Lance Russell and Dave Brown call today’s action from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
Opening Contest: Scott Studd (2-0) defeats Reggie B. Fine (w/Sweet Georgia Brown) (0-1) after a missile dropkick at 2:55:
Last week’s jobber T.D. Steel is the referee for this match and a split screen promo sees Studd thanks fans for welcoming him with open arms. Fine struggles to bump from some arm drags and proceeds to slowly pound away until a blind charge gives Studd the chance to land a missile dropkick to stay undefeated. Studd looked good here. Fine did not.
Jack Hammer and Diamond Mike come out, with Mike trying to do some managerial gimmick infringement by sporting a megaphone like Jimmy Hart. Mike tells Russell that Hammer is coming for Sid Vicious’ and Brian Christopher’s titles. He goes on a weird rant about fans cholesterol before we get to the next match.
Jack Hammer (w/Diamond Mike) (2-0) pins Edric Hines after a somersault senton off the second rope at 1:43:
Hammer is about three times the size of Hines, a skinny African-American wrestler. Hammer toys with the young talent, picking him off the canvas after a corner slingshot splash. That angers Brown, and it fails to do Hines a lick of good as Hammer slams him and finishes with a somersault senton.
Highlights of the Jerry Lawler-Bill Dundee match at the recent Memphis Coliseum air to Rocky theme music. The match was refereed by Frank Morrell, the worst official in the business in 1995 because he struggled to get to the canvas in a timely fashion and had a slow and inconsistent three count.
Dundee comes out in a suit to talk with Brown. He is angry that Lawler, who he calls “Kingfish,” used a chain to beat him at the Coliseum and cost him a shot at the Unified Championship. The crowd treats Dundee as a heel, cheering when Lawler comes out to confront him. Lawler says that Dundee brought the chain into their match. Dundee has no good answer to that, so he pivots and asks Lawler for a rematch. After putting over Dundee’s fighting ability, Lawler tells him that he was never good enough to win the world title. Dundee says Lawler is too busy in the “Mickey Mouse outfit” in the WWF to take his challenge seriously but when he does, he will be ready for a fight. This segment did a good job framing a Lawler-Dundee feud over a new issue.
Non-Title Match: Brian Christopher (USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion) (3-2) pins Ken Raper after a German suplex at 2:57:
Raper gets his clocked cleaned with a superkick and he takes a powder. After a weird running forearm to Christopher in the corner he gets caught with a German suplex and loses.
Scott Bowden is not on today’s show because PG-13 beat him up at the Coliseum. Footage shows the beatdown and how Tommy Rich & Doug Gilbert retained their tag team titles by using – you guessed it – a chain!
Brown interviews PG-13. J.C. Ice is the best promo on the team. He does a good job putting over the beating they gave to Bowden. Wolfie D explains that PG-13 could not get another title match because Gilbert and Rich would not grant one. However, they will face off at the next Coliseum show in a hospital elimination match.
PG-13 (2-3-1) defeat the Punishers when J.C. Ice pins Punisher #1 after a double bulldog at 2:25:
The Punishers are some big guys that sport black masks, shirts, and long tights. They look a lot like the Hickersons. PG-13 work a couple basic wrestling holds until double teaming like crazy, whipping the Punishers into each other, double dropkicking Punisher #2 out of the ring, and then hitting a double bulldog to get back to .500.
Doug Gilbert, now sporting blonde hair, indicts PG-13’s size and asks them if they are ready to bleed and pay the ultimate price. Gilbert says that there is not a capable person who is prepared to wrestle him today, so he heads to the ring to win via forfeit because his unknown, scheduled opponent has not shown up.
Doug Gilbert (0-1) wrestles Wolfie D (w/J.C. Ice) to a time limit draw at 5:30:
This match never develops much of a flow as Gilbert works chinlocks and chokes every time Wolfie D attempts a comeback. Gilbert gets an edge when he tosses Wolfie over the top rope behind the referee’s back. A flying fist drop effort eats boot and the television time limit expires before Wolfie can successfully rally. No explanation was given for where Tommy Rich was and an expected run-in by him never occurred. Rating: *
Highlights of an older match between Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee are shown, where Dundee won.
The Last Word: The best thing about the promotion, outside of Brian Christopher, is newcomer Scott Studd, who is showing more energy and polish than the rest of the roster. The squashes on this show were good, but the main event fell flat. That segment needed to do more to put over the hospital elimination match as that appears to be the main selling point of the Memphis Coliseum show.
Here were the results of the Memphis Coliseum show that took place on January 23. Attendance figures were unavailable from either the Wrestling Observer or prowrestlinghistory.com.
-Scott Studd (3-0) beat Sergeant Victor
-The Spellbinder (0-1) beat Doug Basham
-Miss Texas (0-1) beat USWA Women’s Champion Sweet Georgia Brown (1-0) to win the title.
-Moondog Spot defeated Reggie B. Fine (0-2)
-PG-13 (3-3-1) beat Doug Gilbert & Tommy Rich (3-1) in a hospital elimination match.
-Bill Dundee (3-1) defeated Ricky Morton
-USWA Unified World Champion Sid Vicious (2-0) defeated Brian Christopher (4-2) in a two-out-of-three falls match, winning the first and third falls. On the third fall, Dundee pushed Christopher’s foot off the bottom rope.
Backstage News*: The reason that Jerry Lawler was not on the January 23 Memphis card was that he was needed for Monday Night RAW tapings. According to reports, attendance was down versus last week’s show.
*In talent relations news, Scott Bowden is done with the company since he was a student at Memphis State, graduated, and is now looking at pursuing opportunities in his new career field.
*Backstage news provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for the week of January 30 and February 6.
Up Next: USWA Championship Wrestling for January 28!
