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Best of Memphis in the 80s Part 13
Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol vs. Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy Badstreet Match (8/12/85)
Their first match on the set was fun, but it was mostly because of Gordy. This is going to be a brawl, so we'll see what happens. The brawl starts out and the Birds are knocked from the ring. Gordy starts throwing chairs and the ring bell. The ref checks for weapons before the match officially starts, which makes no sense to me since I was under the impression a Badstreet Match is basically a Bunkhouse Brawl. Everyone but King is in jeans and a t-shirt. King and Gordy start. King blocks a big boot and sends Gordy into Idol's boot before tags are made. They trade jabs, with Idol getting the better of the exchange. Hayes takes his belt off and starts a-swattin'. After getting double teamed for a bit, Idol grabs the belt and uses it on both men before he and King double clothesline. Huge flying fist drop with the belt around his hand from King. Hayes gets his boot off and drills King a few times with it. Snap suplex from Gordy. King and Gordy head into the crowd as Hayes struts in the ring. He's hotdoggin! Terrible lariatooo and elbow from Hayes in the ring. King kicks him in the dick and piledrives him. Gordy comes in and gives one to King. Crowd is super amped for this. Gordy accidentally hits Hayes and King makes a hot tag to Idol. Hayes is tied up in the ropes. Idol pulls out a pair of scissors and was going to cut Hayes' hair. Gordy stopped him. The ref prevents Hayes from cutting Idol's hair, so Hayes stabs him in the head. He also stabbed a camera man. King grabbed a cane and saved Idol. Gordy was knocked over the ropes. King chases the Birds out and the ref called it a DQ. Lance tried to tell him that there were no disqualifications, but since the ref just got stabbed in the fucking head with a pair of scissors, it is probably okay to end the match. Really fun and the crowd was super hyped.
Rock N Roll Express vs. Ivan Koloff/Krusher Khrushchev (9/30/85)
Really dark image, but I'll do what I can. Morton and Ivan start the match. Smash comes in without being tagged and those dastardly Rooskies convinced the ref they made a tag. The RNRs do the same thing. Fire this ref. The RNRs use their speed and cheeky spots to overcome the size and power of the Russians. Anytime the Russians get the slightest advantage, the RNRs just do something too quick for them to handle. Gibson is low bridged to finally put the Russians in firm control. Interesting to have another match with Gibson playing FIP. Hot tag to Morton. The Russians got the win after a chain shot and twin magic. The ref saw the chain and the match was restarted. Seconds later, Morton rolled up Smash to win the match.
Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. Tom Pritchard/Pat Rose (10/12/85)
This starts with a promo from Dr. Tom where he has a water soaked towel and cries like a woman. Young Dr. Tom might be Kenny Omega's dad. I guess they destroyed Bob Armstrong recently. Rose and Dundee start out. Dundee dumps both of the heels out of the ring. King does the same. Tom throws a back kick and gets King in the heel corner. King comes out with a clothesline. He tags out and Dundee is stuck in the heel corner. Rose applies a half crab with Dr. Tom offering extra leverage. Dundee gets out of a camel clutch by standing up and running into the turnbuckle. King comes in, but he again gets stuck in the heel corner. Rose does a second rope something. Dundee starts throwing some Euro shit at Dr. Tom, but misses a knee smash in the corner. The first fall ends in DQ when The Masked Superstar ran into attack Dundee. King and Dr. Tom start the second fall. Tom accidentally hits Rose, but quick tags are able to get King on defense. The Masked Superstar again came out to cause a DQ. This time, he had a belt and went to town on Dundee. Tojo and Jerry Jarrett stopped the beat down.
Jerry Lawler vs. Rick Martel (Nashville 10/12/85)
Martel was the AWA Champion. King very nearly wins about a minute in with a back slide. He does another roll up for a near fall. Martel gets mad and throws a forearm. King punches him and he bails. Martel comes back in with a lot of fire and strikes, but King seems to have the champion's number tonight. Martel gets pissed and seems to turn heel once the crowd is firmly behind King. Martel starts going after the leg King broke about 5 years prior. King finally gets to the ropes after being in a figure four for a good 2 minutes. Martel goes right back to tearing the knee apart. King briefly gets to his feet, but is quickly back down and in a hold. Martel is just relentless. Martel misses a move and King gets some punches in, but he misses a fist drop and Martel goes right back to the leg. Martel misses an elbow drop and the straps come down. Punches in bunches in the corner. Flying fist drop. Instead of going for the pin, King goes back up for a second one. He hits it. As he throws more punches, Martel shoves King into the ref. He goes back to the leg, but King's boot came off. Martel hits King with the boot! As Martel is getting the ref up, King hits Martel with the boot. He makes the cover and the bell rings, but the ref saw King use the boot and disqualified him for it. Title retained. Not exactly giffable, but this was really good. One of my favorite matches of the whole set so far. King, being known as a slow starter, immediately scoring near falls in the opening seconds, leading to Martel getting frustrated, then going full heel once the crowd was 100% behind King was great. And he worked the leg like he was a long lost Canadian Anderson. Good stuff.
Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (10/19/85)
Before the match, the Fabulous Ones came out, wearing the weirdest outfits. Zebra trunks with suspenders, bow ties, and cummerbunds. Stan says something about I assume the Sheepherders, using both "pantywaists" and "smear the queer". Stan said a lot of people say they can beat the champs, but Dundee and King have never even had a match against them. King comes out and tells Dundee to chill out. Dundee wants a match right now. King basically says he doesn't like wrestling in face vs face matches. Dundee says King is afraid. King says he doesn't want to face the Fabs and he doesn't want to be Dundee's partner anymore, sending Dundee on a rampage and being chased out of the studio. Dundee would come back to prevent a match from happening, challenging King to a title match instead. Dundee will put his car on the line since King drives a shitty van that a fan gave to him. He also puts his hair on the line. King agrees and the match is on.
Dundee immediately starts throwing bombs as soon as King gets in the ring. King starts firing back. Dundee misses the flying body press. The ref stops King from doing the piledriver. Bulldog from Dundee. They throw some more punches and King pulls the strap down. Dundee hits King with something wrapped around his hand while King was doing a back suplex. Dundee wins! New champion! After a break, Dundee SCOOPS Lance and announces Ric Flair is coming back and will be wrestling the Southern Heavyweight Champion, which is now Dundee. King comes back out say Dundee cheated and wants a rematch. Dundee will give him a title shot...after he beats Flair for the NWA Championship. King comes back with a ball bat and intends to bust Dundee's car up if Bill doesn't sign a rematch contract. Dundee signs the contract right before King started pounding the car. I've been trained that a real face would bust the car up anyway, so it was jarring that King didn't do it.
Koko Ware vs. Masked Superstar (Jerry Stubbs) (10/26/85)
They go right to the mat. Koko wins the exchange. He's also a face now. Koko wins the second exchange as well. And continues to show the Superstar up on the mat. Koko continually goes for the arm of the Superstar. Bill Dundee is doing color and Masked Superstar gets on the offensive for a bit. Snake eyes. Koko is sent into the ref as Superstar kicks out of a pin. Dundee distracted Koko and Superstar rolled him up for the win.
Bill Dundee/Sherri Martel vs. Koko Ware/Candi Divine (10/26/85)
Koko replaced Tojo in this match. This is from the same show as the last match, so Koko is still pretty mad at Dundee. The women start slapping the shit out of each other. Candi throws Sherri to the floor. The men are tagged in. Dundee is back dropped and he bails out. Brought back in the hard way. Koko spanks Sherri. That's sexual assault, guy. Dundee is able to get some cheap shots in on Koko. Biting, choking, eye rakes. Candi puts Sherri in the weirdest abdominal stretch/Tazmission thing. As they went to commercial, the Masked Superstar ran out to ringside. We were informed that Dundee/Sherri won the first fall after Dundee hit Candi. This is really more of an angle than a match. Time limit expires, giving Dundee and Sherri the win, 1-0.
Jerry Lawler/Dusty Rhodes/Magnum T.A. vs. Ole Anderson/Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard (11/18/85)
This appears to be a Bunkhouse match and it starts off with everyone brawling. Very short. I assume it was including only due to the participants. I would love to see the promos that set this up. Dusty pins Ole after a top rope Bionic Elbow.
VAST improvement over the last disc. The Freebirds match was fun, Martel/King is one of my favorites I've seen out of 6 1/2 discs, RNR/Russians was a fun RNR formula match, and I really liked the King/Dundee angle.
STILL TO COME: Ric Flair, Dundee/Lawler loser leaves town matches, Buddy Landell, and a make up session vs wear a dress match.
