By Scott Bowden
May 13, 2004
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling vs. Memphis Rasslin’: KFR style
Scott Bowden books Jim Crockett’s promotion in a steel cage match with Jerry Jarrett’s territory
“They had a bunch of guys up there that didn’t wrestle…they did every kind of cheap move, you know? They pulled hair, pulled tights…all the crappy-type wrestling. That ‘Tennessee Wrestling,’ I call it. It’s bullshit wrestling….”
--Greg Valentine, in an interview on www.midatlanticwrestling.net
First, allow me to humbly look into the TV studio camera and say that I have nothing but the utmost respect for Greg “the Hammer” Valentine and, well, pretty much all the stars of Jim Crockett’s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling of old. (Uh-oh, angle alert.)
Bear with me for just a moment. Like any subtle heel turn in any wrestling promotion worth its salt-in-the-eyes in the ’70s and ’80s, I must start with a seemingly innocuous statement before gradually shifting gears. That is, I have to nail down all the positive aspects of the kayfabe region that regularly featured the Hammer, Ric Flair, the Andersons, Blackjack Mulligan, Roddy Piper and Ricky Steamboat—before I slowly, painfully extract them. Woooo!
Before I morph into full Memphis-heel mode, I’d also like to recognize David Chappell, who helps run the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, a wonderful Web site dedicated to the old Crockett wrestling promotion in the Carolinas. It’s been a helpful resource in researching the rich history of the business, with old photos, interviews and classic stories about the boys in the Crockett territory in the ’70s and ’80s, many of whom would go on to become some of the biggest stars ever in the industry. In particular, his talk with Blackjack Mulligan is interesting reading, as is his talk with “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant, who mentions how Memphis promoter Jerry Jarrett was instrumental in transforming him into a hot babyface in the Mid-Atlantic area. (Yeah, yeah, MACW fans, I know he’s the Boogie Woogie Man to you, but he’ll always be “Handsome” Jimmy to me. Mercy, daddy!)
I appreciate the love the MACW fans have for the business before it came to be sports entertainment. However, I do take issue with the fact that a lot of Mid-Atlantic fans appreciate their own territory so much that they share Valentine’s disdain for “Tennessee wrestling.” Similar to those fictitious NWA World tag belts (the Alliance didn’t recognize World tag-team champions) worn by guys like Valentine and Flair for years in Crockett country, MACW holds the imaginary title of greatest promotion of that era in the eyes of fans in the Carolinas.
In my opinion, the Memphis promotion of the same time period, despite its “bullshit wrestling,” was king of the kayfabe era.
I realize I just ruffled the feathered robes of Mid-Atlantic fans everywhere with that statement—they were and are some of the greatest fans in the business. Even today there’s a tremendous fan base who appreciates Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. In January more than 1,000 wrestling fans from 38 states, Canada and Japan assembled in Charlotte over Super Bowl weekend for the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Legends Convention and Fanfest, an event promoted heavily on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. It was so successful that another gathering, featuring appearances by Tully Blanchard, Nikita Koloff and the Rock n’ Roll Express, is planned for August.
This is a sharp contrast to the recent show promoted as Memphis Championship Wrestling, featuring Memphis legends Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee and Jimmy Hart, an event that lost about $3,000. Note to the promoters: People won’t pay to see legends on a regular basis. Every week, the Memphis TV revolves around Lawler and Hart, which, while novel in the beginning for nostalgia, has gotten as old as the tights Dundee was wearing on TV Saturday. (You longtime Memphis fans will be amused to hear that Dundee was sporting those old red-and-blue trunks with the now-frayed SUPER STAR on the ass.) Which is not to say the Sexy Assassins deserve a bigger push, mind you. But I digress.
There’s only one way to settle this: in the proverbial squared circle. Much like the BACKLUND PROJECT, in which I subjected myself to 18 hours of footage of All-American Boy matches to attempt to understand just how good the former WWF champ was, I’ll be watching tapes of MACW over the next month. I’ll also be soliciting input from MACW fans on the message board hosted at www.kayfabememories.com. In the end, I’ll compare the two promotions’ TV programs, announcers, boys and venues, as well as evaluating the impact each made in their respective territories.
I have some exposure to MACW, as Crockett’s TV ran in Memphis for about five years (before eventually becoming Ted Turner’s WCW product). Crockett and Jarrett co-promoted two shows at the Mid-South Coliseum in 1985; however, it appears there were plans for the two to work together as early as 1983. WORLDWIDE WRESTLING began airing in Memphis in summer 1983 on local indie station, about an hour before Jarrett’s CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING program on NBC affiliate WMC-TV5.
When WORLDWIDE cut away to promote the upcoming house shows in the Mid-Atlantic region, the spots featured MACW stars challenging the Memphis boys. No, these weren’t similar to the infamous shoot promos that the ICW crew (Bob Orton Jr. and Randy Savage) cut on Jarrett’s wrestlers in 1981. These were done in typical business-like fashion, with MACW heels challenging Memphis babyfaces and Crockett’s babyfaces calling out Jarrett’s heels. It really appeared a co-promoted card was imminent.
Then again, maybe the two were in no hurry to work together at that time. Crockett’s territory in 1983 was on a roll, probably the hottest in the country. Keep in mind, though, that nearly every single other top promotion was doing good business at that time: Jarrett, Bill Watts, Fritz Von Erich and Verne Gagne.
I recall that MACW had a major-league feel to it, with former NWA World champion Ric Flair returning “home” after dropping the 10 pounds of gold to Harley Race in June. Although it wouldn’t capture my imagination quite like Lawler’s quest for the AWA World title, I was really into Flair’s run at the gold leading up to Starrcade ’83: the $100,000 bounty, the Bob Orton Jr. heel turn, the phony retirement and the baseball bat attack. Great stuff.
Meanwhile, Memphis in 1983 was drawing an average of more than 8,000 fans a week at the Coliseum with a series of Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkel bouts for the AWA title, a brief but memorable feud with Austin Idol vs. Stan Hansen for the International title and bouts with the Fabulous Ones vs. the Road Warriors. Not too shitty, eh?
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In 1984, with Vince McMahon’s invasion into their long-respected territories, Crockett and Jarrett, along with Ole Anderson in Georgia, talked of “merging,” or at the very least, forming a much closer working relationship. As part of the deal, Jarrett was to finally get the NWA World title around the waist of his number-one drawing card, Jerry Lawler. Based on Crockett’s word, Jarrett had Lawler announce on TV that if the King wasn’t crowned with a World championship by the end of 1985 that he’d step down from the throne. (The promotion did leave themselves an out by having Lawler say, “Currently, there are three World champions: the NWA, the AWA and the CWA.” Thankfully, Jarrett didn’t resurrect that cheap-looking CWA World title belt to put on Lawler when Crockett later backed out of the NWA title deal after he secured the TBS time slot.
Jarrett and Crockett worked together anyway in 1985, highlighted by an NWA World title bout with Flair vs. Lawler. With two weeks to promote the event, Flair didn’t even send in a taped interview to hype the bout; however, the WORLDWIDE show on the indie station did air one Flair promo about the title match with Lawler. Still, the bout attracted 10,000 fans, largely because the Memphis promotion practically guaranteed that Lawler would finally reach the top of the mountain Monday night. Lawler went so far as to claim on TV that he wouldn’t be making his upcoming bookings in Blyeville, Ark, and Drummond, Tenn., because he received a booking sheet from the National Wrestling Alliance informing him that he’ll have to be in “…Chicago and San Francisco...once I win that title Monday night.” Combined with the “retirement” stipulation, this approach paid off—literally. More than 10,000 fans, paying the highest ticket prices in Memphis history ($25 ringside as opposed to the usual $7), packed the Coliseum, giving Jarrett his first $100,000 gate at the so-called “House that Lawler Built.”
The match itself was a disappointment, with Lawler later claiming it was the “worst World title match ever in Memphis.” Seems Lawler didn’t like the match Flair called, which saw the champ do the same spots he’d done for years on cable TV and the local WORLDWIDE show. In particular, I remember one awkward spot in which Lawler was preparing to slam Flair off the top rope. Although close to 6-foot tall, Lawler couldn’t reach Flair properly o slam him. As Lawler struggled and prepared to grip him again, Flair went sailing over his head. Lawler also wasn’t a fan of the chops, rhetorically asking me once on road trip when discussing the ’85 Flair bout: “You tell me, if you’re in a fight with someone, are you gonna be using chops when you can use the fists? Unless you’re black belt in karate, chops look ridiculous to the people.” I’ll come back to the Flair/Lawler debate later.
All MACW fans reading this: I welcome your feedback, your stories, your opinions of Memphis rasslin’…and your videotapes. Make me understand just how much better MACW was than Memphis. You won’t convince me that Memphis was “bullshit wrestling,” but you just might get me to admit its (slight) superiority. I guess what I’m saying Mid-Atlantic fans is this: Put up or shut up.
