10 Years Ago this weekend in Memphis Wrestling.....

----Another post for this week that I stole from www.wrestlingobserver.com

USWA: Bill and Jamie Dundee defeated the Moondogs to win the USWA tag team titles on September 3rd….. This week’s tv built up the September 13th card as ‘The Night of Dream Matches’, and featured every wrestler declaring what their idea of a ‘dream match’ would be. Bart Sawyer wanted a dream match with Steve Doll. In a battle of the referees, Bill Rush wanted a dream match with heel ref, Frank Morrell. Mike Samples wanted a dream match with Flash Flanagan. Brickhouse Brown wanted a dream match with Koko B Ware, and if Brown won, Ware had to form a tag team with him. Miss Texas’ (Jacqueline) dream match was with Luna Vachon in a ‘back alley street fight’. Jamie Dundee wanted to team with his father in a handicap match against Wolfie D. Brian Christopher’s dream match would be against manager Scott Bowden. Wolfie D’s dream match would be a barbed wire tag team match, teaming with Jesse James Armstrong (B.G. James in TNA) to face the Dundees. Tommy Rich wanted a dream match with Brian Christopher, with fellow heel Tony Falk as referee. The winner of the match would get titles shots against Jerry Lawler for the Unified title and Shawn Michaels for the WWF title. Rich was booked for a lengthy IWA tour in Japan soon, so the result was kind of given away.

Bill Dundee wanted a dream match with USWA booker Randy Hales, and if Dundee won, he got to be booker. They actually used the term ‘booker’ on tv. Think about that one for a minute. Hales came out and said that if he had known that Dundee was going to pick a match against him, he’d never have booked the dream match concept. However, Hales said he had to agree to wrestle Dundee, otherwise the lead heel group would all refuse to wrestle and the show would have to be cancelled. Dundee offered to call off the match if Hales gave up his job to Dundee, but Hales refused and said he’d rather have his neck broken than give his job up to Dundee…… Luna Vachon was now doing a gimmick where she bit people on the neck. Where have I seen that lately?

9.08.06 MCW Osceola, AR Results

----Hillbilly Nate/Thunder beat Hamhock/Lucador with Sam Dollar; MCW Mid-Wt Title Match: White Lighting by DQ over Loose Cannon with Dollar; "The Posse" [Simon Reed/'Lil Chris] beat Paco/Gary The Medic; "The Hambones" [Leroy/Pedro] with Dollar by DQ over Big Daddy LaFonce/Derrick King; Serpent/Thunder beat Tony Gunn/Rockin Randy and in the Main Event: Chris Hollywood beat Frankie Tucker with Dollar to become the new MCW Champion.

----Crowd was around 50 due to the first home football game. Gate was around $300....Alot of no shows. Tasha Simone and Motley are said to have been fired again and probably will not be back. Spyro was said to have a hand injury, but everyone is watching for 187 to work Dyersburg tonight. Rebecca Raze and Rashad were not there either...Backstage was LAW owner Kelly Warner and former MCW star Big Grizzly...Not sure on how much of this is a work or shoot, but there was talk of Simone being really stiff on Raze in Blytheville Thursday night. Sources say she was a bit jealous with Raze showing up on Memphis TV. With both no showing last night, it was either both of them quitting MCW together or neither one of them wanting to show up to work each other. The Simone/Raze feud was based on some shoot/worked angle anway...Hambones were said to have stiffed again on DK. Let the Hambones work Simon Reed and you can then talk about stiff LOL...DK went from baby to heel to baby in a week. Makes no sense with DK being a heel on Memphis TV, then he should be heel here.

9.07.06 MCW Blytheville, AR Results

----Thunder/Tasha beat Luchador/Rebecca Raze; Small Battle Royal - Hambones win over Hamhock/Big Jim Wade/Gary The Medic/Thunder/Rockin Randy/Loose Cannon; "East Coast Bad Boys" [Spyro/Serpant]/Chris Hollywood beat "the Posse" [Simon Reed/'Lil Chris]/Motley Cruz with Rashad; Big Daddy LaFonce/Lighting vs Koko Ware/Frankie Tucker with Rashad - DCO with dressing room empty pullapart; and Main Event: Jerry Lawler beat Derrick King with Rashad.

----I was told there were around 300 there. Admission was on $3 for adults and $2 for kids. Gate of around $800. I think this was a sold show on LaFonce's part though, as it was at the Mississippi County Fair...Big Jim was said to have done a real good tonight...They had a gimmicks match with Renee/Barbara and a bunch of others with water balloons...A cop friend of mine worked security last night and ask Jerry Lawler, "You know Brian Tramel?" and Lawler responded by saying, "Yea, unfortunately." LOL I loved that!!!

MAW IN MEMPHIS TONIGHT!!!

Midsouth Allstar Wrestling, the wildest wrestling show in Memphis, presents Extreme Impact: Round 2 at the New Daisy Theater

This special event will feature former WCW Superstar Buff "The Stuff" Bagwell, and former tag team champion Rick Steiner* in hardcore wrestling action.

Also, at Extreme Impact: Round 2, all of the MAW Championships will be on the line:MAW Heavyweight ChampionshipBishop Vs Blalok The Blazer [c]MAW Southern ChampionshipLast Man Standing Triple Threat MatchReno Diamond Vs Marcus O'Neil [c] Vs Kaut!onMAW Junior-Heavyweight ChampionshipThe Crime Vs Gabriel Stalker [c]The MAW Tag Team Championship will also be decided in a match later to be determined.

There will also be live performances by local band Shaved and special guest band Josephus and the George Jonestown Massacre. Plus, the team Women of Mass Destruction from the Memphis Roller Derby league will be there as special guest ring girls!

Bell time is 7:30 and tickets are only $10. Come on out and support your local wrestling superstars!

Bobby Eaton Doing Good...

----I got the following from Brian Thompson this morning...

"As reported online, last week “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton was hospitalized in an effort to fix a few medical issues in relation to his heart. Bobby received great treatment at an East Tennessee hospital and has asked that I relay a message of gratitude to everyone in the wrestling business who has called and to all of the fans who have shown much concern during this time. Bobby is excited to be out of the hospital and on the road to a full recovery."

----Good news for all us marks of Eaton.

Shows For The Weekend 9.8 - 9.9.06

IF YOU ARE A PROMOTER OR WORKER ---IF I MISSED YOUR SHOW ON THIS LIST, THEN SEND ME AN E-MAIL. I WILL BE DOING A LATE FRIDAY EDITION UPDATE FOR ANY THAT I MISSED.

Shows For the Weekend

----Friday night in Osceola, AR for MCW includes Motley Cruz;; The Hambones; Loose Cannon; Chris Hollywood; Big Daddy LaFonce and more.

----Friday night in Tupelo, MS for TFW has Tony Dabbs; “Pure Destruction”; Marcus O’ Neil; Scott Porteau and more.

----Friday night in Corinth, MS for USWF has Keith Haynes Jr, Neil Taylor, Brian Steele, Nikki Lace; Chris Rocker, Psycho, “Family of Pain” [Mickey Ray/Sarge O'Riley] and more.

----Saturday night in Jumpertown, MS for JWS with Jumpertown MS - Devon Raynes, Kage, The Hitman, Bless, Mark Mayhem, The Xecutioners, and many more.

----Saturday night in Camden,TN at the Camden High School. Belltime is 7:30pm. Appearing will be Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, Kevin White, Spellbinder, Doug Gilbert, Mr. America. Derrick King, Stan Lee and the Cowboys. This is a fundraiser for the Camden High School Football Team. This show should be interesting as Spell mentioned it will be him/Doug Gilbert vs "Picture Perfect" [Chris O'Neal/John Michael] and Lawler will also be in the dressing room.

----Saturday night in Selmer, TN for CWA with a One Night Tournament to crown a new CWA Champion. Not sure who is all on the card??

----Saturday night at Peppermint Pond in Dyersburg, TN will have Motley Cruz; Tasha Simone; Kilo; 187; Frankie Tucker; Chris Hollywood and more.

----Saturday night in Booneville, MS for SWGA with Nick Grymes, Buzz Harley, Izzy Rotten and many more.

----Saturday night in New Albany, MS with XWO will have Storm; Scott Porteau; Hollywood Jimmy ; "Pure Destruction", "Asylum" [Psycho/Wraith], and more.

----Saturday night in Ripley, TN with TLCW -- Alex Krisis; Rude; Seth Knight; "The Golden Boy" Greg Anthony; Jethro;Matt Boyce; Jon Michael ; Chris O'Neal; Dustin Starr; and more.

---- Saturday night Batesville, AR at the Old Miller Gym for Main Event Wrestling. Admission is free Crazy Luke Graham Jr. & Gerry "Chubby" Graham also Skandar Akbar, Doink, Mr. Wrestling 3, Koko B Ware, Brickhouse Brown, Joey Grunge, Adrian Steel, Casino Kid, Scott Fury, Austin Lane, The Hillbillies ( Plowboy Hays & Hillbilly Tiny), Daniel Flynn, The Danger Zone ( Hotrod Ellison & Danger Dave Foxx) and many more.

Spellbinder Shoots!!

----“Jerry Lawler is a piece of shit and a two face hypocrite. He is a piece of trash – he has desecrated Memphis Wrestling. He is probably the most insecure man I know. Who is going to believe that a man his age can still pull down his strap? Lawler wants everyone to know he is a WWE superstar. He then gets beat by Randy Orton on TV. He is killing Memphis Wrestling. Cory is ignorant to the business. Everybody knows this, but are afraid to say anything. If Jerry Lawler never wrestled again on Memphis TV, he would not be missed.”

----Those were very strong comments from the man known as Spellbinder, Harry Del Rios who was a guest tonight for about a hour and half on internet wrestling radio http://www.wrestlingradionetwork.com/wiw on Wrestling Informer Weekly. Del Rios debuted in the business in 1992 and claims to have been the first ever developmental guy. JJ Dillon got a look at him after he only trained for a little time with Johnny Rod and wanted to use him. He was ask to move from his home in New York City, NY to Memphis to learn the ropes with all the guys that had been in the business forever. He stayed under the developmental program for almost four years getting checks every week from the WWE. He was took off the program and later got another shot when MCW was part of the developmental program in Memphis.

----Spell talked about his time doing the magic gimmick in WWE as Fantasio. He felt he was “too good for his own good” as the gimmick got over with management, but not the boys. He felt that The Undertaker had sabotaged his chances when he had told Vince McMahon that the gimmick was too close to the Undertaker gimmick and they didn’t need it in the WWE. I loved that gimmick and thought it had lots of potential. I was told many times that Spell didn’t make in the WWE, because he just didn’t “get it” as a worker.

----Spell spoke of his friendship with Brian Christopher and he thought they were the best of friends, but that Brian would always treat him like crap behind his back. He told of Brian ribbing Spell to show up at TNA in a Scott Steiner gimmick, but no one but him knowing about it. Jerry & Jeff Jarrett looked at him like he was nuts. That was a sad rib. He also told the story of Johnny Dotson beating up Brian, and him saving Brian. I had been told that Spell/Brian both got beat up by Dotson. He told he was Brian’s best man in his wedding and his parting shots on Brian were, “He has really pissed his career away. No one likes him in the dressing room. No one thinks he is funny.”

----Spell kept saying he was honest and upfront. He did have some interesting comments about some of the local talent as the hosting team pitched him questions from the chat room.

** Pokerface – “He is a goof. He comes out as a jester but does nothing with it. He did the Clown gimmick and looked worse doing that. Not that good of a wrestler.

**Kevin White – “He needs some more mic work. He has the potential to be a top dog. He is an excellent wrestler. Every time he is on verge, they don’t let him get off. If I was Kevin I would go tell them to fuck off.”

**DK is a sweatheart of a guy. As business wise he is an idiot. He books this out of town shows with 40 or 50 people. He has kids that work for him that give DK money to wrestle. A good guy and good talent. I would wrestle him every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Everyone knows he is a homosexual. If you are listening Derrick, I like you even though you are a faggot.”

**Brandon Baxter – “Super nice guy. Great manager. When Power Pro shut down it took everything out of it.”

**”Picture Perfect” – The first time I saw them – they didn’t have size. Their outfits match. They got the IQ of a frog if you put them together. They are plain stupid. I tell them -- it is easy – all you got to do is get squashed. They come from Derrick’s stable. Never say never, but I never see them doing shit. They are just not evolving.”

----Brutally honest from a guy that so many of the boys have told me that they think is a goof. Spell has always had the size and at times been super over, but I never have considered him a good worker. He either just squashed people or just does something really stupid in the middle of a match. And, be honest here – his mic skills have never been good either. My favorite thing he ever done was the magic gimmick.

----I didn’t cover everything here as the guys/gals over at Wrestling Informer Weekly probably want you to take a listen to it when it gets put up. Give them a few days and check the link. Del Rios had many more interesting stories and comments.

Big Show Tomorrow Night!!

----A big show tomorrow night in Blytheville, AR at the Mississippi County Fair. The show starts at 7:00 PM with all the MCW stars Motley Cruz;The Hambones; Loose Cannon; Chris Hollywood; Big Daddy LaFonce and the Main Event is Jerry Lawler vs Derrick King.

Ratings Are In!!! and FEATURE ARTICLE: "Ratings and The Maclin"

----The ratings are in and they don’t look bad. Memphis Wrestling moved to 10:00 PM last Saturday night [9.2.06] and it scored a 3.9 rating. That translates to 64,919.4 viewers watching wrestling that night. I have been covering the Memphis Wrestling TV show since 5.13.06, which was the date that this web site opened. I have all the data from then to now and there is no reason for me to look at anything else, as I could not speculate anything about shows that I don’t have full reports on. In the 16 weeks of this site, MW has average 3.7 rating [excluding last Saturday], which would make the 3.9 above average. The TV station told me that they were happy with the number and I am assuming that Cory Maclin and company are happy also. Did the number surprise me?? No, it did not. I looked for the numbers to be high the first few weeks, but if they do not deliver good shows [and they have been doing much better shows], then you will see the numbers drop.

----This is a perfect way for me to take a look at the ratings as a whole in a feature I had advertised as “Ratings & The Maclin”. I will give you the good, the bad and the ugly and show you how the ratings/gates sometimes don’t coincide. Please remember I am only dealing with data for the last 16 weeks building up to the time change.

-----The lowest rated show of the period was just two weeks ago for the 8.19.06 show with a 1.9 rating = 31627.4 viewers. This was almost half the normal viewer ship with the main event of Humongous vs Jerry Lawler, which I thought was a good show. The show the week before [8.12.06] that started the angle with Lawler piledriving Nate The Rat scored a 4.0 = 66,584 viewers. Did no one take Nate serious?? Did they not believe he was bringing someone in?? Maybe they just didn’t think they would continue with a storyline. Even with a 1.9 in the month of August, the show finished with average 3.4 = 56596.4 viewers per week.

----Just with that data, I have to believe I might have been wrong about my assessment of the importance of being on Memphis TV. I don’t take back anything I said in the article “Memphis Wrestling – Talent, Writing & The Egos”, but for me to say something like “If I was them, I would just start airing the old “Opening the Vault” full one hour shows and promote a “Legends” show every 3 months. Maybe then, some of the talent would migrate to other areas and get breaks that they deserve.” It was just being selfish and ignorant to the facts. How can any indy worker get exposure like this with over 50,000 people watching him in this area?? He can not. It can only be beneficial for the local workers to work the TV show. I am still not 100% happy with current storylines, but it has been much better.

----It also brings up a question that bugs me when I give results from around the area – if you got over 50,000 people watching you on TV why not do that gimmick?? I am not a mark for either the “Insane Clowns” or Mr. America gimmicks, but why do these guys wrestle as Pokerface and Chris Rocker at the local shows?? Why do guys work as heels on TV, but babys in the area?? None of that makes sense when you got that many people watching you on TV. When workers bitch about sites like this killing the business, they might want to take a look at themselves.

----So, does ratings = good gates?? May 13th Southhaven event with Lawler vs Burchill had a 3.9 [641919.4] TV rating and only 500 people in the crowd. 6.17.06 Legends show will be one of this year’s biggest gates. The two TV shows leading up to it both drew normal numbers. And finally, we go the July Southaven show that had only about 300 people there and no Jerry Lawler on the card. The 7.8.06 TV show that started the build up for the card had a 5.0 [83230 viewers] and the day of the show 7.15.06 it had a 4.2 [69913.2 viewers]. No one showed up at the arena to watch Koko Ware vs Maclin. The TV show after the July event even had a 4.4 [73242.4 viewers]. What does this all mean?? If you go by the ratings of the shows and the gates of the three events supplied, then you have to come to this conclusion – [Eddie Marlin told me this and I will probably tell you a million times] -- give the fans what they want to see and they come out. The marks “sort of “want to see the WWE stars, they WANT to see the legends and they could care less about Cory Maclin wrestling.

----I can’t believe I am typing this, but the ratings say this – Maclin helps with the ratings overall. His presence in the Koko Ware angle drew good ratings. No Lawler at all on that show. The fans are familiar with Maclin as an announcer whether I consider him bad or good. Lawler gives the arena events a little boost, but it doesn’t matter about him being on TV. The fans have just got use to him just being on there sometimes and sometimes he is gone to the WWE. My advice to Memphis Wrestling after looking at the facts would be to keep Maclin on TV and keep him out of the ring.

----Special thanks to my friend with the ratings. And, if you want to know what happened on the TV shows I am talking about, then just click on the dates and such.

Tidbits: RassleTube, Ripley last night, ASWF and Steve Creasy

----RassleTube scored a .10 rating for the first 24 hours and .19 for the week was the rating. So, it reads like this – 1 out of every 10 visitors to the site watched within the first 24 hours, then 1 out of every 5 watched as a total as the week went on. I am telling you this because I am going to try to keep a running total, so I know what you like to watch. I am looking for more local stuff though – if you are a promoter or worker, send me an e-mail. I will give you a shipping address so you can appear on RassleTube.

----This week’s edition features Chris Bosh quotes, Chris Bosh vs El Generico; Wonder [Fit's 'Lil Bastard] vs Kale; Human Tornado vs Brawlin Bo - watch Tornado when he comes out!! He is pimpin'!!; Kungfundillo Lucha Libre music video [omg watch some of these spots!!]; Johnny Storm vs Jody Fleisch [highlight video] and the Main Event: Christopher Daniels vs Alex Shelley vs Sonjay Dutt from Japan. CLICK HERE

----Just a few things from TLCW in Ripley, TN last night. “Hot Topic” [Derrick King/Stan Lee]/Chris O’Neal beat Alex Krisis/The Golden Boy/Chris Rocker in the main event, which was a hardcore match. TGB went thru a table. Another bout had Seth Knight beat Rebecca Raze. Jethro was not there, so she fought Knight. Raze is playing Jethro’s “girl” here also. Raze actually dates referee Miles.

----ASWF has closed the doors. Promoter Aaron Polston is saying it is because of health reasons that he will no longer be able to promote. I wish all the good luck to you Aaron. I worked for Aaron a couple of times and he was always honest & upfront with me. Lots of our readers have worked for him and nothing but good things to say about him.

----Well, the old snake is back. Yes, I got an e-mail from Steve Creasy yesterday trying to promote a CCW reunion show. He also plans to run shows again. I sent some questions about his new venture, so look for a story on this in the next few days.

9.2.06 SGWA Booneville, MS Results

----TV Champion Vega "The Dragon" beat Kaleb Kastle to retain title; Buzz Harley beat Nick Grymes - Grymes turned heel; Blade beat The Forgotten; Huelo Guerrero beat Chris Austin; PHAT Foundation beat Grymes/Vega to become #1 contenders for tag titles; "American Rednecks" beat "24/7" [Kross/Jr Mauler] with Soultaker and Bonecrusher beat Johnny Thunder to win the SGWA Title.

----Only about 40 people there for Labor Day weekend. Probably around $200 gate....Where was Izzy??