by Liam Byrne
Coming back from commercial, we are told by Ross that we can’t have the match with the Fantastics that is scheduled as something has happened in the ring that needs to be dealt with. We are sent to Bill Watts who is with JYD, Duggan and some referees, with King sitting down on the canvas nursing his shoulder. It is Duggan who is the voice of reason, talking about how the wrestlers like Reed, Landell, the Express and Hernandez aren’t the only ones who can band together, with the Dog adding his own words of aggression. Watts debates openly about taking a stronger stance against the use of weapons like boards and chains. What is really odd about this is that that footage is clipped in such a fashion that we never see the attack by Hernandez attacking King with a two-by-four.
Due to the attack, we don’t get to see the Fantastics, but we do get another Joel Watts video production that includes fast cars, rock music and barely dressed men. Gotta’ love an 80s music montage in wrestling. We also finish with a quick promo between Ross and Taylor, with Taylor talking about his issues with Steve Williams, who still has his Television Medal. Taylor is due to meet Krusher Kruschev next week to defend his title.
The overarching theme here tonight seems to be that things in Mid-South are getting out of control, so I wonder how this might play out over the next few weeks as the conflict between the heel and face factions continues to build. A good episode for the story development as much as anything, with decent matches if nothing particularly standout in between the ropes.
AWA All Star Wrestling 21.7.84
Harley Race greets us with the demand that we keep watching as there is more All Star Wrestling to come on this local station. I’m not one to argue with Race so I’ll be here for the next hour and a half as we get one of the longer episodes I’ve had to work with so far. As is AWA’s usual way, we get Ken Resnick introducing us to the show from inside the ring where he is standing next to ‘The Milkman’ Jake Milliman. His opponent is surprisingly Tony Atlas, who is pulling double duty as he would also continue to work for the WWF alongside his AWA bookings. The two men trade armbars, with Atlas having a significantly greater impact with his as he wrenches on the shoulder before taking Milliman to the canvas. Atlas increases the pace with a leapfrog and a dropkick, although this connects with the of the Milkman’s head as he seemingly forgets to turn around into it. Milliman is game but makes another error on a dropdown which makes the resulting Atlas hiptoss look awkward.
Milliman has some brief success with a few punches, only to charge straight into Atlas’ knee in the corner. A jumping headbutt has Milliman floundering on the canvas, but he does manage to kick out of a pinfall following a suplex. It is eventually a press slam and a splash that give Atlas the victory in a squash that didn’t exactly showcase Atlas as good as it perhaps could have done. Most notably, Atlas doesn’t do a lot of power offense for a guy who is lauded as having a great body and a lot of strength.
Following some words with Larry Zbyszko about not being booked on an upcoming show due to people running scared of him, we are shown another squash match between the Road Warriors and two jobbers in Georgia (Greg Brown and Mike Starbuck) as the AWA continue to go big on the imminent arrival of one of the hottest tag teams in wrestling at this time. As always, there is little messing around from Hawk and Animal as they use ragged power offense that often looks like it threatens to legitimately hurt their opponents. Animal uses a press slam and then the same move to drop Brown throat first on the top rope, leading to a Hawk clothesline for the three count.
After Resnick speaks about potentially visiting with the Road Warriors later in the show, he invites Tony Atlas to join him for some words. Atlas starts with a fairly basic babyface promo putting over the promotion and the level of talent, before focusing on Greg Gagne’s injury and how he doesn’t envy Bruiser Brody. Things take a turn as Atlas talks about taking on Brody, following it up by talking about how he was bored with the World Wrestling Federation due to the lack of competition and although wrestlers are leaving the AWA, he is coming in to take on the top talent. Not exactly the best way of putting over your new employers. Atlas returns for one more shot at ‘Donkey Kong’ before flexing on his way out.
Rocky Stone and Rick Renslow are in two out of three falls action against the more notable team of Curt Hennig and Steve Olsonoski in our next bout. Hennig begins the match for his team, trading punches on break with Stone that almost sends his opponent through the ropes. A wristlock takes Stone to the canvas, but he is too close to Renslow and tags his way out of the hold. Steve O has about as eighties a look as you can get with his hair and moustache combination, which is perhaps why he gets some pretty vocal female attention when he gets the first tag into the contest. Tags come quick and fast as O and Hennig isolate Renslow whilst also working on the arm. A double arm twist and a bodyslam by O doesn’t even earn a one count due to the referee being out of position, with Renslow finding his way to the corner for a tag. Stone has no more success than his partner, with O landing an armdrag and Hennig going back to the arm.
Neither heel has been completely cut off as they do an admirable job of making a tag to keep the relatively fresh man in. They even manage to trap O in the corner for some double teaming, only for Olsonoski to fight his way out of the situation. Five elbow smashes in a row by Hennig to Renslow have the jobber reeling, but Hennig chooses to return to the arm rather than push home the advantage. Renslow kicks out of several pinfall attempts and has Stone break one up after a dropkick lands square on the jaw. The de facto heel team have kept in the contest longer than expected but with all four men in the ring, Olsonoski picks up Renslow in an airplane spin and pins him for the first fall.
After a commercial break, we are already into the second fall as Hennig comes in off of a tag by Olsonoski to take the fight to both of the opponents. An atomic drop on Stone sees him crash into Renslow, but following a Hennig slam and a second rope elbowdrop by O, Renslow is still kicking out of pins. In a similar vein to the first fall, Olsonoski gets caught by Stone from behind and the jobber has some brief success, but O tags out after a sunset flip earns him two and Hennig looks like he is about to fire up once more…but tags practically straight out to O after one move. Stone grabs the ropes to avoid another dropkick by O, but he doesn’t see the blind that brings Hennig into the ring. A sequence of events leads to Stone taking a slingshot into Renslow, with a second rope dropkick from Hennig enough for the two fall victory. It was perfectly fine as a match, but considering the way some teams breeze through jobbers, to have a semi-competitive squash with multiple kickouts did feel counterintuitive.
The continued shill for the next big event sees Blackjack Lanza talking about Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie and a match that they will have in St. Louis – it screams shenanigans to me as there seems no reason why Al-Kaissie would step into the ring with Lanza. Resnick suggests this might be the case and Lanza just says that he hopes Al-Kaissie tries to pull something on him.
Rick Gatner is in the ring next, but whether or not Bruiser Brody is his opponent, that is who comes down to the ring in street clothes to protest about the AWA not allowing him to wrestle. Following some general shouting into the microphone, Brody attacks Gatner whilst also finding several opportunities to send the ref to the canvas with shoves. An almost jackhammer-esque suplex puts Gatner down and also signals the arrival of Wally Karbo as he tries to get things under control. The bell continues to ring as Brody chokes Gatner with his t-shirt, with the referee finally able to pull Gatner out of the ring. Brody spends several moments ‘hussing’ at Karbo before leaving the ringside. Though Brody’s antics aren’t as wild as what can be seen in Memphis or even Mid-South, compared to some of the more sedate action the AWA offers, Brody seems like a complete madman.
The Fabulous Ones video from Memphis gets an airing in between matches as the popular tag team continue to pull double duty in hitting up both promotions.
Accompanied to the ring by Bobby Heenan, Mr. Saito makes things easy for the audience in attendance as he throws cere
monial salt to further confirm his heeldom. Mike Richards is his opponent and Saito has no problem with taking him down to the mat several times in quick succession. Karbo is on commentary talking about disciplining Brody whilst Saito slaps on a leglock before a trip leads to a clutch-style submission. Richards aims several punches to the stomach of Saito and sends him into the corner with an Irish whip, only to run straight into two feet up underneath the jaw. A throw across the ring, some chops and a nerve pinch lead to the Saito suplex for an easy three count. Saito is a great, no-nonsense wrestler to watch and his suplex is a thing of beauty.
We get a shill for the new Pro Wrestling Report newspaper before Bobby Heenan, dressed in a kimono, joins Resnick. Resnick tries to speak to Heenan about Saito, but the manage just nods at Nick Bockwinkel, with the former champion making it clear that he wants to speak. Bockwinkel is out to challenge Rick Martel, Kerry Von Erich or Ric Flair, whomever he needs to beat to become world champion once more, with Heenan dubbing the three men ‘yellow chickens’. Heenan speaks about the party afterwards, with Bockwinkel getting Helen, Heenan taking Shelley, and Saito getting to spend a little time with Dolores. Saito’s helmet seems to be getting in the way of his face as he talks about getting some tough action in the AWA, whilst also waving his sword around.
This, as a show, just felt like it was…there. The Bruiser Brody segment continued to showcase his wildman antics, but none of the matches were of real note outside of the joy I get out of seeing the Saito suplex. The best part was probably the end promo, with Heenan and Bockwinkel at their arrogant best.
CWA Championship Wrestling 21.7.84
We have another episode of Memphis that is on the shorter side (fourty minutes) and we join Lance Russell as a match has just finished. Jimmy Hart and Jim Neidhart are out to talk as Hart introduces Neidhart as the greatest football player in the world today. Neidhart isn’t happy with Ron Mikolajczyk, calling him ‘Cheapshot’ and speaking about getting his opportunity to fight in the ring with all the football gear on in a match where the winner is the last man standing on their feet. Russell plays his usual role of casually stirring the pot, telling the two men that they have footage of the last time they met in the ring, with video from Mikolajczyk tackling Neidhart twice the previous being shown. The video cuts to Russell talking to Mikolajczyk, with Russell spending time discussing the rules of the match. Mikolajczyk mentions how he played football for eleven years; he wasn’t even sure if Neidhart played eleven minutes.
After an advert, Russell sends us to the Mid-South Coliseum for some more action from the hot feud between Poffomania and the Rock and Roll Express. We join as Randy Savage tries to put Ricky Morton through a table with a piledriver once more, but this time it is reversed with a back body drop. Back in the ring, Morton avoids a Poffo dropkick and makes the big hot tag to Robert Gibson. All four men end up in the ring and Gibson has Poffo pinned after a superplex off of the second rope, only for Angelo Poffo to break up the pin with his shoe and force the disqualification. In the studio, Poffo is in the ring as Savage gets in Russell’s face and talks about how any hatred he had for Jerry ‘The Queen’ Lawler is nothing compared to how he feels for the Rock and Roll Express.
The opponents for Poffomania this week as Ken Raper and Jim Jamison. Before the match even begins, Savage is threatening to jump off the top rope onto the fans. Instead, he chooses to hit a double axehandle on Jamison to begin the match. A suplex and a tag to Poffo then sees the ‘Sir’ attacking Jamison with several stomps.
Unfortunately, this is where the match cuts to what I can only assume is a Poffomania victory. What we do get instead is one of the most offensive lines I’ve heard so far as Poffo talks about how similar the team is to the AIDS virus as they are ‘turning fruits into vegetables’. Poffo then lists a bunch of rock and roll stars who have died by their own ends, promising to add to the list as Angelo and Savage showcase a banner saying ‘Rock and Roll Express is Dead’. As Angelo comes out to crow about the banner, the Rock and Roll Express hit the ring and the four man brawl continues from where they left off in the Coliseum on Monday.
Just as it seems things have died down, a Morton promo after the fact then sees Savage throw himself over the commentary booth to take him out and it is only the arrival of Eddie Marlin and some more officials that halt the fight. Wild scenes here in Memphis!
We head back to the Coliseum where King Kong Bundy is taking on Jerry Lawler in a contest that sees Lawler earn $1000 for every minute he lasts with Bundy. As we join the match, Bundy is blasting Lawler with punches and hits an elbowdrop as six minutes are loudly announced for all to hear. Bundy misses a splash and Lawler pulls down his shoulder strap, but Ric Rude comes down to ringside to distract the King. With the referee also distracted, Jimmy Hart throws a chain to Bundy who uses it on Lawler and then nails the splash for the win. Lawler earns $6000 but comes up short in his bid for victory.
However, turnabout was fair play later in the show as Ric Rude defended the Southern Heavyweight Title against Tommy Rich. Rich has Rude in a sleeperhold as we join, but Rude manages to fight his way out of it by backing into the corner. A ref bump after Rude ducks to avoid a charging Rich sees all heel break loose as Tojo Yamamoto steps into the ring to take out Hart, Angel gets into the ring to hand Rude a chain, and Lawler arrives to bang their heads together and use the chain on Rude. That is enough for the win and Rich is now a two-time singles champ as he adds the Southern Heavyweight Title to the International Title he won off of Mr. Ito the previous week.
It is Russell who introduced both clips and he is the man who has to deal with an outraged Rude as he stalks out to the commentary booth to complain about the involvement of Lawler in his title match. He calls Lawler an animal for putting his hands on Angel, whilst promoting the show on Monday in which he will face Lawler in a strap match. Russell makes it clear that the winner will be given ten lashes to utilise however they want – Rude could split his with Hart and Angel; Lawler can use it on Rude, Hart and Angel. However, Hart mentions that he has something up his sleep as he isn’t going to allow anything to happen to Angel.
We cut to an interview with Lawler and Russell as Lawler is happiest about getting Rude in the ring after he had avoided him for so long in singles competition. Lawler, forever the guy shilling the product, talks about how they maybe hadn’t explained the stipulations as well as they could have done before running through them once more. The loser will be handcuffed to the ringpost and have their exposed back whipped by their opponent, with Lawler already making it clear that he will use five on Rude and five on Angel. Eighties wrestling in Memphis clearly doesn’t mind selling its shows on the potential for horrific violence against women.
Pre-taped footage of Tommy Rich, suited and booted, thanking the fans of Memphis for their support in his victories over the previous two weeks. Having beaten Rude this week, Monday night in the Coliseum will see Rich take on Bundy, with Rich talking about a bully that used to take advantage of his size on the football field, with Rich eventually taking him down and proving he wasn’t a loser. These words bring out Bundy and Hart to talk with Russell, with Hart beginning by explaining how the blemish from Bundy’s record has gone now that he has beaten Lawler. Bundy threatens to squash Rich like a bug and become a Southern Heavyweight Champion that people can look up to. Bundy goes on to win a handicap match, but all that I have access to is a replay of Bundy squashing a jobber for the victory.
The main event of the night sees The Rock and Roll Express take on the Nightmares, a team that he has re-signed to join the First Family. A few different men have worked under the masks as the Nightmares, but this iteration is Ken Wayne and Danny Davis. It is just like Memphis to bring someone back with limited fanfare outside of just plugging them into the main event of a studio show, though they had wrestled on a Coliseum show earlier in the month and had been wrestling before that under masks as the Galaxians.
It is Ricky Morton who begins in the contest against one of the Nightmares and Russ
ell speaks up his speed as he lands a dropkick. The Express are using quick tags early on as Gibson is brought in to land a slam and an armdrag before bringing Morton back in. Nightmare #2 gets short shrift as well as he gets a Morton dropkick and a Gibson armdrag. Morton takes the match to the canvas with a flying headscissors, forcing Nightmare #2 into the ring ropes to break the hold. A double back elbow drops Nightmare #1 on the canvas, whilst he then gets caught with stereo elbows to the gut and backfists to the face. Nightmare #2 makes the mistake of charging in without thinking and is taken down with a double drop toehold that has Hart up on the apron in disgust.
It takes an illegal kick to the back of the head from the apron to put Gibson down, with a handful of hair and a divorce court style DDT keeping Gibson out of his own corner. An attempted Gibson dropkick is caught and sees the fan favourite take a slingshot into the turnbuckle in the second interesting exchange of moves in quick succession. Gibson rolls his way out of a hammerlock and lands a kneelift that allows him to tag Morton, only for a missed dropkick to halt any momentum the Express might have had off of the tag.
The Nightmares are also utilising quick tags to work over Morton, landing a double back elbow of their own and multiple elbows, enough for a two count. Morton grabs a sunset flip out of nowhere but the pin is broken up before the ref can even get down to the canvas. Each time it looks like Morton might be building up some speed for a comeback, the Nightmares manages to cut him off, with a leapfrog seeing Morton hit the ropes and come back into a stiff clothesline. Morton eventually scoots through the legs of the Nightmare to make a tag, with a do si do spot seeing stereo dropkicks put the Express back in control. It also serves to signal the arrival of Poffomania for a disqualification. Whilst it isn’t surprising that that is the finish, this match was a really good affair, going around eight minutes and hopefully setting the two teams up for further interactions. Even better are Hart’s protestations that he is getting sick of outside interference.