The match went back and forth until Dusty put the figure–four leglock on Lawler. The King inched his way to the ropes and grabbed hold of them. The problem was Dusty wouldn’t break the hold. The ref gave a 5 count and ended up disqualifying the American Dream. The following week the 2 had a lumberjack match, but nothing was decided, (it ended in a “no contest” when all the lumberjacks came into the ring.)
Almost as quickly as the feud started, it was over, with neither getting a decisive pinfall. Both Jerry and Dusty have been quoted as saying the main reason they never had a sustained feud was because their styles were to similar. I understand that explanation in the early 1980s, with both of them being such huge babyfaces, but in 1977, the heel Lawler against the face Dusty program could have done excellent business in Memphis . My personal opinion is Jarrett, who just started his new promotion, didn’t want to pay the large salary that Dusty would command.
Looking at the remainder of the card, a few other things caught my attention. At the time, Jerry Jarrett had been promoting for a little over 3 months. In that short of a time, he had pretty much eliminated any threat of Nick Gulas’ promoting in Memphis . You can still see the help that was being provided by NWA Florida promoter and Jarrett friend, Eddie Graham. Dusty Rhodes was a Florida wrestling mainstay. Another Florida transfer, Paul Orndorff, was the Southern Heavyweight Champion. The story on Paul was that while very athletic, Eddie Graham couldn’t find the right gimmick for him in Florida . Jerry Jarrett talked Graham into letting him have Paul and helped him on his way. Knowing the later success that Paul had, he probably owes Jarrett a big thanks for taking that chance on a rookie.
The rest of the card has a lot of the “usual suspects” from the early Jarrett promotion: Bill Dundee, Tommy Rich, Rocky Johnson, Phil Hickerson, Dennis Condrey, Tommy Gilbert and even a young Jimmy Garvin and Sylvester Ritter (who later gained fame as the “Junkyard Dog”).
Lastly, in Garvin, Ritter & Orndorff, this card illustrates that Jerry Jarrett was always willing to take a chance on the younger, untested talent. Jimmy Valiant told me that one of the reasons Jerry Jarrett was such an amazing promoter was because he was great at using what he had. A further example of this is that while the 2 Dusty-Lawler cards did good business, , the biggest shows that summer were the ones with Jerry Lawler fighting against Bill Dundee (both of whom were home grown guys.)
----Mark James is the author of “Memphis Wrestling History – Cards, Matches, Results, Newspaper Clippings” Vol 1 and "Vol 2: The Programs 1972 - 1976" James also is the webmaster to the BEST Memphis Wrestling site in the area – www.memphiswrestlinghistory.com - Click on his site and order his books!!
