CWA TV
Date: 4/30/1988
From: Memphis. TN
Matches:
1.) CWA Heavyweight Champion Maxx Pain & Gary Young defeated Alan Reynolds & William Thompson
2.) Ken Wayne defeated Scotty The Body
3.) Tommy Gilbert & Doug Gilbert defeated Scott Steiner & Alan Reynolds
4.) Jeff Jarrett, Billy Travis & The Bruise Brothers fought to a TV time limit Cuban Assassins, Rough & Ready
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Pain and Young dominate their tag team match to kickoff the program. Young picks up the win by hitting a top rope elbow drop onto Thompson.
2.) Lance Russell interviews Jerry Jarrett for a major announcement. Jarrett announces that he’s completed a contract with WCCW to have some co-promotions. Jarrett notes that they could be out of the services of Jerry Lawler on May 9th if Lawler loses. Jarrett wants to bring in the best talent and notes the Von Erich family, Iceman Parsons, Michael Hayes, and Chris Adams. They will be here in the next few weeks. Jarrett notes Parsons is the first black champion in any promotion. Jarrett wants to bring the very best into the area.
3.) A video package promoting Kerry Von Erich is shown.
4.) Wayne prevails over Scotty the Body with a German suplex. Wayne is still the USA Junior Heavyweight Champion, by the way.
5.) Lance Russell introduces a video package promoting Jeff Jarrett, which annoys Ken Wayne. Wayne says all that Jarrett has is a dropkick, but he’s going to need a lot more to beat him. Wayne thinks Russell is playing favorite for Jarrett, too. Wayne isn’t happy with the formal for Jarrett to get a video before his promo. Wayne complains about Jarrett throwing the first punch in their last match. Wayne thinks the referee is on Jarrett’s side, too. Wayne notes that Billy Travis was at ringside for their match that ended in a double count-out. Wayne talks about punching Travis since he shouldn’t have been out there.
6.) Lance Russell interviews Jerry Lawler. Russell says the voting for the special referee between Larry Hennig and Jackie Fargo is quite surprising. Lawler isn’t surprised by how close the voting is because Curt Hennig has a lot to lose. Lawler suggests that Hennig is spending money for a telephone campaign to get his father as the referee for his match. Lawler plugs the phone numbers to get more votes. There is a $1 charge per each call. Lawler acknowledges he’s got a slim chance if Larry gets voted as the referee. Lawler is never going to apologize for being as successful as he has been in the area. Lawler mentions other top wrestlers talking about coming into the area and struggling to get in the main event because Lawler is at the top. Lawler thinks if he doesn’t win the title then some other wrestlers will get a chance to compete in the main events.
AWA World Champion Curt Hennig shared some thoughts via pre-tape. Hennig wants everyone to listen because this is a serious situation. Hennig talks about Lawler trying to get Jackie Fargo to be the special referee. Hennig claims he has a strong following and declares that Larry Hennig deserves to be the referee because he’s a man of honesty.
Lawler chimes in again and talks about Larry Hennig having interfered in their match before and Lawler thinks that proves what Larry would be doing if he got voted into the match.
7.) A video package promoting Jerry Lawler is shown.
8.) Downtown Bruno comes out and is interviewed by Lance Russell. Bruno says he could look back and be mad, but he’s not going to do that about Brickhouse Brown and Jerry Lawler. Bruno notes that Don Bass lost a match causing Bruno to lose a loser leaves town match. Bruno admits he’s under suspension and he can’t manage for a year, but it didn’t say anything about not doing interviews or commentary. Bruno promises to come back real soon and he’ll back to stay. Bruno wants Jerry Lawler to come out and has something to say to him.
Jerry Lawler walks over to the interview area to confront Bruno. Bruno tells Lawler he’s a manager that everyone deserves. Robert Fuller runs up from behind and attacks Lawler! Fuller chokes Lawler with a bull rope. Fuller drags Lawler on the floor and proceeds to hang Lawler over the ring post. Lawler had been handcuffed by Fuller, as well. A couple of guys try to save, but Fuller takes care of them. Jeff Jarrett comes out and dropkicks Fuller to the floor to make the save. Bruno promises that he’s not a manager and didn’t set this up. Fuller tells Russell that when he says he’s going to do something he gets it done. Lawler is helped to the backstage area.
9.) Gilbert’s don’t dominate this week as Steiner had a few moments of offense with an arm drag and dropkick on Doug. Tommy ends up pinning Reynolds with a knee lift. It certainly looks like they’re trying to protect Scott Steiner. After the match, Doug makes a comment about taking out Eddie Marlin.
10.) Lance Russell interviews the CWA Southern Tag Team Champions the Bruise Brothers, who also have Eddie Marlin. Marlin talks about being the special referee for the match with the Gilbert’s recently. Tommy and Doug Gilbert come out and claim it is a conspiracy against them. Marlin says he’s not doing anything for the promotion and says Randy Hales is doing it.
11.) The eight man tag match starts with about two minutes left on the program. In short order, all eight men are in the ring brawling. Jarrett almost wins with a dropkick on Rough. The program goes to commercial as they are brawling. We don’t see a finish to the match.
Final Thoughts:
Looks like a new era may be happening in Memphis with the working agreement between CWA and WCCW. The added stars from WCCW will make CWA a bit stronger if they are going to be routinely on TV, but I doubt that’s going happen. I’m interested to see how that plays out over the next few weeks and months. They’re continuing to push Hennig vs. Lawler, which is expected. There wasn’t much added to it this week. I enjoyed the segment of Robert Fuller attacking Lawler to setup their feud. An entertaining week of TV.
Thanks for reading.