The card above took place 30 years ago this week. The main event featured Jerry Lawler & Jimmy Valiant taking on the Southern tag team champions, Joe Leduc & John Louie. The tag champs were managed by Sonny King. I first remember Sonny showing up in Memphis in late 1977. He started to manage Joe Leduc in March 1978. One thing that always comes back to me was when Sonny would be interviewed by Lance Russell ; he would always have a lollipop in his mouth (just like the popular-at-the-time TV character, Kojak). Sonny was smart and his wrestling persona was an extension of that. He was a proud man who would not accept being looked over or held back because of the color of his skin. In most of Sonny’s interviews, even though he was the heel, he was confident and direct, yet talked in a quiet tone. Back then, most bad guys would get out there and just go crazy, Sonny did the opposite and it worked perfect, the fans hated him.
Sonny faded in and out of Memphis over the next few years. In early 1982, tragedy struck. Sonny was visiting some of his friends at a wrestling card in Charlotte, (he wasn’t even on the card). Once outside the arena, Sonny noticed a man attacking another person with a knife. Sonny got involved, was stabbed and almost died.
When Sonny recovered, he came to Memphis for a one-night-only appearance that happened on April 19, 1982. For Memphis fans, it was a weird thing. Sonny challenged Lawler and they were both faces. Neither was the heel. Sonny explained all that had happened to him and how, as he was laying on his death bed, he promised his son that he wouldn’t die. He also promised his son that he’d wrestle again, for the belt. The Southern heavyweight title match was held on that Monday night and Lawler prevailed. If memory serves me correctly, they even shook hands after the match. I don’t remember seeing Sonny King on Memphis Wrestling after that last match.
I recently talked to Jerry Jarrett about this match. Even though he really didn’t remember much about it, he did say that if Sonny had asked for this match as a favor, he would have done it in a heartbeat. He explained Sonny was great on the mic and good in the ring, so putting him in the top match for a week wasn’t a stretch. In addition to this, Jarrett went on to say that Sonny King was not only one of his favorite wrestlers, but was a loyal friend.
Finally, you’re probably wondering why I am doing this whole flashback on a minor known wrestler. I watched the WWE Hall of Fame inductions last month and enjoyed watching Rocky Johnson getting inducted into it. They made mention of him and fellow HOF’er Tony Atlas’ being the first African-American team to hold the WWF World tag team titles approx. 25 years ago. I also remembered Ron Simmons becoming the first African-American man to win a major world singles title (by defeating Vader for the WCW World heavyweight title in the early 1990’s.) What you don’t hear about is on May 22, 1972 Sonny King and Chief Jay Strongbow defeated King Curtis & Mikel Scicluna, in New York City for the WWWF World tag team titles. As far as I can tell, this is the first time an African-American man held a wrestling world title in any of the big 3 wrestling organizations, (WWWF, AWA or NWA). It happened 36 years ago this week.
----Mark James is the author of “Memphis Wrestling History – Cards, Matches, Results, Newspaper Clippings” Vol 1. He is currently finishing up Vol 2 and we will have full details on it here when it becomes available. James also is the webmaster to the BEST Memphis Wrestling site in the area – www.memphiswrestlinghistory.com Take a look at the site!!!
