Two weeks ago, WWE released a lost Georgia Championship Wrestling show from the historic Omni – featuring Roddy Piper’s first dog collar match, on their WWE Vault channel.
Last Friday, they continued the trend, uploading a previously unseen match between Jerry “The King” Lawler and “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
The details surrounding this match are shrouded in mystery. The only information that the WWE provided was that it took place in 1985, at an event held in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Cape Girardeau was a frequent destination of ICW, an outlaw promotion owned by Savage’s father, Angelo Poffo. For years, ICW promoted shows in direct opposition to Jerry Jarrett’s CWA, as well as several other regional NWA territories.
The ICW promotion was forced to close its doors in 1984, due to diminishing returns. Jarrett wisely acquired ICW’s assets, which included Poffo’s sons – ”Leaping” Lanny Poffo and, of course, “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
That’s where the mystery lies. By 1985, ICW had already closed its doors, but the CWA never promoted shows in Cape Girardeau.
Dan Rice, author of Violent People, found a newspaper advertisement from the March 21, 1985 edition of The Bullet Journal, a now-defunct news outlet based in Cape Girardeau. Billed as the “Match of the Century,” the match was advertised for March 24, at the Arena Building in Cape Girardeau. This may be the answer to our mystery.
https://x.com/DanRiceVP/status/1946258650395222312
I am by no means an authority on Memphis wrestling, though. So, I reached out to someone who is.
Mark James is a pro wrestling historian and expert on the Memphis territory, having published numerous biographies on the territory, including Tuesday Night At The Gardens: Pro Wrestling in Louisville, with Jim Cornette. James even co-authored Jerry Jarrett’s own memoir: The Best of Times.
This is what he had to say on the matter:
“The Poffos came into Memphis in Dec. 1983. After ICW folded, Angelo was still running outlaw shows in Kentucky, Missouri, etc. I’m guessing Jarrett told Angelo to run the show under the ICW banner. They probably got a ton of extra tickets sold because of it.”
In 2023, WWE purchased the ICW tape library, which includes an extensive catalogue of early “Macho Man” matches. It appears as though this was one such match.
By 1985, Randy Savage was in the throes of his rivalry with Jerry “The King” Lawler. Savage and his ICW brethren were seen as an invading force. However, it was Savage who committed the greatest sin of all – trying to usurp the “King of Memphis.”
Savage was, of course, only months away from signing with the WWF.
On March 18, 1985, Savage defeated Lawler for the AWA Southern Heavyweight Title. They wrestled again on March 23, in Jonesboro, Ark.; then on March 25, at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.
All three of those events were promoted under the CWA banner. So, this match ostensibly occurred in between their matches in Jonesboro and Memphis – under the guise of the Poffo’s ICW, to ignite a little more interest.
Therein lies the intrigue of this match. Lawler is in a hostile environment.
For many fans, Jerry Lawler is best remembered as a color commentator and infrequent wrestler for the WWE. However, it was in Memphis where Lawler earned his epithet: dominating the territory as both an irreverent heel and as a principled babyface. Here, he was the latter – on the heels of his feuds with Andy Kaufmann and Jimmy Hart.
Lawler had become a hero of mythical proportions in Memphis, cultivating a following that few wrestlers could replicate – in any territory across the world.
“Macho Man” had already ceded the moral high ground in their feud, aligning himself with heel manager Tux Newman. Even though the audio is largely unintelligible, the audience is clearly divided during the in-ring introductions – demonstrating the Poffos’ lasting impression on Cape Girardeau.
Newman is the well-dressed man in Savage’s corner, who interfered in the match at multiple junctures. While Savage seemed beyond reproach, Newman was the conduit for his heat. And it’s that symbiotic relationship between athlete and manager that helped endear ICW’s sycophants to Lawler. That, and the King’s own magnetism.
The fulcrum of this match is “Macho Man’s” own cowardice – refusing to face Lawler head on. Like all great Southern bastards, Savage was a master of subterfuge, slowly betraying ICW’s faithful. On the contrary, there was no pretense in Lawler’s approach. Like all great brawlers, he didn’t have many tools at his disposal – so it was only a matter of properly plying them.
In the bout’s final stanza, he did exactly that – luring Savage into a firefight. Both men wandered to the outside and traded shots like Mickey Ward and Arturo Gatti, before returning to the ring for the grand finale. Lawler punctuated the affair with his patented diving punch from the second rope.
It’s a miracle that the footage from this match still exists. As I’ve said in the past, credit where credit is due. I applaud the WWE for unearthing this footage and uploading it to YouTube. While this match is far from perfect, Jerry Lawler and Randy Savage’s command over the audience is exceptional.
The negatives lie in the match’s length. From bell to bell, the contest clocked in just shy of 32 minutes, and suffered from the large period of intermittence between the 10- and 22-minute mark. Maybe that can be attributed to their travel schedule.
Jerry Lawler wrestled Randy Savage on March 18 and March 23.. On March 19, he faced Eddie Gilbert in a Texas Deathmatch in the Louisville Gardens. On March 20, he joined forces with Dutch Mantell to face Gilbert and Mike Sharpe in Evansville, Ind. That means this was his fifth match in seven days. Not to mention, Lawler and Savage were slated to wrestle again on the following night, in Memphis, on March 25.
While Savage’s schedule wasn’t quite as rigorous, he had wrestled twice on March 23: once in Nashville against Jerry Oske, and then against Lawler, in the aforementioned match in Jonesboro.
Suffice to say, I can imagine both men were reeling from the harsh conditions of the road. That’s the beauty of professional wrestling, though. The true lords of the ring can use the illusion to their advantage. While it may be a slow burn, the payoff is well worth the wait.
Rating: ****
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