----I would like thank Larry Goodman for sending in the Memphis Wrestling TV report for this week. I will have the Rating and Random Thoughts later in the week.
Brandon Baxter and Lauren Jenkins did a stand up opening at the desk. Baxter said a Southern Heavyweight Title Tournament match was in the offing, plus a WWE fatal four way (that did no air). For Jenkins, it was all about Jerry Lawler’s appearance.
A plethora of ads included one for Wayne Mashburn, candidate for Clerk of Shelby County. Quite the coincidence that Mashburn’s opponent is Corey Maclin, who Lawler is now suing.
Back at the desk, Bert Prentice grabbed the mic out of Baxter’s hand. Prentice said he was going to be Matt Boyce’s worst nightmare and introduced his monster. Josephus has Bruiser Brody leanings, but he looked more like a truck driver with the hat and sunglasses.
(1) Matt Boyce beat Jocephus in a Southern Heavyweight Title Tournament match in 3:53. Bert.sarcastically thanked “Brandy” for having his back last week when Boyce punched his face. Jocephus took control with basic brawling tactics. Baxter referenced his resemblance
to Brody. Boyce fired up and hit his spinning neckbreaker. The ref broke the count when because Prenctice was up on the apron. Boyce decked Prentice. The ref went out to check on Prentice. Enter Brian Christopher with a chain. He nailed Boyce and ran away. Jocephus got an arm over Boyce and the ref counted three. Guy Coffey reversed the decision to keep Boyce’s undefeated streak intact.
Mark Henry said he was hearing disturbing stuff about “Grandmaster Sexay”. He advised Brian to rethink his cheating ways or he would have to come to Memphis and straighten it out.
Back at the desk, Kevin White said he had replaced Su Yung as promised. He introduced his new protégé, “The Ga Ga Girl”. A raving beauty she is not. White said he found Ga Ga Girl in a prime place, not some nail shop and claimed she was 10 times better looking than Yung. Baxter was rolling his eyes bigtime at this. Lawler and Yung came out on the stairs (the wrestlers descend an open staircase to enter the ringside area) to laugh. Baxter said Yung was happy to be out from under White’s control. White said jealousy was the strongest form of flattery.
Eric Wayne, Kid Nickels and Wolfie D stopped by the desk on their way to the ring. Wayne said it would be three on three this week, an allusion to the beatdown Wolfie suffered last week.
(2) Wolfie D & Eric Wayne & Kid Nickles beat Kevin White & Derrick King & Johnny Dotson (with the Ga Ga Girl) in 4:21. Boss Winters was on color. He said he was in JLMW to correct the injustice from the 80’s with the new and improved industrial strength Rough & Ready, King and Dotson. Winters said Ken Wayne was a jerk and he didn’t see much in his goofball son. King was having his ass handed to him, until White caught Eric with a sneak lariat from the apron. Dotson got a chance to shine here. The guy has springs for legs. White took a flying crotch bump on the turnbuckle. Hot tag. Wolfie cleaned house. It broke down into six way pandemonium. Ga Ga jumped on Wayne’s back for DQ.
Yung attacked Ga Ga. The babyface trio cleared the ring and stood tall with Yung.
The bumper was a clip of R Truth.
Lauren introduced the Tax Solutions Superstar Hotline featuring Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes. It was a 45 second clip where they joked about Lawler calling his show “Jerry Lawler Wrestling”. It wasn’t very funny.
Lawler introduced a clip of dance off between Santino Marella and Vladimir Koslov from RAW. This was followed by a clip of Marella making excuses for why he lost the contest, despite being “the boogie woogie super Italian dancing machine guy”.
The bumper with Hornswoggle aired. It’s been used on three episodes now. God only knows why.
As Lawler made his way to the desk, Baxter talked about how Hollywood make up artist Tom Savini (best known for his work on the “Night of the Living Dead” series) had vowed revenge. Lawler said he was hearing his name too much, and it would be just fine with him if the show was called “Memphis Wrestling” going forward. Lawler ran down Savini’s credentials and his claim that Lawler killed Andy Kaufman. Lawler said Kaufman was the best thing that happened to his career, but it was 25 years ago and it was time to let it go. Lawler said Savini could be anywhere in the crowd because he was a master of disguise. Lawler said they would find out who Savini had sent in.
Ghoulish laughter and music played. Cut to a clip of Savini calling Lawler the meanest monster he had ever seen. Savini claimed his friend Kaufman’s brain cancer resulted from the injuries he suffered in the ring with Lawler. Savini said he was going to use all his technology and bad ass stunt men to come to Memphis and teach Lawler a lesson.
(4) Jerry Lawler beat The Jokester (“handled” by Jimmy Blaylock) via DQ in 4:03. Jokester was “Colorado Kid” Mike Rapada made up like Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”. On commentary, Blaylock said he had a bond with Savini because they both hated Lawler. “We Hollywood people stick together.” Baxter debunked the accusations about Lawler’s involvement in Kaufman’s demise. Jokester pounded and choked, until Lawler started no selling. Time for the strap down comeback. Lawler hit his signature fist drop and got jumped by Blaylock for the DQ. Blaylock jabbed Lawler in the throat with his cane while Jokester held him up.
Baxter and Jenkins closed. Lauren was concerned about Lawler being attacked by
Savini’s henchman. Baxter said Coffey made a Divas match for next week – Yung vs. Ga Ga Girl.
Closing Thoughts: Not as good a show as last week. Lawler said he was hearing his name too much, but what’s an announcer to do when Lawler is in the main event, which is used to launch a salacious revenge angle involving the death of Andy Kaufman? He’s also tied into the number two angle with Yung. We can only hope these angles are used to elevate others. The Southern Heavyweight Championship continues to be presented as a big deal, which is a good thing. The not so good news is the lack of any coherent format to the championship tournament. WTF? How about some brackets? White’s mic work was one of the high points again this week. Delusional heels can be fun to watch. I wish the six man had been given more time. The heat hasn’t been great for much of the wrestling over the first five weeks, but this was good and the crowd was getting into it. The commentary focused on stories to the exclusion of calling the matches. I think it’s been that way all along but it’s more troubling when there’s a good match in the ring. The stuff with Marella was entertaining, but I don’t watch this show to see RAW repeats, and I suspect the same is true for the people in Memphis. If anything, it screams that the real stars are in WWE, when they desperately need to devote the entire hour to getting their own talent over.
