Old school wrestling fans hold the Memphis territory’s television program as one of the best examples of TV booking. I’ve watched a ton of Memphis from the 80s and 90s and—well, let’s look at what made Memphis TV great and what was bad about it as well as old school TV in general.
The Good of Memphis Wrestling TV
What was so great about Memphis wrestling was how Jerry Jarrett booked the big feuds each week. Continental ran the studio wrestling approach and TV featured a lot of promos and short bouts. The thing that shined on Memphis wrestling TV were those promos.
They had more than enough heat to have you keep up with a feud. If you add in the angles such as run-in attacks then you had some fiery crowds at the Mid-South Coliseum Monday.
Looking at USWA in the 1990s, TV was great for seeing the new heels. First you had the USWA Texas crew headed up by Eric Embry, Tom Pritchard, and Miss Texas (Jacqueline Moore). These three proved to be a thorn in the side of Memphis’ hometown heroes. The real threat came in 1992 once The Moondogs show up and Lawler and Jarrett had to fight them off.
Of course, there was always the issue of finding a third to help them deal with the Moondogs.
The Bad of Memphis Wrestling TV
Let’s go back to the matches. Occasionally, you would get a match that was a little meatier. Depending on your tastes, you’d either hate it or enjoy it. Remember, Memphis used a studio ring that was lower to the floor. The lengthier bouts were often technical in nature. Some of the tag matches also had some meat on them. This was particularly true in the 1980s.
Once you get into the 90s with USWA, it was a mixed bag. Sometimes you got a solid match but often they were short. By this time, the territories were done and the talent was kind of sparse. The regulars were there: Lawler, Dundee, PG-13, Hickerson, Billy Travis, and Jeff Jarrett. All except for Hickerson were involved in something.
After sitting through WWE, Impact, ROH, and a lot of modern wrestling, looking at Memphis TV, you’d get the feeling that the show is predominately promos and angles. Wrestling seemed to be treated like two biscuits and potatoes—it was the sides. Of course, that was meant to get fans to the Monday night show.
After all, you don’t want to give major matches away on television for a live show two days later. Memphis managed this wonderfully.
Hype Via Tape Trade
This is how you got got when it came to old school wrestling. Other fans would hype Memphis TV as just Memphis Wrestling. During the tape trade, very few people had the Monday night shows. The TV shows are amazing if you knew what to look out for or if you have months of it to watch through so that you can see programs unfold. However, a lot people in the business and fans hyped those Monday night shows and you really want to see those.
The shows are where all the action occurred. Blood, guts, and fire in the ring at these wild, loud shows. But they were often missing. So, you’d watch the TV, the Monday night show would be referenced either verbally or a snippet and couldn’t get your hands on the full Monday shows through trade.
This was the case with a number of old school TV shows. A few of those territories–the larger ones–taped their big weekly shows. Memphis, Amarillo, and others should’ve really done this so it would get out sooner. Thankfully, people like Jim Cornette has some of the hottest matches from the arena shows available.
Old School Wrestling Still Delivers
Memphis Wrestling TV is enjoyable and showcases the simplest but most effective way to build and book characters. Often times the old school approach works since there’s very little new under the sun. However, you need those weekly events to really tie everything together. I’ll leave you with one of my favorites on the mic: Ron Wright, a heel who terrorized the Knoxville area for years.
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