USWA Wrestling Challenge
Date: January 6, 1990
Location: Sportatorium, Dallas, Texas
Commentators: Marc Lowrance, Terrance Garvin

After this one I only have one more so thankfully this one is short. The show last week was a major downturn from what they had been doing back in the fall. Then again that’s very typical of a regional company: have a hot period for awhile and then cool off significantly. Anyway I’d assume we’ll get back to something other than the tag teams this week. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip of last week on Wrestling Challenge which isn’t last week on Wrestling Challenge. So apparently I can’t read and I did the December 23rd episode last week. Brilliant KB, brilliant.

Ok so last week there was a six man tag where Chris Adams got beaten up really badly by Devastation Inc. Chris’ chick Toni tried to keep Eric Embry from throwing Chris back inside so Eric shoved her down. This triggered a brawl between Adams and Embry which had been brewing for awhile.

The main event tonight: the Stud Stable vs. Jarrett/Borne. Again. GREAT.

Billy Joe Travis vs. Jimmy Jack Funk

This is joined in progress. Funk throws Travis around and Akbar pops in to run his mouth as usual. Garvin yells about rumors a lot while the wrestlers stand around. Funk works on the arm. That must be this place’s religion. Travis takes over and drops a knee for two. A backbreaker gets two for Funk. This is so boring and Garvin isn’t helping. Funk uses an O’Connor Roll but Travis rolls through and pulls the trunks to win.

Rating: D. Another bad match from these Devastation Inc. guys. Their matches just aren’t that good and it’s getting annoying to have to sit through them. Funk was nothing special but he could do more than this Billy Joe Travis guy. Apparently Travis was a guy everyone wanted to beat up so at least he had heat on him.

Sheik Braddock vs. Kevin Von Erich

Von Eric tries the Claw very quickly so Braddock heads to the floor. Garvin wants to see Adams vs. Embry next week. It’s kind of odd to see Von Erich as he doesn’t wear shoes and has white trunks so he looks like he’s in white briefs and that’s it. Braddock goes to the eyes for a brief advantage. Not that it matters as Kevin clotheslines him down and puts on the Claw for the pin. Just a squash.

Gary Young vs. Dustin Rhodes

This is a grudge match for some reason. They immediately head to the floor and into the crowd. Akbar has something to say too. Ok he’s reached the point of annoying instead of evil. Back in and Young hits a knee to the head to take over. Gary pounds on his head as we talk about Dusty for some reason. Dustin comes back with a backdrop and the elbow to the head. Gary responds by KICKING HIM IN THE FACE.

Knee lift gets two. This referee counts slow. Akbar drills Dustin on the floor and we take a break. Back with Young walking around slowly. Young hits another knee lift and it’s off to a chinlock. Now Garvin is whining about the mail and how Lowrance doesn’t read his or whatever. Dustin comes back with some right hands but gets caught by a piledriver. Akbar distracts the referee so Young brings in a chair. Dustin blocks it and that’s a DQ.

Rating: D. These Devastation guys are so boring and they’re killing these shows. Young is the biggest ripoff of Rick Rude that I’ve ever seen but he has no charisma at all. Boring match as Dustin was on offense for all of five seconds. Also they never told us why this is some huge feud which didn’t help.

Dustin clears the ring with the chair post match.

Tag Titles: Brian Lee/Robert Fuller vs. Jeff Jarrett/Matt Borne

Fuller and Lee get in an argument over who starts. Garvin is about to drive me crazy. There’s this whine in his voice which makes him so annoying. Also he keeps calling Jarrett Jeffy. Jarrett armdrags Lee and it’s off to Borne. Belly to belly puts Lee down but Fuller comes in for something that was supposed to be an elbow but he couldn’t even do that right. Lee starts to leave but Fuller stops him.

Lowrance talks about next week’s unexpected main event between Adams and Embry. If it’s unexpected why do you know who’s in it? We take a break and come back with Fuller complaining about being dropkicked to the floor. I’m not sure if this is the same Terry Garvin from WWF or not. That one was from Montreal and this one sounds like he’s from Tennessee. The character similarities are way too similar though.

Borne is in trouble but comes back with a devastating headlock. Lee shoves him into a knee from Fuller though to keep Borne in trouble. Back to Fuller who still can’t do much right. Off to a chinlock and Lee comes in with a middle rope knee drop. Fuller’s piledriver is countered…and here’s P.Y. Chu-Hi to draw a DQ for beating up Borne.

Rating: D+. This slow style is terribly boring. I get that it’s a cultural thing but would it kill them to get someone with some talent in there? Fuller is terribly uninteresting and Borne isn’t much of a maniac. The Stable would hold the titles for awhile longer before losing them the next month. That can’t come soon enough.

Somehow Chu-Hi slamming Borne and dropping a top rope leg on him isn’t a DQ, but rather a no contest. Whatever. Borne is carried out to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. Well it’s a little bit better than last week but that’s not saying much. This company has gone off a cliff lately and nothing is interesting at all anymore. The in ring work is killing it as there’s no emotion or interest at all in it. The angles are barely existent other than Devastation Inc. is bad. One show to go though so maybe it won’t be so bad.

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USWA Wrestling Challenge
Date: December 23, 1989
Location: Sportatorium, Dallas, Texas
Commentators: Marc Lowrance, Terrance Garvin

Since I only have three shows from the USWA from the late 80s/early 90s, I figured I’d go old school marathon style on them and get all of them out of the way in a row. This is from December of 89 and after this we jump ahead to the end of the year. My guess is this is going to focus on Eric Embry. Just a hunch. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from last week where Eric Embry and Chris Adams beat up Gary Young and Billy Joe Travis. Eric accidentally hit Adams and Joe got the pin.

I wonder if that’s Terry Garvin, who is known for his little black book of men to sleep with around the country. Well he’s in pink and purple and is very flamboyant so you figure it out. Gorilla once said Garvin would always be behind someone in one of those lines you only get if you know your history.

Apparently it’s tag team title tournament week and we’re in the second round.

Tag Team Title Tournament Second Round: Robert Fuller/Brian Lee vs. Dustin Rhodes/Jimmy Jack Funk

Joined in progress. Dustin is 20 here so he’s very new. Lee you might know as Chainz from the DOA or the Fake Undertaker in 1994. Fuller is Colonel Parker and Funk is Art Barr’s less talented brother. We’re joined in progress with Dustin dropkicking Lee and it’s off to Fuller who is awful. The heels are the Stud Stable and Dustin’s team is the Texas Connection. Fuller and Lee are knocked to the floor as Garvin runs down women.

Dustin controls Lee with a headlock on the mat and Lee looks like he’s trying to remember if he picked up his dry cleaning. Up to their feet and Dustin punches like his daddy. Off to Fuller as we take a break. Back with Lee holding Dustin in a chinlock. The less Fuller I see in the ring the happier I am. Lee gets a knee to the ribs and it’s off to Fuller.

Miss Sylvia, the Stable’s manager, hits Dustin in the head with a cane so Fuller grabs the arm. Back to Lee who collides with Dustin to put both guys down. There’s the tag to Funk and everything breaks down. Funk powerslams Lee but there’s no count. Sylvia slides in the cane and Lee cracks Funk with it to advance to the finals.

Rating: D. Pretty boring match here for the most part with the heels dominating for far too long. Dustin was clearly very green at this point but his time would come soon enough. The Stud Stable was a long running top heel stable in the south so they knew how to be all old school bad. That doesn’t mean it worked, but they had an idea of what they were doing at least.

Tag Team Title Tournament Second Round: Gary Young/Billy Joe Travis vs. Jeff Jarrett/Matt Borne

This is a semi-final match. Young and Travis have the Ryder half trunks/half tights thing going on. Borne and Jarrett are the former champions but they were stripped for some reason. Jeff vs. Travis starts us off. Akbar jumps in on commentary for a few seconds and says exactly what you would expect a heel manager to say. Jarrett and Travis have nothing going on here so it’s off to Young.

Jarrett controls again and it’s off to Borne who hits a German for two. This is really boring so far. Jarrett comes in for some armdrags and we take a break. Back with Borne knocking Travis to the floor. Travis loses the string in his tights somehow which Lowrance finds much funnier than he should. Borne gets double teamed in the corner and it’s Young working him over.

Travis punches Borne and please let this end soon. The finals are later tonight apparently. Borne kicks Travis low and makes the hot tag to Simply Irresistible Jeff Jarrett. He fires off dropkicks all around and everything breaks down. Akbar trips Jarrett so Jeff pounds on him. He chokes Akbar with his own whip and that’s a DQ win for Travis and Young somehow. Dustin comes out and somehow gets the decision reversed, sending Jarrett/Borne to the finals.

Rating: D-. Technically this was fine I guess but OH MY GOODNESS it went on forever. I was hoping for this to end which is never what you want out of a match. Young and Travis are semi-cowardly heels which means a long match is really not what you want out of them. Borne seemed inept but Jarrett looked like a more energetic version of his 1994 self but as a face. Take that for what its worth.

Tag Titles: Matt Borne/Jeff Jarrett vs. Robert Fuller/Brian Lee

This is either at a different show or the company is kind of stupid as Jarrett/Borne have another full entrance. Fuller and Jarrett start us off. Fuller is a lot taller than I thought he was. Jarrett armdrags him a few times and Fuller bails to the floor. Lee comes in and gets his arm worked on as well. Jeff moves around too fast and we get heel miscommunication. Now Lee works on Jeff’s arm as the announcers argue over how tall Lee is.

Off to Borne and WE GET IT. YOU KNOW HOW TO WORK ON AN ARM. We take a break with Jarrett in the enemy corner. Jeff gets thrown to the floor where Sylvia hits him with a stick. Off to Borne and Lee with Borne hitting a side suplex for two. The heels take over on the future Doink the Clown as this is going very slowly. Borne kicks Lee in the ribs and tags Jeff back in. Jeff cleans house with an assortment of punches and everything breaks down. In a really weak ending, Jarrett brings Sylvia in for a spanking, allowing Fuller to kick him in the back of the head for the pin and the titles.

Rating: D. Another boring match here which seems to be a running theme on this show. Jarrett again was the lone bright spot in this, primarily due to everyone else either having not much talent or being brand new at this point. Not much to see here but we get some heel champions which gives us a bunch of teams to want to beat on them.

Lowrance wraps it up.

Overall Rating: D-. Seeing new champions for free is cool but WOW things don’t go well for this company when it’s based on in ring action instead of drama. I was digging the stuff from August and September but this was almost a chore to sit through. When your show is 39 minutes not counting commercials, that’s reaching NXT levels of bad.

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USWA Wrestling Challenge
Date: September 2, 1989
Location: Sportatorium, Dallas, Texas
Commentators: Marc Lowrance, Frank Duschek

This is the final show in this time period that I have for the moment. After this we have to jump ahead to December unless I get my hands on some more episodes. The main event tonight is a grudge match between P.Y. Chu-Hi and Chris Adams over Chu-Hi and Tojo Yamamoto attacking Adams’ wife. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip of last week’s show with Cactus losing to Embry in 9 seconds.

Jarrett and Borne, the tag champions, talk about getting ready mentally to face whomever is challenging them that week.

Billy Joe Travis vs. Dog of War

No idea who Dog of War is. Travis is a smaller guy and Dog is a big monster that looks about as smart as a mailbox. Travis dominates for the most part and we hear that Dog is one of the new recruits to Devastation Inc. WELL OF COURSE HE IS! There isn’t a heel in the company that isn’t! Young and Akbar come out to distract Travis and Dog takes over again. Eric Embry comes out to leads cheers for Travis, as does Pringle. Travis comes back and wins with a Vader Bomb.

Rating: D+. Not much of a match here but the crowd coming alive for Embry was a cool tihng to see. He was on fire at this point and could get anything over. The match was nothing of note but it was only supposed to be a backdrop for the cheering battle between Devastation Inc and Eric, which is fine.

The Punisher, a masked guy who is ripped, says that there’s $100,000 from Akbar to whomever takes out Embry. He says he’ll be coming to take out all of the pretty boys in the USWA. In about a year he would be in the WWF out of a mask and called The Undertaker.

Akbar says Devastation Inc just needs some time to regroup. Young is with him and I keep forgetting to mention this: Young is as much of a Rick Rude ripoff as you can get without getting slapped with a copyright lawsuit. Young basicaly threatens all of the faces in the company and says Devastation will be coming for them.

Jerry Lawler says the caliber of talent has gone way downhill since the USWA has replaced WCCW. Namely Eric Embry, who isn’t championship material.

P.Y. Chu-Hi vs. Chris Adams

The Japanese guys do their ceremonial stuff including the salt. Adams goes straight at him and drills the referee about 10 seconds in. He gets the kendo stick and everyone gets blasted. Gary Young runs in for the save. Adams gets beaten down 3-1 until Borne and Embry make the save.

Percy Pringle says Lawler has defended everywhere except in Dallas. For some reason he’s shunning Eric Embry so Eric will come looking for Lawler.

We get a video of coming attractions, as in people coming to the USWA. They had an open door policy, meaning people would come in for however long they wanted and then leave. Some of the people are the Rock N Roll Express, Master of Pain (Undertaker), Ronnie P. Gossett IV (fat guy), Bill Dundee, The Wildside (tag team), Dustin Rhodes (20 at this point), Black Bart/Dirty White Boy (WHY DOES THIS GUY FOLLOW ME THIS MUCH???), Dutch Mantel and The Blackbirds (tag team).

Akbar says Devastation Inc is on top of the company.

Kerry Von Eric vs. Taurus Bulba

Nothing really going on to start. They circle each other some more until Kerry gets in the first offense, punching Bulba down. They go to the floor and apparently this is falls count anywhere. Bulba hits his signature headbutt for two because the referee wasn’t in position. They brawl out the door but come back in before a camera goes to follow them. Back in the ring and Bulba takes over with chops and headbutts.

We take a break and come back with them on the floor and Kerry hitting him with a chair. Von Erich loads up the Claw but Bulba pokes him in the eye. Bulba headbutts the post by mistake but he doesn’t go down. Another Claw attempt is countered and Bulba grabs one of his own. Kerry goes down but the fans chant him back up. Bulba takes him right back down….AND GETS THE PIN WITH THE CLAW ON KERRY VON ERICH!!! IN DALLAS!!!

Rating: B. This was a pretty awesome brawl and my eyes actually popped open at the ending. This just did not happen in the Sportatorium which is a big part of why this was so shocking. The people were stunned as were the announcers and myself. The ending was pretty much clean on top of that, which makes this even better. Great brawl too.

Kerry stops struggling until some friends make the save. He has to be taped up. Kerry is taken out on a stretcher. After a break we see him being taken to the back again, as in they replay it including the commentary.

Overall Rating: B-. I can’t complain much about this show as it worked a lot better than the previous two. The lack of the main event that was announced was annoying but the Von Erich stuff was really interesting and I was legitimately surprised. That doesn’t happen often so it’s a nice thing to see. Best show so far but unfortunately I have to jump to December now.

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USWA Wrestling Challenge
Date: August 25, 1989
Location: Sportatorium, Dallas Texas
Commentator: Marc Lowrance, Frank Dusek

I’m missing the August 18 episode so don’t bother looking for it. From what I can tell though there was a big tag match with Eric Embry and Chris Adams beating up some bad guys. I liked what I saw last time so maybe this is going to be good as well. If this is what I think it is, it’s not Mick Foley’s finest hour. Let’s get to it.

We open with clips from the tag match I mentioned and like last week we have to wait to find out the winner.

Akbar introduces the newest member of Devastation Inc: Taurus Bulba, who was with them two weeks ago.

Jimmy Jack Funk vs. Scott Braddock

The referee is in a traditional outfit today instead of the blue shirt he was in last week. Funk slams Braddock to start and dropkicks him to the floor. We hear about Chris Adams getting screwed by Tojo Yamamoto or something like that and he has to stay wherever Tojo is. Funk hits a move like an Angle Slam and grabs the arm. Funk keeps control of the arm Eric Embry has won the Texas Heavyweight Title. Short Arm Scissor goes onto Braddock. He tries a rollup with tights but the referee slaps him in the head instead of brawling.

This has been ALL Funk so far. Funk stays on the arm as we talk about Akbar vs. Embry. Basically Akbar is putting all of his guys against Embry in Loser Leaves Town matches with the theory that he has to lose sometime. Braddock kind of hot shots Funk to counter a Thesz Press. Backbreaker gets two. Braddock hammers away and hooks a chinlock. A double clothesline puts both guys down.

They get up at the same time and Funk kicks him in the ribs to take over. There’s an atomic drop and Funk pounds away on the head of Braddock. Braddock knocks him to the floor and sets for a superplex to bring Funk back in. Funk manages to slingshot over his back and rolls him up for the surprise pin.

Rating: C+. Not too bad here and it was a lot more energetic than I was expecting it to be. Funk is a guy I’ve seen some of and usually he’s awful in WWF. Here though he’s not bad. He’s not a ring general or anything like that, but he’s certainly pretty ok with a great example of that right here. This was a nice surprise.

Percy Pringle talks about taking down the World Class banner and having the board behind them now. He calls Akbar a raghead. It was a different time.

We go to a segment from a few days ago. Tojo and P.Y. Chu-Hi (the guy Embry beat in the cage) were mad about Chu-Hi losing a match in 9 seconds to Embry. They went after Chris Adams’ wife and abused her. Whatever they did is covered by a graphic that says censored. Adams finally came out for the save. Adams has said not to suspend the Japanese guys because he’s going to do something about it himself. His wife’s name is Toni Adams in case that name comes up later.

Eric Embry vs. Cactus Jack Manson

This is loser leaves town. Embry wins in 12 seconds with a backslide. Somehow that’s not his fastest match this week. Foley would head off to WCW after this.

Devastation Inc leaves Jack alone in the ring.

Gary Young talks about the Devastation Inc trainees. They’re with him here but their names aren’t important enough to mention.

Jerry Lawler, the Unified World Heavyweight Champion, says that while there are other people that call themselves World Champion, he’s the real one. He even mentions the companies by name and says that Flair and Hogan are only company champions because they only fight guys in their own companies. Lawler however is champion in multiple companies so he’s the true champion. Ok then.

Video on Embry, mainly of him getting destroyed. Then he got awesome and won a cage match.

Gary Young/Al Perez vs. Matt Borne/Billy Joe Travis

Borne and Perez are starting and Borne takes him down pretty easily. They switch off as Akbar runs his mouth some more. Travis works on the arm which is a very common move in this company. They trade punches and Perez takes over. Young comes in and has pink hair. More arm work takes him down and Borne comes in. We go to a break with the arm work continuing.

Back with guess what: more arm work. Things speed up and Borne actually does something different in the form of a powerslam. Young tries to tag Travis and we almost lose a cameraman. Borne and Travis cheat but they’re popular so it’s all ok right? Perez pulls the top rope down to send Travis to the outside.

He gets thrown back in so Perez throws him back outside again. Everything breaks down and Young drops a knee for two on Travis. Back to Perez and it breaks down again. Akbar hits Young with a chair by mistake but since there’s no ref there’s no count. A brass knucks shot puts Travis down and Young gets the easy pin.

Rating: C-. Pretty dull match with the arm work going on way too long. That seems to be a theme here in tag matches and I’m not wild on it. The brawling was fun and it’s kind of refreshing to see a heel win a match, especially a main event. Not a terrible match or anything like that, but it was pretty forgettable.

The decision is reversed by the matchmaker whose name sounded like Max Andrews.

Overall Rating: C+. This show was much more to the point and you can see the angles that are going to dominate things coming into play pretty clearly here. The next week’s show will have Chun-Hi vs. Adams in a grudge match so that should be interesting. It’s also the last show I have before we jump forward to December. Better show this week because it was much more on point.

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USWA Wrestling Challenge
Date: August 11, 1989
Location: Sportatorium, Dallas, Texas
Commentator: Marc Lowrance

This is the first of I think six episodes I have of this. I don’t have them all in order and I have no idea where to find them otherwise, so I won’t be able to put up the one from August 18. Other than that though this is from the late 80s (obviously) and it’s as good as anything else while I find a copy of the Raw I was going to do. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from a World Class show from last week with Eric Embry facing someone from Japan in a cage. The idea here is that if Embry, a Memphis guy, wins, then the Memphis guys get to stay in WCCW but if he loses then they’re all gone. Apparently we’ll get the ending later because that’s all we see here.

This is a USWA show from Dallas which is something I’ve never seen before. I’d assume that means Embry won. Marc Lowrence, the longtime WCCW commentator, is host. Short version: Memphis (CWA) and Dallas (WCCW) merged to form the USWA to try to fight McMahon and Crockett and it lasted all of a year before they split again.

Skandor Akbar talks about how Devastation Inc is tired of not getting acknowledged. They’re coming for the Memphis guys.

Lowrance takes us back to the cage match and the fans are all behind Embry. Embry is the booker from Foley’s book that liked to book while not wearing any clothes. Eric wins with a fluke rollup.

After a break Embry and Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer) take down the WCCW banner and put up a USWA banner. I’m really not entirely sure what’s going on here but it’s as basic of the idea as I can get it. From what I can understand, that cage match was the culmination of a LONG story (as in like 6 months to a year) between Embry and Devastation Inc.

WCCW had been taken over by evil (Fritz had legitimately sold to Jerry Jarrett at this point so the Von Erichs got toned WAY down) Japanese people and Eric represented the good guys of the USWA. He won the match to bring in a new era, which was wanted/needed. This is all based off info I can find elsewhere and not from the TV show mind you.

Billy Travis, a WCCW guy, talks very nervously about how he’s glad to be here.

Eric and Percy are here to talk about the USWA. I’m not sure if USWA was the name in Memphis or not. They talk about how they’re glad the evil ones are gone and they’ll try not to let us down.

Jimmy Jack Funk/Kerry Von Erich vs. Al Perez/Taurus Bulba

Perez vs. Kerry gets us going. They fight for position early and then get in each others’ faces. Kerry grabs the arm and it’s off to Jimmy Jack. The guys on the apron almost get into it out there as (and by that I mean Marc talking to himself) talk about the cage match. Kerry throws the chair at Taurus. Akbar is at ringside too. Lowrance talks about how all of the good things from WCCW will be around in the USWA also. Bulba comes in but misses an elbow to Funk. Back to Von Erich who LOUDLY says put your foot up, which is exactly what Taurus does in the corner. Bulba runs from the Claw and takes Kerry back down.

An elbow drop keeps Kerry down as Akbar talks about how awesome Devastation Inc is. Bulba comes off the top but jumps into the Claw. He makes the rope though and it heads to the floor. The Claw goes on outside and they go towards the crowd. Bulba goes into the post and allegedly we’re at 10 minutes. More like 4 but whatever. Tornado Punch sends Bulba into the barricade but Perez hits Kerry with a chair. Everything breaks down and somehow there isn’t a DQ.

We have four minutes left in the time limit and Kerry is double teamed in the corner. Perez hooks a sleeper on Kerry and takes him down with three minutes to go. Kerry gets out and punches Perez down. Off to Funk and everything breaks down again. Somehow we’re now down to one minute as they’re not even trying to hide the clock changes. A lot of pins are broken up but Kerry gets the Claw on Perez with 15 seconds left. And never mind because it’s a draw.

Rating: C. This was a pretty high impact brawl and I’d assume it was to advance a Perez vs. Kerry feud, which is fine. Bulba was a Mongolian which is a tried and true indy heel gimmick. Not a great match or anything but the crowd was into it and it wasn’t a bad match at all. The clock thing was just laughable though.

A guy who isn’t named doesn’t like to be in Texas but likes Arkansas. He’s part of Devastation Inc though. Oh it’s Gary Young.

Tojo Yamamoto and Akbar get equal time and say they’ll be here. They’re coming for Eric and Pringle. There’s a $100,000 bounty involved somewhere.

USWA Tag Titles: Jeff Jarrett/Matt Borne vs. Cactus Jack Manson/Scott Braddock

Manson is Foley and his team has the titles. Frank Duschek is with the challengers. He was the WCCW boss and was fired by Akbar, who is here of course as well. Braddock is thrown into Akbar on the floor and it’s Jarrett vs. Jack to start. Now there’s a pairing. Jarrett works the arm to control and has Jack hiding in the corner. There was talk of a break but I don’t think we ever went to one.

Braddock comes in and walks into an armdrag of his own. Here’s Borne in pink shorts. He’s no Bret Hart in them but he has a good clothesline. Back to Jarrett and the arm work continues. Back to Borne who grabs the arm again. Now we take a break and come back to a promo of Jarrett and Borne WITH THE TAG TEAM TITLES. They say they’ll deal with anyone that wants a shot.

Back with Jarrett working on the arm of Braddock some more. Off to Manson who rams Jarrett into the buckle then clotheslines him down to block Jarrett’s flips. Off to Braddock who slams Jeff for two. Cactus throws him to the floor and hits the elbow off the apron (called The Consequences here, which is a perfect name for it). That gets two back inside as it occurs to me we’ve never been told who the champions are. It’s Jack/Braddock, but we’ve never been told that.

Jack throws him to the floor and tries another Consequences, but Jeff moves and crawls for the corner. A diving tag brings in the pink shorts wearing Maniac to pound of Manson. Everything breaks down and Borne snaps off a quick German suplex on Jack for the pin and the titles. It’s a huge pop, but man it would have sucked to watch this on TV and have the ending spoiled.

Rating: C. Pretty boring tag match for the most part but the ending was a lot better. That being said, I’d have liked it a lot better if I hadn’t seen Jarrett and Braddock with the belts halfway through the thing. These guys would trade the titles for awhile until Jack left to go to I think WCW. Not much of a match but a title change is always worth seeing.

Lowrance wraps up the show and in something you don’t often hear on a wrestling show, says have a good weekend and worship at the church of your choice. He retired from wrestling to become a minister but it’s still odd to hear. Nothing wrong with it mind you, just not something you often hear.

Overall Rating: C. This was a really bad episode to jump in on. The feuds that were featured here were some VERY hot stories back in the day and it brought Dallas back from a bad slump they had been in, although it was short lived because of backstage politics with the WCCW guys pulling out of the USWA, making that company a Memphis exclusive in about a year or so. Still, fun stuff and a cool look at an interesting time in wrestling history. I don’t have the 8/18 show but I do have 8/25 which is up next.

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USWA Championship Wrestling
Date: February 13, 1993
Location: USWA Television Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentators: Dave Brown, Cory Macklin

So I found almost 30 territorial style shows today, so expect a lot of stuff like this: local TV shows that probably have some big names in their roots. This is the USWA, which had been a merger of the CWA (Memphis) and WCCW (Dallas) in an attempt to fight the WWF. However, WCCW pulled out so this is just the Memphis territory of the day. If my memory is right, there’s also a talent exchange with WWF at the time so you may see some familiar faces. Jerry Lawler is more or less divine here, so expect a lot of him. Other than that I have no idea what to expect as I know next to nothing about the USWA. Let’s get to it.

The commentators welcome us to the show and run down the card. There’s some guy named the Rock and Roll Phantom that gets to get beaten up by Lawler. Also Jeff Jarrett (big pop) against Brian Christopher and the Harris Brothers vs. the Gilberts. Lex Luger will be here too. He’s the Narcissist at this point and is part of the talent exchange.

Here’s Brian Christopher who has two belts. Based on what I could find he was Southern Heavyweight Champion (midcard title) at the time so I have no idea what the other belt is. He says that because he’s a double champion, he’s important. Since he’s important he gets to meet other important people, and this week he met Lex Luger. DANG Christopher looks just like his daddy in the face.

He says he’s been hanging out with the WWF Superstars because they’re the best in the business. He has a highlight reel of Luger’s work which is just Luger’s debut in the WWF where Heenan sounded like he wanted Luger to make sweet love to him. At the end of the tape, Christopher says that Luger is going to be here later but first we need a little etiquette lesson. When Lex gets here, you all better cheer him.

With that he brings out the Narcissist. Oh wait it’s Narcissus. Close enough. Christopher talks about how there’s a guy around here named the King who has been making fun of the WWF. That was the huge story at this time: an interpromotional feud between the companies with Vince (acknowledged as the WWF owner on USWA TV) sending his guys down to fight the Memphis guys. He also talks about Jeff Jarrett barking about the WWF a lot because he’s scared of the WWF and Lex in particular.

Lex says that he’s here to give the USWA a peak at what God created when he created the greatest physique ever. I don’t think he imagined a fanny pack with it. The businessmen want Lex to have some tune-up wins before he goes to Wrestlemania in Las Vegas. Those guys also warned him to avoid the USWA because there are some guys there that are pretty good. That made Lex come here because he wants to prove he’s the best. He’s supposed to be a heel right? There will be one or two opponents he’ll take on here before Mania. Unfortunately this is the only show I have from this era so I don’t know who he picked.

Video on Brian Christopher. Or is this his entrance? It’s set to an Elvis (I think) song. Well the Memphis theme is really setting in.

Brian Christopher vs. Jeff Jarrett

Luger and two other guys that I don’t recognize are here with Christopher. Brian says there’s no need for Lex to be here for this one but then he changes his mind. Ok then. There are no apron curtains. That’s not something I’ve seen outside of a tiny indy company. Lex sits in on commentary for this. There can’t be more than 150 people at this. Ever heard me say someone is stalling like a man from Memphis? Here’s a good example of something like that.

First contact: 63 seconds in. Christopher keeps shouting to Lex how awesome he is but in a sucking up way, not an evil way. Second contact: 100 seconds in. We’re over two minutes in and we’ve had two tieups and that’s it. Ok from what I can find, Christopher is also the Texas Champion. Jeff finally has enough and pops Brian in the face with a right hand. We finally get going as Brian hits a clothesline and stomps a bit. To be fair, Memphis was far more based on egging on the crowd than the in ring action.

A backbreaker gets two for Christopher. He misses an elbow though and Jeff grabs a rollup for two. How weird is it that these two would reach their biggest successes as totally different characters? Christopher as a dancing idiot and Jarrett as a self-obsessed heel. One of the guys that came out with Christopher grabs Jeff’s leg but he manages a DDT to Christopher anyway. Not that it matters as the other guy comes in for the DQ.

Rating: C-. These matches are hard to rate as there isn’t much action in them, but like I said there isn’t supposed to be. These were two fairly big names and two acts that were over as a face and a heel, which is really all you can ask for. At the same time though, there’s barely any wrestling and it was all set up for the ending, which is ok, but it’s still nothing to see.

Jerry Lawler comes out for the post match save. Christopher suggests a tag match with himself/Lex vs. Lawler/Jarrett. Lex declines.

After a break, we have ANOTHER Brian Christopher interview. He says he can be the next Unified World Champion. Christopher says that Lawler is getting old and is going to have to retire soon. When that happens, he’ll be the new king. He never would win that title. Lawler only won it 28 times. That’s mild for him. He won the Southern Heavyweight Title 52 times.

We run down the card for Monday’s big show in the Mid-South Coliseum. There’s a new team there called PG-13 who I’m sure some of you have heard of.

We recap Lawler vs. Christopher which is the main event of that show on Monday. Christopher ran his mouth about how Lawler couldn’t beat him but he never could get a title match. Here’s another video of the same thing happening but Doink the Clown is involved here for no apparent reason. Doink put water on the floor or something so Lawler slips and Christopher beats him up.

Here’s Lawler in the arena who talks about Christopher, saying that Christopher wants to hang out with Lex Luger. Brian runs his mouth about Lawler but that’s all he’s ever done. This time it’s put up or shut up because it’s going to be one on one. Lawler isn’t ready to pass the torch yet. This is going to be the whipping that Christopher needs and all that jazz. This is a wrestling show right?

You would think that would be the segue to Lawler’s match right? Well you would be wrong.

PG-13 says there’s no competition for them here. Everyone else is the Atari and they’re the Super Nintendo. Ok give them a point for a funny line. There’s a music video with them rapping too.

Rock N Roll Phantom vs. Jerry Lawler

The Phantom is Ron Bass’ (remember him? You probably shouldn’t) brother in a mask. He’s rather fat and is from Louisiana. Luger is out for commentary again. The Phantom takes over to start but Lawler gets going and the same guys that came out with Christopher earlier are here with the Phantom. They come in for a DQ at about a minute in. Jarrett and Christopher come out for a huge beatdown. Christopher gets on the mic (fourth or fifth time tonight) and says if Lawler wants to fight him tonight, get Jarrett out of the ring. Christopher tries to run anyway but Lawler catches him and beats him up.

The announcer that hasn’t talked much runs down the upcoming house show schedule.

Jeff Jarrett is here to talk about the Rock N Roll Phantom. We get a clip of some fat guy singing with the Phantom as the Phantom plays guitar. Then Jarrett came out and broke it up and I think they’re going to have a match. One of the two guys that were with Christopher (one is named Mike Samples so that might help things in the future) interferes and Jarrett gets beaten down. Jeff fights all four of them (singer too) off and the match was thrown out.

Back in real time, Jarrett says a lot has been going on and then the Phantom jumped in on top of it. It’s about respect you see.

As he leaves here’s Doug Gilbert but his brother/partner Eddie Gilbert isn’t here. Doug wants to be known as the King of Rock and Roll from now on. It’s Eddie’s fault that they’re not the tag champions at this point because he’s irresponsible. That’s not acceptable for the King of Rock so the next time Eddie is late for something, it’ll be a beating for him. Here’s Eddie who tries to talk sense but Doug cuts him off. Eddie said he wasn’t here because his brother didn’t pick him up at the airport. He offers to take this to the back and talk it out but Doug jumps him and beats him down.

The Harris Brothers are here with Mike Samples (WHO IS THIS GUY???). Samples says his hair is on the line on Monday but it’s really isn’t because the Bruise Brothers (Harrises) wouldn’t let that happen.

J.R. Alzado/Sam Norris vs. Bruise Brothers

I don’t see this lasting long. The announcers aren’t sure who the jobbers are until the names pop up on screen. Total dominance with the Brothers winning in about a minute.

On Monday, the Gilberts will fight instead of having a tag match.

The card for Monday is run down again.

Christopher runs out to say that Lex is going to fight someone next week but the show gets cut off before he could do it.

Overall Rating: D-. If you’re a diehard Brian Christopher fan, RUN, I say RUN, out and find a copy of this show. Or stay at home because it might be more convenient but you get the idea. I don’t ever recall seeing a show that was so dedicated to a single thing more than this one. This show is about an hour long (as in an hour of show, not 45 minutes counting commercials) and about 80% is about Christopher and/or Lawler. There’s about 6 minutes of wrestling in it and none of it is any good. It’s not completely awful, but the Lawler/Lawler’s kid stuff drove me crazy and had me wanting the show to end. Bad sign.

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