The AWA promotion, for a time in the early 1980s, had arguably been the hottest promotion in the world. When Verne Gagne was slow to understand the changes taking place in the business others, specifically Vince McMahon and the WWF, began taking the business to new levels. Over time the once-hot AWA had cooled. It became more difficult for the AWA to hang on to top talent and to even compete in their own long-standing strongholds. When Lawler became champion, the AWA’s week-to-week schedule had become the most sluggish in it’s own history. Hoping to prove his worth as champion Lawler began taking world defenses to places where world title matches rarely occurred anymore due to the death of the territorial system. Promotions hanging on that no longer had ties to a governing body such as the NWA, as well as regular cities on the Jarrett territory, were visited by AWA champion Lawler. It seemed as if Lawler were trying to establish himself as a fighting champion who took on all comers, much like the NWA champions of previous times were perceived.

With the AWA and Jarrett working very close, Jerry Jarrett also began a working agreement with the World Class promotion in Dallas. By the fall of 1988, Jarrett became primary owner of the company. While he interjected some of the Tennessee-based talent to the Texas end, Jarrett held on to two of the more important holdovers the World Class promotion had available, Kevin and Kerry Von Erich. During this time, Jarrett also began building a feud between the two stars most likely to draw any sort of crowd from the pool of talent available to him. Those two stars were Jerry Lawler and Kerry Von Erich.

The field of pay-per-view television had been used mostly by the WWF to begin to tap into a new revenue stream for the business. For decades wrestling made a profit by advertising, via newspaper ads and TV shows, arena cards in local cities. Fans would then buy tickets to the live shows and this money would be enough to operate a successful territory.  

Times were changing though.  Cable television opened up new possibilities. With the right connections a major arena card could be shot as a live TV show and beamed directly into homes, wired for such possibilities, wanting to purchase the event. Jarrett and Gagne, old school territorial giants, decided to take a big leap and to test the new world of pay-per-view. During the fall of 1988 plans began to fall into place to see a the Gagen-Jarrett coalition try their own pay-per-view event. Although Jarrett had a strong syndicated network to publicize the event, information surrounding the event was also publicized on Gagne’s weekly ESPN show.

The event came together on December 13, 1988 from Chicago. The event drew poorly live as well as on pay-per-view. The main event, a match between Lawler and Von Erich, ended with Lawler winning as the referee deemed Von Erich too bloody to continue. The unsatisfactory ending was a sign of troubled times ahead between the two main promoters in the event.

Almost immediately after the event, Gagne and Jarrett got into disputes over how much money the event drew and how much money should be paid to those who appeared on the show and between the promotional parties. Other disputes began to crop up as well as Lawler and Jarrett wanted a new title belt to symbolize the unification of world titles Lawler’s reign had brought. Gagne seemed well-pleased with the belt as it was.

On the first TV show of 1989 in Memphis, Jerry Lawler announced he was returning the AWA title to Verne Gagne since he was now recognized as Unified world champion. For all intents and purposes, the decade long relationship the Jarrett promotion had shared with the AWA ended then.  

Lawler explained the whole purpose of the December pay-per-view was to unify the AWA and World Class titles (a point that seemed very muddy in the weeks leading up to the event and remained so with the referee’s decision to stop the match without a clearcut pinfall or submission). When he walked out of Chicago as winner, Lawler said he unified the championships into a new title, the Unified world title. Lawler then said Verne Gagne called him after the Chicago show to let him know of AWA title bookings. Lawler said he told Gagne he was unified champion not AWA champion and that he had bookings to make as Unified champion intimating the Unified title took precedence over any other title including any claim Gagne might make with his AWA title. Lawler said he was returning the AWA belt to the AWA and the World Class title to that promotion. He said if those groups chose to recognize such champions then he felt as if those champions were company champions like the NWA and WWF champions at the time had become. Lawler also said he was more than willing to defend his championship against their titles anytime but referred to them as “top contenders”, not world champions. 

Officially, the AWA stripped recognition from Lawler and refused to recognize his claim as Unified champion. With their top championship vacant the AWA needed to fill the void left by Lawler. The AWA then crowned a new champion by having the winner of a battle royal in February lay claim to the title. Larry Zbyszko, Verne Gagne’s son-in-law, won the title in the battle royal.

Back in Memphis, Lawler had made his argument regarding the title situation. It was believable enough to make his title seem important and any title claims by Gagne or anyone else seem secondary. Fans seemed to buy into it as well. Lawler then stepped back into his feud with Dirty Dutch Mantel, who had spit tobacco on the title belt near the end of 1988. Almost immediately the Unified world title got the Memphis-style promoting sloshed all over it as Mantel seemingly won the title in a match where he paid special referee Ricky Morton off to help him. The title was returned to Lawler a few weeks later as Lawler began a reign of the championship. This sort of handling of a championship, especially one that symbolizes the very best the promotion has to offer, ultimately serves to diminish the title in the eyes of the fans since it seemingly is always wrapped in controversy. 

Longtime promoter Sam Muchnick likely served as the best example of how a promoter treated a title with respect and thus gave the title an aura other championships could never reach. With Muchnick guiding the NWA world championship for years, long title reigns were commonplace. The idea that one man was so good that he could continually face the best wrestlers in the world yet somehow hold on to the title raised the importance of the title in the eyes of the fans since the champion almost never lost. When he did lose it was unique and placed his successor as having tremendous abilities since he knocked off the long-running champion. The fact that screwjob finishes (any sort of a match-ending that ends in something other than a clearcut pin or submission and one that usually unfairly teases the fans) were rarely, if ever, used also helped elevate the championship’s importance.  

The Memphis promotion finally had their own world championship but they seemed to be treating it like any other championship the promotion chose to recognize and certainly unlike how most other world championships had been treated in the past. The promotion had long used frequent title switches with all their championships to keep things lively and moving. The area’s long running Southern title, considered for years as the most prestigious title in the area and the one title most often worn by Lawler, was not immune from such treatment. While Lawler’s constant presence likely kept the prestige of the Southern title strong for years, Lawler was also chasing the world title during that time. Now though he had won the world title and suddenly that title, the driving force behind Lawler’s career, was being treated like any other championship in the territory which likely made fans feel nothing special toward the title and also possibly a little disappointed that their longtime hero could not hang onto the title he had worked most of his career for because the chicanery that followed most title switches had not been put in check by the promotion. In other words, if the promotion failed to treat the title as prestigious why should the fans feel it was anything other than just another championship?

After having the title returned to him, Lawler held on to the title until April. Then newcomer The Master of Pain took the title. Although the Master of Pain was full of potential he was still rather green in the business. The idea that someone barely into their initial year in the business could cop the world title also went against long-held beliefs about important titles. Most world champions had been in the business for years before winning the most important title available. The Master of Pain winning the championship flew in the face of most traditional beliefs. Of course, the talent base the promotion was working with at the time wasn’t very deep so the monster Master of Pain did appear physically to be someone who could give Lawler trouble. While Jarrett had had problems with Gagne over the world title situation and also in truly establishing the Unified championship as legitimate, the next few months would prove to be almost as problematic for those who followed wrestling closely.

Jarrett was also running the old World Class territory based out of Dallas. Although he mostly had two separate bases of talent some of the stars from both promotions crossed over into the other promotion. Jerry Lawler was one such star.

Lawler’s April loss to The Master of Pain was never acknowledged on the Texas end of the promotion. That might have not been a continuity problem had Lawler not made appearances in Texas while he wasn’t champion but he did make appearances. In those appearances, he was billed as world champion. As a matter of fact, during one of Lawler’s world title matches in this time frame the title was held up after an inconclusive finish against Kerry Von Erich. The rematch saw Lawler regain the title. At the same time in Tennessee, fans there were anxious for Lawler to regain the title from The Master of Pain, which he did before April ended. To add to the confusion Lawler remained a fan favorite in Tennessee while playing a heel in Texas (and did well in both roles).

While the promotion seemed to make some effort to keep storylines from crossing over into confusion on some level the problem ultimately did not appear to be that big of a deal to the promotions. The wrestling press, in the form of newsstand magazines, were unsure how to handle the situation. Weekly newsletters, gaining in popularity at the time, though usually weren’t as forgiving and often pointed out the lack of respect for fans such moves seem to indicate.

Before the year was over a similar situation would crop up one more time. In October, Lawler dropped the title to The Soultaker. The title switch was never acknowledged in Texas. Lawler would regain the title in a few weeks.

In times past, such situations with title switches occurred. They generally occurred though in the territorial days. Such news then would get lost amidst plenty of other news spread out among a couple of dozen territories. Those territorial boundaries were also much more likely to be heeded in those days as well. Television had not expanded the boundaries of the business either. The news then was also much slower to get out to fans. That news was delivered to the majority of fans through newsstand magazines which were generally selective in how they reported news as well as in what news they chose to report. By 1989 though, the territories had all but died. Such news could not be hid for long. Newsstand magazines still were careful on what they reported and how they reported information but they were being challenged by a burgeoning crop of underground newsletters that rarely held back anything. Add to this how the World Class promotion, renamed USWA about mid-1989, and the Memphis promotion had strong syndication ties which likely overlapped in some markets which in turn would leave some viewers totally baffled at what was happening. The lack of continuity made many of these fans look at the Jarrett promotions as inferior due to their lack of sophistication in keeping up with the events in their own promotions.  

In 1988, the promotion realized a dream along with Jerry Lawler as a world championship came home. A pay-per-view event that no doubt could have been the springboard for more business fell apart as the two major players in the scenario, Jerry Jarrett and Verne Gagne, dissolved their loose partnership amidst money squabbles. While Gagne continued despite the split, his AWA was on it’s last legs and the loss of Lawler as a fighting champion hurt his group some. Jarrett though came out of the fiasco with some interesting possibilities. His top star could lay claim to a world championship. That top star explained the circumstances involving the split with Gagne well enough to come out as a credible and likable champion. The promotion though stumbled as they often booked their champion as if he were still Southern champion and not World champion. In short, the promotion had a world championship, and had it on the right man, but almost everything about that world title was a mess.   

January, February and March 1989

Jerry Lawler began the year as AWA champion. After the fallout over the SuperClash pay-per-view and Verne Gagne, Lawler “returned” the AWA title. The promotion then began billing Lawler as the Unified World champion. Lawler would then seemingly lose the Unified title to Dirty Dutch Mantel in a January Memphis match. The title would be returned to Lawler though after a review of the match found Ricky Morton, who had served as special referee for the match, was impartial and had been paid off by Mantel. Lawler would hold on to the title in this time frame.

Sid Vicious started 1989 as CWA champion (this title was formed in December 1987 when the Southern, Mid-America and International titles were unified). Vicious dropped the belt to Wendell Cooley. Cooley though quit the promotion not long after his win. The title was then awarded to Dutch Mantel. Mantel would drop the strap to Jeff Jarrett in March.

The CWA tag titles (formerly known as the Southern tag titles) were in the possession of Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden at year’s start. The veteran team dropped them for a week to Billy Travis & Jed Grundy before regaining the titles. A few weeks later, Golden quit the promotion. Perry ‘Action’ Jackson replaced Golden as Fuller’s tag partner but the newly formed duo lost the belts to The Mason-Dixon Connection combo of Tracy Smothers & Jon Paul.

Other wrestlers working the circuit during the first part of 1989 included PY Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson with a Japanese gimmick), Tojo Yamamoto, Shogun & Samurai, Scott Steiner, Prime Time Brian Lee, Alan Reynolds, Superstar Bill Dundee, The Exotic Adrian Street, Miss Linda, Beauty & the Beast: Terrence Garvin (Terry Simms, not Terry Joyal) & Mark Guleen, Modern Day Warrior Kerry Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich, Rough & Ready managed by Boss Winters, Chris Frazier, Cat Garrett, Frankie Lancaster,  Iceman King Parsons, The Master of Pain, Robert Gibson, Jungle Jim McPherson, Sylvia, Brody Chase, The Masked Dream Weaver (Del Wilkes), Jimmy Valiant, Austin Idol, Nature Boy Buddy Landell, Ron Fuller, The Wrestling Machines (Scott Steiner & Del Wilkes under masks), Keith Eric, Don Bass, others.

The voice of the wrestling show changed in February when lead announcer Lance Russell left the promotion. Russell’s longtime announcing partner Dave Brown took over lead announcing duties for the promotion while others such as Randy Hales, Michael St. John and Roger Webb pitched in to provide their announcing talent from time to time. Russell signed on to work with the Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling promotion which had fallen into the ownership of Ted Turner. Russell’s talent was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to talent that the area would see then lose to the two major national promotions during 1989 and beyond.

An interesting newcomer made his way into the area as well in the absence of Lance Russell. Billed as Ronald P. Gossett, IV, a portly man who talked almost as much as Jimmy Hart, debuted. Gossett first debuted as co-host to Dave Brown and then segued into a ringside manager slot. Along the way, Gossett, true to the great managers the area had seen in years past, insulted and belittled his way into the forefront of the area upon his initial appearance. Gossett, although never having had such a prominent public role with a promotion previously, had been around the business for many years. Gossett had once worked for Nick Gulas in the 1970s and often served as ring announcer in some towns for Gulas, most notably in Chattanooga.

Stars on the Horizon

Once the territory had been one that had grown it’s own stars who often stayed close to home. When the 1977 split occurred this began to change some as some of those stars began to get older and get out of the business. More and more stars from outside the area had to be brought in to work the circuit. The promotion did continue to create their own stars. When the national expansion hit in 1984 many of the veteran wrestlers available in the territories jumped on board with the WWF. By 1988 many of those who did not initially sign with the WWF or with one of the other major groups at the time (Bill Watts’ promotion or Jim Crockett’s promotion) had signed and received national exposure. This created a couple of problems.

One problem it created was it exposed most all the talent available in the U.S. at the time. With the territorial system, fans often had to speculate about the abilities a wrestler had that they had never seen before. With the exposure the national promotions received via syndication and cable TV that tantalizing possibility was quickly taken away. The other problem it created was with the national exposure fans were always eager to see somebody new especially after seeing many of those they had never seen before. By 1988, most of the veterans of the game and other available talent had gotten their chance at a national break on some level. This meant most serious pro wrestling fans had seen most of the talent in the U.S. This though posed the question: from where would the stars of tomorrow emerge?

The answer at the time seemed to lie with the few remaining territories, including the Memphis promotion. Since many of the veterans were under obligation to the national promotions, promotions such as the struggling yet surviving Jarrett promotion often took chances on talent that had yet to be developed to the point that they were ready for a major break with the WWF or WCW. In this sense the fans in such promotions were able to see many of the stars to be before they were polished and put on display with a national promotion. In 1989, many of the stars to be of the 1990s and beyond passed through the Jarrett promotion. 

Sid Eudy came to his most major prominence as Sid Vicious. During his career he would also be known as Nighthawk, Lord Humongous, Sid Justice and Sycho Sid, among other names. Eudy was discovered while playing softball in his hometown of West Memphis, Arkansas when Randy Savage spotted the 6’8” monster. After some original hesitance, Eudy began training under the tutelage of Tojo Yamamoto and eventually made his debut in 1987. 

Eudy was blessed with height and a fairly impressive physique. With wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and The Road Warriors becoming stars in the 1980s, promoters were often on the look-out for the next big thing. With his size many saw dollar signs all over Eudy. During his first two years in the business, Eudy bounced back and forth between the Jarrett promotion and the Continental promotion in Alabama. After a stint as a babyface Lord Humongous, where he was paired with Shane Douglas, Eudy returned to Tennessee without the mask and billed as Sid Vicious. Eudy would then work mainly as a heel. He turned babyface in 1989 after a falling out with Stud Stable member Frankie Lancaster. 

When Ted Turner purchased Jim Crockett’s promotion in 1988 the balance of power in the wrestling business shifted some. Turner’s deep pockets enabled the company to sign some of the hot young talent available. It wasn’t long into 1989 when WCW called Sid Eudy and signed him to a deal. Eudy would be pushed a week or two as a major singles monster but he would be paired with Dan Spivey for a run as The Skyscrapers with manager Theodore R. Long. Despite the fearsome appearance of the tag team, it became apparent that Eudy’s charisma would be too much to keep him away from a major singles push. Eudy would go on to bounce back and forth between the WWF and WCW over the next decade. Every now and then, in between major gigs and usually during softball season, he would pop back in to Memphis and work some.

Scott Rechsteiner graduated from University of Michigan with a degree in physical education. In 1986, Scott began wrestling some for the Bruiser Bedlam promotion, a promotion that rose from the ashes of the old Indianapolis WWA promotion. Trained by Jerry Jaffee (who worked most often as Dr. Jerry Graham, Jr.), Don Kent & Dick the Bruiser, Scott won the WWA title in Dearborn, Michigan on August 14, 1986 from the Great Wojo.

Along the same time, Scott's  brother, Rob, was making noises in the business after knocking around a number of fledgling territories and landing in Bill Watts’ UWF promotion. There Rob changed his ring name to Rick Steiner and hooked up with Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt as well as another newcomer billed as Sting to form the First Family. Following his brother’s lead, Scott also changed his ring name, dropping Rech-, to be billed as Scott Steiner.

By 1988, Scott hit the Jarrett promotion and began making some noises of his own. Scott was blessed with natural ability and a great physique. He also had a good knowledge of the basics of mat wrestling. Scott was given a big win in June 1988 when he won the $100,000 Renegade’s Rampage tournament (although the tournament was months long, it really did not play out like a true tournament). Although Scott was given the win then his career for the Jarrett promotion never really took off.

He hung around the promotion, mostly working low on area cards. He did have a brief tag title run with hillbilly character Jed Grundy. A few weeks later he worked a week or so under a mask with Del Wilkes as The Wrestling Machines. Things though were about to change for Steiner.

After Bill Watts sold his promotion to Jim Crockett, only three UWF performers got over with fans: Doctor Death Steve Williams (although not nearly as much as he should have gotten over), Sting and Rick Steiner. By late 1988, Rick, part of a heel trio with Kevin Sullivan and Mike Rotondo known as The Varsity Club, was being turned into fan favorite. Eddie Gilbert returned to the promotion and by 1989 was reforming his First Family from the UWF days. In the spring of 1989, Scott signed with WCW and began teaming with his brother. It soon became obvious the physical style of the brother combination was the hottest tag ticket in the business. It wasn’t long before the Steiner Brothers were considered the best tag team in the business. For much of the rest of the 1990s, the Steiner Brothers would work both WCW and the WWF. Late in the decade, Scott would begin pursuing a singles career as he reinvented himself as Big Poppa Pump.

While the Steiners are considered by some as the tag team of the 1990s, some would consider the Rock n Roll Express as one of the top, if not the top tag team of the 1980s. Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton hooked up in Memphis in 1983 as a copy of the ultra-successful Fabulous Ones tag team. After some limited success in the promotion the two left and ventured to Bill Watts’ Mid-South promotion where their feud with Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express combo of Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey turned them into major stars. The Midnights-Rock n Rolls feud would continue for years in various combinations in various promotions.

While the Midnights, as a heel team, could last longer since their appeal was to be dastardly, it was different with the Rock n Rolls. Gibson & Morton’s team was based on how they appealed to young female wrestling fans. When those fans grew older and stopped watching wrestling or started cheering someone else what would happen to the Rock n Rolls? Generally what happened was the base of fans who were still around, longtime fans, resented such performers since they were never created to appeal to them. By 1987 and 1988 the appeal of the Rock n Roll Express had faded greatly. Their decline in appeal was also hastened by their constant national exposure.

In 1989, Ricky Morton returned to Memphis. He shocked fans by turning heel. A few weeks later, his one-time tag partner, Gibson, returned and also turned heel. After a few weeks, Morton turned face again as did Gibson. Later in the year though, Morton & Gibson reunited in the area as The Rock n Roll Express and teamed for several months holding the area tag titles and feuding against a talented team called Wildside (Mark Starr & Chris Champion). Some fans then though still weren’t thrilled with the Rock n Roll Express and jeered them and cheered the young heel combo of Wildside. Despite the resistance of some fans, many fans felt as if the magic created by the Rock n Roll Express was still there.

In 1990 the Rock n Roll Express signed on for a stay with WCW placing them again in the national spotlight. After hanging on there for several years where the two did split the team and work a brief feud against each other the Rock n Roll Express were ready for one last major run.

Jim Cornette, who had worked with the Crockett promotion and then WCW for a number of years, grew sick of the way the business had turned. He longed for the days when fans took what they saw on a TV show and in arenas seriously. His dream was to reopen a wrestling territory. Settling in east Tennessee, Cornette and others started Smoky Mountain Wrestling. His eventual lead babyface tag team was Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton, the Rock n Roll Express, whose 1989 Memphis run proved they still had something to offer the business as a tag team.

The Master of Pain debuted early in 1989 in Memphis. A tall red-haired monster who showed surprising agility began to catch a lot of attention during the year. Behind the Master of Pain gimmick was Mark Calloway from Texas. Impressive due to his height, Calloway wasn’t as impressive with his physique as others close to his height such as Sid Eudy. Calloway though made up for that by being a better athlete and more believable performer in-ring.

Calloway initially wanted to be trained by Buzz Sawyer. Sawyer though took Calloway’s money and split after a few lessons (“Bodyslams! Memoirs of a Wrestling Pitchman” by Gary Capetta, pages 165-175). Calloway would eventually get much of his training under the watchful eye of Don Jardine, a ring veteran who most often worked as The Masked Spoiler. Jardine would even teach Calloway one of his signature moves, walking the top rope.

In the Memphis territory, the Master of Pain was often paired with veteran Dutch Mantel, who no doubt also helped with the maturation of Calloway. Since he was so big and since perennial area star Jerry Lawler was in constant need of opposition, Master of Pain often was on top or near the top of area cards, even with as limited experience as he had at the time. Later in the year, the Master of Pain would work the Texas end of the promotion billed as The Punisher. Before he left Memphis for the Texas end, Master of Pain was turned into a fan favorite as he turned on manager Ronnie Gossett.

 1990 would see Calloway sign with WCW. He would replace the then-injured Sid Vicious in the Skyscrapers tag team with Dan Spivey. After a few months the tag team was split and Calloway, billed in WCW as Mean Mark Callous, was given a small singles push with Paul E. Dangerously as his manager. His highest profile WCW match was a Clash of the Champions match in June against US champion Lex Luger. Callous left WCW but his greatest impact in the wrestling business was yet to come.

In November 1991, Calloway debuted in the WWF as Kane, the Undertaker (shortened not long thereafter to the Undertaker). Paired initially with The Million Dollar Man (Ted DiBiase) and Paul Bearer (William Moody better known as Percy Pringle), Calloway was given a brief title reign when he downed Hulk Hogan in controversial fashion. Calloway’s dark mysterious and often creepy Undertaker was a stark contrast to the yellow and red, goody-two shoes Hogan. Calloway would develop the Undertaker gimmick to near perfection over the years and would come to be known as one of the greats of the game during the 1990s.

Charles Wright hit the Jarrett promotion in the fall of 1989 under the tutelage of mat veteran Pretty Boy Larry Sharpe. Memphis fans were aware of Sharpe since he brought another protégé to the area in 1986. That protégé was Bam Bam Bigelow. Sharpe’s new charge was billed as The Soultaker. Standing 6’6” the Soultaker cut an impressive visual sight against most opponents, especially Jerry Lawler, a frequent foe.

The Soultaker would work both ends of the territory during his stay for Jarrett. After bouncing around independents including the GWF, which would try to revive wrestling in Dallas, and in Japan, Wright would turn heads when he debuted in the WWF as Papa Shango. Many longtime fans disliked the Shango character as it seemed to be the typical WWF character that stretched believability a great deal by using voodoo to torture opponents including lead WWF draw, the Ultimate Warrior. Later, Wright would return to the WWF as Kama, the Ultimate Fighting Machine, a takeoff on the shoot fighting business that began to find a U.S. audience at the time. He would then morph into the a member of the Nation of Domination as the pimp Godfather and later the Goodfather in the WWF.

Dustin Rhodes debuted in the business in 1988. Working briefly for the Crockett promotion, Rhodes lost that slot, where he teamed with Kendall Windham as The Texas Broncos, when his father, the legendary Dusty Rhodes parted ways with WCW after Jim Crockett sold the promotion to Ted Turner.

Dustin debuted in 1989 for Jarrett and made an immediate impact. While his name no doubt interested some fans, other fans were drawn in by his athletic ability. Dustin began moving up the ranks in the area and ended up working both ends of the promotion.

Dusty Rhodes had moved on to the WWF. In late 1990, an angle was shot for the WWF’s Saturday Night’s Main Event TV show where The Million Dollar Man and his second, Virgil (a rip on Dusty Rhodes whose real name is Virgil), whipped up on Dusty and also Dustin, who was sitting in the front row in street clothes. The angle placed Dustin in the middle of the feud that would be blown off in January 1991. Days later, Dusty Rhodes returned to WCW. It wasn’t long before he called upon his son to join him there.

Dustin Rhodes then began a long successful run with WCW. Dustin though was eventually let go after his dad lost power and then Dustin signed with the WWF. In the WWF, he debuted with one of the most controversial characters of the decade, Goldust (another rip on Dusty, as “Stardust” was one of Dusty’s nicknames). The move placed Dustin near the top of the wrestling business for a number of years. Dustin would return to WCW after a stay with the WWF and remain there until WCW folded. 

Steve Austin began turning heads in the wrestling business in 1989. The long haired blonde had trained in the Dallas area under the guidance of veteran Gentleman Chris Adams, one of the area’s most popular wrestlers of the 1980s. Austin, the student, worked a feud against Adams, the teacher, that eventually saw Adams ex-wife, Jeannie Clark team with Austin against Adams and his then-wife Toni Adams. The feud, a throwback of sorts to the Jimmy Garvin-Precious-Sunshine feud that helped set the World Class promotion on fire in the 1980s, helped spark anemic gates on the Texas end of the promotion in the fall of 1989.

Austin, real name Steve Williams (he wrestled briefly under this name before changing it so he wouldn’t be confused with the other Steve Williams), would move on to the Tennessee end of the territory near year’s end. 1990 would see Austin continue to improve as he worked the Tennessee area. He would leave for greener pastures in 1990 as he signed on with WCW. Initially he was accompanied to ringside by Vivacious Veronica but would later be paired for a time with Lady Blossom (Jeannie Clark, by then his real life wife). Austin would have a somewhat distinguished WCW career although he and others there who appeared to be the future of the business were shoved aside when the promotion tilted their efforts to rehashing 1980s stars. Austin was let go by WCW chief Eric Bischoff. He wound up briefly with ECW before he joined the WWF, initially as The Ringmaster managed by Ted DiBiase. Austin though would drop that image for that of Stone Cold Steve Austin who would become wrestling’s biggest attraction since the glory days of Hulk Hogan.

Others passed through the area in 1989 worthy of recognition. A short list of such wrestlers would include Wildside: Chris Champion & Mark Starr, Del Wilkes (as the Dream Weaver and briefly as one of the Wrestling Machines), Gary Albright, Jeff Jarrett, Tracy Smothers, Jon Paul, Frankie Lancaster, Brian Lee and others. At the time they worked this territory some of these stars were mere diamonds in the rough but with some polishing most of them were able to shine as bright as the sun rising over the muddy Mississippi on a Memphis morning.

(Special thanks to NMars11835 for much of the Scott Steiner info.)

April, May and June 1989

Jerry Lawler lost the Unified World title to The Master of Pain on April Fool’s day on the TV show. Lawler regained the title a few weeks later. Interestingly enough, Lawler’s loss to The Master of Pain was never acknowledged in the Texas end of the promotion where Lawler was still recognized as champion. During the time The Master of Pain held the title on the Tennessee end, the title was briefly held up in Texas after a Lawler match against Kerry Von Erich. A rematch would see Lawler regain the title in Texas and then within a couple of weeks regain the title on the Tennessee side.

Jeff Jarrett had a long successful run with the CWA title during the spring. In June though he dropped the title to Black Bart (Rick Harris).

The Mason-Dixon Connection team of Tracy Smothers & Jon Paul lost the CWA tag titles to Robert Fuller & Brian Lee. In turn, Fuller & Lee would drop the titles to Billy Travis & Action Jackson during this time frame.

Others working the area at this time included Scott Steiner, PY Chu Hi, Frankie Lancaster, Jed Grundy, Lord Humongous (Sid Eudy), Shogun & Samurai, Detroit Demolition, The Dirty White Boy (Tony Anthony), Gentleman Chris Adams, Ken Raper, Mike Masters, Kerry Von Erich, Wildside: Chris Champion & Mark Starr, Austin Idol, Buddy Roberts, Lil’ Sis (billed as sister to Action Jackson), Bill Dundee, Nightmare Freddy (Tommy Gilbert), Spike Huber, The D.I. (Bob Carter), Stan Frazier, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Bass, Jimmy Masters, Mr. Devastation, Jimmy Golden and more.

For a brief time the promotion tapped into it’s storied past with an unusual angle. Robert Fuller had feuded off and on since his return to the area with Jeff Jarrett. In April, Fuller began making noises that Jarrett’s dad, Jerry, had actually stolen the promotion away from the Fuller family, specifically, Robert’s grandfather, Roy Welch. Fuller even produced a video of Welch’s longtime promotional partner Nick Gulas supporting his claim. Instead of drawing the ire of the Jarretts though, Fuller drew the ire of his cousin, Jimmy Golden. Golden, who had quit the promotion a few weeks earlier, returned to defend his grandfather’s honor, feeling Fuller had insulted the Welch name, in a brief feud that ended when Golden dropped a loser-leaves-town match to Fuller.

House of Horrors  

Wrestling walks a fine line in several different ways, one of the lines it often steps across is one relating to believability. In ring, the wrestling usually appears to be realistic. By the same token, the men and women who step into that ring must have some credibility to offer as well. Over the years, many bonafide athletes such as Verne Gagne, Danny Hodge, Wilbur Snyder, Dale Lewis, Masa Saito, Lou Thesz and others helped give professional wrestling  credibility. While some professional wrestlers were mostly performers those who had legit credentials created a balance that kept the business of professional wrestling from going overboard into less believability than many fans could stomach. By 1989 though professional wrestling was continuing down a path into becoming what WWF head honcho Vince McMahon called “sports entertainment.” Those with credible athletic credentials were not used or their credentials were ignored which made many of the WWF stars at the time into an interesting lot to behold. 

In some fans eyes it was bad enough to have to defend wrestling from it’s detractors but what the product had become by 1989 in the WWF, which is the group most casual fans or outsiders believed defined professional wrestling, was often unexplainable. What made most longtime fans cringe was the fact that many wrestlers with strange new personas had once been respected as serious professionals. With the new gimmicks, they were sports entertainers, a parody of what they once were and a step or two away from those who could boast actual credibility. Suddenly, top regional stars had become top national stars but their characters had been altered so much they were as believable as Saturday morning cartoons where coyotes fell off cliffs without permanent damage and a rabbit served up one-liners and where a dog and his buddies solved crimes. The adoption of such gimmicks cheapened the business some felt because it ignored the history each performer had in the business.  

In 1989 the WWF featured such characters as Brother Love, a take-off on teleevangelists, Akeem, a white man who acted as if he were a black man, The Red Rooster, a light heavyweight with his hair shaped like a rooster’s cone on top of his head, The Model, a modern take on the old pretty boy gimmick and others. Longtime fans though these characters differently though. They saw Bruce Prichard, aka Brother Love, as someone who had gained fame by fitting into the number two announcer’s slot behind Jim Ross with Bill Watts’ UWF. They remembered George Gray, before his time as The African Dream Akeem, as having a successful career as One Man Gang. They knew that Terry Taylor had done well for years prior to becoming the Red Rooster while Rick Martel had had an AWA title run under that name, long before he struck a pose as The Model. Add the fact that the WWF during 1989 signed Dusty Rhodes, one-time lead face with Jim Crockett’s promotion, the WWF’s main opposition, and turned him into a polka-dot wearing caricature of himself. The WWF had even signed the team of the Sheepherders, perhaps the most bloodthirsty and barbaric tag team of the 1980s, and turned them into the face-licking, kid-friendly Bushwhackers. 

The WWF went one step beyond all this though. Hulk Hogan’s movie “No Holds Barred” was released during the year. Tiny Lister, a giant actor, was hired to portray Hogan’s movie rival, Zeus. The WWF, in an attempt to push the movie, brought Zeus into storylines to feud and compete against  Hogan. 

In 1989 the few remaining promoters in the US were struggling. While some no doubt remained true to what had once made them successful, times had changed and they were just holding on in most cases. Others tried to change with the times and tried what they felt would work best. What was making the most money at the time in the US was the WWF. So with very few promoters trying to find a niche to fill as an alternative to what was on the market and with creativity apparently running in short supply, most promoters that were left simply copied the most successful product on the market, the WWF. The WWF product though was kiddie fare compared to what most promoters had served up for years and what most longtime fans expected from the business. So as the WWF product permeated the wrestling business with cookie-cutter cartoon characters in 1989, through their own product and through the product of their imitators, would Memphis/CWA fans find their promotion testing their credibility with hard-to-digest characters?

The answer would be yes as around mid-year, the Memphis promotion jumped on the bandwagon with hard-to-digest characters mostly based on horror movie characters. Freddie, Jason, The Zombie, The Undertaker, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein became part of the week to week crew of wrestlers the area fans saw. 

While the WWF product at the time may have influenced the introduction of these characters, a look into area wrestling history reveals larger-than-life characters had been part of the area fabric for years. Long before Jerry Jarrett opened up his office in 1977 some interesting characters had passed through the area for Nick Gulas and Roy Welch. 

In the 1980s some fans rolled their eyes when Ricky Steamboat brought a small dragon to the ring or Jake Roberts brought a snake or The British Bulldogs brought a dog. In the 1950s, Farmer Jones, a popular star, often brought a pig to the ring. 

The granddaddy of all character wrestlers, Gorgeous George, popped into the area some in the 1950s. In 1956, the area was treated to a wrestler billed as The Mexican Ape Man. At times during the 1950s, Pancho Villa worked area cards. If that wasn’t enough, Mrs. Pancho Villa wrestled some also. Also, the promotion had been populated almost non-stop for years with wrestlers who had stereotypical ethnic qualities (sneaky Japanese wrestlers, cruel German competitors, blacks with hard heads, etc.).  

The 1960s brought such interesting characters as The Scufflin’ Hillbillies, who sometimes carried a shotgun to the ring, Giant Frazier and others into the area. Specifically in 1967 and into 1968 the area first saw Dr. Frank (short for Frankenstein) and The Mummy. Dr. Frank was unmasked as Nick Adams, who gained some fame in the 1970s as the wrestler who brought Ginger the Wrestling Bear, another interesting attraction, to the circuit. Meanwhile Eddie Marlin was unmasked as The Mummy. (It is quite possible that others worked the area under the gimmicks of Dr. Frank and The Mummy at the time or were even unmasked in certain cities, the writer though is only passing along available information.) 

The 1970s brought about more interesting characters such as another Mummy. Wrapped in bandages, this character methodically lumbered around the ring as if he were in an old horror movie. When an opponent would hit the Mummy, powder would fly from the impact. In Memphis, the Mummy was unmasked as Ron Wright. Melvin Kimball was under the bandages in some cities. One fan told this writer he even believed Jerry Lawler worked a few matches as the Mummy in 1974. 

One of the most well-remembered strange characters to work the area came about in 1977. Jerry Lawler was the area’s top heel and was leading his army against a number of area fan favorites. One Saturday on TV a large box was wheeled out to the studio where it rested for awhile. Later in the program Lawler would open the box to reveal a wrestler wearing a Frankenstein mask. Lawler referred to the man as Dr. Frank. Under the mask was Ken Dillenger. In 1985 the angle was reprised when Eddie Gilbert began forming his army. He also wheeled out a box and eventually revealed, The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom did not last long in the area. 

Nick Gulas would also use the Frankenstein gimmick some during the late 1970s and into 1980. On a number of occasions a Gulas card would feature someone billed as Dr. Frankenstein. In January 1980, Crazy Luke Graham unmasked one such Dr. Frankenstein at a Chattanooga house show to reveal Lon Watson. 

In 1978 Jerry Jarrett would feature a wrestler billed as Lord Darth Vader, no doubt a takeoff on the Star Wars character, for a few weeks. Although the Vader character was interesting he saw very little ring success during his run. Also, in 1978, Jarrett used the services of bald Canadian Len Shelley, who was usually referred to simply as Kojak, also the name of a popular TV show starring the bald Telly Savales. 

Popular culture helped out in creating some more area gimmicks over time as some wrestlers had their names or gimmicks mined from popular TV shows or movies such as Memphis Vice (Miami Vice), The A-Team (A Team), Lord Humongous (originally billed as Lord Humongous the Road Warrior, a takeoff on the popular Road Warriors tag team whose gimmick was from the Road Warrior movie) and The Blade Runners (Blade Runner). Others took their name or gimmick from music stars such as Boy Tony (Boy George) and Sid Vicious (Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols). 

Most of these gimmick characters were short-lived, although there were exceptions. Still, believability remained an issue that would pop up. While many saw the monster characters in 1989 as a promotion that was struggling to find an audience with whatever they thought might attract fans, was it really such a stretch to believe these characters were any different than others that had been successful, to some degree, in the past. 

After all, in years past, Steve Kyle, who had worked as a heel, returned and did a Mighty Igor babyface gimmick, complete with Kyle carrying toys to the ring. What about the Masked Interns? Weren’t fans at some level led to believe these masked men and their manager Dr. Ken Ramey were medical professionals gone bad? Jos LeDuc, one of the area’s most successful bad guys, was really a Canadian lumberjack, wasn’t he? 

Over the years the promotion had asked fans to believe a great deal about wrestlers who passed through the area. The Sheik was a Syrian wildman. Abdullah the Butcher was a Sudanese madman. The Bounty Hunters were desperadoes straight from Tombstone, Arizona. Ali Hassan was billed as The Oil Sheik.  

The area also hosted such strange characters as the untamed Kimala, from the jungles of Uganda, and others such as The Colussus of Death, Bota the Witch Doctor and Sabu the Wildman. Even one of the area’s top attractions ever became shrouded in the fact that when he appeared a fan might have to not think too long about what he was supposed to believe about him. After all, did Jackie Fargo, whenever he got into trouble and needed help, really go pick up brother Roughhouse out of the “nuthouse”? 

About midway through 1989, Freddy popped up on area cards. Wearing a mask and outfit like the Freddy Krueger character from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Krueger was well-received by area fans while many who followed the business through underground newsletters, or longed for a more believable product, shuddered. Often paired with Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett or Bill Dundee, Freddy battled such area bad guys as Ronnie Gossett, The Master of Pain, Dutch Mantel and Wildside. Freddy would also form a team with someone bearing the name of another horror movie icon, Jason, of the Friday the 13^th movies. Jason wore a hockey goalie’s mask and similar clothing as the movie character. Together Freddy & Jason often battled Wildside. Usually under the masks Freddy was longtime area legend Tommy Gilbert while Jason was Doug Gilbert. 

In November Freddy battled another man billing himself as Freddy. Gilbert’s Freddy downed the impostor and unmasked him to reveal Kevin Dillenger (Alan Martin). Tommy then went under a mask briefly as Blackjack but he was hardly through with the horror movie gimmick. Tommy and Doug would often use the Freddy and Jason gimmicks in promotions they would work for years to follow.  In Japan, Eddie Gilbert even donned the mask for a time as well. 

In wrestling if one thing works, it will be used again and again until it no longer has any meaning. In the summer with the success of Freddy and Jason, the area saw others with similar strange gimmicks. Soon area fans saw The Zombie, The Undertaker (not the future WWF gimmick), The Wolfman and Frankenstein. Too much though was enough as the plethora of horror movie characters rendered the ones that did get over as less meaningful. While these new characters weren’t around very long it no doubt made some fans wonder about the promotion’s reliance upon such gimmicks whose overexposure also hurt whatever credibility the promotion had left. These fans though possibly did not realize how the promotion had used strange and unusual characters quite often in the past. The difference though in the past was the promotion had introduced bizarre characters in small doses and not all at once. With all the horror movie gimmicks in the summer of 1989 surely it all made some fans wonder about how professional wrestling, and the old standby Memphis promotion, seemed to be turning into some form of horror show.

While the promotion did use the horror movie gimmicks some the promotion was becoming a house of horrors in another sense. In a horror movie, a seemingly indestructible monster methodically hunts down victims whose main goal becomes survival. Sometimes a potential victim chooses to survive in spite of the overwhelming odds against him. This seemed to be the case with the CWA promotion. 

Jarrett’s promotion had survived the national expansion by the WWF. Surviving that expansion though had left the area very weak. The exposure the WWF had received since 1984 was far-reaching. In that five years, some area fans continued to support the promotion. The Memphis TV show remained strong by drawing excellent ratings but the crowds at the weekly cards in the arenas continued to drop off. Some fans turned away to the glitzier WWF product while many new fans to the business saw the WWF as the only game around. 

Despite the times looking bleak, Jarrett had expanded his own reach in 1988 and into 1989. Not only was he running a fulltime circuit with the CWA but his purchase of the old World Class territory meant he kept that circuit running as well. At times business was good but more often than not crowds were sparse and the thought that Jarrett could run a regular circuit as successful as he had in Memphis, particularly like the glory years of 1982-85, seemed to be possible only in dreams. Jarrett was running two territories in a business that had gone national. While he maintained a roster of talented veterans and eager newcomers, Jarrett relied on ticket sales to pay their wages while the WWF and, to a lesser extent, WCW had numerous revenue streams at the time such as merchandise sales, pay-per-view and strong syndicated networks and national TV exposure on cable TV which lead to more advertising dollars coming into their coffers.  

Some nights the guys who worked for Jarrett made enough for gas money. Some nights were better. By no means were their earnings like the big money contracts offered by Vince McMahon or Ted Turner. The low payoffs opened the door for some to leave the business totally and for some to leave the area to work elsewhere, although that option was drying up also. Some of the talent received calls from the WWF or WCW and stepped up into a more steady paycheck. Others hung on hoping for that big break. 

Jerry Jarrett had run a successful territory since 1977 and he and his family had been part of one with Nick Gulas and Roy Welch prior to 1977. Now though things had changed and Jarrett could do one of two things. The first option was he could gear up and compete with the WWF and WCW, which would cost the company a lot of money and possibly would mean the end of the company. The second option was he could accept things as they were and survive as long as he could hoping something could slow the national WWF juggernaut. The second option would cost him talented newcomers and veterans who would get picked up by the WWF and WCW  but would allow him to remain in the company he had worked hard to build. Jerry Jarrett, true to his business nature over the years yet like a potential victim in a horror movie, chose to survive. 

Recap 

Jerry Lawler’s AWA title reign officially ended in January after a falling out with the AWA’s Verne Gagne after December’s SuperClash III pay-per-view. Lawler promptly began defending the Unified world title. A crop of newcomers turned heads in the area during the year including Dustin Rhodes, Steve Austin, Charles Wright (numerous future WWF characters), The Master of Pain (future Undertaker of the WWF), Sid Vicious and Scott Steiner. The promotion also featured a number of performers based on horror movie characters. Meantime, the promotion was undergoing one of it’s roughest stretches ever as the national expansion of the WWF and the retooled WCW were making survival difficult for the longtime promotion.

NEXT MONTH:
Bad King and an era ends…  

Special Thanks

Edsel Harrison, Bruce Miller, Mike Norris, Mike Rodgers, Scott Teal, Charles Warburton and David Williamson.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown…thanks for the memories! Yow-zah!!!!!