This Week’s Flashsback Highlights: Oct 1984 Part II
We conclude our journey through Oct 1984 with it’s final 3 cards.
Oct 15, 1984
Big News here is an appearance from the Road Warriors. Animal and Hawk were in their first World tag tile reign (on Aug 25, 1984, they won the AWA World tag titles.) The previous week, Rick Rude and King Kong Bundy won the Southern tag titles and the right to face the new World champs.
When the battle was over the fan favorite Road Warriors got the win and kept their straps.
One of the other big matches of the night had Eddie Gilbert successfully defending the International Title over “Leaping” Lanny Poffo. Finally, Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Valiant and Randy Savage defeated the Dirty White Boys (Denton and Anthony) and Jimmy Hart in a 6-man match.
Business was down. It was a quick, but decent card and the attendance was only at 4,400.
Oct 22, 1984
The Fabulous Ones rolled back into Memphis and took the Southern tag titles from Rude and Bundy (with Jimmy Hart). The special stipulation for the match was the Fabs hair against the Southern tag titles, (no time limit – no dq).
With the fans growing tired of Rude and Bundy’s dominance of the area, the promotion decided to turn Rude into a babyface. The move was done immediately after the tag title loss to the Fabs. Standard angle, Hart and Bundy blamed Rude for the loss and when he turned his back, they jumped him.
Other big matches included Jerry Lawler and Randy Savage getting a win (by ref reversal) over the Dirty White Boys (with Jimmy Hart). Lanny Poffo got a DQ win over International Champ, Eddie Gilbert.
Oct 29, 1984
The main even featured the highly anticipated grudge match with Rick Rude facing his former partner, King Kong Bundy (with Jimmy Hart). The end saw Rude getting a dq win after Hart interfered.
Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Valiant defeated the Dirty White Boys in a “Explosive Match”. Don’t ask me what an explosive match is because I have no idea. It may have been a “pins can happen anywhere” stipulation.
Randy Savage teamed up with his brother, Lanny Poffo, to go against Eddie and Tommy Gilbert. Over the past few weeks Poffo had been challenging Eddie Gilbert for the International title and the feud was escalating. Savage and Poffo got a dq win out of the match.
----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 – memphiswrestlinghistory.com - Click on his site and order his books!!
