Memphis Wrestling
March 15, 1980
Louisville, KY
Louisville Gardens

The current Memphis wrestling champions are as follows:
AWA World Champion: Nick Bockwinkel (11/8/1975)
CWA World Champion: Vacant (2/16/1980)
AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion: Jimmy Valiant (1/3/1980)
AWA Southern Tag Team Champions: Paul Ellering & Sheik Ali Hassan (3/11/1980)

Well this is interesting. We get an actual house show from the Louisville Gardens. Of course I can’t help but wonder if Jim Cornette is in attendance. This show took place on March 11.

Your host is Lance Russell going solo this week.

• The Assassins vs. Rick Morton & Steve Regal
  

Russell tells us we are picking up with this match about four minutes into it. This version of the Assassins – Randy Cooley and Kurt Von Hess – are being phased out of the Memphis territory at this point. Pretty much after this match, they will be heading to east Tennessee as a tag team to work for Nick Gulas, who was months away from giving up and selling out to Jerry Jarrett. Morton plays Morton-in-peril and struggles to reach Regal for a tag. They do the false tag spot halfway through. Morton has already got this heat segment thing down pat. Looks like we have a loaded mask situation. Regal comes in and wants to help out, but gets thrown to the floor. One of the Assassins holds up Morton for the other to headbutt him, but Morton breaks free and heel miscommunication ensues. While Regal trips up the Assassin who made the mistake, Morton covers the KO’ed one for the three-count. (7:10 shown) Goodbye, Assassins. **

Lance Russell interviews Superstar Bill Dundee for the upcoming Tuesday night show at the Louisville Gardens. Looks like some rematches. Ken Lucas now has a new partner to face new southern tag champs Paul Ellering and Sheik Ali Hassan. It’s Jimmy Valiant. He’s got the crown on his head I assume he stole from Ellering who stole it from Jerry Lawler. Valiant shows up and gets all excited. He’s 100 times better here than in Mid-Atlantic.

• Superstar Bill Dundee vs. Sonny King
  

This hard camera look at Dundee just exposes him as a real shrimp, but I don’t think his fans mind too terribly. King is easily a head taller than him. This stays a brawl with Dundee looking strong. He works Sonny to the floor and drops the steps on him. After getting reprimanded by ref Tommy Marlin, Dundee disregards his warning and backs Sonny into the ringpost and uses a chair on him. Good grief. Is Sonny going to get ANY offense on this guy? This dude is like the Sheik around here. Next thing you know, King starts giving Dundee some guided missile attacks by throwing himself into Dundee. Marlin gives Sonny the riot act and tries to force him back into the ring. Nahhh. Bobo Brazil headbutt gets two on Dundee. Sonny thinks he’s won not realizing Dundee has his foot on the bottom rope. As he checks with the ref, Dundee rolls him up for the win. (12:47) SONNY WUZ SCREW’D. *½

• AWA Southern Tag Team Championship: Billy Robinson & Ken Lucas (c) vs. Paul Ellering & Sheik Ali Hassan (w/Jimmy Hart)
  

Ellering overpowers Robinson’s hiptossing efforts and puts him in a bearhug. Robinson manages an escape and snapmares his way out. Ellering battles out of a full nelson without much of a problem. I wonder why Ellering didn’t go to New York City. He looks like a guy Vince Jr. would CREAM over. Robinson manages to break loose of Ellering’s full nelson as well because he’s Billy Robinson. He gets controlled a little bit by Ellering and Hassan, but it’s not too long before he’s free to tag Lucas. He shows off winning hiptoss battles and brawling with these guys. Tag to Robinson, he delivers a beautiful reverse neckbreaker on Ellering. Hassan comes in and gets obliterated. Robinson telegraphs a backdrop though and that turns the tide over to Ellering. He pulls back on Robinson’s arms for a while. Robinson manages an escape and tosses Ellering over for a nice rollup for two. Tag to Hassan, he seems to be the dead weight on this team. The Cal Naughton Jr to Ricky Bobby as it were. Anyways, Lucas gets the hot tag and we take a commercial break. Boy, this really is a Jarrett company. Remember when TNA Impact used to cut into commercials halfway into a match? I always hated that. When we come back, Lucas is playing face in peril. Ellering delivers a Backlund atomic drop to him. Meanwhile, Robinson is chasing Jimmy Hart around ringside. With the ref distracted, Hassan holds up Lucas as Ellering lowers the boom from the middle rope. They punch on Lucas until he starts to NO-SELL and mount a comeback. Robinson beats on Hassan while Lucas is pounding Ellering in the corner. While the ref is with Lucas and Ellering, Jimmy Hart whacks Robinson with his cane. Robinson NO-SELLS and Jimmy around. When he turns around to look at Hassan, Hassan tries to throw a FIREBALL at him and can’t make it work. The flash paper bounces off Robinson and falls to the mat. Whoops. I assume they have to change the finish on the fly. While Lucas has Ellering in the SLEEPERHOLD, Jimmy Hart whacks Lucas over the head knocking him out. Ellering crawls on top of Lucas and pins him to win the tag titles. (16:00ish or so shown) Pretty wild stuff. Lucas beats up the new champs with one of the belts after the bell. Ellering and Hart wind up being able to pin Lucas down and punch the daylights out of him. The crowd starts to shriek like they are witnessing an actual mugging. Jimmy Valiant makes the save with a chair and beats up both Ellering and Hassan as the crowd loses their minds. Lucas is busted wide open and Lance Russell points out Billy Robinson has been carted off to see a doctor. I love it. **½

• Ricky & Robert Gibson vs. “Dr. D” David Schultz & Dennis Condrey
  

Still plenty of time for this match to be tons of fun. Todd Morton and Tommy Marlin are both refereeing this match. They give Condrey some trouble to start by pulling his hair when Condrey pulls on Ricky’s hair during a wristlock. Schultz tries to lure Robert into the heel corner. It doesn’t work. They settle on trading wristlocks and knucklelocks. Schultz tries stepping on Robert’s hands and gets punched in the face for it when he fails. While Ricky has Schultz in a headlock, we take a break to hear from Sonny King. The new southern tag champs come by and talk some trash. Pretty sweet. Back to the match, Ricky misses a dropkick on Condrey and things are looking up just as TV time expires. (6:00 minutes or so shown) That’s unfortunate. I’d love to see 20 minutes of this matchup.

In case this Louisville house show stuff wasn’t your bag, we will be back in the WMC-5  TV studio when we return.

Until next time, so long for now.