Main questions here are what year is a good year to jump into if I wanted to with Memphis television? Is picking up when the USWA starts a good place or will I be missing out on some good years of television if I do that?

1979. I'm not kidding in the least.

I'd go with Matt on that. You need to see something before Jerry Lawler was injured to really get the epic return and feud with Jimmy Hart. Earlier than that and you are limited with what you can watch.

Is all of 79 available or is it missing some stuff?

If you jump in at USWA you're jumping in way past the peak.

TV is available from about midway through 79 and there's awesome stuff to see - the whole Lawler/Dundee-Ferris/Latham feud with the concession stand brawl and Fargo getting involved, the Gilberts-Waynes feud, Hogan coming in to stick up for Brutus, a great Lawler/Dundee-Freebirds TV match, Lawler turning heel and having really good studio matches with guys like Morton and Regal.

Well, guess I'm going to have to find some 1979 television and move forward.

For my first post on the board, since I grew up with Memphis wrestling in Louisville, it should be Memphis related.

 

Granted, if you can find any pre79 stuff, that's great. But I agree with the sentiments of the others. 1979 is a great year to start with since I really think the Tupelo Concession Stand brawl truly set the tone for Jarrett. If you start in the USWA, you are missing a ton of fantastic stuff

Watch from 1979 to 1989 . That is real Memphis . The USWA was a scaled back version of the territory .In the early 1990's talent that could not get booked by the WWF , WCW or Japan worked in Memphis , Portland or Puerto Rico . The USWA still had some talent bot it could not match the star power of the 1980's. When Smoky Mountain and ECW started up the Memphis talent base continue to erode .

 

Lawler vs. Jimmy's Hart First Family., Lawler vs. Bill Dundee , Lawler / Dutch Mantell vs. Dundee/ Buddy Landell , Lawler vs. Tommy Rich/ Austin Idol , Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkle for the AWA title , Tommy Rich vs. Eddie Gilbert, Fabs vs. Sheepherders, Fabs vs. Moondogs , Tojo/ Tarzen Goto/ Aiko Sato vs. Jeff Jarrett / Billy Travis , Robert Fuller / Jimmy Golden vs. Jarrett / Dundee , Lawler vs. Terry Funk , Lawler vs, the Gilberts are just a few of the great programs are happened betwen 79 and 89. I grew up and Memphis and watched it all unfold. If it is your first time viewing Memphis you are in for a real treat .

Okay, got some years in. Next question, do I need to keep notes on who the champs are or should I just roll with it?

Keep notes? You'll be taking a lot if you want to keep track of every title change in Memphis haha. The only 2 belts that matter are the Southern Heavyweight and the Tag Titles there is another midcard singles title, the Mid-America title that seems to disappear and reappear at times.

This is a good resource if you want to see what the results were for the Monday night shows between TV.

 

http://prowrestlinghistory.com/memphis/index.html

I'm going to do the same thing and start in 1979 (one episode in 78, I guess) thanks to this thread. Five matches in 48 minutes on the first ep seems like such a paradigm shift after watching Raw moments before.

Can you get a lot of the Monday night shows on DVD? I would be interested in those too if I could acquire them.

 

So far I have 1984-1986 of the television. I should have 1979-1989 by September and then I'm good to go on watching it.

Not full shows. Some of the Memphis arena matches got shown in other towns like Evansville as a B-Show. A lot of those are out there for 1987, not sure about other years.