Jerry Jarrett formed the Continental Wrestling Association in 1977 and promoted the Memphis wrestling territory until 1995. For almost 20 years, he ran a promotion that operated three big arenas—the Nashville Fairgrounds, the Louisville Gardens, and the Memphis Mid-South Coliseum—every week. The promotion would sell the shows based on their weekly television tapings, which would take place every Saturday morning in the studios of WMC-TV in Memphis. The show did huge ratings and was the greatest wrestling television show in history. Wrestling writer Tom Karro-Gassner compared Memphis TV to The Muppet Show, with the exasperated Lance Russell as Kermit, desperately trying to keep the show on schedule while chaos broke out around him.
The crew would remain mainly the same over those years, with Jerry “the King” Lawler as the protagonist with a rotating cast of opponents and costars building angles and cutting promos to get fans excited enough to (hopefully) buy tickets to their live shows. Jarrett was, at his core, an incredibly successful TV showrunner, like David Chase if The Sopranos ran every week for 20 seasons. In conjunction with Lawler and other members of the booking team, Jarrett created hundreds of memorable, money-drawing angles. These are three of the best.
Andy Kaufman, the Intergender Champion
In 1982, Andy Kaufman was a big TV star, best known for playing the bumbling, lovable Latka Gravas on Taxi. As a comedian, Kaufman’s brand of stand-up was more avante-garde than his work for network television would suggest. Kaufman was one of the earliest proponents of anti-humor, where he would attempt to antagonize his audience rather than tell jokes; he was closer to a performance artist than a traditional comedian. He did a show at Carnegie Hall where he had a woman fake a heart attack and then he raised her from the dead, and even got into a staged fist fight with Michael Richards during the live ABC show Fridays. Kaufman became so well-known for boundary-pushing stunts that when he tragically died of cancer in 1985, many people believed he’d faked his death and would return someday.
That kind of button-pushing made Kaufman a perfect fit for the world of professional wrestling. Kaufman began doing wrestling matches as part of his nightclub act, wrestling women and crowning himself the “Intergender Champion of the World.” In 1982, Kaufman would pitch his act to Vince McMahon Sr., as part of the WWF, but was turned down as being too Hollywood and not serious enough for his promotion (which is pretty ironic, considering what Vince Jr. would do three years later when he reached out to celebrities like Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper, and others leading into the first WrestleMania). Kaufman then took the idea to Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler, who were always willing to push the boundaries a bit.
Kaufman began wrestling women on the undercards of Mid-South Coliseum cards, often taunting the women he beat and the fans in the crowd. Lawler, upset that Kaufman was belittling wrestling and the fans, agreed to help train Kaufman’s next opponent, a woman named Foxy. Kaufman said that he would marry Foxy if he lost, but despite Lawler’s training, Kaufman was successful. He continued to attack Foxy after the match, which brought Lawler into the ring, who shoved Kaufman to the mat.
Several months later, Lawler would show up on TV with a subpoena from Kaufman’s lawyers and a videotape in which Kaufman, sitting by his Hollywood pool with his lawyer Bob Zmuda (who was actually Kaufman’s longtime comedy partner), threatens to sue Lawler for every penny he has. Lawler then challenged Kaufman to a match, which Kaufman accepted with another sneering and taunting video the next week.
The match took place at the Mid-South Coliseum on April 5, 1982. Lawler allowed Kaufman to put him in a headlock, only to drop him with a vicious back suplex and two brutal piledrivers. Kaufman lay immobile in the ring, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he stayed for three days. Kaufman actually paid for the ambulance ride and the hospital stay out of his own pocket and spent the next several months in a neck brace, even trying to wear it on the set of Taxi.
This led to a famous confrontation between Lawler and Kaufman on the set of Late Night With David Letterman, in which Kaufman got enraged and threw coffee at Lawler and Lawler responded with a violent slap. While Kaufman and Lawler planned the stunt, they didn’t let Letterman or his producers in on the situation, and the chaos that followed became one of the iconic moments in that show’s history.
Kaufman disappeared from Memphis for nearly a year but showed up again on January 10, 1983, dressed as a bandaged-up Jimmy Hart, distracting Lawler and causing him to lose an AWA World Title match against Nick Bockwinkel. Lawler and Kaufman would feud throughout 1983, with Kaufman taunting the fans by making videos demonstrating for the people of Memphis how to use soap and toothpaste, and allying with Jimmy Hart to bring in bounty hunters to take out Lawler.
This was the perfect use of a celebrity in pro wrestling. It generated a ton of publicity, drew big houses, and produced entertaining TV while still treating wrestling as a dangerous thing that should be contested only by professionals. Vince McMahon Sr. was worried that Kaufman would make wrestling look fake, but by digging so deeply into his character and dedicating himself to selling the damage, Kaufman did more to make wrestling look real than almost anyone. No one could believe that a Hollywood star would spend three days in a Memphis hospital and walk around in a neck brace for months if he wasn’t really hurt, so Lawler must have really brutalized him. Kaufman was one of the great comedic wild cards of the 20th century and Jerry Jarrett played that wild card perfectly.
Bill Dundee and Buddy Landel Wreak Havoc
At the beginning of 1986, Jarret and the CWA found themselves in a bit of a dilemma. Bill Dundee defeated Jerry Lawler in a Loser Leaves Town match on December 30, 1985, vanquishing his foe and leaving Dundee the undisputed new King of Memphis. (It’s also one of the greatest matches in pro wrestling history.) However, the magic Dundee created as a Lawler opponent didn’t transfer over to being a top guy, and the box office was suffering. They needed a way to bring Jerry Lawler back without doing permanent damage to the “loser leaves town” stipulation, as devaluing stipulations is one of the quickest ways to destroy a territory.
Dundee was allied with Dutch Mantel in his war with Lawler at the beginning of 1986, but when “Nature Boy” Buddy Landel—who worked a similar gimmick to Ric Flair, although they both took inspiration from 1960s world champion “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers—arrived in Memphis, he drove a wedge in that partnership. Landel and Dundee would sip Champagne and wear designer suits, which contrasted with Mantel, who was more of a blue-jeans-and-Budweiser type. Mantel grew tired of the mocking and condescension from Landel and decked him, only to get stomped out by Landel and his former friend Dundee.
The first skirmish saw Bill and Buddy beat Dutch Mantel and Billy Joe Travis at the Mid-South Coliseum, which led to an incredible studio angle the next week. Dundee and Landel laid in a nasty beating to a pair of enhancement wrestlers named Jim Jamison and David Johnson. When the referee of the match (an 18-year-old Jeff Jarrett) tried to pull Landel and Dundee off of their beaten opponents, they turned on him and began beating him down. Jerry Jarrett, who had recently suffered a serious eye injury, came running out from the back to try to save his son and Landel and Dundee turned on him, gouging at his one good eye. Mantel ran in to clean house, but the damage had been done.
In the next segment, Jarrett came out with a towel over his eye, trying to speak, but broke down in tears, overcome with emotion because he was unable to protect his family. Lance Russell put his arm around him tenderly and led him to the back. The long history the Memphis fans had with Jarrett really made this powerful. He had been part of their lives and part of the community for years, always a powerful figure, and the audience saw him as emotional, broken, and crying.
The next match was interrupted by Eddie Marlin (the CWA matchmaker, father-in-law to Jerry Jarrett, and grandfather to Jeff). Marlin is one of the great forgotten talkers in wrestling history, and his delivery here was like a soft-spoken country judge, who will do what it takes to administer justice.
“It’s one man that I know of that I can put in there with Dutch Mantel, and they can take care of those two guys, and that one man is Jerry Lawler,” he said. “I don’t care about the contract. Bill Dundee, you can sue me, you can sue the company, you can put us out of business, but Jerry Lawler, I’m going to go get him on the phone right now, and if I can get Jerry Lawler to come here, he will be against Dundee and Landel.”
Lawler’s return drew sell-out crowds; they had to turn away more than 1,000 people for the legendary Texas Death Match between the teams, a match which went almost 50 minutes and had 27 falls before the babyfaces were victorious. The feud would continue, eventually seeing Lawler send Dundee packing in another classic Loser Leaves Town match on July 14, 1986. The Lawler and Dundee saga would continue on for decades, both as tag partners and opponents with many more highlights, but this was arguably the peak, not only of their rivalry but of Memphis wrestling itself.
The King and the Snowman
“The Snowman” Eddie Crawford was a journeyman wrestler who started his career in the Memphis area in the early ’80s and worked for various promotions, with his biggest run in Mid-South Wrestling as one of several failed attempts by promoter Bill Watts to replicate the success of Junkyard Dog. In 1990, Snowman would speak with local Black newspapers and radio stations, criticizing the USWA and calling its booking and hiring practices racist and specifically calling out Jerry Lawler, who had said some racist things in promos when he worked opposite Black wrestlers. Memphis was a bit past its heyday; because they were no longer regularly selling out the Mid-South Coliseum and delivering record television ratings, Lawler and Jarrett were worried that Crawford would damage their reputation with the Black fans of Memphis, who had become an increasing part of their audience.
They cut a deal to bring the Snowman to USWA, working a program based on the interviews he had been giving. Lawler, who was working heel at this point, came out to cut a promo on Kerry Von Erich, who he was wrestling at the Mid-South Coliseum that week. There was a disturbance from the crowd and the Snowman came out to confront Lawler, flanked by local businessmen and leaders in the Black community in Memphis. The broadcast didn’t focus the camera on him initially, making it seem like something unplanned. Before Snowman could say anything, matchmaker Eddie Marlin came out and started claiming that he had tried to book Snowman before, but he had no-showed his dates. Snowman started calling Lawler a coward and claiming he wasn’t the real world champion because he wouldn’t face him. He said he was tired of Lawler always talking about welfare and food stamps, and claimed they wouldn’t book Lawler against the Snowman because he was Black.
Marlin responded that Snowman would have to work his way up the card, and talked about how “the Blacks” weren’t all on Snowman’s side, and mentioned that King Cobra got a title shot and he was Black. Snowman said they might not book him, but they couldn’t stop him from buying a ticket, and that he would be sitting in the front row.
Snowman and his entourage then got into it with security and were escorted out. The next Saturday morning on TV, Eddie Marlin invited Snowman to discuss his grievances and we got a really odd segment that featured everything from a clearly unhappy-to-be-there King Cobra being forced to talk about his boss not being racist to Snowman and another entourage breaking down the racism within USWA. The whole thing felt like an unmonitored public access talk show in all of the wrong ways. Lawler came out and undercut Marlin by agreeing to a match with Snowman, leading to a pull-apart brawl.
The match, which took place on June 18, 1990, at the Mid-South Coliseum, was one of the stranger main event matches you will ever see. It felt like a real street fight, like a viral brawl brought to life featuring both guys throwing looping punches while trying for a double leg takedown. Lawler went to gouge out Snowman’s eye when they were both on the mat, and the whole thing got thrown out in about five minutes with both wrestlers needing to be separated.
They were able to get several more weeks out of the feud, but it shifted to something more like traditional pro wrestling, with Snowman turning face and Lawler leaning into being a heel, after the early weeks didn’t really have those traditional distinctions. Eventually, Snowman would bring in former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks to be the special referee, which led to a Lawler vs. Spinks match. Lawler would turn face eventually and Snowman would leave the promotion with the belt, which would lead to Eddie Marlin eventually stripping him of the title.
This was really the blueprint for the next 20 years in pro wrestling, where bringing more elements of real life into angles would figure in programs in WWF, ECW, and WCW. However, the thing that made this work is that they never sacrificed the realness of the rest of the show in an attempt to make the angle more real (which is something that made Vince Russo angles so insufferable). Memphis was always on the verge of pandemonium, with this Snowman situation just being a part of that “anything can happen” attitude. This confrontation clearly didn’t feel like a planned part of the show, but it never featured Snowman claiming that he was real and the rest of the promotion was fake, just that Lawler and the USWA were ducking him because of fear of what he could do (and their racism). It allowed the fans to believe that this was a real out-of-control situation, but never rubbed their face in the rest of the show.
Jerry Jarrett was always great at turning real-life issues into money-drawing pro wrestling, from bringing in Angelo Poffo and his sons, Randy Savage and Lanny, after they ran an ugly promotional war with CWA to feuding Bill Dundee and Wolfie D after Dundee pulled a knife on Wolfie backstage. If someone was running a promotion where there was, say, a publicized backstage fistfight between their biggest stars, they might want to think about how Jarrett would have handled it. I guarantee he would have packed the house.
Phil Schneider is a cofounder of the Death Valley Driver Video Review, a writer on the Segunda Caida blog, host of The Way of the Blade podcast, and the author of Way of the Blade: 100 of the Greatest Bloody Matches in Wrestling History, which is available on Amazon. He is on Twitter at @philaschneider.