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Anatomy of an angle: Austin Idol, Tommy Rich and Paul Heyman shave the head of Jerry Lawler

February 18th, 2010 No comments
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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.

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Somebody say something ’bout Hollywood?

August 12th, 2009 5 comments
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Fired up: Reunited with Rich.

Fired up: Reunited with Rich.

 

 As I was walking back to my room at the Hilton Charlotte University Place Hotel last Thursday night, I thought I’d stop by the bar to see if perhaps Ric Flair was strutting around wearing only a $10,000 robe and propositioning a cocktail waitress young enough to be his daughter. No sign of the Nature Boy; however, another former NWA World champion was at the bar knocking back a few cocktails: none other than Tommy “Wildire” Rich, whom I managed in Memphis in 1994-95. (Yeah, yeah, shocking, I know, given Tommy’s rep  for…let’s say…having a good time.) People can judge the man all you want, but Tommy’s always been a straight-up guy with me, and I love him to death.

I approached Rich, asking, “Remember me?” About 10 seconds awkwardly passed as his eyes focused on me. Finally, he exclaimed, “Awww, man!,” and gave me a big hug. Rich asked what I’d been up to, and when I explained I was working for an ad agency while trying to make it as a screenwriter in Los Angeles, his eyes widened, and he shouted, “Hey, hey…fuck ‘The Wrestler’—it was pretty good and all, but you should write me and Piper’s story!” I laughed and said, “I would, Tommy…but no one would believe it!” He got a kick out of that one. (Incidentally, my first script years ago was about a tag-team in Memphis in the early ’80s—loosely based on the Fabulous Ones and the Freebirds—showing the fun side of the industry in the MTV era.)

The following morning, I stopped by Rich’s booth in the vendor area and once again he gave me a Joe LeDuc-like bearhug, despite the fact that I had seen him 12 hours earlier. Looking like he’d been through a shoot with Billy Robinson (which wasn’t possible since the former CWA World champion for Jerry Jarrett no-showed Fanfest), Rich wearily asked, “What are you up to nowadays? Somebody told me you were in Hollywood.”

God bless, ol’ Wildfire.

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Rich man, poor man: How Tommy “Wildfire” Rich burnt out much too quickly

March 8th, 2009 13 comments
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The Randy the Ram character depicted by Mickey Rourke in fhe film "The Wrestler" was not based on Tommy Rich, but it very well could have been.
The Randy the Ram character depicted by Mickey Rourke in fhe film “The Wrestler” was not based on Tommy Rich, but it very well could have been.

I had only smoked pot three times previously when a former NWA World champion handed me a joint in the backseat as we traveled from Memphis to Louisville, Kentucky, in October 1994. No, it wasn’t Lou Thesz. It wasn’t Jack Brisco. And it sure as hell wasn’t Giant Baba.

In reality (and, yes, I do recognize the irony of using that term in relation to the business), it was Tommy “Wildfire” Rich, who for years was considered the Memphis-area local-boy-done-good— but maybe not so much now in hindsight. Even without the benefit of hindsight, some in the business at the time were probably associating Rich’s monumental push—and on this new technology called “cable TV” no less—with the old adage “right place, right time.” In his early 20s, he feuded with the biggest baddies on an ever-expanding WTBS stage, such as The Masked Superstar, Ivan Koloff, Tor Kamata and Ray Stevens, often with the Georgia (later “National” to shed the Southern image) title on the line.

For years, the story circulating around wrestling circles was that Rich, a former football player at Hendersonville High School, had gotten his start in the business because his mother, Peggy Richardson, was friendly with area wrestler Eddie Marlin. The story goes that through Marlin, Rich got hooked up with Tojo Yamamoto (the late Harold Wantanabe), who was often used by the promotion as an enforcer of sorts to run off would-be ‘rasslers by beating the hell out of them.

Although that seems hard for me to imagine, given that I never saw Tojo in his heyday, Jerry Lawler has always told the story that way. Apparently, Tojo was incredibly stiff with the greenhorns, including the man who would be King in his first few bouts with the Memphis promotion in the ’70s.

 

While Rich did team with Tojo often early in his career, it was Jerry Jarrett who was responsible for Tommy’s big break into the biz. Jarrett recently spoke highly of Tommy’s determination to get into the business, as the promoter admits he was less than enthusiastic about breaking in a new wrestler. After attempts to run off Rich by working him like a dog on his farm failed, Jarrett relented, impressed by the young man’s work ethic.

 

Rich debuted around 1974, and similar to Lawler, he moved up the cards pretty fast. About two years after his debut, 20-year-old Rich was working main events with Lawler for the NWA Southern title in early 1976. He eventually won the belt from Lawler on Sept. 14 of that year, drawing over 8,000 fans to the Mid-South Coliseum. The girls, including my older sister, were crazy about him, and the guys liked him because he came off like one of them. Tommy was the good ol’ boy in all of us.

 

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Rich made his way to Atlanta around 1977—at the right place, the right time— and eventually became just about the hottest babyface in the country via Ted Turner’s fledging WTBS network. Reportedly, he was initially scheduled to be the latest pretty boy to be fed to menacing heel Abdullah the Butcher; however, promoter Jim Barnett saw something in Peggy Richardson’s son that would appeal to teenage girls, moms, grandmas and even men alike: a legit country boy with a temper.

 

On those Channel 17 broadcasts of the time, which started precisely at 5 minutes past the hour (and often after an Atlanta Braves loss), Rich was never a strong interview but that almost worked in his favor. He came off unpolished—though often polite to announcer Gordon Solie—and ready to fight at a moment’s notice, which carried a lot of weight in the South. Often, his interviews were downright incoherent: “Somebody say something about ‘crazy time’? Well, it’s gonna be crazy time when I get a hold of you.” Um, not exactly a catchphrase of the time.

 

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The Apter mags fell in love with Rich and included him in the regular rotation of cover boys like Dusty Rhodes, Andre the Giant, Harley Race, Superstar Graham, Bob Backlund, Mil Mascaras, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat.

 

Although a bit awkward in his movements around the ring, Rich was a good worker, better than most today give him credit for. He was certainly no Ted DiBiase, another young babyface who often worked Atlanta in the ’70s and ’80s (before becoming a dastardly black-gloved heel). Perennial NWA World champ Harley Race, who had a lot of say as to who he dropped the belt to and when, supposedly assured DiBiase at one point that he’d get the much-vaunted 10 pounds of gold for an extended run someday. DiBiase certainly had the ability to be a classic touring NWA champ—one who could wrestle any style and make the local hero look like a million-dollar man in the process. But Rich was more than capable and had a likeable, clumsy charisma that DiBiase didn’t have.

 

According to a published report by Dave Meltzer of THE WRESTLING OBSERVER, Rich was under consideration to be a touring NWA World champion. But first he returned to Memphis in 1980, at a time when the territory’s top-draw Lawler was recovering from a broken leg. Nine-year-old mark Scott Bowden watched with much anticipation as Rich, in his first appearance back, wrestled longtime babyface Bill Dundee, with the winner to receive a Southern title shot. The two did some mat wrestling before Rich apparently head-butted Dundee below the belt as he attempted a backdrop. Rich picked up Dundee to ensure he was OK, and then quickly wrapped up his foe in a small package for the win. Immediately after turning on Dundee, Rich further disappointed announcer Lance Russell and the viewing audience by shoving Lawler, who was doing commentary (with nary a mention of puppies or any such nonsense), to the studio floor. Soon after, Rich aligned himself with manager Jimmy Hart and Bobby Eaton.

Some speculate that he was being groomed for the NWA title and was sent to Memphis to learn the heel style, much like David Von Erich did in Florida in the early ’80s.

 

In those days, wrestling news traveled slowly—I often heard about World title changes first through the Apter mags. The Rich heel turn was sure to be a magazine seller, so the country boy turned heel was plastered on the covers of both THE WRESTLER and INSIDE WRESTLING, with the latter featuring the fabricated quote “The fans can go to hell!” (Yeah, those Apter interviews were a work.) Of course, by the time those mags hit the newsstands Rich had already turned babyface after former mentor Yamamoto and “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant attacked Rich’s mother during an interview. While disappointed female fans outside the Memphis area unquestionably cried upon reading Apter’s report (and I’m not kidding there), they wouldn’t be upset long.

 

Instead of the usual intro to the WTBS wrestling show in early 1981, viewers saw a hand putting an 8-track tape into the deck of a Firebird. As Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” blared, the camera pulled back to reveal Rich, who apparently was headed back to Georgia. Atlanta’s brave babyface was back. Upon his return, Rich was even more over than before, if that’s possible. According to some of the boys who were around then, Rich made as much as $5,000 a week as he appeared in towns ranging from Columbus, Georgia, to Columbus, Ohio. With the exception of Rhodes and Andre the Giant, he very well could have been the hottest box-office attraction in the business in 1981.

 

To explain Rich’s absence, Solie had sold the story that Tommy had left the area over disappointment in his inability to defeat Race for the World title. But now Rich was not to be denied. No, he didn’t get the proposed extended run with the most important title in the business. Promoter Barnett, the one responsible for pushing Rich to the moon, didn’t want to lose his top drawing card, but was able to convince Race to drop the title for a few days to Rich. Barnett asked Race to make Rich champion to make the young man a viable contender capable of winning the belt in the fans’ eyes in what could be lucrative rematches throughout the area after he dropped it back to Race. After all, if the gold belt never changed hands, the fans would wise up. And besides, Rich was the hottest babyface on cable TV in spring 1981. In Race’s shoot interview of a few years ago, he claims responded by telling Barnett, “Fine, but if you think I’m gonna let him have the title for more than a few days, you’re crazy.”

 

According to referee Ronnie West, who worked the match, Rich didn’t even know he was going to win the belt until he arrived to the small arena in Augusta, Georgia, for what was supposed to be nothing more than the usual spot-show main event against Race.

When Rich rebounded off the ropes to catch Race in the Thesz press — a move most recently used by Steve Austin—for the three count, the crowd erupted. In a classic moment, Rich appeared more dumbfounded than Race — he had become the third-youngest man in history to win the NWA World title. As West handed Rich the domed gold belt, the new champion hugged him and they tumbled to the mat together—a wonderful unscripted moment. As if Rich wasn’t already on top of the world, he got a boost from Andre the Giant, who picked up the new champion in his massive arms and lifted him toward the ceiling of the William B. Bell Memorial Auditorium as the crowd popped like crazy.

 

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Race was already scheduled to defend the NWA’s laurels against Rich for the rest of the week, so the impromptu plan was for the ex-champ to regain the title five days later, on Friday, in Gainesville, Georgia, in front of an even smaller crowd than in Augusta and with no TV cameras to capture the moment. Along the way, Rich defended the title twice, pinning Race again in Columbus, Ga., on Tuesday, and again on Thursday in Rome.

 

The whole scenario was a bit odd—even for the wrestling business. If the idea was to put Rich over as a legit top-tier grappler to the fans, why wasn’t he allowed at least one appearance with the title on the most-watched wrestling program in the world? And, why, after years of close calls in front of big crowds at Atlanta’s Omni, did Rich win the title in front of less than 1,000 fans at a spot show? Adding to the controversy, Race had already dropped the title to Florida-fave Dusty Rhodes less than a year before for the same time period—five days —before regaining it, which some felt cheapened the belt and only made Rhodes look weak.

 

Because of the circumstances surrounding the title change, years later a rumor emerged insinuating that Barnett, a homosexual, arranged the switch only after blackmailing Rich to sleep with him. I address this because it’s not only a frequent topic on message boards such as wrestlingclassics.com, but it’s also a rumor that again picked up steam in 2004 with the publication of Chokehold, the memoirs of disgruntled ex-wrestler/pro football player Jim Wilson (best known for appearing with Eddy Mansfield on the “20/20” expose on the biz in 1985).

 

It’s simply not true. Most of the rumormongers don’t understand just how much Rich was over at the time. Think Race would have dropped the strap to Rich otherwise? No way. At the time, it appeared certain Rich would be a top draw well into the next decade.

 

Unfortunately, like hotshots in any profession, Wildfire couldn’t handle that much success at age 24. He partied a lot. He drank heavily. He put on weight. He gigged himself so many times with the blade that his forehead started resembling the “roadmaps” of legendary bleeders like Rhodes and Jimmy Snuka. Less than five years after winning the most prestigious title in the business, Rich’s star had faded. And with the emergence of Hulk Hogan and sports entertainment, he was done as a player in the industry.

Wildfire had burned himself out by the time he was 30. Some say the warning signs were painfully apparent as early as 1983. Years of partying with Roddy Piper will do that to a man.

 

I first met Tommy during my initial ref stint around 1991. Wearing an outdated three-piece suit, he introduced himself as “Big Dick Hertz” as he gave me the boys’ working handshake backstage at the Mid-South Coliseum.

Three years later, I was his heel manager, accompanying he and Doug Gilbert to the ring in cities like Memphis, Nashville and Louisville. Overweight and looking nothing like the WTBS hero who broke hearts years ago, Rich sometimes worked matches intoxicated. One night, with the former World heavyweight champion reeking of tequila, I helped carry him to the dressing room area as his blood gushed over my starched Polo button-down. If it sounds sad, it was. (Yes, the stains once again came out, but that’s not the point.)

 

I asked him once about footage from his glory days as a superstar on the SuperStation. Before I could finish my sentence, he cut me off: “I don’t have any of that stuff. None.” He clearly didn’t enjoy talking about the past, which, in my opinion, haunted him.

Shortly after we smoked that joint on way to Louisville, we stopped at Subway. The excited old woman behind the counter beamed: “Oh, my gosh. Are you Tommy Rich?” His reply: “Yessum.” And when she asked for his autograph on a Subway napkin, he again replied, “Yessum.” Apparently, Peggy had taught her son well.

 

I’ll never forget Rich’s comments to me in private backstage at the Coliseum after I graduated from the University of Memphis with a BA in journalism toward the end of our heel run together in 1994: “Put that diploma to work. Don’t let this business screw you up like me.”

 

Unlike some of the wrestling stars of the ’80s, Tommy survived to tell me his cautionary tale—hell, he lived it right in front of me. Others wouldn’t be so lucky. But then judging from how many of the boys have so much trouble adjusting after leaving the bright lights of the ring, maybe the ones who didn’t survive were the lucky ones.

 

 

 

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