OT: Old timer Memphis Wrasslin fans.
- Thread starter PBRME
- Start date
They tell some great stories. I remember watching the Jos Leduc segment live.
Attended NWJC in Senatobia in the mid/late 80’s. Bunch of us guys used to pile in a vehicle & roll up to MSC for the Monday Night Wrestling almost every Monday. Didn’t have no money so we buy the cheap seats but when it’d all break out in the floor outside the ring in those late round matches, we’d crawl through the separation bars and slip down in them lower ringside high dollar seats, lol, and watch till the last round was over. Simpler/funner times!
They used go say they found Kamalah in the Jungles of Uganda
Ha! I owned 7 acres and a house in Newtown out East of Senatobia hwy 4 down off Gravel Springs Road. Kamala was from right down the way off Yellow Dog Road & they filmed most of that Ugandan Jungle promotional video right there just East of Como! That’s back when wrestling was REAL! 
Worked at FedEx Memphis Hub for about 10 years launching them flights. Coco B. Ware used to work up in the secondaries sorting boxes on the line in the late 90’s. Used to see him from time to time coming in and out, up & down.
They used go say they found Kamalah in the Jungles of Uganda
Ha! I owned 7 acres and a house in Newtown out East of Senatobia hwy 4 down off Gravel Springs Road. Kamala was from right down the way off Yellow Dog Road & they filmed most of that Ugandan Jungle promotional video right there just East of Como! That’s back when wrestling was REAL! Worked at FedEx Memphis Hub for about 10 years launching them flights. Coco B. Ware used to work up in the secondaries sorting boxes on the line in the late 90’s. Used to see him from time to time coming in and out, up & down.
WWF horseshit shouldn't be included in a thread about old school Memphis rasslin'. Come on, horshack!
What? This is a Mid-South Wrestling clip. Hacksaw Jim Duggan ran in the Jackson/Memphis circuit. Long before WWF.
Jim Duggan - Wikipedia
ETA: Adding evidence for the Defense: https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/mid-south-wrestling/
Your video posted was Duggan with Mean Gene Okerlund, which is a clip from either Midsouth, or WWF. Neither was the same as Memphis rasslin'.What? This is a Mid-South Wrestling clip. Hacksaw Jim Duggan ran in the Jackson/Memphis circuit. Long before WWF.
Jim Duggan - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
ETA: Adding evidence for the Defense: https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/mid-south-wrestling/
Okerlund was never in Mid-South....he went from the AWA to WWF to WCW....that gif is either WWF or WCW
Correct. Hacksaw Jim Duggan, however, was a crossover artist. Midsouth, then WCW, then WWF, then WWE. But he was best when he was at Midsouth.
Yes I'm aware as my best friend in elementary school used to swear that Hacksaw was his uncle as he'd seen Hacksaw call his father* "brother"
*A JPD cop who worked Mid South shows,
Wasn't sure on Mid South. Just wanted to make sure the distinction was understood that there was a difference between Mid South wrestling and Memphis wrestling. Bill Watts ran one, and Jerry Jarrett ran the other one. So, posting a vid from another promotion while discussing Memphis wrestling is a party foul. #rasslinsnob
We always heard, while growing up in the Jackson / MidSouth Wrestling era, that Kimala was a watermelon farmer from PelahatchieAttended NWJC in Senatobia in the mid/late 80’s. Bunch of us guys used to pile in a vehicle & roll up to MSC for the Monday Night Wrestling almost every Monday. Didn’t have no money so we buy the cheap seats but when it’d all break out in the floor outside the ring in those late round matches, we’d crawl through the separation bars and slip down in them lower ringside high dollar seats, lol, and watch till the last round was over. Simpler/funner times!
They used go say they found Kamalah in the Jungles of Uganda
Worked at FedEx Memphis Hub for about 10 years launching them flights. Coco B. Ware used to work up in the secondaries sorting boxes on the line in the late 90’s. Used to see him from time to time coming in and out, up & down.
Funny note: we left a MSW event at the Coliseum and stopped at the old Totsum on High Street. My brother and I were around 9 and 11 years old. Terry Taylor and Magnum TA came hurriedly out of the store with 12 packs of Budweiser, and we were in shock. How could the good guys be beer drinkers, we thought. They got in a Monte Carlo and hauled *** onto I55 south.
On the way home that same night, Nokolai Volkoff passed us in a Buick Regal with a Louisiana tag going about 80. We couldn't understand how a hated Russian wrestler actually lived in the United States, much less in the south
Kimala really was from just east of Senatobia, as Wesson says. He premiered in Memphis wrestling, not Mid South wrestling. Jerry Lawler painted his face and his belly.We always heard, while growing up in the Jackson / MidSouth Wrestling era, that Kimala was a watermelon farmer from Pelahatchie
Funny note: we left a MSW event at the Coliseum and stopped at the old Totsum on High Street. My brother and I were around 9 and 11 years old. Terry Taylor and Magnum TA came hurriedly out of the store with 12 packs of Budweiser, and we were in shock. How could the good guys be beer drinkers, we thought. They got in a Monte Carlo and hauled *** onto I55 south.
On the way home that same night, Nokolai Volkoff passed us in a Buick Regal with a Louisiana tag going about 80. We couldn't understand how a hated Russian wrestler actually lived in the United States, much less in the south
The best Kamala story I ever heard was about Jerry painting the star and moon on his belly and one day while King is painting it, Kamala asks him why he's gotta paint a banana on his belly, is it because he's black? King just stops for a second, looks up at him and says "James....it's the moon!"
Plow boy Frazier lived in a yellow house in horn lake at Nail Road and Hwy 51. He had a wrestling ring in the back yard. In the 80s, it would not be uncommon to drive by there and see some locally famous wrestlers in there running the ropes. There used to be an ice cream place across the street and I was able to get autographs from Bill Dundee, Dutch Mantell, and Plowboy ( later famous as hillbilly Jim.). I was maybe 12 or 13 at the time. There's my brush with greatness.
That house still stands today but it was converted to an office building. It's still yellow though.
Jim Cornette had a great story about the origin of the Kamala character. So he started out as “Sugar Bear” Harris and by all accounts couldn’t wrestle worth a lick, but he was so huge that Lawler and Jarrett still signed him to CWA and made his bad wrestling part of his gimmick. Basically, he would be an indigenous guy they found in the jungles of Uganda and had all these awkward movements because he hadn’t really been exposed to a lot of other people. That way, they could explain away his bad wrestling while still getting him over.
I played flag football for several years and lawler always had a team in that league too. He was a pretty good athlete.
Another guy that was from around here (west Memphis, actually) was Sid Vicious. He would be on WCW television and come down with some major injury, and then the next week he would show up in Memphis playing softball.
Sid was a softball monster. Saw him a couple of times around Atlanta in the 90's playing and he could mash a ball.
How do people in Memphis have sex? Doggy style so they can both watch wrestlin'
Ran into Sid at DnD. I let the liquor do the thinking. Tried to start a fight with him. He walked away, and my friends fortunately stopped me as I was chasing after him.
The craziest thing about Duggar was his arrest with The Sheik. McMahan wasn’t pissed that his wrestlers were arrested for drugs, he was pissed that a face and a heel were arrested in the same car.
There used to be a titty bar off I-40 near Holladay, TN. No idea if it's still there, but at one time it was called "Bill Dundee's Sportsman's Club". The Superstar was owner, manager, and DJ.
Unfortunately Kamala suffered badly late in life. I had heard diabetes took his legs at some point.
He was always one of my favorites.
I must admit as a non wrasslin' fan, that video is pretty cool. I forget the name of that awesome place to go to lunch in the Memphis State area locally famous for their home cooking (turnip greens rocked) but it was cool getting to shake hands with Lawler. He shook hands with lots of the customers before being seated. Seemed like a real nice genuine guy.
You can't break kayfabe.
It was like that in Memphis rasslin'. If guys were faces, you might see them out in a bar or something together. But if they were working programs against each other, you'd never see them out together. If you've ever read Lawler's book, he talks quite a bit about that and has some funny stories. It's a good read....I recommend it. "It's Good To Be The King...Sometimes"
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