29 years ago, times were a changing. Jerry Jarrett had brought in a big rookie by the name of The Hulk, Terry Boulder and his brother Eddie. Terry would later become one of the most popular wrestlers the sport has ever had, Hulk Hogan. Fans also will recognize his brother Eddie, who was Ed Leslie and later know as Brutus Beefcake.
The main event featured Hulk and Brutus defeating the Southern Heavyweight Champion “Outlaw” Ron Bass and big Pete Austin.
Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee teamed up to defeat Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy, the fabulous Freebirds. The Freebirds would go on to become one of the biggest teams in wrestling history, but their stay in Memphis was nothing to write home about. Their first appearance the previous Sat morning showed some promise though. The Freebirds were matched against Lawler and Dundee in the final match of the show. For those not familiar with the Memphis show, the last match would go until the show’s time would run out. Sometimes it would be a one fall match, sometimes 3 falls, etc. The match got under way and something strange happened, the Freebirds got a clean pinfall over Lawler and Dundee on TV. To the best of my memory, that never happened before or since. Lawler and Dundee came back and won the second fall, (and the time ran out in the third fall for a draw.) As a youth, this pinfall stunned me. I figured the Freebirds were going to be the next big thing in Memphis . They weren’t. Though they were getting wins, it was against mid-level talent. Whenever they did headline, against top level talent, they were the losers.
Another big match had the Southern Tag Tean Champs, the Blond Bombers (Larry Latham and Wayne Farris) with their manager Danny Davis lose a handicap match to Jackie Fargo and his crazy brother, Roughhouse Fargo. Jackie and Roughhouse always were a treat for the fans, needless to say not much wrestling went on with this one. Farris and Latham will probably always be remembered for their part in the infamous Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl (along with Lawler and Dundee ). It had happened about 6 weeks before this card and is still talked about today.
I mentioned the rookies, Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake. Another great match on the card involved 3 more rookies with Ricky Morton and Eddie Gilbert defeating Ken Wayne and the Hangman. Morton was only weeks away from forming a great tag team with the legend, Sonny King.
Looking at the rest of the card, Buddy Wayne beat Tommy Gilbert. The legendary lady wrestler, Fabulous Moolah got a win as well.
Overall, it was a good card. The attendance was just under 7,000. Hulk was really popular (even though very green.) Farris and Latham kept their tag titles, as well as Ron Bass keeping the Southern belt. The rookies were on the move. Lawler and Dundee were about to split up. Another great Monday night
2nd card: July 30, 1979, 29 years ago tonight.
What I remember most about the Dundee-Bockwinkle match wasn’t the match as much as the truly great angle that set it up. A wrestling fan association was having their yearly meeting in Memphis that weekend. On the Sat morning show, promoter Jerry Jarrett said that whoever the fans voted as “wrestler of the year” would get an AWA World Title match with Nick Bockwinkle. Well the group named Bill Dundee as “wrestler of the year” and he was given the match. This didn’t sit well with Dundee ’s partner, Jerry Lawler. The King had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get a rematch with Bockwinkle for over a year. Bill tried to calm the tension but Lawler wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Dundee had his world title match (which he lost.) On this card, Lawler was regulated to the 2nd match on the card, teaming with Randy Tyler in a loss to the Freebirds. Over the next few weeks, the King attempted to destroy Dundee and added Jimmy Hart as his manager. By Fall 1979, Jerry’s transition to the area’s top heel was complete.
Even though he came up short, The Hulk, Terry Boulder finally got a Southern title match against the champ, “Outlaw” Ron Bass.
Tommy Gilbert and Buddy Wayne continued their family feud. Jackie and Roughhouse Fargo continued their feud with the Blond Bombers, this week in a cage match.
Looking back at it, it seems like a short card, it still had Dundee getting a World title match. It may be because we were so trained to expect all “good” cards to have Lawler heavily involved within them. To be honest, anytime you got to see Nick Bockwinkle wrestle, it was a good night. The attendance was 7,818 and that was excellent for a non-Lawler headlined card. On a side note, within 6 months, the Memphis fans had to get used to Lawler not being on the cards. When the King broke his leg, he was out for 11 months.
Next week’s flashback: We’ll return to the Summer of 1984 and pick up where we left off with the cards for August. Rude and Bundy form an alliance, the Macho Man becomes a babyface, and a lot more!
----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!!
----I added the the youtube.com videos of the Freebirds debut. I always loved that interview!!
