Warning: If you couldn’t stomach the original Memphis Hodgepodge then don’t even try to get through this one.
Since, I received such a positive response from the first Memphis Hodgepodge I thought I’d follow it up with a sequel of sorts.
So without further rambling lets get into the first few clips: The ripoffs.
Can you guess who The Warrior is a ripoff of? Yes, it’s an imitation of The Ultimate Warrior taking on everyone’s favorite masked Memphis jobber, The Scorpion. Shame his promos weren’t as insane as Jim Hellwig’s verbal tirades. This clips shows a bland challenge to Tony Falk (and also features a photograph of the real Ultimate Warrior to promote the fake):
I have no idea who played him. Some say Jeff Gaylord, but he sounds nothing like him in that interview. However, I do know that he wasn’t the only one ripping off one of the Blade Runners.
In the above clip, The Hornet as portrayed by Ron Oates takes on Danny Shannon. While it looks like the fake Warrior guy put in the seven minutes needed to learn Warrior’s move set Oates on the other hand had a more complex one to learn so he didn’t even bother. I guess his real name is appropriate since he is the John Oates of USWA Blade Runner ripoffs.
Continuing…
Yes, Memphis was just as lazy as the producers of those mockbuster movies in coming up with original names. Anyway, here is the USWA’s undead squash monster of it’s squash machines in you guessed it, a squash match (featuring Nate the Rate and Chris Frazier!):
Memphis didn’t just have ridiculous singles competitors though. The clip below shows, PYT (short for Pretty Young Things) as managed by Christopher Love. The team consisted of Eric Fontane and Randy Rhodes. Randy was basically a clone of Dusty Rhodes, but without anywhere near the talent or charisma. Instead his wrestling ability more closely resembled that of your average gas station attendant.
In the match they destroy Rockin Randy (a non-Rhodes) and the owner of the biggest ass in Memphis (and I’m not talking about donkeys), Freezer Thompson. Unfortunately, there was a PYT tag team predating this power duo that consisted of WWE Hall of Famer Koko B. Ware and Norvell Austin. In the USWA’s defense I’d like to think they originally planned to debut the tag team under the name of another Michael Jackson single, but “The Girl is Mine” wasn’t as catchy for a tag team dressed in frilly outfits. The company did have some sliver of originality because after all they gave us, The Dragon Master:
Like so many horrible gimmick wrestlers he of course went on to have a run with the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship and feuded with Jerry Lawler. The true identity of The Dragon Master is still open for debate, but according to this thread from Kayfabe Memories it was probably some guy named Gary Rich.
With all these horrendous gimmicks it might come as some small comfort that at least Mark Freer was there to keep it gangsta.
Teaming with New Jack as The Homeboy, the white as snow Freer took on the menacing as moths team of The Scorpion and The Shadow. After maxing and relaxing with “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” playing, Christopher Love (now known as Bert Prentice) interferes with USWA World Tag Team Championship holders, Rex King and Steve Doll, the pairing that was Simply Divine. After Prentice and Divine do some boogieing of their own, New Jack and The Homeboy run them off and they all lived happily ever after (well, except the audience).
Categories: Wrestling Clips
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