Memphis Mark

Jerry Lawler . Add this to your list . Lawler feud with Bill Dundee picks up steam in either 1977 . Dundee is put his hair on the line to get yet another Southern Heavyweight Title match .. Of course , Dundee loses the match and is shaved bald in the center of the ring. Lawler refuses to wrestle Dundee again . Dundee puts up his wife hair , Bev Dundee , in order to get another title match . Once again Dundee loses and his wife get her head shaved . Great . Then there was the big Southern tag title on Channel 13 , I think the year was 1972 . Jerry jarrett and jackie Fargo were set to defend against Jerry Lawler and Jim White . Lawler no showed the match and Sam Bass was to to tale Jerry's spot . Fans were getting autographs from the faces . Out of nowhere a female fan attacked Jerry Jarrett . If I recall correctly the female fan knocked out Jarrett with a loaded purse . Of course the female fan was Jerry Lawler in drag . The blood feud betwwen the two teams exploed all over the Memphis territory . Jim Cornette did the same angle in Mid - South . Jim's tribute to his and our King.

Tommy could work as a heel or face . This clip is past his prime. In the 1970's he worked with Marlin and held the NWA Southern Tag Titles . He also worked as a single , holding the Southern Jr. Heavyweight belt. Tommy had some great matches with Lawler, The Greene Brothers , Dandy Jack Donovan , and many others, Most people remember him as Eddie's father , but he was great talent . As you can tell , I am fan.

I think it is Tommy Gilbert. Tommy was the regular tag of Eddie Marlin in the 1970's . Marlin would take a tremendous ass kicking in almost every big match . Gilbert would get the hot tag and destroyed anything that moved. Marlin very rarely got in any offense , bot he was one hell of a salesman . Jerry Lawler created the Rock N" Express to get Morton and Gibson over when they were stuck in the opening match. I always though that Lawler and Jarrett used the Gilbert / Marlin team as the in ring model when they created the the Express. Same story just 10 - 15 years later.Marlin and Morton both could really sell. The big difference is that Gilbert in ring work was much stronger that Robert Gibson 's work .Nothing against Gibson but Tommy Gilbert was a great wrestler in his prime. I have to give Tommy Gilbert the nod ,

Mr, Wrestling II , the great Johnny " Rubber Man " Walker . i saw Johnny Walker wrestle in Memphis in the early 1970's . He is one of the best in ring talents in the history of wrestling . Johnny feuded against the likes of The Interns and the late , great Don Greene . Walker had been wrestling since the 1950's . He was suffering for male pattern baldness and was beginning to age . In other words he looked like Verne Gagne. When , Jerry Jarrett took over the Atlanta booking , he created the Mr. Wrestling II gimmick for Walker. If I remenber correctly the Atlanta . Mr. Wrestling was Tim Woods . Later Dick Steinborn was Mr. Wrestling in Memphis. So Walker , a 20 plus year vet , took the Mr. Wrestling II gimmick and explode on TBS as a new talent . . I believe he worked in Georgia , Florida , Southeastern , Mis- South and the Mid- Atlantic areas as Wrestling II . The II character drew a lot of money and gave a 20 year vet another 15 plus years of earning main event money. The Wrestling II character hit cable in it's infancy . Almost none of the fans knew the man behind the mask was over 50 years old.. Just guys like me who got the Wrestling News every month .

Watch from 1979 to 1989 . That is real Memphis . The USWA was a scaled back version of the territory .In the early 1990's talent that could not get booked by the WWF , WCW or Japan worked in Memphis , Portland or Puerto Rico . The USWA still had some talent bot it could not match the star power of the 1980's. When Smoky Mountain and ECW started up the Memphis talent base continue to erode . Lawler vs. Jimmy's Hart First Family., Lawler vs. Bill Dundee , Lawler / Dutch Mantell vs. Dundee/ Buddy Landell , Lawler vs. Tommy Rich/ Austin Idol , Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkle for the AWA title , Tommy Rich vs. Eddie Gilbert, Fabs vs. Sheepherders, Fabs vs. Moondogs , Tojo/ Tarzen Goto/ Aiko Sato vs. Jeff Jarrett / Billy Travis , Robert Fuller / Jimmy Golden vs. Jarrett / Dundee , Lawler vs. Terry Funk , Lawler vs, the Gilberts are just a few of the great programs are happened betwen 79 and 89. I grew up and Memphis and watched it all unfold. If it is your first time viewing Memphis you are in for a real treat .

Buddy wins the contracts of the Headhunters from Sullivan in a back stage poker game. Buddy had some great matches with Wenell Cooley in both Continental and USA Wrestling . As for Burrhead Jones , I know Jerry Jarrett used him a TV jobber in Memphis. Jones also worked the undercards during the week. Years later Jarrett repacked him as Roosevelt Jones in an effort to get a new babyface over . Roosevelt/ Burrhead did go over and faded away.

Hardy has said that is back cannot take working a full time schedule with the WWE. Plus I think he is making great money working on weekend and enjoys the creative freedom . However you are right Hardy has become a master of getting heat.

I say Ron Fuller is smarter than all of them put together. Anyway I think Vince is a bad business man However, he has been surrounded by good people who have protected him over the years. Without Gorilla Monsoon , Pat Patterson , Jerry Jarrett , Jerry Brisco , Jim Ross and his wife helping him he would have never made it . On the other hand he hired the likes of Vince Russo and Kevin Dunn who have really damaged the wrestling business. Look at his stock price price has fallen over the past few months. On March 14 , the stock price was $ 30.94 and it closed on Friday at $ 11.40. He overspend on his WWE network and over promised stockholders on the TV rights deal. Will the stock go back ? I don't know I just glad I don't have any .

Some of this may have already been covered.This information is from memory and reading recollections from Jerry jarrett . Portland died because Vince purchased Don Owens tv time. Southwest died because Joe Blanchard could no longer afford to buy time on the USA network. Vince took his slot. Florida died becauce the promption was builted around Dusty Rhodes , who jumped to Crockett. Georgia died because co-owners Jim Barnett and the Briscoes sold out to Vince . The remaining owner , Ole Anderson , tried go it alone , but after about a year sold out to the Crocketts. Detroit and Indianpolis ended because their product was terrible when compared to the cable programs WWF and the NWA . The Sheik and the Brusier drawing power declining qucikly as they aged . St. Louis ended because Sam Munick retired . When Sam retired the the NWA began to crumbled. Central States was sold to Crockett , JR. Who gave the territory back to Geigel , it quickly closed. San Fran Bay Area died because Roy Shire was cheap and hard to work for. See Buddy Rose comment. LA ended for lack of business. I don't know much about the LA office. Continental died because Ron Fuller saw the business was declining. Ron sold his Alabama / Florida panhandle to David Woods. Ron started a new terrtory in Knoxville , which he sold to Woods. David Woods had no background in wrestlong, so he was out in business within 2 years. Mid-South/ UWF ended because Bill Watts tried to copy Vince and go national with territory . The big problem Watts had is that he could not develop his own talent. The Mid- South glory years were a product of Memphis talent. Jerry Jarrett sent Bill Dundee to book Mid-South . Jarrett also sent Jim Cornette , Bobby Eaton , Dennis Condry , Rick Morton , Robert Gibson and Terry Taylor in to Watt's promotion. Watching Mid- South became exicting, you know like Memphis. Later Eddie Gilbert , Bobby Fulton , Tommy Rogers , Dutch Mantell , Koko Ware, Norvel Austin and more made their way to Mid-South. Even Sting came from Memphis. Jarrett had fired the Bladerunners , said they could not work . so Watts picked them up. When Watts went national he hired Ken Mantell to bring in the FreeBirds , Chris Adams, King Parsons and alot of World Class under card talent Watts was trying to put Fritz Von Erich out of business. Watts also turned on Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler and began running in Memphis. Jarrett ran Watts out of Tennessee and the Memphis talent pipeline was cut off for Watts. Talent like Bill Dundee, Dutch Mantell , Wendell Cooley , etc. went back to Memphis. This was key because Jarrett made it his mission to develop new talent , while Watts only develop Steve Williams . After the NWA and WWF raided Watts he was left with very little talent. Also Williams and Gordy went to Japan which made it worse for the Cowboy. However , Watts was able to con Jim Crockett, Jr. and unload the UWF on the Crocketts. Stupid Jim , JR. should have waited for Watts to go under and just walk into the area. Calgary ended when Stu Hart sold to Vince . Stu got jobs for Brett, Davey Boy , Neidhart and Dynamite as part of the deal. Vince only want the key pieces of talent and Stampede Wrestling shut down. Within a year Vince welched on his deal with Stu. As we all know Stu tried a restart but withib Bret it was doomed to failure. The AWA , World Class and Memphis deal was a real mess. Fritz sold out to Kerry and Kevin , who quickly ran the business in to the ground. Kerry called in Jerry Jarrett who purchased part of World Class . I think I read that Jarret had 50 % and the Von Erichs had 50 %. Jarrett sucessfully ran the World Class and Memphis/ CWA regions. Kerry wanted to work with Jarrett and Lawler . Kerry work alot in the CWA . Kevin did not want to work with Jarreet and went home. Jarret had the slot on ESPN . He eventually combined both Memphis and Dallas under the USWA banner. As for the AWA . Jarrett went to Minnesota with a million dollars . He was going to buy the AWA fron Verne Gange. The ideal was to combine the Memphis , World Class and AWA under the USWA banner , The new promotion in the middle of the country who have a national program on ESPN . They would have been the third group . Jarrett went with Verne and Greg. Greg demanded to be the booker for the group and asked for a high salary . Jarrett said no he did not want Greg in the promotion at all ,. Verne backed out of the sale and the AWA folded. Back in Dallas the Von Erichs and Jarrett had a falling out of money , so the partnership ended. Kerry and Kevin restared without TV and quickly folded. Jarrett returned to Tennessee and downside the USWA into a small regional promtion. Jarrett sold his 50% to Lawler. For all of this in ring talent, Lawler could not managed the business without Jarrett. Lawler sold the Memphis territory to two different groups. He sold the tv business to one buyer and the live events part to another buyer. Needless to say it all quickly fell apart and in 1997 the famous Memphis territory died . As fot the NWA . , I really never though Vince hurt the NWA . The real enemies were Jim Crockett, JR. , Ric Falir and Dusty Rhodes. Jim , JR. blew a fortune on buyiny the Florida , Georgia , UWF and Central States offices. Jim , JR. also moved the office to Dallas , had privates planes And paid Rhodes and Flair a fortune. They were stories of running in La and San Fran and taking private plane to Vegas to gamble in between shows. In short Jim , JR. blew all of his family money and sold to Turner so he could escape his negative cash flow situation. Welcome to the world WCW. WCW has been covered to death. Later SMW and ECW came along . Paul Heyman and Jim Cornette both decide to shut and go to work for Vince. That really is the bottom line. They just took the path of least resistance. Anyway all I can recall of the top of my head. To me Vince was just an idiot who out lasted a bunch of other idiots.

The book is for sale on Amazon.

I only watch wrestling dvds , University of Memphis Basketball , Memphis Grizzlies basketball , the weather forecast and any business program with good stock market info. I do not watch wrestling on TV , WWE or TNA . I do watch ROH online. Pop culture wise I have given on on everything else. I watch 8 to 10 hours per week , usually late at night or weekends. Watching in off hours keeps wrestling from interfering with other thing. I really don't think I can watch too much wrestling . Good pro wrestling is better than just about anything television networks have to offer.

Thank you! Based on your information I was able to find this http://prowrestling.wikia.com/wiki/Jack_Krueger According to that bio he also worked as a road agent and a referee for WWF in the late 80s/early 90s but he has a fairly memorable look and I don't remember ever seeing him as a ref in WWF. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=8553&page=4 Looking at his match listings there I'm not even sure how he wound up in Continental. It looked like he had steady work as a jobber in WWF all through 86 but just showed up in Continental for October before going right back to WWF. A Iranian Assassin/ Sheik note that has nothing to do with Continental . Jimmy Hart and the First Family shot a music video to promote Jimmy's new single " We Hate School " . The Sheik / Iranian Assassin was the drummer in the video. Pretty Cool.

. Brad had a good run as North American champ in Mid-South . However in my mind Buddy Landel , Phil Hickerson , Tracy Smothers , Eric Embry , Tommy Rich and Eddie Gilbert are the top guys. So what do I know.

I think The Continental Sheik was Ali Hassan , The Iranian Assassin . He worked for Dick the Bruiser WWA fed. LIke many others he went to work in Memphis after the WWA 's business went south. If I am correct he held the AWA Southern belts with both Paul Ellering and the Cuban Assassin. He was part of Jimmy Hart's First Family.

I agree . Brad was a great wrestler, had a great look and could connect with the fans. Great talent who could have drawn big money given the chance.

Are you referring to HARDCORE HISTORY by Scott E. Williams ? I purchased a copy several years ago. It is a great read.

The Gulas /Welch wrestling promotion had two groups splinter off ; the Jarrett / Lawler Memphis group and the Ron Fuller's Southeastern group. I think the Memphis promotion is the best break off group in wrestling history.

Pre 1996. It not even close . Wrestling before the end of 96 is loaded. Memphis , Mid -South , World Class , NWA , Portland , AWA, Florida , Georgia , Southwest , Southeastern/ Continental , ECW ,Smoky Mountain , NJPW , AJPW , CMLL and much more. I am not a WWF or WCW fan so it works out for me.

Well ROH was purchased by Cary Silken . I guess you could call Silken a money mark . It is my understanding Silken was regarded to be a good business man. Under Silken ROH had low fixed cost which allow the company to turn a profit. If my memory is correct ROH business was strong until late 2007 . The CZW feud, the Danielson run , the Samoa Joe / CM Punk program , the NOAH wrestlers . the DRagon Gate talent all created a strong run for the company. The bottom fell out for ROH for several reasons. The DVD pirates , TNA / WWE pulling talent from ROH and really poor booking from Gabe drove the company down in 2007/2008. ROH lost CM Punk , Samoa Joe , Colt Cabana , Matt Sydal , Christopher Daniels , AJ Styles , BJ Whitmer , Low Ki , Homicide , Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley within a 18 to 24 month period. I thought Gabe booking in 2007/2008 was toxic to the company. The faction wars were rejected by the fans. Remember Hangmen 3 . I could be wrong that that is the way I recall the time period. Unlike ECW and TNA , ROH was saved by Sinclair . Sure Sinclair runs ROH on the cheap . However they can make ROH profitable via multiple revenue steams. TV ad revenue ( local and national ) , ticket sales , dvd sales , vod sales , ppv sales , gimmick sales all boost the bottom. If Sinclair could lay a cable deal on top of their own tv network they could make ROH a winner. I am not pretending to be a tv expert , but my understanding was that Heyman was paying for tv time. Jerry Jarrett said it is better to have no tv deal than a bad tv deal. I still believe a lot of the cash never made it to the bank. Hell Heymen did even pay guys like CW Anderson and Steve Corino. I cannot believe there was not enough cash on hand at the house shows to pay the workers something.. Anyway I miss ECW . Memphis , Southeastern / Continental ,Smoky Mountain , ECW and ROH are all time favorite promotions.I will admit that I did enjoy TNA during the weekly Nashville PPV days.

Jerry Lawler 's breakout year was great . If my memory serves me correct the year was 1974. Lawler had been a tag team wrestler for two years . Jerry 's main tag partner was Jim White , however he also worked with Don Duffy , Don Greene and Al Greene . In 1974 the Southern Jr, Heavyweight title became the Southern Heavyweight title. The Southern single was capture by Lawler and his manager Sam Bass. Then Jerry embarked on his chase for the NWA World Title , which was held by Jack Brisco. Lawler had to beat the other top contenders to get at title match with Jack Briscoe . Lawler defeated The Sheik , Bobo Brazil , Mr. Wrestling II ,and Dick the Bruisier . The last test was Jerry Brisco . Lawler defeated Jerry Brisco in a series of hard fought matches. Lawler finally got his shot at Jack before 11,200 at the Mid South . Lawler pinned Jack to win the NWA belt . However after the match Jerry Brisco pointed out to the ref that Lawler had used a chain to knock Jack out cold. So , of course , the decision was reversed . That one hell of a break out year . In 1975 Lawler lost the Southern title to Ron Fuller . Fuller actually ran Lawler out of Memphis for a year . In reality Lawler got cross ways with Jerry Jarrett who sent him to Alabama as punishment.. The belt went from Ron Fuller to The Mongolian Stomper to Bob Armstrong. Lawler returned in 76 and defeated Armstrong. At that time Lawler returned to the top of Memphis for good . Bill Dundee , Rocky Johnson , Jimmy Valiant , Dutch Mantell , Austin Idol and Joe Leduc to become his main rivals over the next 15 years. . Ron Fuller bought the Knoxville teritory and Armstrong , Stomper , Robert Fuller and Jommy Golden relocated that market. I was 13 years old in 1974 so I am just recalling the events from my memory . If I am in error please correct . Thanks.

Brian Cage , Willie Mack , Chris Masters, John Morrison , Joey Ryan , Scorpio Sky ,Adam Pearce and Colt Cabana are names that stick out to me. That would be a nice core roster for a startup . I don't think any of these guys are under contract . The ROH talents are getting around 40 dates year with their home promotion . Now it looks like the top ROH talents are now going to get NJPW tours. Then they fill in their schedule with indy dates and overseas tours . The top ROH guys always seem to have plenty of work. If I 'm in ROH I would only leave for the WWE , not Global Force or even TNA.

Great Post. However alot of the talents you mentioned are not available. AJ Styles , Young Bucks , Mike Benett, Adam Cole , Briscoes and Luke Gallows are all under with ROH or NJPW . I can't see anyone leaving NJPW/ROH to join the startup Global Force.

This looks will a restart of Jarretts India promotion , Ring Ka King. JJ wants to draw money for everywhere. This promotion will focus on oversea business. TV and touring in India, UK , Germany , Pacific Rim , etc. Limited amount of dates in USA. Just a guess , could be wrong .

I always thought ECW when out of business due to poor management. At that time wrestling was a cash business. Tickets , tapes , t shirts and other gimmicks were purchased with cash at the live shows. We are talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousand of dollars steaming into the business in the form of cash . Did all of that cash find it way to the bank ? I don't think so . Skimming of the top is common in a cash business . So I don't think all of that money went to buy tv time or pay for talent. Only Paul Heymen and his cousin Steve know where all of the cah went and they ain't telling nobody. I don't think it was a talent issue that killed ECW. Homicide , Low Ki , Samoa Joe , AJ Stytles , CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Chris Hero , Paul London , Bryan Danielson were are in the available talent pool as of 2001. It was mismanagement of their cash flow destroyed the company.

Yes. I am still reading . I have enyoyed the trip down memory lane. Thanks for doing it.