Episode 23: Jerry Lawler and the Memphis Territory Memories.

"Welcome to GenX Classic Sports — the podcast that takes you back to the golden age of sports, where legends were made and memories never fade. 

In this episode, we move our attention to Memphis wrestling, spotlighting the legendary Jerry “The King” Lawler and the wild world of the Mid-South Coliseum wrestling scene in Memphis. Memphis was a highly successful region in the 1970s and 1980s. Whether you grew up watching Channel 5 Wrestling or you're a classic pro wrestling fan looking to relive the glory days, this episode is packed with stories, history, and the larger-than-life personalities that made Jerry Lawler a wrestling icon. Don’t miss this throwback to one of the most electric territories in wrestling history!

We are PROUD to announce our first partnership with a great company: Aunt Susie’s Granola. https://auntsusiesgranola.com/

If you love granola, then you’re going to love Aunt Susie’s Granola. Aunt Susie’s is a 100% Gluten Free Kitchen and includes overnight oats and other snacks. Aunt Susie's Granola is shipped coast to coast online with subscription service options. The owner,  Erica, has offered our listeners a great deal: from now until July 31st, listeners of our little podcast can use the code GENXCLASSICSPORTS for a 20% discount, one per customer thru July 31st.  

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more nostalgia-packed content covering GenX retro sports, and the athletes who defined a generation. Let's roll back the years — this is GenX Classic Sports!"

Production Credits:

Intro and outro music: Mason Enis

Narrator: Haylee Wolf

Copyright @ PineStreetProductions 2025. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

Transcript

welcome sports fans to Gen X Classic Sports where we bring the nostalgia of our sportsfilled youth into the present
day Grab your favorite retro jersey crack open a cold one and let's stroll down memory lane together Welcome back
everybody And I just have to say we are proud to announce our first partnership with a great company Aunt Suzies Granola
Auntsies granola.com If you love granola then you're going to love Aunt Suzie's
Granola Aunt Suzies It's a 100% gluten-free kitchen They've expanded
their product offerings to include overnight oats and other kind of snacks My favorite flavors are salted caramel
and s'mores So try those out Aunt Susie's granola is shipped coast to coast online with subscription service
options The owner Erica has generously offered our listeners a great deal from now until July 31st Listeners of our
little podcast can use the code Gen XClassic Sports all one word Gen XC
Classic Sports for a 20% discount one per customer That's Gen XC Classic
Sports one word for a 20% discount through July 31st at Aunt Suzies Granola
A nt's granola Okay I believe this will be episode 23 Steve and we're going to
talk one more time about the topic that won't go away This is Steve Brown with
me He's been on here before and I believe you divulged Steve that you grew
up in the thriving metropolis of Augusta when we were here together Absolutely
All right And so basically what happened was we got to talking about wrestling on
uh on the side one day and decided we were going to talk wrestling and then things didn't work out and I ended up going with another episode anyway of
wrestling and Steve said "Hey we still need to talk wrestling." And and I believe him So there's still a lot to
mind there So we're going to talk some more uh wrestling So Steve in Augusta
Arkansas you're a few years older than me not too many Um so how was wrestling
uh for you as a kid with the viewing wrestling and learning about it and getting into it Yeah I think it came on
what like 11:00 on Saturday 11:00 at noon on Saturday We decided in earlier podcast that it was right after cartoons
and probably before band or something like that That sounds about right Yeah Well my dad you know we grew up we grew
up poor uh in in Woodruff County like a lot of folks did And and you know my dad
was not not a big sports guy but he loved wrestling And so you know he got
me he got me hooked at an early age and and he would he would not miss an
episode on Saturday mornings Yeah Uh I Yeah I believe it was cartoons
for us from about 6:30 to 11 and then it was over to now Okay So we've talked
before on here about the three channel days and this kind of impacts this because there's only so many channels you were going to get out of Augusta I'm
sure So if your dad was a big fan um what were y'all what what what would the antenna get you back in those days We
got we got the Little Rock channels and if if we turned it just right we could get Jonesboro We couldn't get Memphis Uh
you know we we tried but we couldn't get Memphis And you would think kind of where Augusta is located kind of right
there in that corridor you know it's about you know you can go to Memphis or or Little Rock about the same amount of
distance or time and but we couldn't get the Memphis channel So that's what I thought you were going to say So channel
4 on on Saturday mornings to watch Midsouth Okay So Midsouth and you and I talked a little bit the first I think
the first name you mentioned when we first talked about this was Leroy Mcgherk Yeah So let's go back to what I
know from uh from researching this for the first couple episodes So Mids South
really came from what they called the Tristates um Wrestling Alliance or
something to that effect And that was run by a guy named Lee Roy Mcgherk and you just told me a few minutes ago you
actually started out watching him be a commentator Yeah On on the wrestling broadcast Yeah And it tells you how
naive I was or just a little kid cuz you you know they would they would tell you blind Leroy Mcgherk on the microphone
and you know as a kid we didn't put together how that blind man's calling that match Right Right Yeah Uh yeah that
see I didn't see any footage of him actually calling matches So that that's really interesting that the kids were like yeah blind Leroyy's doing his thing
over there I told you I looked it up though and he really did He had a I think he was already blind in one eye or
something and he had a car wreck that robbed him of seeing in his other eye So
somehow he was running a wrestling uh company truly blind and he had been a wrestler right I believe that's correct
Yeah I think he was a wrestler before And if I'm not mistaken he's actually the mentor one of the many mentors uh
for uh Bill Watts So I think that's where this story really kind of begins is that at some point Bill Watts took on
more and more responsibility with Mgherk's outfit Is that does that ring Yeah that sounds
right And you know from from from memory when watching it Watts was one of the big stars So you know you didn't really
back then understand the the business aspect of it but you know him and and Danny Hodgej and you know a few of the
others when I first started watching and remembering those were the superstars Yeah Yeah I told you my mom was a big
Danny Hodgej fan and apparently had seen him wrestle at like um fairgrounds and such around the state of Arkansas
growing up in um hot hot springs Um I actually since the la since the first
two episodes of this about wrestling I've done some more YouTube looking around and I actually found footage of
that um league uh the tri-states thing and I did find some old enough that you
could tell clearly Bill Watts was like their marquee guy He was very active
wrestling You can't you clearly you can see he's a younger man in this but you
can you can still and I don't know where they filmed those I don't know if they were filming I know that that the what
became the Midsouth wrestling area was was already part of that area I think they may have expanded it with Bill
Watts but very similar approach to how they shot it filmed it the crowds Not
the same setting but very similar approaches to sort of the grittiness and um it's it's just amazing Thank God for
YouTube because there's so much of this you can still go out there uh and watch So all right So I grew up watching
Midsouth on a um ABC affiliate down in Shreport Louisiana So you're telling me
you saw it here out of Little Rock Out of Little Rock Yeah On ABC affiliate
Okay So well those two of the only three channels available we had them covered
didn't we We did Um and then that means also do you remember any events around you in
Augusta live events Like whether you win or not don't matter but do you remember even hearing about it I don't remember
them coming to to that you know near near where I was at but you know they were in Little Rock on a regular basis
Yeah they were And uh I I do remember as a kid my I had an uncle I mean not this matters to anyone but I had an uncle
from Michigan who was a big wrestling fan was a brother to my dad and he had come down at one point and had promised
to take me to wrestling if he ever you know if he but uh he came down and we he
ended up going back pretty quickly for some unknown reason and we didn't get to go to wrestling so I was pretty
disappointed Uh and well the this whole thing kind of happened because uh the
guys that I've talked to already my brother and Kim it really started because the three of us went together um
with some family uh to Elorado to watch wrestling and and some of our favorite guys were on that So um I've since done
enough research to know that Little Rock was a major part of Midsouth wrestling So the people that don't know the
geography of it my hometown lies between Shreveport and Monroe Louisiana Uh if
you're leaving either one of those areas and going towards something in Arkansas you're likely to go through my old
hometown down in Junction City So there was a lot of traffic through there of wrestlers and a lot of wrestling fans
But um some of the discussions that like Jim Cornet for example has on his
podcast and I'd urge all the wrestling fans to go listen to that He talks a lot about Arkansas Highways and um I've
mentioned this before maybe but the Hope Watermelon Festival where they drove all day to you know to wrestle for 60 bucks
or something I mean heck of a way to make a living really But I have uh seen Bill Watts uh interviewed and I've heard
Jimmy Cornet talk about it Little Rock was a major stop uh for the operation to
to make some money because I guess Barton Coliseum Yeah Regular at Barton On a regular basis they so they kept uh
the highway 167 between Rustin Louisiana and um Little Rock Um pretty pretty
regular they stayed on that Um all right So what's interesting about where you
grew up as you already said is the relationship between Little Rock and Memphis geographically because back then
as we've established on here everything was regional Yeah So you might have a state covered or part of a state or two
or three smaller states or whatever the deal may be And so Mgherk and then later
Bill Watts had mids south that may basically encompass Oklahoma Arkansas Louisiana Mississippi and only Houston
and West Texas apparently in places Um cuz the Bon Erics had Dallas and
everything on the north part of Dallas But to the east of you and to the northeast of me back then was this whole
Memphis outfit And I read up on this last night because I'm really not that familiar with it but I knew who Jerry
Lawler was Y because he was on the cover of all the wrestling magazines that I went to the grocery store and got if if
it had Jerry Lawler if it was in there it was either Jerry Lawler or Dusty Rhodess on most of them and then
eventually Ric Flair Well it was really interesting because when I you know when I was a kid kid you know Midsouth was it
and then when uh I went to college I went to school at Arkansas State in Jonesboro and so there was a big
contingency of us that we ended up we would go to Memphis on Monday nights on on a pretty regular basis for their
house shows and and so got exposure to a lot of that and you know kind of got
kind of got into it uh you know as a young adult But that
was a a kind of a golden time for their uh for for their their uh franchise
because there was you know it wasn't it wasn't just Lawler There were a lot of stars that were evolving and coming out
of the Memphis area that you later saw on you know either the uh the Atlanta
program you know the big program that Ted Turner had or or in the WWF Uh agree
because I I pulled this off of the internet and it's got a a list of the guys that wrestled there I'll leave one
of them out for now but uh the sheet there was the the sheet Bam Bam Bigalow
I know you remember him Um Rock and Roll Express Midnight Express Bob Armstrong
and his and his son Brad Armstrong Bill Dundee and Buddy Landell Cactus Jack Um
there's a long Jesse Ventur Ventura wrestled there Ken Peter all these names
all the people listening to this know and you're thinking "Wait didn't you mention a lot of those for Midsouth?" I
did because that's how it worked back then Um I've even heard uh and Jimmy
Cornet talk Jim Cornet talking about how each regional boss so for Midsouth maybe
Ernie Lad or Bill Watts would go to another region just to give notes Yep And apparently the reason Rock and Roll
Express ended up in Midsouth is because Jerry Lawler at the request of um Bill
Watts he came to Monroe or Shreport or somewhere and he watched what was going on took notes and they had a pow-wow and
he told uh he told Bill Watts "You got to get the girls here You got to get the chicks back in the stands." And and he
said "Well I don't have that kind of talent right now We're locked into these store." He said "Well I do if you want
to pull from me I'll pull from you And so they literally like the NFL made a trade and Jim Cornet as manager and uh
the Midnight Express got borrowed along with the Rock and Roll They actually I think they formed the Rock and Roll
Express to bring them in or something And they came to Midsouth to pump the
youth back in and the excitement of the the girls with the heartthrob guys and all that And I can't remember now It
could have I I don't remember Somebody Bill Watts gave up two or three guys and that's how they worked that out And as
my buddy Ken pointed out on the earlier episodes the reason they had to do that was survival Yeah Because there's always
the threat of Vince McMahon senior up in the Northeast wanting to go coast to coast with his operation So they fought
this dude off for a good decade Well and as you know back at that point they they they made their money off off house
shows and you know and all that stuff So they needed the crowds and they had you know and if the house show crowds were
suffering they had to change the the demographics of that and that was the perfect way to do it Yeah absolutely So
who else do you remember uh uh out of Memphis Well the big thing
Yeah Lawler Lawler was the guy obviously and uh but at that point in time as most
people will remember of a certain age that was the time when Andy Kaufman had his big deal with with with uh Lawler
and I was at a couple hoping you'd go there Yeah Yeah actually was there at a couple of house shows where where Andy
Kaufman was in Memphis and I I mean I remember one uh you know very vividly
where you know and it would play out the same way every time you know he would he would pick a woman out of the audience
and and just you know get her up there and this time it was you know a healthy healthy young lass and you know and he
gets her up there and just berates her and slaps her around and you know beats underwear thermal yeah thermal underwear
pair of shorts over Yeah With a pair of shorts over him and and you know he'd he'd let her you know he come back on
him a little bit you know just tease and then mock her and all that And then you know at the end Lawler would come out and you know and beat him up pretty good
But I believe you were at live house show Yeah two of them I mean it was it was great And it was really at that
point in time where it was really toward the end of where it culminated where he and Lawler got in a fight on uh on the
Letterman show on Letterman Yeah So for there's I doubt anyone listening to this doesn't know this story but Andy Kaufman
of course from TV taxi and from Saturday Night Live skits and stuff comedian uh
he he started I think he started doing that in nightclubs wrestling women and it kind of grew and grew into this weird
slice of Americana at the time where he was actually going around the country as
part of his act and wrestling women and the you know the background was at Lawler didn't like it once it it came to
Memphis He was he was uh you know cuz Lawler was healed for a while and then he went good So somewhere in all that
he's going to stand up for these Memphis lasses as you called them and it started
this thing and it just grew I can so remember the the letterman thing But it ended up uh at one event um Lawler put
the brain buster on him like twice Yeah And he goes away in a neck brace Yeah And I think I think I remembering that
was one of the two that I was at and I think I think I've got that lit So you you're on this history here that I'm
looking at Um but Kaufman made a great heel I mean he knew he would he could
work the crowd like nobody else I mean he had he had everyone in the arena
lthered up and ready to to charge the ring and murder him Even better is that the brain buster was a banned move So he
did it not once but twice Nice And yeah Andy Kaufman was one of those dudes that his specialty was getting under your
skin right Absolutely And so so years So yeah So it culminates as Steve said uh
culturally with them having another altercation on Letterman right and
Lawler slapping the crap out of him and it kind of just from there And I don't remember much beyond that Um but I do
know that years later the Jim Carrey movie came out and Lawler was actually in it playing himself Y and since then
of course as you talked about earlier with a blind color analyst on a wrestling match we all know and we
didn't as kids this was all just staged It was all a thing between an angle that
they worked for years I guess it was years I mean I'm Well that for that that
period of time I mean it it may have been a year It wasn't a long but it was intense Yeah but it was very intense
Yeah Well hey whatever sells tickets Absolutely So if you think Jerry Lawler is going to brain buster Andy Kaufman
and you know what's funny is you So you said you're going down from Jonesboro to to Memphis Where are y'all getting $3
seats maybe Yeah maybe I mean we would we would spend a lot more on beer than we spend on seats And see that's one of
the other things that's so fascinating about Cornet Cornet does a really good job on his podcast of telling you what
the dollars equal to to show you what you were getting And even to this day uh
I I mean money money to money apples to apples wise he'll tell you He was like "Well you know that would be the
equivalent of a $20 ticket now whatever he's talking." And you still think that's pretty good value man I mean that
that's pretty good deal So there were tons of shows where you probably uh could have gotten in for two or three bucks easily you know but for for seven
or eight guys from from Arkansas driving an hour and a half to Memphis to go eat barbecue drink a couple of beers night
of a great Yeah it was a great night out I kind of equate that to minor league baseball cuz I used to when I moved to
Little Rock that was the cheapest entertainment I could find was the Travelers games that Okay so here's the
other thing What this enabled them to do Steve though was the thing that I like the most about the regional background
for wrestling is how they were loose affiliations Like so I'm sitting here looking at the note and the Memphis was
kind of I think it was the Continental Wrestling Association technically is what they settled on Everybody just called it the Memphis circuit though
really Um they were they were underneath the umbrella of the NWA right And the
NWA was was ruled for decades by Ric Flair And so what that allowed them to do was borrow each other's guys and sell
out arenas and Ken and Casey and I touched on this but we didn't really talk about it with Memphis so much So
I'll be curious what you say about maybe names that you heard flow through there and rivalries and such but we uh Ken and
I talked about how we really thought we were dreaming when we said "No I know I saw Dusty Roads in Midsouth." And then
we did the research and sure enough we did Well the same thing happened with Lawler Yeah
So they could make a for example they might make a story line where Dusty rolls through Ric Flair but it was all
under the umbrella this says for 10 years of the NWA So any borrowing and
back and forth and all that would have been orchestrated by Jimmy Hart and Jerry Lawler and whoever was running um
Georgia I don't even remember who was that Jim Crockett That was Jim Crockett or I believe was that Jim Crockett Yeah
I always sometimes I say Jim Crockett when I mean Jim Cornet and vice versa but it was Jim Crockett I thought
running Georgia Was it I was thinking he had the Carolinas but I may be wrong But I you know what You may be wrong But I'm
just glancing at these names and it and it brings back so many memories about um the Jimmy Hart's first family Yeah That
feud that was going on with whoever Lawler could gather up Bobby Eaton Yeah
Um Yeah Bobby Eaton who ended up being part of Midnight Express Exactly And it
says in the 70s and 80s and into the 90s Lawler engaged in feuds with Dutch Mantel which is a guy still still
talking about it out on YouTube Uh the Mongolian Stomper Bruiser Brody uh
Austin Idol Rocky Johnson Tommy Rich was a guy I remember from the magazines
Randy Savage Rick RDE and Bill Dundee All names that I definitely remember um
from back in the day So do you remember the bigname guys flowing through occasionally like a flare or somebody I
I remember them more flowing through Midsouth and and you know we we had
talked about you know the different guys through that that and there's a laundry list you know of guys from Midsouth that
went to both uh you know the the Atlanta promotion and and McMahon's promotion
and uh but I remember very very clearly that you know they would call it uh they
bring a new star in and and they would say it's his rookie rookie season Well I remember when it was Ted Debiosi's
rookie rookie season and he was getting a real in the mids south He was getting a big push Well Flair was the the the
NWA champion and Debiosi had been feuding with um uh Dick Murdoch and
Murdoch had a deal at that time where he would get out in the ring and he'd have
this big metal trash can with a board you know 2x4 sticking out of it That's right And without fail some idiot would
come out there would end up with the trash can on him and him beating the crap out of the trash can I just saw
that footage like two days ago Well the Diosi had earned earned a championship
match on TV with Flair Okay And it was going to be the last match and I heard y'all talking about it The TV TV time
remaining you know and all that stuff And but he had been feuding with Dick Murdoch leading up to that So some you
know halfway through the show he gets the crap beaten out of him with a board by by Dick Murdoch He's got a big bloody
head you know and all that stuff And uh but I I I'll never forget that you
because you as a rookie and he was the you know he was the the baby face and everybody was rooting for him and you
wanted him to you wanted him to take that title from Flair and and you know just heartbroken when he lost his
opportunity Murdoch thought he had lost the opportunity even though Debbiosi got the
opport and so they ended up quarreling and there's footage of uh the other trick that Murdoch had with that trash
can was he'd come out and bear hug it and collapse it Yes And he would challenge other guys to do that And it
always ended up with the other guy had it over his head and beaten it with a two before You know Dick Murdoch and
killer Carl Cox both kind of leaned into that old Marine thing where they come out This was before Sergeant Slaughter
Yeah They would come out with uh Dick Murdoch had a knapsack uh with beer a six-ack of beer on the old plastic rings
It would fall out Just happened to fall out And he had one of those shovels that folded too occasionally that he might
need But yes the the trash can I just saw that footage two nights ago and I
was I was laughing about that And and they were very similar in in in wrestling style And if you remember they
had a tag They were the brain busters Yeah It was just brawling Yeah it was just brawlers for you know for their
purposes they were just brawlers Um they leaned into that Cold War thing as Ken and Casey and I talked about hard with
the patriotic stuff because if you think about it whether they were legit foreigners or not most of them were not
Uh they had a whole stable of of quote unquote foreigners that they could float
through and fight against these patriotic guys Made for some great story Scandar Abbar and you know and all of
those guys with his darks and spitting the green crap everywhere and the Mongolian
stomper and uh there was a Khan Killer Khan or something like that was one of them Of course uh the Ugandan warrior
Yeah Kamala Camala All those guys Well this says Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler in
81 had a massive massive feud And the Funks I mean they they were they were
Texas and all over the place I remember the funk cycling through and there was there was a you know a two or three
month period where where he and and Lawler had a good rivalry and several
memorable matches It's so funny cuz they were always bloody I mean when Funk was involved there you know somebody was
getting cut Yeah And I always thought that you know the the reputation that Bill Watts's program got was that it was
so based on physicality you and I talked about earlier before we turned to Mike
on about how he got a lot of football players Yeah I always had that impression about Memphis because I I was
only catching Memphis through magazines and it like you said Terry Funk was one of the worst You you you'd look at picks
from Lawler and Funk or whoever and the dudes would just be battered all over the bloody I always thought well man if
there's any uh outfit that's as rough and tumble as Midsouth with these big it must be Memphis cuz they look like they
were bloody each other up every time they fought over there Yeah There there was a lot of cutting and stuff but but I don't remember them being really big
guys you know Lawler's not a big guy No he's not He's not very tall is he No And
you know and and a lot of the guys that were really coming through at that point that were becoming the stars like Rock
and Roll Express and Midnight Express they weren't big guys They weren't either You're right And you know Bill Dundee who who was the champion there
for a while he wasn't a big guy Just saw his name Just saw his name Yeah Uh I
guess maybe uh Bill Lots had cornered the market on the old football player athletic types cuz I I just saw Paul
Orindorf's name pop up and we know he had his run in several places You mentioned you mentioned Ken Peter
earlier and and and I remember when he first came to Midsouth and you know he
was the strong man and he had the the wrestling wrestling singlet Yeah But he
would do you know like you were talking about like uh Dick Murdoch and doing the the crushing of the trash can Well he
was always doing some feed of strength Yeah And and and I remember distinctly
one time they had him they had him kind of between a car and like this concrete
wall and he's the mid push car you know holding
the car off and I'm thinking you know and as a kid you're thinking damn that guy Well and Iron Chic and he was I mean
he was one of the first really muscled up guys He was legit You remember uh Iron Chic had the the the things he
curled behind his head the big clubs made out of wood or whatever Feats of strength now that I look back on it was
a thing for sure Cuz I know I want to say Butcher Eden somebody had like a
bench press Now knowing what we know now if some prop hits the ring somebody's
going to end up wearing it out of there aren't they Yeah absolutely dude's getting beat with all kinds of stuff But
toward the end of Midsouth you know you saw a lot of guys come through like the road the road warriors you know they
came through and had a long run through there and they were you know they were very phys they took that physicality to
a ne you know another level there and you know they were really some of the first guys wearing makeup and you know
the paint and all that stuff more costume and all that stuff But but yeah
they were they they they were a different level there Well let me ask you this Do did you So what happened
with us was so we only had Midsouth on the channel on the uh antenna and then we got cable in 82 I think somewhere in
there That was the first time we saw the Georgia outfit that Ted Turner at one
time I think either owned it or it was it was certainly because of his station And I joked about how low their ring was
to the ground uh on our last podcast but do you remember watching Bullet Bob
Armstrong and his son Brad and Flair That was NWA headquarters by then And so
it was Flare It was Dusty Roads Uh you mentioned him earlier Magnum TA Do you
remember watching that later in the afternoon maybe 1 or 2:00 that coming on And I kind of got cable about the same
time you got cable I was I was in college then But yeah I mean that's when I really started you know started
watching some of that as well cuz it would come on at like 5:00 on Saturday afternoon or 5 or 6 or something like
that on S on Saturday afternoon Just yet another one to watch Yeah Something else to do You get wrestling in the morning
and wrestling at night And but yeah there was a good you know the the four horsemen came through there and you know
with with Flair and Tony Blanchard and the Andersons and you know and all of
those guys and and Magnum TA was was a a really rising star you know through that
through that organization But there was uh you you remember Nikita Kolaf Yes Well supposedly his cousin Ivan Koloff
Ivan Koloff Yeah But he was another Russian guy was really muscled up and
and he and uh they all run together Yeah they all run all run together But they
probably had a cousin Boris They probably did in another another organization But yeah there there was a
good stable of guys through there And you know you would see you would start that was at that time you were starting to really see guys abandoning one
promotion and and not just the trading but truly abandoning one promotion and
being gone and going to another Yeah there was this other thing happening too that I bet some Memphis guys did that
I'm seeing a lot more information about now But you know Japan paid well apparently and Deiosi was a huge star in
Japan I know Flair and these guys would disappear for two months over there and just go everywhere Yeah make a ton of
money and and the brilliant and I keep saying this and people are going to get sick of it but the brilliant thing about
the Bill Watses of the business back then and I'm sure Lawler you could say the same thing about was that when they
knew that was coming I'm sure it was all contractually controlled stuff but when you knew Flair was going to go away for
a month that gave you weeks to set up an angle where he's going to lose a loser
leave town match or you know JYD getting blinded
Yeah Get injured and Yeah be gone for a while And so they built these like
deadlines for things to happen for the fans Yeah And it's like my friend Ken said he was like you know if you missed
anything there wasn't there I don't remember reruns Yeah If you missed a week and and I watched another broadcast
the other night where they started the show with footage from like a Super Dome event where a belt had changed hands You
don't want to come on Saturday not know your guy didn't win He got beat last week So I mean I just find the whole
business back then fascinating And and I did do my research on Memphis enough to know that
Lawler he kind of took that over from Jeff Jarrett's dad who was Jerry Jarrett
right Um I think there were several Jarretts actually kids that wrestled and and so Lawler and him together kind of
had a thing going and then Lawler broke away towards Memphis and Jarrett stayed up around Nashville I think I read Yeah
I think you're right And the two didn't they didn't trade ch talent or anything They kind of did their own and Lawler
ended up with all of it He ended up with Nashville and uh Memphis at some point So I told you earlier I think it's
interesting how the actual wrestling stars themselves ended up being uh owners promoters uh booking agents Dusty
Rhodess booked Ernie Lad booked uh Lawler clearly And then you had the creative roles where these guys made up
these stories like Lawler and Kaufman and you know honestly I don't know who approached who about that deal It' be
interesting Yeah To to really know that I I picture Lawler catching this act in some lounge in Memphis drinking a beer
and thinking this would be hysterical you know Who knows But um yeah So um I
just wanted to talk to you about that because I know about Memphis cuz I know where you were growing up and I didn't
know what kind of access you haded to it Let's go back to Midsouth really quickly before I I let you go on this one and
tell me who were your guys and who were your favorite guys and and storylines from back there that you kind of
remember sort of have the most nostalgia for Yeah I distinctly remember Debiosi's rookie year and you know they pushed him
hard for two or three years and then then then he went to you know another promotion but they pushed him really
hard for two or three years and he was kind of my guy early on I mean I the there was a tag team that me and my
nephew who's nine months younger than me whenever we would wrestle with you know with with all of us you know we were
always the mask medics The mask medics And they would I don't know that Yeah They were two guys and you know they had
white mask on and they had an X on their forehead and I don't know them Yeah So we those were our guys the mask medics
That had to be out of the tri-states days Yeah probably That's something Mgherk came up with So when they went to
Midsouth you followed Deiosi on his comeback being a good guy Yeah You you
Well he was a good guy you know early on Yeah When he left he came back but then when the JYD stuff happened he went hill
for year A really strong heel forever So you were still with it with the stagger and all that Okay All right So it you
know he was he was one of the guys we followed with you know mathematics Uh you know I don't know if you remember
this or not uh right at the end of the Midsouth
uh run before before they folded Sting and the Ultimate Warrior came through
Yes And they were a tag team They were called the Blade Runners Yes And it took me years to of reminiscing back to
realize that's who that actually was Yes And they I remember watching them and they were rough I mean they were I mean
they were early in their careers but you know Sting obviously ended up in uh in
Atlanta and and uh the Warrior and uh in McMahon's organization Um you mentioned
him earlier I just want to ask you real quick what you remember about him because he was showed up in a lot of stuff and I and I kind of just had brain
lock about what happened with him but um they really pushed at some point through multiple um outfits Magnum TA Yeah What
was the deal with him Because I do remember him getting pushed I want to say I may be totally off base but I want
to say by the time Midsouth was losing Diosi and JYD for good is when Magnum TA
maybe slid in there but he had had a run before that Yeah Yeah He had elsewhere right Well I remember him originating in
in Midsouth and then ultimately ending up in Ted Turner's organization So he
really Yeah So he really Yeah So he really got his big his big start uh in
in in Midsouth and he had some classic battles with with uh Nikita Kolaf and
and and you know and just classic you know that they would show over and over again and and he had a really big push
and they were angling him to uh to challenge Flair God's going to say to me
yeah especially when when and then then after he went from Midsouth to uh NWA in
in uh Atlanta uh they were really ang I mean he when he got there he tag
teamamed with Dusty Roads quite a bit and just as he was getting ready to get
his big push he had a car accident and basically lost use of one of his arms Is
that right Cuz he was a big muscular dude too Yeah he had the blonde hair and the mustache mustache I think they
probably ripped that Magnum PI thing off So that's what it was Okay Cuz I knew
they had clearly propped him up to be a teed up presence Yeah he was teed up for
a huge run and had that car accident and ended his career I did not know that I had no idea All right final final
question about about wrestling because I always have to ask this because one of the things also that got me down this
road for the podcast was that movie came out about the Bon Erics What do you remember about the Texas wrestling and
the Von Eric family in general from back in the because they definitely got loaned out around the country
occasionally and Midsouth was uh they definitely had Carrie Von Eric at house shows at Midsouth They showed footage of
big events in the Super Dome where they borrowed him from Fritz for a week or whatever What do you remember about that
Because I think with all that happened to them ultimately it's it's quite an interesting story and everybody kind of
has their own little uh re relationship how that went You know a tragic story
for their family obviously but you know to be honest with you I don't remember them that much I remember I remember Carrie coming through a little bit and I
remember his time in the WWF but you know but he was you know clearly a shadow of himself at at that point But
the the Texas promotion I really didn't have much exposure to I mean you were a lot closer to it than I was and you
could probably see it and and you know they probably did trade more with the
Shreveport area than they were doing with Midsouth My understanding is that Bill Watts even though he didn't have
Texas he did have Houston if so that like that that was all he had unless it was way out west and so Watts was big on
Superdome shows they draw 30,000 to New Orleans Superdome but from also from
what I understand is that he had he worked with Fritz just like he did Lawler and these other guys on borrowing
talent and um so I didn't know if where you were and the way TV worked back then
um if that had made the impression on you cuz let me tell you all of us we could not wait to hear if Carrie von
Eric was going uh you know do a guest spot on Midsouth or something cuz we were so enamored with him being the I
think he was the national shot put or discus champion at like and he was supposed to go to the Olympics according
to that movie Yeah Um and then they boy boycotted it in what 80 Yeah And so he didn't get to go So there was just a
whole lot to that and obviously appeal to young people I just didn't know if um you had as much exposure to it as we did
Um yeah So it's I did not know before we had this discussion that you had
actually seen the Andy Kaufman thing in the flesh You told me you'd seen it I thought you meant you watched it just like No you were there buster night Yeah
that may be my proudest fact I know about you now I'll add that to my resume
That may be the best thing I know about you It's certainly not that Raiders fan thing for sure All right Anything else
about wrestling and the good old days Man I could talk wrestling all day I do want to ask one more One more question
Have you been to any matches You have a son Yeah Did you ever take Josh Okay
What have you been Yeah So we uh you know we became you know WCW fans you
know when that promotion was really going on and we went to a lot of house shows in Little Rock and uh you know
really close to the ring and and Josh got to touch Goldberg one night you know in Goldberg's big run and and uh you
know and so I raised Josh right He was He's He still watches wrestling He's almost 40 years old
Uh he he still gets all the WWF pay-per-views I took I told them I took
the kids to one in Little Rock and I was so impressed Of course it was on TV but I was so impressed with how they time
out their matches It's like clockwork Like they know how to end a match in exactly one minute If if someone
whispers to them that it's got to end in a minute they know exactly how to do it And then they sprint out of there and start And I thought that was fascinating
When you think back to what we saw which it looked like it took careful editing just to pull off the the hourlong
program on Saturdays cuz it looked so chaotic And by the way Jimmy Cornett says it was that chaotic He he he can
tell you about filming all day uh well they call them promotions on Wednesdays
or something They go to one after they go to TV station and it had to cover every story line for every part of the c
every part of the uh area And he's like it was actually hard to keep that straight sometimes Like who's going to have the belt by Saturday You know they
had to think through it all and do it but it it was not the welloiled machine that WCW and WWE ended up being for sure
I figured you and Josh had gone to some live events We we have we proudly have a picture that goes through our uh uh
digital digital frame of me and Josh standing uh uh in the crowd at a WWF
event in Little Rock and Josh is holding up a sign that says woo on it And we got
we were on the broadcast so it was it was a snap out of the broadcast Man I didn't know that either That's really
cool All right dude If you don't have anything else about wrestling I think we uh we have uh done a good job We got 40
minutes out of Memphis and Mids South So I'm happy and I learn I learned a lot
about you man The Andy the Andy Kaufman thing I'm going to have to think on that a while cuz that that was such a such a
weird little pulse But it was the cultural you know happening as well I
just saw like a YouTube thing popped up about it just a few days ago Of course you know YouTube knows I'm looking at
wrestling now And it just popped up about I think he threw his coffee or water in Lawler's face and Yeah And so
anyway knowing that you were actually there for the brain buster is really really cool All right man I appreciate
it Steve Thank you so much man Absolutely All right Thank you for joining us on Gen X Classic Sports where
nostalgia meets the thrill of the game Tune in next time for more insightful discussions and memorable moments
brought to you by Pine Street Productions Until then stay passionate about sports and keep the memories