[1990-02-03-USWA-Memphis TV] Jerry Lawler, Kerry Von Erich and Jeff Jarrett

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Lawler has drawn Dave Brown shooting a snowbird as they segue to the clip of Lawler attacking Jarrett at the conclusion of the Guitar on a Pole match against Travis from Dallas. They also show a clip of Lawler issuing an open challenge in Dallas after something happened (not sure what) that leads to Kerry Von Erich hitting the ring. Lawler distracts him long enough for Billy Joe Travis to sneak up behind him and break a guitar over his head. They double team Kerry until Jeff Jarrett makes the save and we've got ourselves a really hot impromptu brawl.

 

Back at the studio, Lawler points how Kerry is so pumped up on steroids that he can't even form a coherent sentence. He cuts quite the promo.

 

Now, we go back to Dallas and Jarrett and Kerry are being interviewed by Marc Lowrance. Kerry is wearing sparkly suspenders! Not good. Lawler has a response back at the studio for that one too. Lawler is fired up in these segments and is SO great! He points out that some people are blond on their mom's side, some are blond on their dad's side, and Jarrett is blond on peroxide.

 

Kerry then hypes in a taped promo that he's coming back to Memphis, and he couldn't be happier if it snowed?? Ok. That aside, this is one of the more coherent Kerry promos of the year.

[PeteF3]

I think he said, "I couldn't be happier, but you know..." Yeah, that was a solid, focused promo from KVE. More than I can say about Jarrett, who tried to play cool & collected and instead looked tense and rambling. Jarrett was a fine worker at this point but Lawler pretty much totally outclasses him on the mic. Lawler outclasses a lot of people, of course, but it particularly shows with young Jeff. His characterization of Kerry as a Cro-Magnon imbecile is great and almost a little too on-the-mark.

[soup23]

Lawler has drawn a pretty picture for Dave and we get some good clips showing guitars getting busted on heads and brawls throughout the arena. Lawler then gives his most straight fired up promo of the year which is followed by Jarrett looking like a deer in the headlights and Kerry saying a few words. Hot angle and a lot of parts are being intertwined.

[Kevin Ridge]

So Kerry turned around a bit too early and saw Travis coming but still allowed himself to get hit with the guitar. In studio Lawler gives the sell promo for monday night. Hard for Jarrett to follow that one up. Nice suspenders Kerry.

[Cox]

Nice hype for the Monday night card at the Mid South Coliseum. When they cut away from the ringside promo with Jarrett and Von Erich, I thought they were sparing us Von Erich talking, but instead they have backstage clips and in a minor upset, he cuts a much better promo than Jarrett. Lawler clearly outclasses both of them and cuts a great angry promo.

[JerryvonKramer]

I think Lawler breaks a few of the cardinal rules here: his impression of Kerry and the steroid stuff is too close to the bone. They always say you shouldn't rip your opponent with stuff that is actually true because some fans might pick up and run with it.

 

Flair for example never runs his opponent down in such a destructive way, he'll always somehow put them over as he's talking about how great he is etc. Lawler's stuff is very entertaining but I'm not sure if it isn't cheating in a way.

 

Jarrett's promo is shitty and boring.

 

Kerry looks like he doesn't know what planet he's on.

 

Lawler's fired up promo after that is great (privosos about breaking the rules granted).

 

Kerry's promo is also pretty good.

[Laney]

A lot of clips and promos in this segment to show some of the history about this feud. Lawler is far ahead of Jarrett and Kerry when it comes to cutting promos here. Calling Kerry a Cro-Magnon got a big chuckle out of me. More steroid talk from Lawler here.

[ajtroma]

Snowbird was a puppet that Dave had for Winter time weather forecasts. It worked. The newscast was always #1 in Children 2 - 9 demos.

 

For the record, Billy Travis no-showed that night. Soultaker took his place.

[soup23]

Keep these USWA tidbits coming ajtroma. Love reading about this stuff from someone who was around during the era.

[garretta]

Sort of a mini-history to set up a Lawler/Travis-Kerry/Jarrett match at the Mid-South Coliseum for the following Monday.

 

This sequence shows why they could never adequately replace Lawler in Memphis: good, bad, or indifferent, he's the only guy on the roster who can both work and talk at anything approaching a world-class level. The two people who come closest, Dundee and Mantel, are his direct contemporaries; the next generation, led by Jarrett, may be good enough in the ring but can't talk the people into the building. In his promo here, Jeff's all over the place, first promising not to yell and scream, then kissing Lawler's ass, then screaming at Billy Joe and calling Lawler gutless. Kerry's the together one, which is scary in itself. Maybe he could have at least taken over Memphis temporarily if he'd kept himself together, but his heart was in Dallas until Vince came calling later in the year.

 

As for what Parv said about Lawler's promos breaking the "rules", I don't think there was much danger of that; Dave's acting as the voice of the fan here, and he's dismissed Lawler's steroid claims as bunk quite thoroughly. Besides, even if Lawler knew he was crossing the line, who in Memphis (or Dallas, for that matter) was going to stop him at this point? The only man I could see remotely capable of that was Fritz, and he was long gone; if Jarrett had tried and Lawler had told him to shove it, there was no one to take his (Lawler's) place. If ever there was a man in wrestling bigger than his employer, it was Lawler.

[drew wardlaw]

Lawler's picture is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I absolutely lost my mind for that. And reading from ajtroma that snowbird was a weather puppet for children makes it even better. How awesome.

[GSR]

Jerry Lawler went by McDonalds and picked up a 'Color the weather' entry and drew a cartoon of Dave Brown killing Snowbird. When someone in the crowd makes a bit of noise he tells them to shut up as he knows they can't afford to go to McDonalds! He wants Dave to pass his entry on to the judges so that he can get a nice plaque to put on his wall.

 

We get the end of a Jeff Jarrett vs Billy Joe Travis 'guitar on a pole match' joined just as Jarrett retrieves the guitar from the pole. He's about to nail Travis with it when Lawler sneaks in the ring and grabs it off him. Lawler and Travis beat on him and the 'The King' clobbers Jarrett over the head with the guitar. They continue to double team him until Kerry Von Erich runs from the back for the save. Von Erich is gassed and looks huge! He gets some shots in on them but Travis eventually tackles him and takes him down, allowing Lawler to get what is left of the guitar and destroy it some more over Kerry.

 

Back in the studio and Lawler says that it was between he and Jeff Jarrett, and Kerry Von Erich had no business sticking his nose in their business.

 

Then it's back to the Sportatorium for the aftermath of a Lawler vs Junkyard Dog match. Lawler is on the house mic and says that he's run the Dog right out of Dallas, TX and he wants some competition. He insults the crowd ('hey beanpole, take that 50 cent jacket off!' and 'you've got a string hanging off your sleeve, oh that's your arm!' when out comes Kerry Von Erich. The King stooges and backs off, giving just enough time for Billy Joe Travis to enter the ring from behind and waffle Kerry with another guitar. He wears the guitar out on Von Erich and they double team him before Jeff Jarrett makes the hot save and they fight to the back.

 

We return to the studio and Lawler reiterates that Von Erich is on steroids, saying that he looks like Conan the Barbarian and he doesn't know which way he's going. At the Mid-South Coliseum on Monday he's going to make an example out of the pair of them and beat them to within an inch of their lives.

 

Jeff Jarrett and Kerry Von Erich promo from the Sportatorium with Marc Lowrance. Jarrett says what happened speaks for itself and shows Jerry Lawler and Billy Joe Travis' true colours. Everyone knows Travis is low down, rotten, egg sucking dog! He's a stinking bum and he's got no time for him. Once they were partners, but those days are gone. He says that he's watched Lawler for years and he's not going to try to match wits or get into a verbal argument with him as he's one of the most intelligent people he knows. He used to respect him but it's a new day and he's got heart, determination and guts, three things that Lawler hasn't. They are both going to pay for what they did to them. This wasn't good. Jarrett stumbles over his words at times and tries to be calm an measured but I would have preferred him to get angry. Kerry doesn't say a word (probably wondering where he is!) and just stands there wearing some sparkly suspenders a la Barry Horowitz.

 

We return to the studio for the final time and Lawler wants to address what Jarrett said. He removes his medical scrubs and says that Jarrett bleaches his hair, gets himself a shiny jacket, pumps himself full of steroids and thinks that makes him a wrestler. Jeff Jarrett says what he's got, well he's got brains and he can outsmart the pair of them. On their best day they couldn't beat he and Billy Joe Travis.

 

Last of all is a backstage interview from Kerry where he says he's coming back to Memphis, TN and he couldn't be happier. He's coming for one reason, to take down Jerry Lawler and when he's done that, he's going to play a tune with that guitar on Billy Joe Travis' head. Basic promo from Kerry, nothing to get too excited about and it's a good job we've got Lawler carrying the interview side of things for this feud.

[Badlittlekitten]

Lawler has a tendency to bury his opponent's with his promos, and if it was anybody else it would annoy me. Lawler's so damn good though you just sit back, forget about it, and enjoy him in all his glory. He's brilliant, especially when he ramps up the intensity towards the end. He's carrying this feud. Kerry's response is decent by his standards. Jarret's promo is terrible, and he sounds every bit the small brained hick that Jerry says he is.