Tonight’s Anniversary Edition of AEW Dynamite will air live from Southaven, MS (the Greater Memphis area).
* Tribute to Legends of Memphis Wrestling
* Riho (c) vs. Kris Statlander (AEW Women’s World Championship)
* Sammy Guevara vs. Christopher Daniels
* Cody and Dustin Rhodes vs. Lucha Bros.
* Private Party vs. Hangman Page and Kenny Omega
* The Best Friends & Orange Cassidy vs. Jurassic Express
* Jon Moxley to give his answer about joining the Inner Circle
Memphis is getting lots of love from pro wrestling to kick off 2020 as SmackDown took place from there last week and AEW is visiting the city this week. During WWE’s trip to Memphis, they also recorded 205 Live where Ariya Daivari offered a tribute (or a shot) to The King of Memphis Wrestling, Jerry Lawler, by staging a fist drop from the second rope.
Lawler was asked about the spot when he joined Cerrito Live.
“Well, he took a little too long up there. I watched it and I never would give my opponent that much time to recover while he was lying there waiting for me to drop a fist on him,” said Lawler. “He took a little too long as a matter of fact he acted like he was wearing two straps. He was dropping two straps. Then by the time he finally dropped down on his opponent, the guy raised his feet up right in his face and it didn’t work out too well for him.”
The removing of the strap and second-rope fist drop didn’t work out in terms of functionality, but Lawler was still honored by the acknowledgement.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” stated Lawler.
He was then asked about tonight’s AEW’s show which is being billed as a tribute to the legends of Memphis Wrestling. Lawler won’t be on hand due to his WWE ties, but many greats will be there including “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant and The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express.
“I have talked to some guys and I think they’re gonna have quite a few guys who were well known in Memphis,” Lawler said before rattling off the names of Memphis wrestlers who he knows will be on hand. “Dave Brown will be there. I talked to Dave and we have lunch every Thursday. Yeah, he’s gonna be there.”
While this will be a trip down nostalgia lane, Lawler thinks there is a more pertinent reason for AEW to bring out the Memphis legends.
“They’re looking to sell some tickets and pop the crowd,” stated Lawler. “I think a tribute to Memphis Wrestling is actually the last thing on their minds. They’re looking to sell some tickets and pop the crowd.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Ahead of this week’s episode (1/8/20) of Dynamite in Southaven, MS (the Greater Memphis area), AEW has revealed a list of some of the legends they plan to pay tribute to.
I got to attend the comic convention POP!CON in Evansville, In, where I got to meet some of the Legends of Memphis Wrestling, Jerry “The King” Lawler, “Grand Master Sexy” Brian Christopher, “the Boogie Woogie Man” “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant, “The Voice of Memphis Wrestling” Lance Russell and “Superstar” Bill Dundee. I had a blast getting to meet these guys I grew up watching.
I had the chance to talk with “Grand Master Sexay” Brian Christopher about the old days of Memphis Wrestling. He shared with me a story about his dad (Jerry “the King” Lawler”) wrestling The Giant Gonzalez at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, where Lawler threw a fireball at Gonzalez and his fur he wore on his suit caught fire, Gonzalez for real got angry at Lawler and Lawler told him if he has a problem with it he could always fire him. We talked about the great matches that I got to see in Evansville, In at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Coliseum.
Here are some of the photos I was able to take, Sorry but I realized I failed to get a photo of “Dangerous” Doug Gilbert, who was there:
Jerry Lawler was presented with a Super Hero of the year award.
There was more than just wrestling at POP!CON, People were dressed in costumes of their favorite wrestlers, Super Heroes, Star Wars characters, Star Trek characters and other comic book and movie characters, below is some photos I posted on Twitter from the event:
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