Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth and they are broadcasting from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Russell begs for the PG-13-Tommy Rich/Doug Gilbert feud to end and announces that there will be a cage match between the two teams at the next Memphis Coliseum show.
Reggie B. Fine comes out and tells Russell that he was booked to face the Spellbinder and although the Spellbinder was his friend, he nailed him with a foreign object at the beginning of their match. With Sweet Georgia Brown gone from the company, Fine uses this promo to turn babyface, saying that he is tired of being a bad guy and it is time to adopt a new attitude.
Opening Contest for the USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship: Brian Christopher (Champion) (11-5) defeats the Spellbinder (5-2) with a schoolboy roll up at 4:15:
By 1995 the Spellbinder was a three-year veteran of the USWA and had received some tryouts from the WWF. Later in the year he would debut there as the magician Phantasio. He won a squash match over Tony DeVito after pulling off the jobber’s boxer shorts – as well of those of referee Earl Hebner – on Wrestling Challenge and never appeared on another WWF show. The Spellbinder borrows Jerry Lawler’s phantom object trick to maintain the advantage in a slow-moving bout that sees him take time to argue with fans and Fine. After a while, Fine tires of this and starts arguing with the Spellbinder at ringside, allowing Christopher to roll his opponent up to retain. The USWA loves the distraction roll up. Rating: ¾*
After the match, the Spellbinder attacks Fine until Fine recovers and drives him off.
This week’s USWA Flashback is an old cage match from 1987 between Jerry Lawler and Austin Idol. The match was hair versus hair. Idol, who was managed by Paul E. Dangerously at the time, won with the help of Tommy Rich and the heels needed a police escort to get out of the ring and to the locker room because fans wanted to tear them apart.
Russell interviews USWA Tag Team Champions Doug Gilbert and Tommy Rich, along with Gorgeous George III and Big Business Brown. Gilbert rants for a while until Rich refocuses the promo on how PG-13 are minor league talents. Gilbert says that the champions took PG-13’s hair last week and they will take their careers at the Mid-South Coliseum.
J.C. Ice defeats Gorgeous George III (w/Big Business Brown) (6-2) via disqualification when Tommy Rich interferes at 2:49:
Ice, angry over having his head shaved in Memphis, storms the ring and forces George to bail until the more accomplished technical wrestler ties him in knots for a while. A sloppy springboard elbow off the ropes helps Ice regain the advantage, with Ice knocking Brown off the apron and getting a sunset flip for a near-fall. Sensing that the match is slipping away from his old partner, Rich runs in and causes a disqualification.
After the match, PG-13 brawl with George, Rich, and Doug Gilbert and force the heels the flee.
Russell interviews PG-13, who promise that if they do not defeat Rich and Gilbert on Monday night that they will leave the USWA for five years. J.C. Ice gives a great promo about how he was impacted by his dad losing loser leaves town matches as a child.
Footage of a triple elimination match between Jerry Lawler, Brian Christopher, and Bill Dundee is shown. Christopher beat Lawler in the first match after using a chain, Lawler beat Dundee in the second match with a schoolboy roll up after Christopher distracted Dundee, Dundee beat Christopher in the third match after Christopher missed a Tennessee Jam, Christopher beat Lawler by disqualification in the fourth match after Lawler used a piledriver, and in the final match Dundee pinned Christopher after hitting him with a whip. After the match, Christopher whipped Dundee.
Brown interviews USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion Dundee, who brings out two whips and Dundee talks about how he learned to use it when he ran away and joined the circus. Christopher comes out and Dundee gives him one of the whips to practice with for their match on Monday. This feud is spinning its wheels because these two just had a bullwhip match last month.
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Brown interviews Big Daddy Cyrus, Crusher Bones, Jack Hammer, and Diamond Mike. Hammer and Mike have not been seen in a month, so they have returned to bolster the heel side of the company. Cyrus said that Mike is their new manger because Big Business Brown has too much going on.
Big Daddy Cyrus & Crusher Bones (w/Diamond Mike & Jack Hammer) (3-3) defeat Charlie Laird & Ken Raper when Bones pins Laird after a double elbow drop at 1:02:
Cyrus and Bones decimate the jobbers, with Bones struggling to do basic moves like a backbreaker. A double big boot and double elbow drop to Laird finish this squash off in just over a minute.
Russell interviews David Haskins, who brings out the USWA’s newest star, Marcus Dupree. Yes, the same Marcus Dupree that was profiled on 30 for 30 by ESPN. Dupree was getting ready to play for the Memphis Pharaohs, who were a one-year expansion team in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Dupree says that Lawrence Taylor stands a good chance against Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania XI and Diamond Mike, Big Daddy Cyrus, and Crusher Bones interrupt to set up a new program.
David Haskins (w/Marcus Dupree) defeats Jack Hammer (w/Diamond Mike) (3-1) via disqualification when Big Daddy Cyrus and Crusher Bones interfere in fourteen seconds:
Haskins was a Memphis native who began wrestling in the mid-1980s for the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) before it became the USWA. He then went to WCW, where he worked as an enhancement talent by the name of Davey Rich, a moniker he also used when wrestling for Smoky Mountain in 1992. Haskins and Hammer start brawling before Corey Maclin can do the ring introductions and it does not matter because Cyrus and Bones do a quick run-in. Dupree does little to save his partner from the ensuing beatdown.
The Last Word: An infusion of new talent into the promotion is never a bad thing and that happened on today’s show along with some new storylines. Marcus Dupree’s focus is on football so he will only be a temporary attraction, likely an attempt by the USWA to bolster ticket sales for the Memphis Pharaohs while also copying what the WWF was doing with Lawrence Taylor on a smaller scale. The Big Daddy Cyrus character is getting way too much play, though. A lot of that has to do with the look as Cyrus looks like an overweight member of the Village People.
Here were the results of the March 13 supercard at the Memphis Coliseum, courtesy of prowrestlinghistory.com:
-Jack Hammer (3-2) wrestled Scott Studd (9-3) to a draw
-Gorgeous George III (6-3) defeated Chris Kanyon
-The Spellbinder (5-3) beat Reggie B. Fine (0-7)
-Moondog Rex & Moondog Spot (5-1-2) defeated Big Daddy Cyrus & Crusher Bones (4-3) via disqualification
-USWA Women’s Champion Miss Texas (4-1) defeated Sweet Georgia Brown (1-3) in an “I quit” match
-USWA Unified World Champion Bill Dundee (7-3) defeated USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Brian Christopher (12-5) in a non-title, dueling bullwhip match.
-PG-13 (10-6-1) defeated USWA Tag Team Champions Doug Gilbert & Tommy Rich (6-3-1) in a cage match to win the titles. During the match, Wolfie D’s mother, Mama D, was handcuffed to Big Business Brown. After the match, Gorgeous George III tried to attack Mama D, only to have Wolfie’s 6’4” stepfather make the save.
Backstage News*: The PG-13-Doug Gilbert & Tommy Rich feud has been a box office success, drawing four times the average number of fans in Nashville and a crowd of 1,300 in Louisville on March 7. The results are making Rich happy as he argued he was the reason for drawing bigger crowds than Sid, who was the USWA Unified World Champion at the time.
*Backstage news provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for March 20.
Up Next: USWA Championship Wrestling for March 18!