Scott Bowden presents Kentucky Fried Rasslin

Former NWA Southern tag champions: Jerry Jarrett once described the team as "pure magic from the start."

One of the great things about Memphis Wrestling TV was how Jerry Jarrett and Jerry “the King” Lawler could either slowly build a turn or an angle over a month or make an abrupt change that morning to spark the house for Monday night’s show at the Mid-South Coliseum and attendance the following week (once TV aired around the loop) in the surrounding cities. Such was the case one Saturday morning, when longtime area heel Phil Hickerson turned babyface to become Lawler’s partner in his feud with the Fabulous Freebirds.

For about three weeks, Lawler had been feuding with the ‘Birds, teaming with Austin Idol, and the foursome had two great brawls that drew well, including a show attended by about 8,500 Memphians (including me) on Aug. 5, 1985. The feud had ignited when Lawler accidentally burned Michael Hayes’s hair with a fireball following a match with Bota the Witch Doctor (one those unfortunate Memphis gimmicks no one likes to discusss today). Recently, as part of the WWE Legends of Wrestling Roundtable discussions, Lawler revealed that Hayes wanted a larger payoff following the incident because his precious locks did actually catch fire, which prompted the former Freebird (who was also sitting on the panel) to bring up the fact that successfully lobbied Jarrett for more money–reportedly no small feat in Memphis.

With Jarrett’s territory hurting a bit for talent with Vince McMahon picking off Memphis stars like Randy Savage, Hickerson had received his first huge push as a singles wrestler in the area since ’76, winning the International title from Terry Taylor and beating former NWA World champion Harley Race on consecutive weeks at the Coliseum. (Not too shabby for a guy who was only working part time at that point; I believe was also running a watering hole in his native Jackson, Tenn.)

While other longtime territories were struggling to keep up with McMahon, Jarrett was still packing 'em in with cards like this, on Aug. 5, 1985.

A former star in the territory in the ’70s teaming with Dennis Condrey–largely considered one of the best pairings of the era locally–Hickerson was always a solid wrestler with the gift of gab. He’d returned from relative obscurity the year before, teaming with the Spoiler (Frank Morrell–not Don Jardine) to feud with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express and the New Fabulous Ones (Tommy Rich and Eddie Gilbert). During this singles run in ’85, he was turned loose on the mic, and delivered some hilarious promos that had the fans–and nearly announcer Lance Russell–in stitches.  Case in point: When Lance questioned how much longer Phil might hold the belt, the International champion bellowed, “I’ll always be the champion! I love this belt, man! I take a bath with it! I go to bed wearing it!  Heck, my old lady’s got belt marks all over her from sleeping with me.” It was almost getting difficult for the fans to hate the guy as his delivery was priceless.

Two nights later, Jerry “the King” Lawler walked down the aisle side by side with the newly christened “King of Jackson” Phil Hickerson.

Thankfully, here’s Dave Brown to break down this amazing turn of events:

The following week they came back with a Taped Fist match, which was loudly protested by the ‘Birds. After all, as Terry Gordy points out, he “never claimed to be a boxer!” (Apparently, Bamm Bamm was pretty tight with Elvis Presley, a fact I didn’t know.) I love the expression on Gordy’s face when Hayes refers to their good looks.

Clipping courtesy of Memphis Wrestling History.

File under Jerry “the King” Lawler, Phil Hickerson, Memphis Wrestling.

It was the last great Memphis angle.

Nearly three years after Vince McMahon had begun streamrolling every wrestling territory in the United States, Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett’s Memphis promotion seemed to have their battle-scarred heads held a little higher above water than the other remaining promotions. Although the early ’80s norm of 7,000-plus crowds and the occasional sellout at the Mid-South Coliseum appeared to be gone, the promotion was surviving just fine in 1986. Lawler, the promotion’s co-owner and top drawing card, was one of the few top regional stars who didn’t jump to McMahon’s ever-expanding circus tent, maintaining the promotion’s credibility with the local fans.

Memphis had a strong year in 1986 with the Bill Dundee/Buddy Landell feud vs. Jerry Lawler and Dutch Mantell, including a rabid sellout crowd at the Coliseum on March 3, 1986, and the legendary Texas Death Match between the teams that went 26 falls and 75 minutes. The catalyst for the angle was Dundee and Landell attacking young ref Jeff Jarrett and father Jerry Jarrett, who immediately “reinstated” the loser-left-town Lawler. The footage of Jerry attempting to save his son from a beating at the hands of Bill and Buddy was powerful television.

The previous week, the elder Double J had announced that he had a bad eye that had left him partially blind, so he was forced to retire for good. Dundee and Landell really laid into Jeff (who was officiating their squash match), which brought his dad into the ring. They beat down Jerry, and Bill then went for his “good” eye before Dutch made the save. Jerry Jarrett then came out and broke down crying, saying there’s only man who can restore order in Memphis wrestling.

After arranging for a telephone to be brought into the studio, they called Lawler who agreed to come back and team with Dutch vs. Dundee and Landell. Attendance, which was averaging about 2,000 to 3,000 with Lawler gone (after dropping the loser-leaves town bout), spiked to a SOR crowd of 11,365 on Monday. I believe they drew over 10,000 fans the following Monday as well. The program culminated with Lawler triumphing over Dundee in another classic loser-leaves-town bout in Memphis before about 8,000 fans over the summer. Toward year’s end, the promotion had dipped back down to the 4,500 range at the Coliseum, despite Lawler vs. Kabuki (a gimmick tailor-made for the territory) headlining most cards. The Bill and Buddy Show was clearly a tough act to follow.

However, heading into the New Year, business was picking up. Former NWA-champ/TBS-babyface idol Tommy Rich slowly turned heel after being overlooked for an AWA World title shot against Nick Bockwinkel, who had once again been awarded the title without pinning anyone, this time when Stan Hansen refused to drop the strap to the aging star. (Nick had previously been awarded the title as the “number-one contender” after Verne Gagne retired with the belt in an incredibly egotistical move in 1981.) Rich had returned ostensibly to help Lawler in his feud with pudgy-eternal, masked wrestlers Fire & Flame (Don Bass and Roger Smith). However, in a subtle interview, Rich questioned why Lawler always receives the World title shots in the area–after all, Wildfire was a former NWA World champ, so why not him? Rich didn’t get hot or badmouth Lawler–he simply sounded a little ticked off.

Lawler calmly agreed to wrestle Rich for the title shot to settle the issue. Slowly, the match turned into a bloody no-contest. The two longtime Tennessee rivals followed it up the next week with another fight, with Lawler triumphing, spiking attendance as 1986 came to an end. But they were just getting warmed up.

On January 4, 1987, Lawler was set to wrestle Bockwinkel for the AWA strap. Prior to the bout, though, Idol entered the ring and asked Lawler to step aside or their friendship was over. The Las Vegas native had worked the card earlier as a babyface and had been the King’s longtime partner, so this came out of left field. When the challenger refused and turned his back, Idol spun Lawler around and decked him, splitting the King’s forehead wide open, as 15-year-old Scott Bowden charged the ringside area and began snapping away on his father’s Pentax camera. (What is it about future Memphis managers and cameras?) A bloody challenger in a World title bout–and the bell hadn’t even rung yet…gotta love Memphis.

Lawler went on to work a 60-minute Broadway with Bock, in a bout filled with high drama and quite possibly a record number of ref bumps (until the Russo era in TNA). Not quite on the level of the incredible Bockwinkel/Henning hour-long draw nearly two months earlier, but psychology-wise, it was another classic between the perennial AWA kingpin and the King of Memphis, who showed great heart in gutting out a stalemate.

Match of the Century...for the first half of 1987 anyway.

The next week, Idol’s shift to the dark side was complete, as he and Rich double-teamed Lawler, each grabbing a leg and ramming the King’s crown jewels against a ringpost. Idol followed it up with one of the most classic heel moments of all time: With Lawler lying against the post, still selling the nutcracker, the Heartthrob smugly looked down at him, cradled the King’s head in his hands and promptly bitch-slapped the hell out him. Unbeliveable. Lawler sold the injury for about a month, returning to the Coliseum on February 16, 1987, drawing a hot crowd of 9,000. (Lawler couldn’t have timed his legit vasectomy any better.)

The promotion followed that up with a string of several great houses upon Lawler’s return, with the King taking on partners like Bockwinkel and Bam Bam Bigelow as partners to batter the blonde bastards in a variety of blood-soaked gimmick matches. When Rich was “injured” (so Wildfire could take his scientific skills to Japan), greenhorn Sid Eudy (Vicious) filled in one week under the guise of Lord Humongous in his first-ever bout in Memphis. Sid’s ability–or lack thereof–added another dimension of brutality to the feud.

The Idol, Rich vs. Lawler feud peaked on April 27, 1987, with the now-infamous hair match, which drew more than 8,500 fans. Along with his manager Paul Heyman (then known as “Paul E. Dangerly”…and later “Paul E. Dangerously” in WCW..and eventual ECW genius), Idol and Rich cheated Lawler of his hair and the AWA Southern title in a steel-cage match. (The cage most likely prevented a lynching of the terrible trio.)

While Lawler getting his hair cut was certainly enough to create a melee, to make matters worse, in the pre-match hype, an irate Idol had promised to refund every audience member’s price of admission should he lose as well as have his own precious bleached-blonde locks snipped. Idol had made the bet after being outfoxed in a chain match the previous week, resulting in a “record” 39-second loss of the Southern title. For years, peaking in the ’70s, the promotion’s biggest draw was a hair vs. hair match, and was considered Lawler’s specialty as he was undefeated in such showdowns.

Since the very idea of Lawler losing a hair match at that time was about as unfathomable as Rich regaining the NWA World title, Memphis fans eagerly plucked down their blue-collar cash thinking the Women’s Pet had made a wager he’d soon regret.

Now that's heat

That confidence was shattered seconds after Heyman kneeled on the floor of the Mid-South Coliseum to yell the prearranged signal to Rich, who had been secreted under the ring around 3 p.m. that day. Wearing an undersized Coca-Cola Clothes (more like a Jack and Coke, knowing Tommy) sweatshirt, Rich moved like wildfire from the floor and into the ring, just in time to save the Idol from a King-sized, match-ending piledriver. (Rich had only a bucket of chicken and a case of beer with him while waiting to ambush Lawler. Exactly six years earlier, on Monday, April 27, 1981, Rich had reached the pinnacle of the profession, defeating Harley Race for the NWA championship in Augusta, Ga. You fall fast in this business.)

The heels again posted Lawler against a ringpost. After the momentarily stunned ref Jerry Calhoun came to his senses just in time to count out the King, Heyman wrapped a thick chain around Lawler’s neck as his personal hairstylist Ted Cortese cut the hair of the city’s number-one son. One of the reasons Lawler agreed to the haircut was because the Bruce Willis thinning, spiky hairstyle was the rage. So he had Ted trim it very short instead of a complete head-shaving, which hurt the program a bit. Although it might have looked OK on the “Moonlighting” star, the style didn’t exactly suit Lawler with his rather bulbous head. (I wonder if Heyman, in hindsight, wishes he had snatched the clippers away and left Lawler looking like a cueball. Skipping around the ring and grinning like a Cheshire cat while holding locks of Lawler’s hair, Heyman had more heat in one night than I did my entire Memphis managerial run.)

Irate fans scaled the cage to save Lawler, but Memphis cops pulled them down–it was amazing to experience such scorching heat in person…a sharp contrast to the cartoon horseshit Vince McMahon was feeding WWF fans. Twenty minutes later, with fans still surrounding the ringside area, more cops were called in to surround the heels from hell as they exited the ring–but the crowd still rushed them to no avail.

Somehow, Idol made it out the building alive, but not before delivering one of the best promos of his career (which is saying a hell of a lot, as he was one of the best promo guys of the ’80s): “I grew up in Las Vegas rolling the dice and spinning the roulette wheel, jack. I’ve been a gambler since the day I was born, and I’ll be a gambler to the day I die!” I can only imagine how angry the fans would have been if the match didn’t take place. Before the bout, Idol held up the promotion for more money, vowing he wouldn’t wrestle if his demands weren’t met. Jarrett caved but he never forgave Idol for it and to this day doesn’t enjoy speaking of the Heartthrob.

The next week, even with Lawler out selling the injury, 9,000 fans showed up at the Coliseum for Bill Dundee’s return against Idol and Rich–that’s how much heat the heels had. The feud culminated on June 15, 1987, with a scaffold match, with Lawler and Bill Dundee beating the heels and “breaking” Rich’s wrist and Dangerly’s leg post-match. Dangerly was finishing up soon and refused to climb the scaffold out of a fear of heights. (Wise man; he probably saw how Jim Cornette suffered a severe knee injury after taking a wicked bump from a 20-ft scaffold during Starrcade ’86.) A pissed off Lawler broke Paul E.’s jaw on his last night in the territory with an “errant” right hand  in Louisville as a lovely parting gift. Lawler has since admitted he potatoed Paul E. on purpose, much like he broke the jaw of Jimmy Hart in Evansville, Indiana, years earlier for the infamous racehorse analogy.

Idol, Rich and Paul E. found out the hard way that you don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit in the wind. And you don’t cut the hair of Jerry Lawler on his home court.

On September 30, 1985, Dusty Rhodes was scheduled to work with “Nature Boy” Buddy Landell as part of a star-studded card co-promoted by Jerry Jarrett and Jim Crockett at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

The American Dream never made it to town–the “other” Nature Boy saw to that.

For the first half of 1985, NWA World titlist Ric Flair was pretty much the flamboyant, cocky champion we’ve always known, goading challengers like Magnum T.A. and Rhodes, who could never quite take the 10 pounds of gold from the manicured hands of the Champ. Still, Flair was often cheered like crazy in his “hometown” area of the Carolinas, and he continued to play toward their affections, especially on promos cut for that particular market. On the national TBS stage, though, Flair was more of a heel, turning up the heat when running down his rival. (Of course, this only made a lot of fans on a national level love him as well, as Flair was hilarious and perfect in the role of the rich champ when discussing his celebrity friends like Bruce Springsteen, Jack Nicholson and the L.A. Lakers, and tooting his own horn, so to speak, when discussing his sexual prowess.)

Russian to main event status: Though still green, Nikita was pushed early as a threat to Flair.

Flair was booked as a babyface in a huge July 6 show at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, defending the NWA championship against Nikita Koloff, the supposed nephew of Mid-Atlantic legend Ivan Koloff. For those who never saw Nikita (Scott Simpson) in his prime, he was an amazing specimen. Nikita was very green, so initially he was hidden in tag matches and squash matches as the promotion slowly got the Eddie Sharkey-trained rookie over as the unbeatable Russian Nightmare. Nikita basically stuck to power moves, with his finisher, the dreaded Russian Sickle clothesline, looking nearly as stiff as Stan Hansen’s Lariat maneuver.

Nikita and “Uncle Ivan” ran roughshod over the promotion for months, winning the NWA World tag titles from Dusty Rhodes and Manny Fernandez along the way, as well as being named the World Six-Man champions with Russian Sympathizer Krusher Khrushchev (Barry Darsow) as their partner.

After Nikita used the Sickle to decapitate a longtime Mid-Atlantic announcer in June 1985, the horrid (though unintentionally humorous) David Crockett, Flair vowed revenge during his upcoming NWA title defense at Memorial Stadium. David was named special ref for the bout in Charlotte.

More than 30,000 fans were on hand at Memorial Stadium to see Flair play the part of Rocky Balboa in ROCKY IV, taking a bloody beating in babyface fashion at the hands of his Russian foe before rallying for the victory. Afterward, the Russians got their heat back by attacking Flair and leaving him for dead. (Uncle Ivan and Krusher were noticeably absent after Drago’s loss to Balboa.)

For the resulting Flair/Nikita feud on a national stage, Flair took on more of a ‘tweener role: a solid babyface when booked against Nikita, but still working as a heel in title bouts with babyfaces.

While some fans in hindsight wish Flair had remained in this role for at least another year, booker Rhodes had other ideas. Flair had already defended the NWA belt against Dusty at Starrcade ’84, but the bout didn’t have a lot of heat as it was held in a strong Mid-Atlantic town, Greensboro, N.C.– no way the fans were going to boo the Nature Boy on his home turf. (To Dusty’s credit, he wasn’t booed much, either, but the bout lacked the spark of a major main event on a big show.) For Starrcade ’85, Rhodes apparently felt there would be money in a rematch, especially since the card was to be a divided show taking place in two different cities: Atlanta and Greensboro. (And guess which city was to get the Flair/Rhodes bout? Hint: It wasn’t in traditional Crockett Country.)

To make things a little personal between the Dream and the Nature Boy — not only for Starrcade but also for the potentially hot rematches thought to follow well into 1986 — Rhodes pushed for Flair to turn full-fledged heel as JCP evolved into more of a national promotion and began shedding its Mid-Atlantic distinction by the fall of ’85.

Crimson mask: The champ is all smiles after leaving Dusty for dead in the cage.

The scene was set for September 29, 1985 (the day before the big Memphis show), at Atlanta’s Omni, as the NWA champion defended his laurels against Nikita in a Steel-Cage rematch. Following yet another Flair win, the Nature Boy was subjected to yet another beating at the hands of the other Russians, who stormed the cage following the finish.

Eventually, Dusty answered the desperate calls of the fans and entered the cage to dispense a little Texas justice on the foreigners a la George Bush. After successfully clearing the Russians from the cage, Dusty approached Flair to help him up; however, the proud champion refused his help — in fact, the Nature Boy seemed downright perturbed that the Dream would interfere in his affairs. As if on cue (and undoubtedly they were), Flair’s “cousins” Ole and Arn Anderson appeared out of nowhere to jump Rhodes and lock the cage. The dastardly trio proceeded to beat the hell out of Dusty in a scene eerily reminiscent to another incredible heel turn in the very same arena years earlier — also involving Dusty and Ole.

Side-Note Slam: Around 1980, Ole, once a dastardly heel, eventually won over the fans after nearly one year as a babyface. Ole was so convincing in his role that even Dusty agreed to take him on as a partner in a potentially dangerous atmosphere: a steel-cage tag bout with the two babyfaces meeting the Assassins. While the masked duo called for Ivan Koloff to serve as special ref, Ole and Dusty wanted the elder Anderson (Gene) to serve as the official — both teams got their wish. For Dusty, though, it would turn out to be a deathwish. Minutes after the bout had started, Ole turned heel on his partner, along with Gene Anderson. Koloff and the Assassins joined the fray, making it five on one. The fans nearly rioted trying to save Dusty. Many consider this to be a classic turn. And Ole’s interview explaining how he patiently put the fans and Rhodes to sleep with his babyface act while he slowly crafted the plot to lull the Dream into the caged heel is considered to be one of the strongest ever in the business.

Together, the future Horsemen “broke” the ankle of Rhodes, leading to several babyfaces rushing the area and desperately trying to scale the cage to save the Dream. Rhodes wisely chose Atlanta, one of his babyface strongholds, to turn Flair. A lot of fans in Greensboro might have given Flair and the Andersons a standing ovation as they left the Dream’s carcass in the ring after the beating. Not in Atlanta, where Rhodes had been a huge star for years, highlighted by an NWA title win over Harley Race in June 1981. Incidentally, that title bout, while marginal by Race’s standards, has an incredible atmosphere, as fans literally rushed the ring to congratulate the new champ — an amazing reaction.

The following night after Flair’s turn and the attack, Rhodes no-showed the Memphis bout on Sept. 30 to help sell the injury. In typical fashion when a top-name babyface fails to appear, the replacement (Pez Whatley in this case) went over, with Whatley pinning Landell with a sunset flip for the upset win. While I think the timing was unintentional, Dusty probably didn’t lose much sleep no-showing Jarrett’s card. The two had a little heat stemming back to 1984, when Jarrett changed his mind after booking Big Dust. The promoter realized he didn’t need Dust (who commanded a hefty fee), so Jarrett left a message a week before the card in Memphis saying that the Dream’s services wouldn’t be needed. Dusty was insulted for the slight; however, Jarrett was correct in his assessment. Dusty was originally booked in the fourth bout on that 10-match card in 1984 against Jim Neidhart, a match-up that would have meant very little in Memphis, especially when guys like Lawler, Austin Idol, the Road Warriors, Fabulous Ones Keirn and Lane, Randy Savage and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express were appearing. In a rare ethical moment for the Memphis promotion, Dusty was pulled from all advertising the weekend before the event — which drew slightly over 10,000.

Blood oath: Dusty gets his revenge.

Flair and Dusty went on to have a pretty hot bout as part of Starrcade ’85, but was marred by the “Dusty finish” in which the American Dream is briefly realized with a title-winning (yet sloppy) small package — only to be reversed later when original ref Tommy Young overturns the decision after claiming he saw the champ tossed over the top rope — an automatic DQ. The promos leading up to the bout were, of course, intense and outstanding.

By January 1986, the Four Horsemen were formed when the fans picked up on an improvised remark by Arn Anderson made when promoting eight-man tag bouts with the Andersons/Flair and their new partner Tully Blanchard. Double A compared the foursome to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (much like sportswriter Grantland Rice had done in the sporting world years earlier with the famous Notre Dame backfield of 1924): “The only time this much havoc had been wreaked by this few a number of people, you need to go all the way back to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!” Rice may been slightly more articulate, but Arn’s comments sparked a craze with NWA/JCP fans.

While Flair’s turn eventually led to him being booked as a paper champion by 1987 — one who only retained his title with help from the other Horsemen — there’s no denying that short-term, the Horsemen stable was one of the hottest gimmicks in wrestling. And the promos between Big Dust and the heel foursome were some of the most entertaining ever — a feud that would define the glory days of the JCP era for many fans.

Good thing Dusty didn’t mind his own bidness–in public, if you will–that fateful night in the cage in Atlanta. Turned out to be “risky bidness” indeed.