Oct 1, 1984
Not sure what “Rock103” promotion was going on, but fairly certain it had to do something with, “Rocktober”, (lol.)The big feud for the area was continuing to be Jerry Lawler and Randy Savage fighting Ric Rude and King Kong Bundy with manager, Jimmy Hart. Lawler and Savage were having problems getting a clear win over their rivals. As the card shows, the “King” and the “Macho Man” called in “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant to form a 6-man team to fight Rude, Bundy and Hart. As the results show, the fan favorites won the match.
Eddie Gilbert was successful in defending his International Title against “Leaping” Lanny Poffo. In the other title match of the night, Tommy Rich and Dutch Mantell successfully defended the Sothern tag titles against the former champs, the Nightmares.
Also on the card, the Dirty White Boys defeated Rufus R. Jones and Mark Ragin. Opening up the card, Mark Batton defeated the Snowman. Don’t know if this was “the” Snowman (Eddie Crawford) or not. Regardless, he did do the job.
The attendance for the card was only 4,632. Not sure what was going on at the time. I do notice the Fabs (Keirn & Lane) weren’t on the card and this may have contributed to the low numbers. Also, the lower attendance numbers (4,000 – 6,000) were starting to become a more normal occurrence. Personally, I’ve always considered 1974 through 1985 as being the glory years of Memphis Wrestling. Sure there were sellouts before and after those years, but the numbers really show that statistically these years had the highest average weekly attendance numbers.
Oct 8, 1984
The big news for this week was “Dirty” Dutch Mantell turning on his partner, and co-Southern tag team champion, “Wildfire” Tommy Rich. With the split, the tag belts were stripped from the champs and a one night tournament was setup. The winners not only got the Southern tag team titles, but also received a shot at the Road Warriors the following week.
The opening round matches saw the Dirty White Boys defeating the New Generation, Mark Regan and Rufus R. Jones defeating Kurt Von Hess and Eddie Gilbert, Ric Rude and King Kong Bundy advancing over Randy Savage and Jimmy Valiant when they won a coin toss after a draw. The final opening round match had the Fabulous Ones defeating the Nightmares.
The second round round saw Rude and Bundy destroy Jones and Regan while The Fabs stopped the Dirty White Boys.
In the finals, the Fabs (Keirn and Lane) were disqualified and Rude and Bundy were crowned the Southern tag team champions.
In the lone single match of the night, Tommy Rich defeated his former partner Dutch Mantell.
A few notes… Bundy now had the Southern singles & tag titles… Rare card with Lawler not on it… With Rude and Bundy winning a shot at the Road Warriors, this would be the Warriors first time as a fan favorite team…
Next week: The Warriors come back to town!
