that he better take plenty of pictures because Lawler is going to permanently rearrange his face. Lucas will get TENFOLD what he got. Lawler says it’s been a while since he’s had a real fight in Memphis and Lucas is going to get it on Sunday afternoon in the Mid-South Coliseum, punk. AWESOME.

Back to the studio, Lance Russell says Jerry Lawler didn’t want to appear in the studio this week because of his face. Russell then runs down the Memphis card for tomorrow.

• Dennis Condrey versus Paul Corea
  
• David Shultz vs. Steve Regal
  
• Tojo Yamamoto & Sonny King vs. Big Red & Rick Morton
  
• AWA Southern Tag Titles: The Assassins (c) vs. Billy Robinson & Paul Ellering
  
• Main Event: Jerry Lawler vs. Ken Lucas
  

Dave Brown comes back brimming with news. He tells us that Billy Robinson will not be able to compete, but the Gibson brothers (and the ladies SQUEAL!) will be taking on the Assassins instead. I’m assuming this change will make it a non-title match now too.

They show us what happened in the Mid-South Coliseum last Monday night during the Tojo Yamamoto and Sonny King versus Rick Morton and Big Red match. We see Big Red get the hot tag and do some Dusty Rhodes jiving action. A fan got in the ring and gets destroyed – especially by King and Yamamoto. Anyways, the heels go back to work and get some heat on Morton. When the hot tag comes, Big Red does more of his Dusty Rhodes imitation. He hits the big splash on Tojo, but Sonny makes the save. While Big Red handles Sonny, Tojo pulls some salt from his trunks and throws it in Big Red’s eyes for the three-count. Now we can just call him Big Red Eyes.

When we come back, Sonny King comes out showing us a sign that read “African Cowboy” referring to himself, of course. He’s wearing a black kimono as well and says he’s going to once again turn wrestling around in the Mid-South area.

• Tojo Yamamoto & Sonny King vs. Steve Regal & Koko Ware
  

Koko proves to be a more formidable opponent than Sonny King expected. He thought he could stay over at the table and talk, but nope. He has to go in and save Tojo. It’s definitely a tougher fight than they expected. Steve Regal fights back against Tojo and they both tag out. Sonny just brutalizes these two guys, but they will not stay down. Sonny SPEARS Koko using his head (!!) and throws Koko over the top rope behind the ref’s back. When Regal helps Koko back in, the ref is busy with Regal and Tojo and Sonny throws Koko over the top rope on the other side. Good grief. Steve Regal comes after King, but he’s not the legal man and must go back to the apron. When Koko gets back inside, Tojo continues to dominate Koko as the surviving footage comes to an end at 9:50 shown. What we got to see here was fantastic.

Next time we head to Memphis, I will be recapping the final available episode of 1979. It will be the CHRISTMAS~! episode that aired on December 22.

Until then, so long for now.