What The World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – March 18, 1995

Reviews, Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth and they are broadcasting from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Russell interviews Doug Gilbert, Tommy Rich, Gorgeous George III, and Big Business Brown. Gilbert justifies piledriving J.C. Ice through a table after losing at the recent Memphis Coliseum show. Rich says that Wolfie D has no one to rely on now and says that Bill Dundee will not help J.C. Ice because Dundee is not his real father. Russell cuts that off real fast.

Opening Contest: Doug Gilbert & Tommy Rich (w/Big Business Brown) (6-4-1) defeats Scott Studd & Reggie B. Fine when Gilbert pins Fine after Rich hits Fine in the back of the head with a chain at 6:46:

There are no ring introductions today because Corey Maclin has the day off. Gilbert and Fine do a funny sequence, where Gilbert tries to pull Fine’s hair to get out a headlock, but Fine is bald so that is an exercise in futility. Spots like that do a great job playing to the crowd throughout the bout as both teams exchange offense. The former tag team champions prevail when Rich nails Fine in the back of the head with a chain. Studd is too good of a talent to waste teaming with Fine, whose status as a jobber to the stars has not changed despite going babyface. Rating: **

Dave Brown interviews Wolfie D and Wolfie says that J.C. Ice is taking it easy. Wolfie promises that he is going to bring in two dangerous individuals to help him defeat Gilbert, Rich, and George III.

Wolfie D (1-0-1) beats Edric Hines after a bulldog at 1:04:

Wolfie gives up a little offense to the skinny jobber before hitting a knee drop and finishing with a bulldog.

After the match, Tommy Rich and Doug Gilbert run in and beat down Wolfie until Wolfie’s dad shows up to even the odds. That brings out Gorgeous George III, but Mabel quickly comes out and clears the ring. The crowd marks out for Mabel.

Russell interviews Wolfie and he introduces his dad, Papa D, and says that he and Mabel live in Nashville, so it was easy to enlist him to fight against Gilbert, Rich, and George. Papa D says that he is involved because the heels put their hands on his wife. The Poppa D angle to this feud is silly but that is classic Memphis booking.

Dave Brown interviews USWA Unified World Champion Bill Dundee. He tells his son J.C. Ice that he will be back soon from his neck injury and he talks about a luck of the draw match, where all of the names in the USWA will be thrown into a bowl and a fan will draw out a name and that is who he will wrestle in Memphis. Dundee must be hoping for Edric Hines’ name to be drawn. He also talks about a match with four poles with mystery boxes, which sounds like Vince Russo’s dream, that he will have against Brian Christopher on Monday.

Mixed Tag Team Match: Bill Dundee & Miss Texas defeat Jack Hammer & Sweet Georgia Brown (w/Diamond Mike) when Texas pins Brown after Dundee trips Brown at 3:10:

With Reggie B. Fine shifting to babyface status Brown must be hard up for a new man. Texas and Brown go through some terrible sequences and Dundee and Hammer do not add much to the equation. Dundee eventually trips Brown, who carefully falls down, and Texas covers for the win. This Texas-Brown feud is lopsided in Texas’ favor since she is on a nine-match winning streak against Brown. The USWA needs to bring in another woman to face Texas so this program can end. Rating: DUD

A video package hypes Brian Christopher.

Are you interested in having the USWA do a fundraiser for you? Write to USWA Fundraiser, P.O. Box 1783, Hendersonville, Tennessee 37077 or call [phone number]!

Brown interviews USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Brian Christopher and Christopher acts like a heel by criticizing the fans for accepting Bill Dundee more than him. He hypes their four poles match before Dundee interrupts and they go back to their young versus old storyline, the same talking points that have been exhausted by this point. Christopher tells Dundee that Jerry Lawler is behind him and they start brawling. This segment just went for too long, which is probably going to shorten the last match of the day.

Want to get into wrestling? Come to the USWA Wrestling Academy and get your application today by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to USWA Wrestling Academy, P.O. Box 1783, Hendersonville, Tennessee 37077. The USWA must have a new marketing guy and this might be a desperate cry for new revenue/talent.

Non-Title Match: Brian Christopher (USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion) (12-6) wrestles Gorgeous George III (w/Big Business Brown) (7-3) to a time limit draw at 3:14:

It might have made more sense to do this match and then do Christopher’s heelish promo because when he plays to the crowd a little here it makes no sense. George suplexes Christopher around before the television time limit expires. This match never developed into anything. Rating: ½*

The Last Word: One might have thought the cage match in Memphis was going to settle the PG-13-Doug Gilbert & Tommy Rich feud but it keeps going. That is not a knock on it, though, because they are coming up with creative swerves to justify its continuation and the feud is doing good business. The Bill Dundee-Brian Christopher feud is wearing out its welcome, though, as their promo confrontations repeat the same talking points. Christopher already failed to take the USWA Unified title from Sid, so if he fails to beat Dundee for the title that will hurt his image.

Here were the results of the March 20 show at the Memphis Coliseum. Attendance for the show was unknown. Results are courtesy of prowrestlinghistory.com:

-Jack Hammer (3-2-1) defeats Chris Kanyon

-Pete Diamotto defeats Reggie B. Fine (0-8)

-Scott Studd (9-3-1) beat the Spellbinder (6-3)

-Moondog Rex & Moondog Spot (6-1-2) defeat Jack Hammer & Crusher Bones

-Sweet Georgia Brown (1-4) beats USWA Women’s Champion Miss Texas (5-1) to win the title and be crowned the Queen of Tennessee.

-David Haskins (1-0) beat Crusher Bones (2-1) via disqualification after Jack Hammer interfered. After the match, Marcus Dupree saved Haskins.

-USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Brian Christopher (12-6-1) defeated USWA Unified Champion Bill Dundee (8-3) in a non-title, “Russian roulette pole” match. In the match, one of the boxes had a chain, one had a bullwhip, and the other two boxes were empty.

-Wolfie D, Papa D & Mabel defeat Tommy Rich, Doug Gilbert & Gorgeous George III

-USWA Unified Champion Bill Dundee (8-4) beat Gorgeous George III (7-3-1). George’s name was picked out at random to determine Dundee’s challenger.

Up Next: USWA Championship Wrestling for March 25!

Logan Scisco has been writing wrestling reviews for Inside Pulse since 2005. He considers himself a pro wrestling traditionalist and reviews content from the 1980s-early 2000s. Most of his recaps center on wrestling television shows prior to 2001. His work is featured on his website (www.wrestlewatch.com) and he has written three books, available on Amazon.com.