Loss Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 Just wanted to make a thread about the wrestling philosophy in Memphis and how different it was than other territories at the time. Mid South was awesome, but was more wrestling through the lens of ex-jocks, which is probably what most of wrestling was at that point. Memphis was different. Jerry Lawler was an artist. Jimmy Hart was a musician and a DJ. So I've always thought that was why it was a wilder, more bombastic presentation. They gave us the colorful gimmicks and music videos that helped get tons of guys over in the early 80s. We associate it now with the old school, but for its time period, it was a pretty progressive territory, to a point that it was often looked down upon by other groups. I've also always seen the whole presentation of Memphis wrestling as what Vince Russo thinks he does, but doesn't. For example, Jerry Jarrett built his all-time most successful rivalry -- Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee -- off of two guys who had legit heat. Matches bordered on overbooked at time. The shows were generally fast-paced and angle driven. They loved to build programs off of fake shoots. Title changes were frequent. Screwjobs happened fairly regularly. 10+ minute dueling promos on TV were common. But Jarrett was a guy who understood wrestling so well that at the core, there was still a very logical wrestling center. There was a clear hierarchy with Lawler as the top star and a rotating cast of top opponents surrounding him. And all the non-finishes and run-ins typically built to a big blowoff that was settled decisively, provided the guy stayed around the territory long enough to see the program through. Without Lawler, the formula wouldn't have worked. He was the constant. Because he was such a great promo -- from my view, the best of all time -- he was able to make sense out of just about anything, convince people of the booking points and get over his constantly rotating crop of challengers. He was a guy the fanbase believed in. Jarrett also knew the value of the announcers and did a great job protecting Lance Russell almost as much as he did Lawler, if not more. If Lance Russell said something, it carried weight, so he could make key points about upcoming matches and Lawler challengers and people bought into it. I've always wondered if there are any lessons that could be applied to a modern setting from Memphis. They did weekly shows on Monday nights that were built for the same audience. They usually needed to keep things interesting for 3-4 weeks with their big matches. This isn't to say there weren't down periods, bad decisions and that every idea worked. That's pretty far from the case. Hindsight always brings with it a little romance, and we think of the high points more than the daily grind. But all in all, it was a really fun ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 What they did that was so smart was they split the booking every year where originally Jarrett & Lawler booked 6 months a piece then Dundee joined on and when he was around he would book. Tom Renesto booked a while in 1985 and you could tell the difference between the usual Memphis style which was when Lawler booked it was all entertainment angles with monster characters and the like while Jarrett used a more traditional style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 At what point did they start mixing in guys like Robert Fuller and Eddie Gilbert, and what led to them getting those chances? Any idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 1988 because Lawler was becoming AWA champ so he was all over the place. They started mixing in guys like Embry in as well during the 90's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 To give an example of Lawler booking, Nightmare Freddy & Jason during 1989 was all Lawler along with the emergence of Ronnie P. Gossett. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 I watched the Super Bowl with an old friend last night, and after it was over we fired up YouTube and watched a bunch of random wrestling. My friend is a long-time WWF/E fan, but I don't think he has ever seen much of the territory-era stuff. Anyway, I showed him the clip of Savage's Memphis debut (in the TV studio where he demands a match with Lawler and dishes out piledrivers like crazy on two jobbers) followed by the first concession stand brawl and he was absolutely stunned and blown away by what he was seeing. We then watched the Cena vs Umaga Last Man Standing match from 07, and while it wasn't said, the feeling in the air was what we were watching didn't really matter and felt so contrived compared to the Memphis stuff, and this is a great match and one of the seminal moments of Cena's career. So, yeah, Memphis was fucking awesome. (On a side note, also last night, in a haze of beer and other good stuff, we developed the theory that Vince McMahon, through his announcing, was the "auteur" of the WWF from the 70s to 1997, and the real reason things have gone so downhill over the years is because he relinquished the headset and thus ceased to be the singular creative mind for the company...or something ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 How much of the 1977 Lawler/Dundee series do we have? Especially the TV promos and the big payoff matches? I just saw the end of the Aug. 22: Poole's hair vs. Dundee's hair: 7,143 match and Lawler's intensity was awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wahoos Leg Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 I definitely think a version of the Memphis model would work well today on the independent-show level. Run TV every weekend building to a live show -- either in the same building or one of a few -- and run the live event either Tuesday or Thursday, when WWE is not on TV. This allows you to do some especially crazy shit on any given week just as a one off for the next live show. Also, "name" indy guys are typically dirt cheap on midweek dates making it easy to bring in Special Guests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boon Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 I definitely think a version of the Memphis model would work well today on the independent-show level. Run TV every weekend building to a live show -- either in the same building or one of a few -- and run the live event either Tuesday or Thursday, when WWE is not on TV. This allows you to do some especially crazy shit on any given week just as a one off for the next live show. Also, "name" indy guys are typically dirt cheap on midweek dates making it easy to bring in Special Guests. I was thinking the same thing recently. I was watching some USWA from 1997, and its built so well, Match -> Angle -> Promo/Challenge -> Mid week match -> Follow up on TV -> Addition Angle and the cycle begins again until the blown of. Nothing is given away on TV or DVD, surely this day in age where everything is available, promotions should try and hide things so people go to there events? $15 dollars paid by 500 people has got to make more money than DVD's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 The problem with that model is that TV costs now generally overwhelm whatever you'd make at the live gate. The days when TV studios were happy to have wrestling on their channel are dead and gone. It's mostly treated as paid programming now, with the promotion actually having to pay a set fee to air their show; and for anything resembling a decent timeslot, the fee will not be small. They can try to recoup some of that money by producing and running their own commercials, but it's pretty difficult to find local businesses which are willing to sponsor a local rassling company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzombie1988 Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Well the thing with Memphis is that it's best as a territory and territories are gone for good. Any promotion can try and hide their shows, but someone is always going to handheld it and write millions of reports on it. Also, we are talking worldwide tv here. How are fans in other cities ever going to see these matches? Let's not even talk about how this would ruin any ppv business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wahoos Leg Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 Well the thing with Memphis is that it's best as a territory and territories are gone for good. Any promotion can try and hide their shows, but someone is always going to handheld it and write millions of reports on it. Also, we are talking worldwide tv here. How are fans in other cities ever going to see these matches? Let's not even talk about how this would ruin any ppv business. Who said anything about worldwide TV? I'm talking about local TV for a local market, preferably one proven to be a hotbed for wrestling -- there are some. The bigger problem is that it's hard to find TV slots that aren't on a cable-access type of channel or in the wee hours of the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingsfan73 Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 I don't know what their TV situation is, if any, but there's a group called IWA Unlimited out of Olney, IL, that runs a $5 show every Sunday and a free show every Wednesday night. CodySave might know more about them, as he's more on top of the Midwest indies than I am. Not sure if they're following the Memphis model you're speaking of. One would think the free shows on Wednesday are setting the stage for the Sunday paid shows, regardless if they're on local TV or the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 What about Beau James promotion in Kingsport TN? I'm not sure if he's still got local tv but the promotion does have weekly shows on Youtube and they have been around for over 20 years doing Memphis type shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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