This Week’s Flashsback Highlights August 6, 1984 And A One Night Tag Team Tournament
Over the past month I’ve been going thru the wrestling cards that took place in Memphis during the summer of 1984. If you were around to watch it, it was a great period of time to be a fan. If not, I hope you enjoy looking at these cards and results as well as reading about what it was like to be there (almost a quarter of a century ago).
This card took place on August 6, 1984.
The card was a one-night tag team tournament to decide a tag team to represent the Memphis promotion in a giant world-wide tag tournament in Japan . It had 9 pretty good tag team matches.
First Round:
The opening match had the Rock n Roll Express losing to Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler (who were the reigning Southern tag team champions). Morton and Gibson had just come out of a successful feud with “Macho Man” Randy Savage and his brother, “Leaping” Lanny Poffo. The R&R were on a huge roll and the fans expected them to easily defeat the tag champs. They didn’t and this immediately set these 2 teams up for their next feud.
New Generation was managed by Tojo Yamamoto and featured rookie Johnny Wilhoyt and veteran Mark Batten. They were the current babyface mid-level tag team. They end up losing to the team of Mr. Ito and the Animal who were managed by Jimmy Hart.
Bill Dundee and Dutch Mantell defeated the tough team of the Nightmares while Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Valiant defeated Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo.
The last first round match had Rick Rude and King Kong Bundy teaming for the first time in Memphis and defeating Tommy Rich and Jackie Fargo. Rich’s original partner was Eddie Gilbert. The previous Sat morning Gilbert turned on him and Fargo stepped in.
Second Round:
Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Valiant coasted over Mr. Ito and the Animal to start the second round. Rude and Bundy had a harder time, but got the win over Bill Dundee and Dutch Mantell. Southern tag champs Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler had a second round bye.
Semi-final:
Lawler and Valiant defeated Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler. Rick Rude and King Kong Bundy got a bye to the finals.
Finals:
Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Valiant defeated Rick Rude and King Kong Bundy to win the opportunity to represent Memphis in the Japanese tag team tournament.
I really liked this card. With attendance at 9,677, the fans seemed to as well. As far as a personal preference, I liked the tourney format far better than the battle royal format. In Memphis , they would sometimes have a 2 ring, double elimination, battle royal. The premise was there would be one man left in each ring and they would be crowned the tag team champs, (etc). The problem was almost every single time they did this, the two wrestlers left were ones in a feud and wouldn’t work together and continue feuding, etc. It just seemed a waste of time in my book. This is the reason the battle royals never really appealed to me. While in the tag or singles tournaments, there would usually be some interesting match ups or even better, the promotion would use it as an opportunity to start some new feuds (like the Rock n Roll Express against Hickerson & the Spoiler and Tommy Rich vs Eddie Gilbert). As long as the tournament was done in one night, you were going to see a lot of good matches. Needless to say in 1988, I wasn’t a fan of the Renegades Ramapage tournament that seemed to take months to resolve.
Next week: We continue to examine August 1984…
----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!!
----If anyone was working Memphis during this time and remembers, but this tournament was all just a big work for Valiant/Lawler to go to Japan to do a few matches; right?? Or did they actualy participate in the tag tournament over there?? Post any responses on the Kayfabe Message Board.
