Memphis Wrestling (12.19.1981) Review

-Getting back on track after a two-month gap…

-Originally aired December 19, 1981.

-Your hosts are Lance Russell & Dave Brown.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Norvell Austin) vs. EDDIE GILBERT & RICKY MORTON
-And this is indeed the ORIGINAL Midnight Express, Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose. Brown explains that they function like the Freebirds–there are three members, and Norvell is sitting this match out and taking the manager role.

-Condrey gets caught in a side headlock, and the faces switch off applying the hold on him. Morton shoulderblocks Condrey. Rose tags in and gets the same treatment, as this match is shaping up to be a bit of a disaster for the Express. Rose successfully catches Morton in a back suplex, and Condrey tags in and gets to work, bearhugging him to work the lower back.

-Hot tag to Eddie Gilbert, and he’s a house of fire until Austin pulls the rope down, and Gilbert tumbles to the concrete. Austin posts him while the referee is trying to restore order. And that’s surprisingly not the finish!

-A bloody Eddie makes it back into the ring and just gets mangled by the Express. Ricky protests, which gives the Express to gang up on him some more, and Eddie’s dad Tommy Gilbert has had enough, coming to the ring himself and throwing a towel in the ring to put a stop to it.

-Tommy comes over to the table. He pledged that he would stay out of his son’s business, but if his son is that hurt, then why didn’t the Express just go for the pin?

-Norvell Austin wants to know if there’s a problem with the way his team handled “Mama’s Baby” and challenges Tommy to a father/son tag team match.

-We go to the house show promo, and Lance explains that since this hour of TV is pre-taped, he can confirm that there HAS been a match signed between the Gilbert Family and the Midnight Express. There, show the angle and THEN run the house show promo! Was that so hard? Funnily enough, the next house show promo is Bobby Eaton along with Jimmy Hart.

DUTCH MANTELL (Southern Heavyweight Champion) vs. THE INVADER
-Snapmare into a chinlock by Dutch. He stretches Invader a bit, but Invader throws punches to take control until missing a corner charge. Double clutch (Polish hammer) gets the win for the champ.

THE CUBAN ASSASSIN & THE IRANIAN ASSASSIN (with Jimmy Hart) vs. TIM LEONARD & TOM MALEY
-How many countries need to send Assassin wrestlers into Memphis, exactly? Cuban Assassin is Angel Acevedo, who basically made a career out of being a Cuban villain in every territory that would have him, and the Cuban Assassin is unmistakably the wrestler last seen in this territory going by the name Ali Hussein, and it’s a Great Hussein Arab/Iron Sheik deal where he’s going by a different name but he’s 100% the same character and look. And again, if you’re a 1980s WWF fan, you remember Iranian Assassin best as “the referee who screamed a lot.”

-Maley gets caught in the corner early and gets double-teamed. Leonard tags in and dukes it out with the Iranian. Cuban tags in and snapmares Leonard down. Double clothesline by the Assassins gets three………Double clothesline.

STAN LANE (with Jimmy Hart) vs. ROY ROGERS
-We’re getting the entire history of the Midnight Express in a single hour of TV.

-Lane uses the hair to take Rogers down. They scuffle on the mat for a bit. Lane switches to striking blows to take over and slams Rogers down for a one-count. Cobra clutch by Lane as the commentators point out that the canvas has a big rip in it that should probably be dealt with. I love this promotion; ripped canvas, no aprons on the ring, and like a 90 share in the ratings in Memphis at this point. Amazing.

-Rogers makes a comeback, but Lane gives him an elbow to the back of the head, and a neckbreaker gets the win for Sweet Stan.

EXPIRATION OF TIME, NON-TITLE MATCH: SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE & STEVE KEIRN (Southern Tag Team Champions) vs. SWEET BROWN SUGAR & THE DREAM MACHINE (with Jimmy Hart)
-FALL ONE: Everybody takes turns showing their stuff in the opening moments of the match. Dundee and Sugar get into a weird-looking sissy boy slap fight for a moment. Dundee throws a hard right and dropkicks Sugar, who goes to the floor for a retreat.

-Back in, Keirn monkey flips Sugar, but Jimmy Hart provides the necessary distraction and Sugar takes advantage to…take…the advantage, I guess. Dream Machine tags in and slams Dundee, then decides his work here is done and tags Sugar back in. I’m not criticizing him for being lazy, but even within kayfabe, the guys who do one move and tag their partner right back in just look like shitty teammates.

-Machine tags in and throws a dropkick, and then tags right back out! Dundee does a pretty slick snake-crawl across the mat to get out of there. Keirn tags in, but Jimmy Hart tries to interfere, and that leads to a mele, and the referee quickly calls for the bell and calls for a DQ, and he gives the win to Hart’s team, because Keirn was the one to went after Hart to start the melee.

-During the break in action, we head to highlights from the Mid-South Coliseum of the champs battling the Cuban & Iranian Assassins. Referee gets bumped and chaos breaks out and Jimmy and his men destroy the champions until Dutch Mantell comes to the rescue.

FALL TWO: Attempted double-team goes wrong for the heels right away, as Sugar dropkicks Machine to the floor and the champs use the advantage to get Sugar into their corner and keep him there for a bit. Action goes to the floor, and we get a rare table bump, with Sugar getting thrown into Lance & Dave’s corner and toppling everything, and Lance demands that the match be stopped because of this insanity. Referee obliges and that’s the show. Good thing Lance’s demand that the match be stopped coincided with the end of TV time.

6.2 The final score: review Average The 411 Some fun historic stuff this week.legend$(document).ready(function(){ $('.legend').on("click", function(e){ e.preventDefault(); $('.legend-container').slideToggle(); }); }) 0 - 0.9 Torture 1 - 1.9 Extremely Horrendous 2 - 2.9 Very Bad 3 - 3.9 Bad 4 - 4.9 Poor 5 - 5.9 Not So Good 6 - 6.9 Average 7 - 7.9 Good 8 - 8.9 Very Good 9 - 9.9 Amazing 10 Virtually Perfect

Memphis Wrestling (12.19.1981) Review

Memphis Wrestling (12.19.1981) Review

Memphis Wrestling (12.19.1981) Review

Memphis Wrestling (12.19.1981) Review

Memphis Wrestling (12.19.1981) Review