ajtroma
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Everything posted by ajtroma
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Eddie got sideways with Max Andrews at Global and split with their belt. GWF continued to bill Gilbert as the champion, even going so far as to advertise him to defend against the always lame Johnny Mantel, knowing full-well Eddie wouldn't show. That night, they gave some complete bullshit about Eddie missing his flight from Atlanta and Bill Irwin took his place. They would officially suspend/strip Gilbert a week or two after. The real GWF people got wind of this angle and forced USWA to remove and desist all GWF references. Mike Samples and Bert Prentice just became regular schmuck managers who just happened to want to take over the USWA and run it their way. Later that year, Bert Prentice was running another Dallas promotion and booked Eddie to appear. Eddie got a call from Max Andrews or some other GWF rep telling him that if he said foot in Dallas, armed Texas marshals would be there to bust him for theft of that belt. Obviously, Eddie no-showed that night in the Big D.
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Do not hold me to this one, but I THINK this guy was either JR or Harley, one of the Hogg Brothers that were in Memphis area around 1985. I might be wrong on it though, but, its the best I can come up with. Whoever this joker was, he would take some UNGODLY chair shots right to the skull (full-on Balls Mahoney to Steve Corino level) in upcoming matches. Usually from Spot. I got the feeling there was lingering heat there for something.
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The Kamala-Koko feud was kind of humorous. Dennis Corraluzzo was Kamala's mouthpiece at the time (sending in horrible quality VHS tapes in) made sure in one match that Frankie would be at stake. The USWA Title vs Frankie. It was hinted that Kamala, after winning said match, would have a light, feathery snack right there in the Coliseum ring. Jeff Jarrett ended up with a back injury so Koko subbed.
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Bubba most likely thought the pay sucked, gave his two weeks promptly and there he went. That's usually how things went down there.
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These tiny little crowds would become the takeaway of all the subsequent SMW TV tapings. Just think that a little over 2 short years earlier, that tiny gym was packed for the TV taping that included Arn Anderson's debut and the Sullivan-Kanemura Massacre. It appears that there are maybe 50 people in the joint here. The next taping in Jellico, same thing.
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I'm pretty sure Seth was Sid's next door neighbor. I found Scott Bowden too be such a terrific little pain in the ass manager. Very underrated, however what annoyed me about him was how Memphis-centric he seems. He never seemed to care about the rest of the territory, only the TV-5 viewing area. An example is the whole "I Live In Germantown" bit. Like we, up here in Evansville, knew what the hell Germantown was.
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No, just some matches against Iron Mike Sharpe and Barry Horowitz. It was reported that he didn't get over at all during those house show bouts.
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Todd Champion became Unified Champion in a phantom title chage "in Cleveland" over Butch Reed. Reed had just won the belt from Dog and split over money. This part of the year was always known for droughts in the Memphis territory due to school, holidays, other sports, etc. So, the dwindling houses didnt pay well enough for Butch to stick around.
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Yes, these were the Blackhearts from UWF, Japan and briefly WCW. They didnt last too long here either. I always liked them. JYD got the Unified Title off Eddie Gilbert in like 90 seconds when Eddie got pissed about something and quit. And then came back like in 3 weeks. That became a pattern with Eddie.The week prior it was JYD who said that the Blackhearts busted him up in Mid-South, so it was just some spur-of-the-moment, quickie nonsense somebody thought of.
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Jeff was on tour with the WWF that week.
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The highlight of that Fireball video was poor Leatherface freaking out when his apron actually catches ablaze.
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This is Memphis wrestling's second foray into using a rap gimmick. The first was a One Week Wonder named Chilly B. Cool, an obese man who's quick squash match had them playing "Funky Cold Medina" the whole time (predating the Gangstas in ECW by like 7 years). His promo was especially brutal. "Yo!" "Funky" being the first two words before going into a rap about Dutch Mantell. The whole thing is horribly embarrassing, if you ever see it. However, this was the summer of Freddy facing Jason, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein (obvious signs that Lawler was booking) so PG-13 looked hip and progressive actually.
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Bill was off working local indys and running some side businesses at the time. As far as I remember, that's the only video they had of Tommy as a babyface so, 8 years old and rancid song or not, that's what we have.
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JT Southern had a couple of runs in Memphis during the 80s. This appearance here is, I think, the very last anyone ever saw of him ever again. He wasn't very respected by his peers either. The last time I saw Doug Gilbert he was selling Memphis Mafia group pix (The Gilberts, Landell, Rich and Christopher) from this era. From a distance, Landell looked like JT in the picture. I offhandedly said that to Doug who responded "oh shit, Buddy'd get hot over that one".
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