Nov 12, 1979
Even though the card above has a different match shown, the actual card had Jerry Lawler defending his newly won CWA World Title over the man he won it from, Superstar Billy Graham.
Billy Graham, just 2 years earlier had defeated Bruno Samartino in the WWWF for their world title. When Jerry Jarrett formed the CWA, his goal was to eventually merge it with the AWA, similar to what he did years later with the Memphis and World Class. These plans were put on hold 2 months later when Jerry Lawler suffered a broken leg that kept him out of the ring for almost a year.
The Southern tag champs, Wayne Farris and Larry Latham lost by dq to Hector Guerrero and Steve Regal. Great match and a lot of fun to see in person.
Koko Ware and Steve Kyle went to a No Contest in their match. This was Koko’s first big feud and was the first time a lot of people started to notice him in Memphis.
Other matches included Sonny King and Rick Morton getting the win over Tojo Yamamoto and the Oriental Connection, and Ken Wayne losing to Jerry Bryant.
I remember going to this card and it was a very cold, rainy night. That probably explains the low attendance of 4,500. Also, the local fans really weren’t that into Superstar Billy Graham.
Nov 19, 1979
Billy Graham won by dq over Jerry Lawler, who kept his CWA World title. Pretty sure it was a chain or Jimmy Hart’s interference that caused the dq.
AWA Champ, Nick Bockwinkle successfully defended his AWA World title by defeating Sonny King.
Southern tag champs, Wayne Farris and Larry Latham lost to Hector Guerrero and Steve Regal.
Earlier, Koko Ware got the win over Steve Kyle and Rick Morton defeated Tojo Yamamoto, by dq.
Low attendance once again, only 4,300 showed up. I guess Graham was blamed as this was his last week in Memphis.
----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!!
