Walking In Memphis 11/11/78, by PaperClip Mike

During my childhood and teenage years, there were the big three North American promotions: WWF, WCW, and ECW. Each one had its fans, and each one had its own style. While each of the three dabbled in what the others were known for, each one represented something different. WWF was known for the more character-driven moments. Bright, garish, outlandish even. Weird characters and crazy gimmicks. My personal favorite, WCW, was where the rasslin’ was. You wanted the grapes, the broadways, the technical stuff; you went here. Being called the “Land of Extreme,” it was easy to figure out what ECW was known for. I mean, it was in the name. Blood, violence, brutality. Those three letters get chanted to this day, and for good reason. But what if I told you there was somewhere you could get all of that AND still be like me and get your retro fix?

Let me introduce you to Memphis, Tennessee. Home to great music, fantastic barbecue, and amazing wrestling. Known as the “Last of the Territories”, as it did not really shut down as such until around 2000, long after the idea of a territory was but a wisp of a memory. Some of the biggest names of that era came up here or came through on their way to greatness. Lawler. Jarrett. Dundee. Names synonymous with Memphis. What appealed to me about Memphis was that it was a mix of the big three. You wanted the good grapes and rasslin’? Get it here. Outlandish characters and moments? Get it here. You wanted the precursor to violence, like what we got later on? Well, it wasn’t ECW brutal, but they were not afraid to get grimy here. The famous Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl? Came from this territory.

Being your resident retro guy here at the bWo and MEWN, I wanted to still talk about the stuff I love. And Memphis has always interested me, as it was at an intersection of all that got me into wrestling. Thanks to the power of the internet, I was able to come into contact with someone who had tons of Memphis footage. And I am going to go over it. Now there is stuff from 1978 to 2001, which is a ton! Now, will there be every match from every week for 23 years? Of course not. Some of this is lost to time and not everyone has everything ever recorded. But there is enough here to satisfy anyone interested. But let’s get started with the earliest episode I have, which is November 11, 1978.

As the episode starts, we are joined by the voice of Memphis wrestling, the late, legendary Lance Russell and his partner, Dave Brown as they welcome us to another episode. They go over the card we will see today. We get Danny Davis and Sammy Hope vs. Wayne Ferris and Jimmy Valiant, Robert Gibson and Jackie Welch go against The Bounty Hunters. Terry Sawyer and Tommy Gilbert versus Don Fargo and Bill Dromo, our first singles match as Steve Brody goes against Koko Ware, and the main event will pit The Kelly Twins against Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee. We then cut away to our first match…

Jimmy Valiant & Wayne Farris vs Danny Davis & Sammy Hope

Hope and Davis are already in the ring as Ferris and Valiant come out, with Valiant and Davis starting. Jimmy has control in the first few moments as he also tags in Ferris. And if Wayve Ferris looks familiar, he would go on to the WWF as The Honky Tonk Man! Ferris and Valiant do a good job keeping Davis horizontal as they cut the ring in half. After a few minutes, Ferris misses an elbow as Danny takes over with a few blows of his own. 

Danny is finally able to tag in Sammy Hope for the first time. Sammy gets a couple of shots in, but ducks too soon to let Ferris kick him and tag in Valiant. Jimmy gets a few shots in before dropping an elbow for the win.

We come back from break, and Jimmy Valiant comes back out. Lance says something about Jimmy and music, and whoo boy. He says that both Burt Reynolds and Sally Field dropped him off coming from the studio. And also supposedly, Burt gave him something that had Jimmy awake for forty eight hours.  Nice that he used those names, since Burt and Sally were in the huge hit “Smokey and the Bandit, which was the second highest grossing movie the year prior. Anyway, we then cut to a music video with Jimmy singing in it. The use of music videos to promote the wrestlers was a trend back then, lots of people did this, mainly tag teams

So apparently, this song was being played on local radio as Jimmy also mentioned piles of…ahem…’Columbia Gold’. The crowd then get loud as out walks both Jerry “The King”Lawler and Bill Dundee. Valiant leaves as Lawler and Dundee are with Lance. Dundee mentions that it is known that he and Lawler love women and pull out a petition. It says that since someone named Heather Feather did something for three minutes (couldn’t catch what it was) and she gets to wrestle a man. Lawler says that he really wants to see her wrestle a man, as this was a new concept in 1978. Ah, I heard it clearly from Lawler. Heather Feather wrestled a bear for three minutes to get this opportunity. Only in Memphis, folks.

The two men leave the petition with Lance for anyone to sign as they walk off. We then cut back from break to our next match…

The Bounty Hunters (David Novak & Jerry Novak) w/Chuck Malone vs Robert Gibson & Jackie Welch

They are having trouble getting The Bounty Hunters into the ring. Chuck Malone walks up to Lance and says the idea of Heather wrestling men was his idea, with Lawler and Dundee getting all the credit. So he agrees to sign the petition. But what’s this? Lawler comes out and says that this was not a petition, but a contract to wrestle Heather Feather, and Malone signed. Oh, those rascals!

Apparently, Chuck Malone interferes on behalf of the Bounty Hunters a lot, because officials bring out a chair and make him sit down. And Lance says if Malone gets out of the chair, his men are disqualified. David Novak starts with Robert Gibson, just a few years before he would become a member of the Rock N’ Roll Express. The footage glitches, and we are brought back as one of the Bounty Hunters is now in control of Jackie Welch after a countered monkey flip. David Novak is tagged in and hits a huge knee lift and elbow drop. The Novaks doo a good job keeping Wlch out of the ring after tossing him out.

Rober Gibson has had enough and gets in the ring to try to help his partner. In the ensuing confusion, Chuck Malone gets out of his chair and gives Welch a piledriver on the outside floor! The ref sees none of this, and Jackie gets counted out. Robert Gibson starts attacking Malone, but the Bounty Hunters come to make it a 3-on-1 mauling of Robert before he is saved by Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee.

Back from break, and Chuck Malone is out to talk to Lance Russell. He is livid about being tricked into signing a contract to wrestle Heather Feather. Lance does warn him that while he has the option to refuse the stipulations of the contract, if he does refuse, he will be fired from the territory. Looks like it will be Monday night at the Mid-South Coliseum. After a bit of back and forth, Malone agrees to wrestle her, but the blood will be on Lance’s hands.

We then get another interview with Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee. Seems like the duo won the tag titles from The Bounty Hunters about a week ago, and the former champs want a rematch. Lawler agrees, however, Chuick Malone must put his hair on the line as well. Out of nowhere, here comes Jimmy Valiant. Jimmy suggests that he team up with Lawler and Dundee to go against The Bounty Hunters and Chuck Malone. Jerry and Bill let him know that it can’t happen right now, since if the tag titles are not on the line, Chuck’s hair is not on the line. Jimmy Valiant does not want to hear this and is getting a bit aggravated.

Jerry says that the reason Jimmy is not in the main event is that he is not main event material yet. Then, in something that I did not see coming, Lawler called Valiant a ‘f** looking jerk*. Different time, folks, it was 1978 after all. Jerry insinuates more things of that variety as Jimmy throws insults back. This got so intense that several officials and wrestlers, including Wayne Ferris, came out to separate the men. Holy shit, this was intense!

Tommy Gilbert & Terry Sawyer vs Don Fargo & Bill Dromo

The match cuts out as we instantly go to Fargo and Gilbert, but it seems we did not miss much of anything, as they are still in the feeling-out process. After a few moments, Dromo is tagged in. Gilbert is trapped in a headlock, but can still tag in Terry Sawyer. Fargo tags in as both teams work to keep a fresh man in the ring. Fargo and Dromo can finally get Sawyer under control after a few moments. Dromo grabs the back of the trunks of Sawyer so Fargo can get some free shots. The commentators say that four and a  half minutes have gone by, so I think we missed more than I thought.

Gilbert finally gets in as all four men battle in the ring for a bit before the bad guys get control back. However, Sawyer gets Dromo in a rear chin lock and really cranks it in. Now this is an interesting comeback to the segment with Lawler and Valiant. Jerry Jarrett, promoter of Memphis at the time, apologizes to what had happened between the two men, and they each were fined $500. I missed this, too, but it seems Sawyer refused to tag in his partner and is just standing on the apron. After a few minutes of punishment, Gilbert went for a tag, and the same thing happened. Gilbert keeps fighting both his opponents valiantly, before going over to Swayer and cracking him in the mouth to the delight of the crowd. Sawyer comes back in and slugs his ‘partner’, leading to a Dromo elbow drop and the win.

Steve Brody vs Koko Ware

Yes, that is the same Koko from the WWF, just without his middle initial. Great show of sportsmanship and chain wrestling from both men as the match starts. I don’t get much more as the footage cuts to the end, where Koko hits three gorgeous dropkicks for the win.

Jerry Lawler comes out and apologizes to the crowd for losing his temper, but not to Valiant. Lawler says Valiant knows where to find him if he wants a shot at him. We then go to…

The Kelly Twins vs Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee

Bill Dundee starts with one of the twins as we are left with TV time remaining. Lawler comes in for a bit as the other Kelly Twin tags in with one minute remaining. Both men exchange headlocks, the bell rings as the TV time has run out. Sorry, this match accomplished nothing at all.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I have seen clips of Memphis throughout the years, but this is the first full episode of Memphis wrestling I have seen. Now, as I said earlier. I do not have every bit of every episode of every year, but I will share what I have been given access to. So in the mean time in between time, I will see you all on the blogs!