1980 Championship Wrestling from Memphis, TN

Here are the week by week listings for Memphis TV in 1980. As always, WMC air dates are listed first with the syndicated air date in (parenthesis). All these listings are from the syndicated feed that aired in Louisville so there is definitely Memphis-specific content missing.

1980 is notable for a number of things. First and foremost you have the roots of Jerry Lawler's turn and feud with Jimmy Hart. Also, you have Bill Dundee as the top guy for much of the year and he carries the promotion nicely. There are major turns from Tommy Rich and Jimmy Valiant, plus the emergence of guys like Bobby Eaton and Koko Ware. This really set the tone for the decade nicely.

Championship Wrestling 1/5/80 (1/12)

Lance & Dave open the show

VTR: Ken Lucas v Jimmy Hart - Louisville - Lucas pulls Hart's pants down and spanks him. Which is kinda weird.

Louisville promo: Bill Dundee & Jerry Jarrett

VTR: Jerry Lawler v Jerry Jarrett - Louisville - Bill Dundee returns to make the save

Ricky & Robert Gibson interview

VTR: The Gibsons v The Assassins - Ricky & Robert talk over the footage as the Gibsons win the Southern tag titles

Jerry Ralph & Bill Smithson v The Gibsons

Louisville promo: Lance runs down the card

VTR: Billy Robinson interview - Billy says he's going stir crazy waiting to come back

David Oswald & the Hillbilly v The Assassins

Buddy Wayne, Jerry Ralph & Ken Barnes v Rick Morton, Big Red & Steve Regal

Louisville promo: Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart & Jimmy Valiant

Lance closes the show

Championship Wrestling from Memphis 1979

This one is a little different than some others in that these 1979 listings are mostly based on one set. A few years back a site called 70'sTV.com, which specializes in public domain footage, released a set of surviving moments from Memphis' 1979 broadcasts. Unlike other years this one is mostly broken up by discs. As always, all VTR matches are from the Memphis Mid South Coliseum unless otherwise noted. The last few listings in the year are more the typical format with the WMC airdate first followed by the syndicated date in (parenthesis).

Disc 1
2/17/79 - 32 mins
Austin Idol interview - Idol is with the heel lumberjacks for this week's match with Jerry Lawler
Robert Gibson & Tommy Gilbert v the Assassins - Assassins are managed by Georgous George Jr.
Gorgous George Jr. & the Mongolian Stomper interview
VTR: Gorgeous George Jr. introduces a Mongolian Stomper promotional video narrated by Les Thatcher
Jerry Barber v Mongolian Stomper
Jerry Lawler interview - Lawler is with the babyface lumberjacks
Robert Fuller & Bill Dundee interview
Roger Howell v Buzz Sawyer
Don Carson & Dennis Condrey interview - Carson wants Buzz Sawyer
Buzz Sawyer v Don Carson - Carson uses a loaded glove for the pin
Don Carson & Dennis Condrey interview

The TV Wrestling Listings project

Greetings. If you've found this you're probably searching through my wrestling listings project. Quick explanation of how this came about. I'm a big fan of 80's pro wrestling, it's an illness I know. Within the last few years I've been smitten by Southeastern Championship Wrestling out of Pensacola/Birmingham. One thing I found when trying to track down footage is that things were terribly mislabeled among tape/DVD traders. Literally got six copies of the same tape with six different listings. That led me to catalog what was on the these tapes and discs to figure out what actually aired when. I've cleaned up a bunch of the Alabama listings from 1980 up but it's a work in progress.

Complicating things is that while cataloging Southeastern I decided to also watch my favorite promotion of all time, Memphis. While there are numerous listings of Memphis TV most only mention what matches aired in the studio on a given week. Angles, interviews and VTR footage from Mid South Coliseum are all excluded. That's a problem because really Memphis was less about studio matches and more about all those other things. Want to know when Jimmy Valiant attacked Tommy Rich's mother? You won't find it on any of the existing lists.

So that's my long hullabaloo on how this got started. I'm enjoying the ride of putting this together and will post new listings as they become available. Please excuse any typos and be aware that times I'll make a random observation (feel free to ignore those).

Enjoy