What the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – October 7, 1995

The set of announcing musical chairs continues on this week’s telecast with Dave Brown and Corey Maclin calling the action from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Opening Contest: The Spellbinder (9-6-2) pins the Scorpion after a somersault senton at 1:04:

The Scorpion tries to lay into the Spellbinder to start the match, but the Spellbinder does not sell it, slams the Scorpion several times, and finishes with a somersault senton.

After the match, Brandon Baxter offers the Spellbinder a lucrative contract to join his faction, but the Spellbinder declines. This prompts Axl Rotten to come out and clip the Spellbinder and work over his leg until Ken Raper makes the save. Having Raper make the save is crazy booking since he is a jobber.

Highlights of PG-13’s match with the Smoking Gunns for the WWF Tag Team Championship at the most recent Mid-South Coliseum show air.

Tekno Team 2000 (w/Brandon Baxter) (4-1) defeat Ken Morris & the Shadow when Travis pins the Shadow after a flying bulldog at 2:37:

During the Teknos entrance, a pre-taped promo airs where they brag about costing PG-13 the WWF tag team titles. That promo is a significant upgrade over last week’s effort against the Heavenly Bodies. The Teknos steamroll the jobbers with double team moves, planting the Shadow with a double clothesline and a double suplex. However, they cannot help but botch the finish, which happens when Troy gives the Shadow an atomic drop and Travis goes for a flying bulldog but misses it in Jackie Gayda-like fashion. It is hard to take the Teknos seriously when they keep messing up like this.

After the bell, PG-13 clear the ring with a hubcap and kendo stick. Brown interviews them and Wolfie D says that they will get revenge on the Teknos for costing them the WWF Tag Team Championship.

Brown interviews Jesse James Armstrong and Brandon Baxter. Baxter insults Brian Christopher and Miss Texas before hyping a hospital elimination match this Monday in Memphis between them. Armstrong echoes Baxter’s words.

USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship Match: Jesse James Armstrong (w/Brandon Baxter) (4-4) pins Brian Christopher (Champion) (34-14-6) after hitting him with a chair to win the title at 10:07 shown:

Unlike most matches on USWA Championship Wrestling, this match is given time to breathe. After stalling leads into the first commercial break, Baxter interferes on multiple occasions to try to keep Armstrong in control. This raises the ire of Miss Texas, who comes out and fights Baxter. Armstrong scores some near-falls from a single arm DDT and an elbow drop, and the referee gets knocked out when Armstrong pulls the referee in front of him when Christopher attempts a superkick. A crazy amount of interference follows as Texas thwarts Baxter’s efforts to get into the fight and PG-13 intercept Tekno Team 2000. No one is able to stop Axl Rotten, though, and he hops on the apron with a chair. Christopher knocks him off, but not before Armstrong is able to acquire the chair, which he uses to smash over Christopher’s head to win the title. This had some great drama and action after the commercial break and is easily the match of the year for USWA Championship Wrestling. Rating: ***

Brown interviews referee Bill Rush, who says he must call like he sees it. This happens despite Rush overturning decisions in recent weeks on mere word of mouth.

Brown interviews Doug Gilbert, who alleges that Steven Dunn is not a star in the USWA because he is not good enough. Brown says that if Gilbert defeats Dunn in Memphis that he will earn the right to face Marty Jannetty, with the winner facing the WWF Intercontinental Champion at a later date.

Doug Gilbert (17-11-3) pins Charlie Laird after a piledriver at 2:13:

Gilbert gives Laird no room to breathe in this contest, beating him down near the announce table, choking him with his wrist tape, and hitting two DDT’s. Gilbert gives some wrist tape to the referee and when the referee dumps it out of the ring, Gilbert executes an illegal piledriver to prevail.

After the match, Gilbert asks Laird is he is okay and when people say that he is, Gilbert gives Laird another piledriver. Gilbert’s behavior here appears to foreshadow a heel turn.

J.C. Ice (1-1) beats Axl Rotten (4-3-3) via disqualification when Brandon Baxter interferes at 2:49:

The main event on today’s telecast was supposed to be PG-13 against Rotten and Steven Dunn but Dunn no showed, so this is what the audience gets instead. Ice and Rotten go through the motions, with Rotten surviving Ice’s initial onslaught to score near-falls from a T-Bone suplex and slam. Ice rallies with a flying body press for two, triggering Baxter’s interference to end the match with a disqualification.

After the match, Miss Texas beats up Baxter for the second time on the show, but Tekno Team 2000 hits the ring to bail him out. This brings out Doug Gilbert and Wolfie D, but Jesse James Armstrong follows right behind them with a board and lays out the babyfaces. Not to be upstaged, Brian Christopher brings a trash can into the ring and forces the heels to flee, with the exception of Armstrong, who eats a superkick.

The Last Word: After some bad episodes, fans finally got a good one today. The Brian Christopher-Jesse James Armstrong match was great by USWA television standards and the rest of the show featured serviceable action. However, the great wrestling efforts throughout the show cannot mask the star power deficit that the promotion is suffering from right now. The heel side is WWF reject land with Armstrong, Tekno Team 2000, and Steven Dunn all being prominently featured.

The Mid-South Coliseum show on October 9 drew a record-low crowd for the year as 600 fans – 300 fewer than the previous week – turned out for a gate of $4,400 to see the following card. The results below were provided courtesy of prowrestlinghistory.com:

-Pat Tanaka (1-7-2) beat Kip Morris

-Axl Rotten (4-4-3) defeated the Spellbinder (10-6-2)

-Steven Dunn (12-4-3) beat Doug Gilbert (18-11-3)

-USWA Tag Team Champions PG-13 (39-17-3) beat Tekno Team 2000 (5-1)

-Marty Jannetty beat Steven Dunn (13-4-3) to earn a future match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship

-Brian Christopher & Miss Texas beat Jesse James Armstrong & Brandon Baxter in a hospital elimination match

-Brian Christopher won a battle royal

Backstage News*: Lance Russell was not on this week’s episode of USWA Championship Wrestling because he was on vacation in Hawaii.

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for October 16.

Up Next: USWA Championship Wrestling for October 14!