Match # 124: Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett & Freddy vs. Dutch Mantell, Master of Pain & Ronnie Gossett (7/10/89) This match was shot on an old camcorder from the hard camera perspective out with the fans. Really crappy footage for following so many men, but I’ll forgive it because it has the Memphis Freddy gimmick rip [...]
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Match # 118: Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich (9/17/88) Another in a long line of late 80s match-ups between these two. This is a feud I loved as a child, and this one is for both the belts. Von Erich’s World Class title & Lawler’s AWA title are on the line.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Match # 116: Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich (6/27/88) This one takes me back to childhood in the late 80s watching World Class on ESPN. My mother would yell at me if she caught me watching, so I turned it low every weekday afternoon, sit right up close on the TV, and be transported to [...]
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Match # 115: Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell (5/29/88) This was a clever little match. Not great, but decent, and definitely worth inclusion on this set. These two are master workers for their style, and they know how to play to a Memphis crowd.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Match # 114: Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (Title vs. Retirement) (5/9/88) They built this up for a while as Lawler’s last shot at his quest to become the world champion. They even had voting to pick a ref (with Larry The Ax Hennig), and local area legend Jackie Fargo winning. This is for the AWA [...]
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Match # 112: Jerry Lawler vs. Eddie Gilbert (No DQ) (3/28/88) Joined in progress from the Mid South Coliseum. Crowd is hot, but you can see they are way down. There are seats and sections everywhere with no people in them. Memphis was slowly dying as an arena attraction at this point.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Match # 109: Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol (Hair vs. Hair, Steel Cage Match) (4/27/87) [MEMPTENN-4] This is one of the more famous matches in 80s Memphis history. Each man has put up his hair. There is no time limit and no DQ. It’s in a steel cage with Idol’s manager – a young Paul Heyman [...]
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Match # 108: Jerry Lawler & Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Austin Idol & Tommy Rich (Texas Death Match) (3/23/87) This is the reprise of the last match, with the rules of the Bigelow vs Lawler classic that started the set. Same basic pairings and same general feelings as the last match. I found the Bigelow/Rich pairing [...]
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Match # 107: Jerry Lawler & Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Austin Idol & Tommy Rich (Double Jeopardy Match) (3/16/87) Two rings with all four men going at each other at the same time. I guess each “match” is in a separate ring. You can trade at any time to switch the match up, but you [...]
Friday, March 6, 2009
Match # 106: Jerry Lawler vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (Texas Death) (9/7/86) We’ve got a very green Bam Bam playing monster heel to Lawler’s home town dragon slayer. A perfect formula for a match that had a very good formula. They hide that Bigelow at this point in his career can’t do much. He sells [...]
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Match # 104: Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town) (7/14/86) There’s no big build up for this one, but it’s freakin’ Lawler and Dundee. Need I say more. We’re promised the match in its entirety at the beginning, but we only get about 16 minutes of a 24 minute match. It’s decent [...]
Monday, March 2, 2009
Match # 102: Jerry Lawler & Dutch Mantel vs. Bill Dundee & Buddy Landel (3/10/86) This was one of those really well built up matches that had months of angles and development behind it. We get a few of these with every ballot. The footage is there to show the build up in the extras, [...]
Monday, March 2, 2009
Match # 101: Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town) (12/30/85) Wow. The first one was so good they just had to do it again. Hell, the second one (more angle then match) was pretty damn great too. They built this as Dundee putting up the Southern title and his hair – [...]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Match # 99: Jerry Lawler, Dusty Rhodes & Magnum T.A. vs. Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (11/18/85) The Four Horseman are in town, and Crockett has sent Dusty and his protégé to join Lawler. It’s a star studded gimmick match extravaganza. Bunk house match is jeans and t-shirts coming right up. They start with [...]
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Match # 96: Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (10/19/85) This match starts with an angle. Tag team poster boys are in studio doing a promo and mention Dundee and Lawler. Dundee comes out saying that the Lawler/Dundee team can be the Fabs and they need a match. The Fabs politely explain to they weren’t challenging [...]
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Match # 95: Jerry Lawler vs. Rick Martel (Nashville 10/12/85) This is for the AWA World Championship. It’s from an area in Nashville and the video quality is actually excellent. Jerry Calhoun is your referee. Lance Russell helped out doing the arena announcing. The crowd is up for this. That combined with Lance Russell on commentary [...]
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Match # 94: Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. Tom Pritchard & Pat Rose (10/12/85) Pritchard give a pretty amusing promo beforehand about the Armstrong Brothers. I don’t believe it has anything to do with this match, but he had a wet towel he pretended he’d been crying into. Guess you had to be there.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Match # 92: Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol vs. Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy (Badstreet Match) (8/12/85) So they were having a return match after all. I’m puzzled as to the finish of the last tag match these four had, but I’m glad the Birds are back. They got “their” match, too. Dug the last [...]
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Match # 90: Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol vs. Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy (8/5/85) Hell yeah. The Freebirds in Memphis. This was not their famed first run there, but a quick heel of the month stop in. And as we all know, if a big heel stops in for a week or two in [...]
Friday, February 13, 2009
Match # 88: Jerry Lawler vs. Randy Savage (Loser Leaves Town) (6/3/85) These men actually had many matches throughout the first half of 1985 in Memphis. Savage was something of an early Brian Pillman Loose Cannon-type character at this time, terrorizing Japanese photographer Jimmy Suzuki and Lance Russell during different times at the studio show. [...]
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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