Under the astute management of Sonny King, Stubbs and Anderson quickly capture the Southeastern tag team titles by outlasting Jimmy Golden and Jacques Rougeau in a one night tournament. The first challenge of the new tag champs would come from “The Tennessee Stud” Ron Fuller and a returning Bob Armstrong. Armstrong apologized to “The Stud” for what happened between them a little over a year ago, which you can read about here. After a couple of unsuccessful goes at Anderson and Stubbs, Fuller and Armstrong were finally successful one night in Dothan, AL. Or were they?

Earlier that Saturday morning at TV, senior referee Ron West was viciously attacked by Anderson and Stubbs and beaten to a bloody pulp. That night in Dothan, during the tag title match, referee Larry Brock was knocked out of the action. Ron West comes running down to the ring and counts the champs out. Cut to the next weeks TV, the NWA has held up the Southeastern tag titles and said on TV next week Anderson and Stubbs versus Fuller and Armstrong will be the main event for the vacant Southeastern tag team championship.

Next week comes, and in my opinion, this was so awesome. Before the match, Fuller and Armstrong are being interviewed by Charlie Platt. Fuller stated, “Today is a very special day. I’ve been looking forward to today for a long, long time. It’s a day I am going to remember for a long, long time, and so will you Bob.” Foreshadowing? Well, the match goes on. Everything looks on the up and up, until Bob Armstrong gets busted open. Bob finally makes the tag to Fuller. Fuller comes in wrestles for a few seconds and tags Armstrong right back in. Charlie Platt remarks, “That’s not very good strategy.” Armstrong continues to get worked over. He finally makes his way for the tag. He got tagged alright; tagged by a Ron Fuller right hand. Fuller brutalized Armstrong, going as far as hitting Armstrong in his reconstructed face with a trash can lid. From here winning back the Southeastern tag team titles was academic for Anderson and Stubbs.

Enter Billy Spears

Spears was trying to contact Sonny King so he could buy the contracts of Anderson, Stubbs and his other charge, Boris Zurkoff (that is how he was billed in Southeastern). After unsuccessfully getting King to sell, Spears went directly to the source. On TV during an interview with Sonny King and his wrestlers, Billy Spears came out. King told him no way. Spears said that King must not like money, so he went and contacted Anderson, Stubbs and Zurkoff. King was incensed and went after Spears, only to be attacked by his wrestlers. Then later on during that TV, Anderson, Stubbs and Zurkoff were to wrestle Jacques Rougeau, Greg Cooley and another partner who was not named. The unnamed partner was not there, so Sonny King inserted himself as the third man on the good guy team. They did the match and that was the last we saw of Sonny King.

So now Billy Spears was in firm control of King’s former stable of wrestlers and he added his momma’s favorite wrestler, Tommy Gilbert. They were entrenched in a feud with the RAT (Johnny Rich, Scott Armstrong and Tonga Kid). This feud lasted through out the spring and summer of 1984. Stubbs and Anderson and the RAT Patrol exchanged the tag straps a couple of times between them.

The Friction Starts

A returning Austin Idol during an interview asks why Mr. Olympia is acting the way he is. Idol recalls Olympia being his own man who stood on his own. Idol would not call him Stubbs. Idol said that Olympia just needed to get his head on straight.

Soon after, Stubbs and Anderson started having problems and Spears and Anderson questioned Stubbs on the deal with Idol. Stubbs dismissed their concerns, but something was wrong in the camp of Stubbs and Anderson. After a few weeks Anderson and Spears turned on Stubbs and burnt his face with a fireball.

This of course marked the end of this great tag team, but it sparked off one of Southeastern wrestling’s hottest feuds during the late summer through the fall of 1984. This feud has been detailed on Kayfabe Memories before, and you can read about it here. 

NEXT MONTH: 

We will take a look back at more of the summer of 1984, including the Jimmy Golden versus Vic Rain feud. Until then keep the Southeastern Memories alive.