Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth and they are broadcasting from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
Brown tells fans that Brian Christopher will be out of action for six weeks with a broken shoulder blade. Russell follows up by saying that Randy Hales was hurt in the Rock N’ Roll Express-PG-13 USWA Tag Team Championship match in Memphis on Monday.
Opening Non-Title Contest: Billy Jack Haynes (USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion) (10-1-1) pins T.D. Steel after a chokeslam at 2:07:
Haynes has added black gloves to his look, another nice touch for his character. It will be interesting to see who the USWA positions as his next challenger now that Christopher is injured. Haynes wipes the floor with Steel with his regular moves, winning with a chokeslam.
After the match, Russell interviews Haynes. Haynes takes full responsibility for breaking Christopher’s shoulder and says that he will accept any challenge for his title.
Brown interviews Steven Dunn, who says he does not live in fear of Haynes. Dunn is average on the mic and he is trying too hard to fit into the babyface persona that USWA bookers have chosen for him. Haynes comes out and cheap shots Dunn. He rolls him into the ring, but Dunn recovers, throws some dropkicks, and Haynes flees.
Steven Dunn (2-1) pins the Yellow Jacket after a flying forearm in 41 seconds:
It is a good thing that Dunn forces Haynes back to the locker room because he would have been a sitting duck for the Jacket otherwise. The Jacket still tries a sneak attack before the bell but a suplex, dropkick, and flying forearm send him to the showers as a loser.
Highlights of the Rock N’ Roll Express-PG-13 express match in Memphis are shown. PG-13 won the USWA Tag Team titles back after J.C. Ice pinned Ricky Morton. After the match, the Express and Mark Curtis got revenge on PG-13 and Randy Hales, as well as the referee, with Morton busting everyone open with a spur. Brian Christopher and Jerry Lawler eventually made the save. Russell says it is awful that Hales got beat up like he did.
The Express and Curtis cut a taped promo, with Curtis bragging about the beatdown on PG-13 and Hales. Morton rips PG-13, saying that they are not heroes and do not stand a chance in a Texas Death rematch down the road. This is the best promo that the Express have cut in this feud to this point.
When we get back to live television, Curtis comes by the announce table and takes Russell’s microphone. Russell takes issue with that and both men tease a confrontation until PG-13 run out. PG-13 put over Hales work ethic for the USWA, with Wolfie D doing a good job eliciting sympathy for the company’s promoter. J.C. Ice says that PG-13 are tired of teams trying to make a name off them. They redub the Texas Death match with the Express as a “Boys in the Hood” death match.
Buddy Landel and Jim Cornette deliver a taped promo. Cornette brags about Curtis beating up Hales in Memphis before hyping the USWA Unified World title match this Monday between Landel and Jerry Lawler. Landel follows up with an awesome promo in his own right about the ups and downs of his career and how Smoky Mountain is a company where wild guys battle it out. Sadly, his promo is cut off so we can go back to the ring.
Before the next match, Curtis once again crashes the telecast by taking the ring announcing mic from Corey Maclin. Curtis announces that he is here to make sure impartial refereeing takes place when Lawler and Landel wrestle. A coin toss decides who will referee that match and when Maclin tosses it, the result is tails. This means that Curtis gets to referee the match in Memphis.
Non-Title Match: Jerry Lawler (USWA Unified World Champion) (16-3) beats Brian Lee (w/Brandon Baxter) (8-7-1) via disqualification when Jimmy Harris interferes at 2:02:
As his win-loss record attests, Lee has become an afterthought after getting a lot of hype when he debuted three months ago. Lee beats up Lawler for most of the match, helped by Baxter’s interference, and Harris eventually runs in to join the beatdown on Lawler to draw the disqualification. Just a nothing match for angle development. It gives Lawler his eleventh-straight singles win.
After the bell, PG-13 run out and save Lawler from half of the Legend Slayers.
PG-13 & Brickhouse Brown beat Gorgeous George III, the Gambler & Ken Raper when Brown pins Raper:
Raper’s appearance in this match is a complete wild card since he does not have any credibility on the roster. Brown used to be in Downtown Bruno’s crew with the Gambler and George but that faction lasted only a few weeks and the announcers never talk about it. After the babyfaces clear the ring we go to a commercial break and when we return Russell says that Brown pinned Raper for the victory.
To close the show, Russell talks about how much he hates SMW and recaps how USWA is doing in that feud.
The Last Word: Seeing the Rock N’ Roll Express play heel and do it so well is great stuff and their program with PG-13 was getting rave reviews in the territory and various wrestling publications of the era. This show was different than last week as it featured lots of promos and very little in-ring action. However, most of the promos were good due to the fun USWA-SMW interpromotional angle. Sadly, SMW would go out of business by the end of the feud, lessening its impact, but in the short-term the angle helped draw more fans to Memphis. It is also nice to see a USWA Southern Heavyweight title feud that does not involve Brian Christopher.
The July 17 show in Memphis drew 1,550 fans and a gate of $9,400. This was an increase of 150 fans from the reported attendance figures two weeks ago at the Coliseum. The results of that card are below and are from prowrestlinghistory.com:
-Brickhouse Brown (7-6-1) beat Gorgeous George III (12-14-1)
-Johnny Rotten (1-3-1) beat Scott Studd (22-9-4)
-Tracy Smothers (4-1) defeated Pat Tanaka via disqualification
-Jimmy Valiant (1-0) beat Brandon Baxter (0-1) in a lumberjack match
-USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Billy Jack Haynes (11-1-1) beat Steven Dunn (3-1)
-Brian Lee won a battle royal
-Sid Vicious (3-1) defeated Brian Lee (8-8-1)
-USWA Unified World Champion Jerry Lawler (17-3) beat Buddy Landel (2-0) via disqualification
-The Rock N’ Roll Express (3-2-3) beat USWA Tag Team Champions PG-13 (26-13-2) in a non-title, “Boys in the Hood” Death match after Tracy Smothers interfered.
Backstage News*: After the Memphis show on July 10, USWA promoter Randy Hales had to be hospitalized due to blood loss.
*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for July 24.
Up Next: USWA Championship Wrestling for July 22!