Memphis Wrestling
December 22, 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 host is just Dave Brown. Lance Russell must be taking a vacation.

• The Assassins vs. Steve Regal & Jerry Bryant
  

You are correct in assuming that is Ricky Morton’s father refereeing this matchup. Where’s Jerry Calhoun at? Bryant is all about hiptossing the one Assassin to start things. Some headscissors and headlocks from the Assassins set up a back elbow and big elbow drop for two. Regal tags in and looks good for a few moments. Back to Bryant, the Assassins start working on his arm with hammerlock slams and the like. Bryant avoids the legdrop to his arm that put Hector Guerrero out of Memphis, but can’t tag Regal. They keep yanking on the left arm until a cross armbreaker gets Bryant to submit. (7:52) As Regal is helping Bryant to the locker room, he tells Dave Brown that somebody has to do something about these Assassins trying to break everybody’s arms. WHY DON’T YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, STEVE. *½

We check in with Billy Robinson and the arm injury he suffered at the hands of the Assassins. It’s just a fracture. He’ll be back.

After the break, the Assassins have a good laugh about what they did to Billy Robinson. This Assassin tries to emulate Jody Hamilton on the mic with a psychological edge and it ain’t bad. Their attention turns to the Gibson brothers who will be their next opponents for several weeks.

We go to the Mid-South Coliseum from last Sunday to see Ricky and Robert Gibson upset the Assassins in a non-title match. They beat the crap out of the Gibsons after the bell to continue the bloody feud. Of all people, Dr. D Dave Schultz tries to fight off the Assassins, but it takes Schultz and the Gibson brothers to clear the ring.

Back to the studio, Dave Brown speaks with Ricky and Robert Gibson. If the Assassins want to break bones, the Gibson brothers can break bones too. Ricky says they will once again be the AWA southern tag champs come Christmas night.

• Ricky & Robert Gibson vs. The Avenger & Buddy Wayne
  

This is mostly the Avenger getting his arm destroyed by the Gibsons. I mean, what else are they going to do here? Robert pins the Avenger with a pretty SWANK reverse figure four hold complete with bridge at 5:47.

Dave Brown brings out the CWA world champ Jerry Lawler and his manager Jimmy Hart to talk about a rematch with Ken Lucas on Christmas night. Lawler says Lucas now has a case of the big head because everybody won’t stop talking about this nobody. Dave Brown wants to show us a videotape of one of their matches. Lawler prefaces this footage by saying he had a piece of popcorn stuck between his teeth at the time and it was really bugging him. The match they show from the Mid-South Coliseum takes place last Sunday afternoon. Lawler provides some hilarious commentary here. When he reaches in his tights for a foreign object, Lawler says he was looking for a toothpick. Now there’s a dick joke waiting to happen. He can’t find one and calls over to Jimmy. He holds up a chair and Lucas slams Lawler’s face into the chair. Cover, 1-2-3. Afterwards, Lawler beats up Lucas some more when Lucas goes after Jimmy. Back in the studio, Lawler continues to denigrate Lucas saying the guy doesn’t deserve to be in the ring with him, but he will beat him right in the middle of the ring.

After Lawler and Hart leave, Jerry Jarrett comes over to explain something about Jerry Lawler’s contract negotiations for the past two months. The contract he has presented to the powers that be for 1980 borders on INSANITY. To keep Jerry Lawler in Memphis, they will have to raise ticket prices in every town $1.25, which is just RIDICULOUS. Since Lawler doesn’t feel his match with Lucas is a main event-level match, Jarrett won’t put the match as the main event. The match with Ken Lucas will now be a preliminary match. Jarrett says in fact Christmas night might be Lawler’s last match. Now that’s how you get a crowd to come to your show, folks. Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Hart come back out. Jarrett says he won’t pay Lawler the big contract, he won’t pay him the bonuses, and he won’t raise ticket prices to accommodate him. Lawler responds saying that Jarrett is just trying to shame him into putting the CWA world title on the line. You know, since Ken Lucas isn’t a serious opponent. Lawler proposes an idea: he’ll put the CWA world title on the line. If Lucas wins, Lucas will be the new champ and Lawler will remain on the RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP 1979 contract. If Lawler wins, Jarrett must meet his demands for 1980. Jarrett will not be persuaded, but Lawler leaves saying one way or another he will be the last match on the card on Christmas night at the Mid-South Coliseum.

Dave Brown and Jerry Jarrett run down the card for Christmas night. It starts at 7:30! The tickets are just $2! Even with over 35 years of inflation, that’s only about $6.50. Kids under ten get in free with a paying adult!

$5000 18-man battle royal (last two men meet later in the night)
Buddy Wayne vs. Jerry Bryant
Slim the Hillbilly vs. The Mighty Yankee
Jerry Lawler vs. Ken Lucas
Paul Ellering vs. The Grappler
Steve Regal vs. Jimmy Hart
AWA Southern Tag Titles: The Assassins (c) vs. Ricky & Robert Gibson
BATTLE ROYAL FINALS (no time limit, no DQ, no holds barred, no referee)
Texas Death Match: Tojo Yamamoto & Sonny King vs. Rick Morton & Big Red

We go back to last week’s action in the Mid-South Coliseum with Tojo Yamamoto and Sonny King battle Rick Morton and Big Red. This has been quite the rivalry over the last few weeks. Morton showing us how good he already is as he becomes the most sympathetic tag team wrestler of all-time. He gets a nearfall on Tojo and we never see a finish. Whoa, it gets weird there for a second.

Now we go to Superstar Bill Dundee as a creepy version of what I believe is “O Little Town of Bethlehem” plays in the background. He’s going to be out for 4-6 weeks and wishes this could have been a Merry Christmas, but it won’t be since he can’t be in the ring. Nevertheless, he thanks all the fans for their Christmas cards and wishes everybody at Merry Christmas.

Okay, back to the previous match. Big Red gets the hot tag and acts like Thunderbolt Patterson on Tojo and Sonny. While Tojo is getting his salt together, Big Red does the same. WHAT. He throws the salt in Tojo’s eyes and hits the HOLY GHOST SPLASH. While Morton grabs Sonny, Big Red hits Tojo with a legdrop for the win. Unfortunately, Sonny King lets Jerry Calhoun know what happened and they reverse the decision.

And that does it for 1979. I have no more Memphis TV episodes available from this year. I’m not planning to rush right into 1980 because I have some other TV from the 1970s in other territories I want to hit first – namely Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio and Detroit TVs. We’ll just see how it goes. I will however continue with my Portland recaps throughout the rest of 1979. Those are pretty fun. We have about four months left of TV on that project. Until we reach 1980, it’s been a blast visiting Memphis!