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Best of Memphis in the 80s Part 4
Bill Dundee vs. Sweet Brown Sugar 2/3 Falls Scaffold Match (6/21/82)
Sweet Brown Sugar is Koko B. Ware, who changed his name for some reason. The rules for this aren't normal scaffold match rules: There are two ways to lose. First, by being knocked off the scaffold twice. But if someone is knocked off and can't make it back up by a 20 count, they automatically lose. Lot of stalling from Koko. Dundee quickly gets knocked to his ass. He's also known as the the king of the scaffold matches. Dundee nearly falls off, but actually ends up monkeying down the ladder part, so it didn't count. Dundee spends a lot of time hanging and climbing and is eventually knocked off. Dundee was up before 20, so the match continues. Koko starts attacking before Dundee can get back up there. Koko barely avoids getting knocked off. Koko has a chain I think. Dundee takes a boot off to counteract it. Koko takes the second bump. He made it back before 20. Scaffold match is such a dumb gimmick match. You can't do anything on the scaffold and there is a good chance of someone getting hurt during the fall. Especially when you have to take two bumps. Koko is knocked off again and Dundee wins. As far as scaffold matches go, it was pretty enjoyable, but that isn't saying a whole lot.
Bobby Eaton/Sweet Brown Sugar vs. Dutch Mantell/King Cobra (7/19/82)
I'm not sure who King Cobra is. Dutch and Koko start the match. Dutch dominates and tags Cobra in, who also dominates, sending the heels packing with dropkicks. Dutch gets tagged in and Bobby runs away. Dutch accidentally hits Cobra. They get over their issues and throw Koko/Bobby into each other. Koko jump about 30 feet in the air. Bobby again runs away from Dutch. He finally comes in while Dutch is down. The heels do a version of the Decapitation Elbow. Great back suplex from Eaton. Lots of quick tags as Dutch plays FIP. King Cobra got the tag, but the ref didn't see it. He made the real tag a few moments later and Cobra exploded with dropkicks. Eaton went up top. Dutch went full Indiana Jones and wrapped his bullwhip around Eaton's neck and yanked him off the ropes. I believe the faces were disqualified for the whippings.
Bill Dundee vs. Bobby Eaton (7/24/82)
I swear Jimmy Hart has been the manager for every heel except for the Blonde Bombers, who were managed by Danny Davis, but then Jimmy took over as HTM's manager when Latham left the territory. Eaton and Jimmy did a promo before the match. I can't understand anything Eaton says. Well, I did hear him say, "jabroni". Dutch came out with his whip. Dundee asks Dutch to sit in his corner and when he wins the title, Dundee will give Dutch a title shot. Dundee throws some bombs at Bobby. Dutch keeps Jimmy in his seat. After a few hip tosses, they conk heads. Dundee stomps Bobby's face a few times and misses a Superfly Splash. Big elbow from Eaton. Excellent jab from Eaton. Powerslam. Jimmy got involved, so he got the whip. The second rope breaks during an Irish whip. Dundee wins with a cross body. New champion! Koko and King Cobra came out and a brawl ensued.
Jerry Lawler vs. Ric Flair (8/14/82)
Promo from Flair first. Contract signing for an NWA Championship match. Ric had the wrong impression of Memphis. He thought it was a podunk town, but they have a big air port and some Cadillacs. Lance is very impressed with Ric's watch. If Flair sticks around, the money that follows him will be able to get Lance a custom made suit. The contract was actually an open contract to face the Southern Heavyweight Champion whenever his schedule permits. King came out later to talk about winning the Southern Championship back with help from Jimmy Hart. As it turned out, he was just using Hart to help him win the belt back and has no intentions of joining the First Family. King just wants to shake hands with Ric. Ric pretends he doesn't know who King is and takes the time to hit pn women in the studio. King talks his way into a match with Ric by convincing Ric that beating the jobber wouldn't impress anyone, but beating Jerry Lawler will impress people in the area, even though no one is in Ric's caliber. "You wouldn't be putting a little country jive on me, would you?" Ric doesn't defend his title on local TV programs. He does agree to a title match, but only for the 10 minute TV time limit. This is the same technique King used to convince Tatanka to put all the heels' belts on the line in 1993 during the McMemphis angle.
They have a short amateur section which King wins. King proves he's on equal footing with the champ early on. King over powers Flair on a top wrist lock. King works a side headlock as Flair rolls up him over for pins.Big shoulder block from King. And a hip toss. Only 4 minutes left, so King better make his move. Chop from Flair. King kicks out of the knee drop and reverses a suplex with a sleeper. Flair gets out of it by dropping Lawler through the ropes. King took a hard bump to the floor. Flair hit some chops and knee drop. He went for a piledriver, which at this point is illegal in the area. Stalling suplex. Figure four with 30 seconds to go. The time limit runs out while King is in the figure four, but he didn't give up. Flair demands 5 more minutes. He immediately attacks King, which fires him up. The straps are down! Flair Flip. Second rope first drop. Flair rolls out of the ring so he can't be pinned. Flair grabs his belt and leaves. King wins by count out, but the title stays with Flair. Ric put King over huge and I know they would have a rematch at one of the arena shows. After a break, Lance talks to Eddie Marlin and things King should be the champion since Flair walked out of the match. This brought Flair back out who said he didn't sign a contract to defend his title on TV. He also had Jimmy Hart with him. Of course. Flair writes a check for $10K and wants Jimmy to bring him the blood and guts of Jerry Lawler. A good old fashioned bounty angle!
BONUS: Louisville Brawl (5/26/81)
Looks like this was Kevin Sullivan/Wayne Ferris vs Bill Dundee/Dream Machine. The closing moments of the match were shown. Jimmy Hart caused a DQ and the faces got a beat down. A cane was used extensively. Jerry Lawler ran down to make a save. There were two rings at this show. King got a hold of the cane and used it on everyone. The Nightmares hit the ring and attacked King. Dutch came out to even things up. They went into the crowd and then roped off areas. I think a cop pulled a gun on a fan and seconds later the fan was pulled out and taken to the back.
BONUS: Kamala + Jimmy Hart (8/28/82)
What the fuck. Jimmy comes out and says it is such a shame that Kamala has never had a watermelon. Also, he's never boned an American woman. But the watermelon thing is mentioned a few times. Jimmy talks about Bill Dundee and Eddie Marlin. And Dutch. Dutch came out. He will never rejoin Jimmy Hart. He also refuses to wrestle Kamala. King and Eddie Marlin would also come out. King says some questionable things, such as saying he was going to "wet his (Kamala's) lips and stick him to the wall". King then took Dutch's place in the match, but it wasn't really a match as Koko and Eaton hit the ring not even a minute in. Steve Keirn and Terry Taylor ran them off.
BONUS: Jim Cornette + Jerry Lawler + Bill Dundee (9/4/82)
Corny is so young. And skinny. And calm. He wants Dundee in his camp. But Dundee was actually his second choice. King was his first choice, but didn't want anything to do with Jim. King comes out and makes fun of Cornette for a while and tells him to start acting like a man instead of talking about his rich mother. Corny gets so upset he starts to whine and cry. He runs off in a huff.
Still to come: Lawler vs Bockwinkle series, Jackie Fargo vs Jimmy Hart, Randy Savage in ICW, The Mountie, and more.