Tracking the Territories 1984- Volume Three

by Liam Byrne

  CWA Championship Wrestling 25.8.84

  This week it is Lance Russell on his own as Dave Brown has the day off, but Russell promises that that is the only thing missing as he runs down a card that includes matches with Mark Reagan, Eddie Gilbert, the New Generation and an expiration of time match between the team of Dutch Mantell and Tojo Yamamoto and the new Southern Tag Team Champions, The Nightmares.

  It is Mark Reagan who is up first, with Pat Hutchinson his opponent and Jimmy Hart alongside the heel jobber. Hart decides to try and mock Reagan’s dance moves whilst Hutchinson goes over and berates the crowd; this earns him a dropkick over the top rope for his troubles. A back body drop and a dropkick as the match begins is enough for Reagan to win the match in five seconds! Hart is not happy and invites the Nightmares down to the ring to try and take Reagan out. To give him his due, Reagan manages to fight off the Nightmares, but as Hart and Hutchinson get into the ring to make it four on one, he flees to live to fight another day. Somewhat akin to Mid-South and Brickhouse Brown, Memphis seems all in on Reagan at the moment.

  Russell throws it over to footage from the Mid-South Coliseum as Jerry Lawler and Ric Rude are battling it out, with Lawler standing in the middle of the ring and just wailing away with punches. Hart scales the turnbuckle to signal for all the members of the First Family to come down to ringside, causing the match to finish in a disqualification. Rude hits a piledriver three times and King Kong Bundy hits a big splash twice, whilst the rest of the Family stop Dutch Mantell from coming in for the save. Eddie Marlin gets on the microphone and mentions how the next person who touches Lawler will get suspended; Rude almost can’t contain himself and has to be held back from going after Lawler and giving himself a holiday.

  Jackie Fargo and Jimmy Hart is another ongoing feud, at least played out primarily in the Coliseum. Fargo has some pre-taped words that focus on how he believes Hart tried to assassinate Lawler the previous week at the Coliseum, before promising revenge on Monday night. Russell runs down the card:

  The New Generation vs Mr. Ito and Kurt Von Hess

  The Nightmares vs The Rock and Roll Express

  King Kong Bundy vs Dutch Mantell

  Jackie Fargo vs Jimmy Hart

  Tommy Rich vs Eddie Gilbert

  The Fabulous Ones and Tony Atlas vs The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering

  Jerry Lawler vs Ric Rude in a Cage match

  Lawler also has some pre-taped words for Rude and the First Family, with the end of the previous Coliseum show the impetus for Lawler to ask Marlin for a steel cage match in order to keep Hart and his minions out of the match. Lawler goes on to talk about grinding the skin off of Rude’s face with the mesh of the cage, making it clear that he won’t stop until they have to call for an ambulance.

  In the studio, Rude and Hart are out to respond to both Fargo and Lawler, with Hart in a particularly good mood as he waves a copy of ‘The Wrestler’ which includes Hart, Rude and Bundy. Hart is also wearing the Southern Handicap Belt, a belt that he apparently created himself. Hart admits that Fargo is a legend, but believes that come his victory on Monday, he will be the legend. When it is Rude’s turn to talk, he blames Russell for presenting the events at the Coliseum in a negative light as Hart had only signalled for the men to come down in order to save Lawler from getting killed.

  After some shilling of the local shows by Russell, Eddie Gilbert is out next to face Jim Jamison. As Gilbert stands on the apron, he makes it clear that he has the words ‘Hot Stuff’ emblazoned across the back of his jacket. Jamison offers a handshake but Gilbert ignores him, before arrogantly breaking a collar and elbow tie up twice before nailing Jamison with a punch the third time. Gilbert is mauling Jamison, hitting him with punches, kicks and a back elbow. Jamison does offer some token punches from the canvas himself, but Gilbert just deposits him outside and lands a suplex on the concrete floor!

  Jamison does fire back more authoritatively when the match returns to the ring as he is annoyed by Gilbert’s slaps, but it doesn’t last long and Gilbert grinds Jamison’s face into the canvas. Each spot sees Gilbert getting meaner and meaner as he bites away at Jamison as well as landing several stomps. Another bite, a back body drop and a splash on the back of a seated Jamison (ow…) is enough for Gilbert to pick up the win. Before he leaves, Hot Stuff takes one more cheap shot at Jamison in a dominant performance that continues to effectively present Gilbert’s heel character.

  With The Road Warriors now on the march around the country following the demise of Georgie Championship Wrestling, we see footage of a match between the hottest tag team in wrestling and the team of Jerry Lawler and Austin Idol from earlier in the year at the Coliseum. We join as Lawler is thrown with an Animal press slam that leaves the King taking his time outside to regain his thoughts. Hawk showcases his own gorilla press slam moments later and Lawler is once again on the outside. Lawler manages to get Hawk into the corner, but a right hand to the face has no effect; the same can’t be said for Hawk’s retaliatory punch in the opposite corner that sends Lawler to the canvas.

  Lawler does manage to get a boot up to stop a charging Hawk, following up with a second rope fistdrop, yet Hawk continues to stalk the King as if very little has happened. However, Lawler drops the straps after no-selling another Hawk punch and the Memphis favourites are in control, with Idol getting the tag and slamming both members of the Warriors. A contrived spot sees Animal – with Lawler over his shoulder – fall backwards over Hawk’s prone body for a nearfall, though Animal kicks both Lawler and Idol off with one kick out. Just as it looks like we are heading towards a finish, we cut to Hawk and Animal in a music studio signing a song about there being a rumble. This was simple, yet effective, though it is just a shame they didn’t decide to show us the finish.

  Pre-taped words follow as the Road Warriors and Paul Ellering are speaking from the AWA, with both Hawk and Animal mentioning that it seems like the Fabulous Ones can’t keep out of their way. Hawk talks about ripping their opponents’ heads off and using them like soccer balls, before Animal badmouths Tony Atlas and his attempts to make a name off of stepping in the ring with the Warriors.

  The New Generation are very much up against the B Team of the First Family – Keith Roberson and Kurt Von Hess. It is Von Hess and Johnny Wilhoit who start the match for their respective teams, with Wilhoit reversing an early Irish whip into the corner before nailing Von Hess with a dropkick after a shoulderblock does nothing to move the German. Mark Batten takes over a side headlock after a tag, following it up with an armdrag that doesn’t allow him to keep Von Hess from escaping and making the tag to Roberson. Wilhoit is back in and catches Roberson cold after escaping a side headlock, landing a hiptoss and another dropkick.

  Batten and Von Hess are back in and Batten hits a nice bodyslam after initially getting waylaid with a shoulderblock. A handful of hair by Von Hess allows him to take Batten down to the mat, before he pitches him to outside. Roberson tries to take advantage but Wilhoit charges around the ring to hit Roberson, halting any real damage being done. However, the First Family team don’t allow Batten to get back into the ring very easily, double teaming him on the apron. Back in the ring, Roberson nails a swinging neckbreaker and an elbowdrop, whilst a brief Batten fight back is halted by Roberson running him back into the heel corner.

  Quick tags keep the fresh man in, with a Von Hess dropdown and Roberson big boot showing some basic teamwork ability for Hart’s men. We do get what seems like a spot designed to have a blind tag, but the referee turns around too quickly and has to just acknowledge that the tag has taken place. Wilhoit uses the dropkick again on Roberson, as well as two monkey flips, yet a thumb to the eye stops his offense cold. Roberson gets sent into the ropes out of a side headlock and Tojo Yamamoto reaches in to trip him up, which is enough for the New Generation win. A better match than I’d expected, though why Yamamoto needed to get involved at this point is arguable.

  As the Road Warriors have had their showcase and say, we get a chance to see T
he Fabulous Ones in a music montage, before Stan Lane and Steve Keirn are alongside Ken Resnick in the AWA to promote this match in Memphis. Lane effectively calls the Road Warriors Northern fruitcakes and then drags Tony Atlas into the mix, who proceeds to rant and rave as is his usual want. He does call himself ‘ugly as sin’ but labels himself the muscle of the team and definitely not as dumb as the Warriors suggest he is. Keirn has one request before the interview finishes, which is for a Memphis girl for Atlas after the show as that is the one promise they made. Atlas has probably made himself a hard sell after the ‘ugly as sin’ comment, truth be told.

  A further video interview follows as Tommy Rich starts his time with the microphone by apologising to the fans for what happened the previous week in the studio. Rich has offered Eddie Gilbert a shot at the International Heavyweight Title, though Rich goes on to how his friends have questioned why he has decided to give Hot Stuff a chance at the belt. However, Rich makes it clear that he has thought it through and considers the belt the root of the start of all of their problems, so he’ll be in the Coliseum to whip Gilbert – especially considering he feels that a titled Gilbert could turn even worse than he already is and he still has a place in his heart for his ex-partner.

  As we know, Gilbert is in the studio and he is with Russell. Gilbert laughs off the idea of still having a place in Rich’s heart, before calling a member of the studio audience ‘feeble minded’ as they make some noise at him. Only the strong survive according to Gilbert, and he is going to prove it at the Coliseum on Monday.

  Tojo Yamamoto really shouldn’t be getting in the ring at this time in his career, but here he is alongside Dutch Mantell to take on the Nightmares in the expiration of time contest for this week. Mantell begins the match for his team alongside Nightmare #2, though the initial exchanges are punctuated by Nightmare #2 breaking away from Mantell, trying to stall. This isn’t successful as Mantell hits a bodyslam and an armdrag on #2, before hitting an armdrag on #1 after a tag. A leapfrog leads to another armdrag by Mantell, whilst a tag to #2 sees him hit a third armdrag. Yamamoto is tagged in, leading to a quick conference between Hart and his men; one that doesn’t appear to work as Yamamoto chops both men down after a miscommunication almost sees the Nightmares hit each other.

  A Nightmare leapfrog is followed by a Yamamoto chop, and that is all for Tojo at the moment as he tags out. An illegal knee from the outside allows the Nightmares to take over on Mantell, with Hart aiming a couple of slaps at a grounded Dutch for good measure. An elbowdrop earns the champs a two count, whilst Hart gets involved again by helping to choke Mantell against the rope. Hart continues to get involved, leading to a brawl at ringside as Mantell finally escapes the Nightmares to attack Hart. The first fall is over as both teams are counted out.

  The break in the main event allows some more shilling of local events, as well as another playing of the Jimmy Valiant music video that does the rounds anywhere that Valiant might show his face.

  The second fall starts pretty much how the first one ended as Mantell tries his best to get his hands on Hart, though the Nightmares manage to get in between Mantell and their manager. It is Yamamoto who takes the fight initially to both Nightmares with his chops, but as soon as Mantell is back in the ring, he chases after Hart again. Hart teases getting into the ring with Mantell, only to make it clear that he doesn’t have his wrestling gear on him. With the focus back on the in-ring action, Yamamoto uses his chops again to leave one of the Nightmares begging in the corner, before no-selling a couple of chops aimed his way.

  A Nightmare elbowdrop breaks a Mantell pin and allows the champions to take over once more, with Mantell getting dropped with a bodyslam and nailed with a second rope headbutt. An attempt to repeat these two spots sees the headbutt miss and we get another four man brawl. A mid-ring collision between the Nightmares, a sunset flip, a small package and a rollup all allow Mantell to get nearfalls but the time runs out before he can hold one of the Nightmares down for a three count. A decent match, though Yamamoto is so limited at this point that it just seems ridiculous that the tag champions are having to sell so significantly for his offense.

  A show that, if I’m being honest, just felt like it was there more than anything particularly special. Whilst nothing was particularly offensive in the ring, the matches were all bang average and none of the storyline/interview/segments really did much of note either. A rare slow news day for Memphis.

  ADDENDUM – Mid-South Coliseum (27th August 1984)

  Whilst the focus of the books are on the television primarily, the Memphis footage I have includes that of the two main matches from the Mid-South Coliseum. This possibly comes from the following week’s show, but it isn’t covered on the truncated episode I have access to. Therefore, I will include it here.

  We join part of the way through Eddie Gilbert versus Tommy Rich contest, but as you can imagine it is primarily both men punching each other really hard in the face. The match is clipped so we do skip around the contest, with the focus on Gilbert’s superiority over Rich, including a nearfall that is only stopped by Rich putting his foot on the rope. Rich fires up and a punch of his own has the crowd on their feet, yet we then cut to Jimmy Hart throwing a chain to Gilbert, who smacks Rich over the head and pins him to win the International Heavyweight Title. Too much clipping to really get a sense of the overall contest.

  We then have footage of Jerry Lawler and Ric Rude in the cage, this time with the face in control as the King is punching Rude in the face repeatedly. Lawler uses the cage to further open up a cut on Rude’s face, much to the joy of the fans. The cage itself is incredibly squat in nature, but the fans are eating up Lawler toying with the arrogant Rude. Rude even tries to use the referee as a shield, only for Lawler to just punch over the top of the official. Swings and misses by Rude lead to a piledriver by Lawler, but he is not content to finish the match there.

  Rights and lefts connect as the crowd roar along to each punch, yet Lawler’s decision to extend the match allows Rude a chance to hit a low blow and halt the King. The groin becomes the target as an atomic drop and a knee whilst Lawler is on the canvas has him writhing in agony. Lawler is trying to fire up, only for Rude to hit a piledriver…and the King pops back up! Lawler removes the straps, punches Rude multiple times in the face, and then gets thrown into the referee.

  Hart is up on the corner and signalling to the back like last time, but only King Kong Bundy comes down this time, baseball bat in hand. He throws the weapon to his associate, yet Lawler hits a punch to the stomach to avoid it. One baseball bat shot and a second rope fistdrop perhaps finally puts the Lawler versus Rude feud to bed. Very much a match to please the crowds than one looking to be particularly impressive from a technical standpoint.

  Championship Wrestling from Florida 25.8.84

  Our footage as the opening chyron hits the screen has ‘The Freak Show, as dubbed by the fans according to Gordon Solie, of Kevin Sullivan and his various associates entering the ring. Solie is with Buddy Colt and Barbara Clary, with Clary promising to reveal a new tag team this hour and hoping to get information on who will be One Man Gang’s mystery partner against The Saint and Oliver Humperdink. Colt runs down some of the action we will see, with Sullivan and Billy Graham in the main event, Jesse Barr and Pez Whatley all in action. Solie then reveals we will also see the Florida debut of Jim Nighthart (CWF spelling).

  As we head to the ring, Solie informs us that The Texas Outlaw is due to fight John King, but Buck Robley enters as his opponent instead. Robley uses a side headlock takedown to take King to the canvas, before a knee to the face and a turnbuckle smash have King reeling. It seems the Texas Outlaw has joined the commentary booth, with the distinctive tones of one Dick Slater. He is calling for a match with Barry Windham, though claims Windham is running scared. A snapmare and a kneedrop to the forehead has Robley in complete control, with the Outlaw calling him the ‘Charles Manson of professional wrestling’. A swinging neckbreaker leads to a sleeper and that is enough fo
r a Robley victory. A perfectly acceptable, if uninspiring match.

  The shill is on for a Wednesday show in Miami Beach as Oliver Humperdink does a good job of selling the importance of the Florida Heavyweight Title, a belt that The Saint will be challenging for that night against Scott McGhee. Humperdink talks about how many men have gone on from winning the Florida Heavyweight Title to winning the NWA gold, before handing over to the Saint who gives us a blast of Spanish.

  After a short break, Scott McGhee has a window to talk with Solie, though it is unclear as to whether this is a shill for the show that was just mentioned or part of the actual show; the CWF does somewhat blur lines at times when it comes to this due to their staging of interviews. Solie tells McGhee he is the first Scot to win the Florida Heavyweight Title, before focusing on McGhee’s amateur wrestling and the fact that he left school early. McGhee isn’t the best on the mic, so isn’t really a guy you want to carry an interview segment. The promotion do showcase his quality in the ring during this segment, showing his pinfall win over Ric Flair and showing both victories over Ron Bass.

  Billy Jack takes on Wild Bill Snyder in our next contest and it is Snyder who hits Jack with several early punches. Jack shrugs it off, blasts him with chops to the neck, two big dropkicks and slaps on the full nelson for the comprehensive victory in half a minute. Not much to be said for that.

  Clary’s promise to reveal a new tag team in the area comes true in the next segment as she introduces the Rock and Roll Express music video that has down the rounds this year in promoting them in Mid-South and Memphis. After the video, she is joined by One Man Gang who is set to reveal his partner for the match against the Saint and Humperdink. Before revealing his partner, Gang requests that Humperdink comes out, with Clary making it clear that Gang can’t start any trouble when the manager comes out. Humperdink wanders out with cheque book in hand in an effort to buy the contract, an idea that Gang laughs off. The VTR is rolled and it leads to a montage heralding the unique work of Buggsy McGraw (given an extra G by the folks in Florida). Even with the distance of the future, I feel a little bit let down by the announcement, though Humperdink’s freak out afterwards goes a long way to selling it as something of note: bugged out eyes, a red face and the shouting of ‘He’s going to hurt me’ into the microphone.