#134 – Memphis Wrestling TV, March 10, 1984
This week Dre and Black Cat visit the Memphis television studios to review an episode of CWA wrestling from March 10, 1984 including such wrestling personalities as Jimmy Hart, Dirty Rhodes, Austin Idol, Harley Davidson, Joe LeDuc, Rick Rude, Bugsy McGraw, and of course, Lance Russell. We’re also pleased to announce that the OSWP 500 book is now available for digital download on our Gumroad site. Please support the Old School Wrestling Podcast by visiting flairchop.com where you can find links to all of our great products. We now offer all of our box sets and bonus episodes from all three seasons on our premium digital download site. We’ll see you…..at the matches!
I was 14 and living in my hometown of Memphis when this aired. Unbelievable how good this stuff was back then. Great podcast guys!
Thank you very much for showing this; the original Fabulous Ones are one of my all-time favorite tag teams, as much for their camp value as for their wrestling skills. I’ve never seen the Bruise Brothers as the New Fabs before this, but have been looking at Fabs stuff out of admiration and as research for a potential project. Jimmy Hart’s “Fabulous Ones” were superior in terms of ladykilling skills and charisma compared to Stan and Steve’s actual replacements, Wildfire Tommy Rich and Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhGhAXpH5ho). Of course such a pairing could never last, and Eddie’s heel turn before he left for Mid-South/UWF allowed for the Fabulous Ones feud we never knew we needed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox-0pbaCqOk).
The Zambuie Express had success before under the names of Leroy Brown (Mr. Elijah Akeem) and Ray Candy (Mr. Kareem Muhammed). Their gimmick in Georgia was that they’d been back to Africa to get in touch with themselves and would now be addressed by their new names as they overcame 200 years of being held down by the establishment.
BTW, wasn’t Angel the name of Rick Rude’s girlfriend?
The weirdest part was Angel was his real life sister playing his wrestling life girlfriend
SCARY WRESTLING STORY
There’s a pretty sweet Indy promotion called Beyond Wrestling that runs once a month in Providence. There was a Fans Bring the Weapons Match between Biff Busick and Matt Tremont. I always buy VIP tickets which gets me a folding chair up on a stage across from the ring. At least once a show, a match spills over to our stage and we scatter and flee while something cool happens.
This time, however, I decided that I was going to try and hand one of the guys a folding chair. They didn’t want it. Biff yelled at me to move, so I ran, in the direct path of where he was bieling Tremont into a bunch of chairs. I was about 2 feet away from a 300 pound crazy hardcore wrestler being hip-tossed right onto me. Apparently it’s on video, because someone who bought the VOD saw me almost die.
Also, one time at a sleepover I was telling my friend scary stories about Waylon Mercy breaking into the house and killing with a sleeper hold. He fell right asleep and I was scared shitless.
I also had a Doink and Dink WWF Magazine poster on my wall as a kid. I used to be convinced that if I looked out the window at night I would see one or both of them peering in. I used a Lite Brite as a night light for awhile due to that.
Another time, I was trying to fall asleep and I had a dream that some wrestlers were attacking some fatty (Akeem, Earthquake, Typhoon) and they crushed his leg and broke it. I cried.
Oh, you wanted scary stories, not pathetic ones. Oh well, better luck next year!
DLo’sChestProtector/@Milldog311/Eric
Regarding Long John’s…you’re both wrong.
I really enjoyed your recent podcast on the Memphis area show. I could not agree with you more regarding what an icon Lance Russel is to Professional Wrestling.
If you enjoyed the Memphis experience, might I recommend the following youtube clips to you:
1) Bloody Studio Brawl – Tommy Rich, Jerry Lawler, Dirty Rhodes, Don Bass (9-27-86) Memphis Wrestling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnirpmLp42E Brutal beatdown of Tommy Rich by Bass & Rhodes. You can see women and children in the studio horrified by the massive bladejob by Rich. Lance Russel’s commentary is hilarious, as well as the aftermath with Jerry Lawler.
2) First Family Donnybrook! Beatdown on Jerry Lawler (1981) Classic Memphis Wrestling Heels – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXD5xpHgOWQ Not nearly as brutal as Rich’s beatdown, but JimmY Hart steals the show, as well as some great commentary by Russel.
3) Jim Neidhart & Rick Rude vs. Eddie Gilbert & Tommy Rich. Chaos! Memphis May 5, 1984 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8t7r6yDFcg The Face Beatdown job that just WOULD NOT END! TONS of interference, and the heels beat and beat and beat the faces for about 10
minutes.
4) Jim Neidhart is a run in machine – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPOeeUbGfxk Jim Neidhart interferes in three major matches in the Memphis Coliseum. There is no better Lance Russel commentary in the world.
You guys could do a WHOLE SHOW on these clips alone. That’s how rich they are.
Keep up the awesome work,
The Matador of M83