CWA Championship Wrestling – December 27, 1980 – I Don’t See This Lasting Long

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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