Booking Memphis Wrestling with Jerry Jarrett

This week we take a look at the fascinating long-time relationship between Jerry Jarrett and Randy Savage. We start with the days of the promotional wars with the Poffo family running opposition to Jerry's promotion with ICW, Randy shockingly coming to work an inter-promotional feud with the Memphis territory, them then becoming friends during that time, great stories on time spent together in the WWF in the 90s, and their friendship afterwards.

To celebrate our 30th episode, Jerry Jarrett goes into great detail on one of his signature accomplishments  - the Lawler vs. Dundee feud from 1977 that culminated in both Bill Dundee getting his head shaved, as well as his wife! For 11 straight weeks in the summer of 1977, Lawler and Dundee faced each other in a series of wild stipulation matches. It drew 94.708 people to the Mid-South Coliseum over those 11 weeks, a record that will almost assuredly never be passed.

We start 2019 by welcoming back long-time Memphis veteran Randy Hales! We discuss classic Memphis and Power Pro Wrestling. Hear a never-told story about the time he had to use Kurt Angle's shoot credentials to keep peace during a live TV shoot, rare stories on Daniel Bryan, Jim Cornette's last run as an on-screen manager, and much more!

This week we revisit the topic of one of our most popular episodes - Vince McMahon. We go in depth on Jerry's time working in WWE with him, the details of the creation of the Mr. McMahon heel character and how Jerry produced his very first promos, Vince coming down to the Mid-South Coliseum to get physical with Jerry Lawler, the nervousness in WWE as WCW became more aggressive in the mid-90s, and thoughts on the present day state of the industry. It's insight into Vince that you won't hear anywhere else.

This week we continue our look at 1977, which is one of the more pivotal and significant years in the history of Memphis wrestling. Hear the story of how Jerry Jarrett built his company after his split with Nick Gulas. Hear stories about a 15 year old Terry Gordy working the territory, a very green Junkyard Dog, Dusty Rhodes coming in to wrestle Lawler, Bill Dundee being prepared for historic run against the King, sending Tommy Rich to Atlanta for a huge run with Jim Barnett, and much more!

This week we cover the first few months of 1977 in detail. This was a period where the Memphis territory was on fire and everything appeared to be great, until it all fell apart. Hear a great Mongolian Stomper story, Rocky Johnson working the territory with a young Rock watching backstage, the influence Jerry Jarrett's mother had in turning Bill Dundee babyface, Harley Race coming in as an NWA champion, Tojo being legitimately attacked by another wrestler, the McGuire twins, Bob Armstrong, and much more!

We are honored this week to have two of Memphis Wrestling's Mount Rushmore figures together having a conversation - listen to Jerry Jarrett and Bill Dundee as they tell stories from their decades long history together. Hear great Memphis stories, why Jerry pushed Dundee as a headliner right from the start, a lot on the Lawler feud and Bill's wife getting her hair shaved, plenty of details on the "trade" in 1984 that sent Dundee to Mid-South for Watts, and the two visiting the WMC-5 studio in Memphis!

This week, we break down a variety of wrestlers who went through Memphis at a young age and went on to become big names in the industry. We go through a large list of names, including Undertaker, Sid, Kane, Bam Bam Bigelow, and many others. Hear some great stories, like how Jerry had a phone conversation with a young Kane's mom that may have helped save Kane's career!

This week we let you in an a very honest, emotional conversation between Jerry Jarrett and long-time Memphis mainstay and then WWE Hall of Famer - Koko B. Ware. This interview, details their history and focuses on Koko's wrestling career, his run in Memphis, flying to New York and meeting Vince McMahon and pitching the idea of having an actual bird with him at ringside, wrestling at WrestleMania 3, and going into the WWE Hall of Fame. Join us for this authentic chat between two longtime friends!

This week we invite two hardcore old-school Memphis wrestling fans on the show to ask Jerry Jarrett any question they can think of. We talk about a Lawler promo that almost got wrestling thrown off the channel and the LeDuc blood oath. We also discuss the appeal of the Road Warriors and whether talent was afraid to work with them, whether Lance and Dave ever got nervous about all of the bodies being thrown in their direction during TV, and way too many other things to mention!

On this episode we have a lot of fun strolling down memory lane and going over some of the more memorable ribs and pranks that Jerry Jarrett saw during his decades in the Memphis territory. Hear some hilarious stories usually reserved for "the boys". There is plenty of Jackie Fargo in this one!

This week we welcome Joel Gertner onto the show to discuss the Memphis/ECW parallels that he lived through while working for ECW. We discuss what makes a great heel manager and how they separate themselves from the rest. We also talk about Joel and Jerry's interactions with Paul Heyman, Joel's influences, we discuss ECW's ability to generate true heat from a "smart" crowd, and much more!

For the first time ever, Jerry Jarrett and Eric Embry tell all about their part in the resurrection and fall of the Dallas territory in the late 80's. Hear Eric describe how dire the situation in Dallas was before Jerry was brought in, the work they did together they did to revive the business, Eric Embry as a hugely over anti-hero babyface, and then the downfall. Tons of never heard stories, this is wrestling history that you will want to hear!

Before the Monday night wars, before the Vince McMahon war on the territories, the biggest war in wrestling was happening in the Atlanta territory in the 70s.  A massive promotional war erupted when Ann Gunkel split away from the NWA and ran opposition, and Jerry Jarrett ended up in the middle of it as the NWA's booker. Hear tons of stories on Jim Barnett, the creation of Mr. Wrestling II, Lou Thesz turning the tide of the war as a top face, Gordon Solie, and much more.

Memphis historian and prolific wrestling author Mark James joins us on this episode to talk about his memories of the glory days of Memphis! He and Jerry Jarrett talk about the fascinating dual personalities of Jimmy Valiant on and off camera, an infamous riot at the Mid-South Coliseum after a show, Jimmy Hart saving the territory, why tapes of old Memphis TV were not saved, and many other topics. We very much recommend finding Mark's work at MarkJamesBooks.com.