January 10, 1981 Southeastern Championship Wrestling Television Show Review
By: Karl Stern (@dragonkingkarl, @wiwcool, karl@whenitwascool.com)
Norvell Austin or OCCASIONALLY for no real reason The Shadow.
I continue my series looking at NWA Southeastern Championship Wrestling from 1981 with the second television show of the year. If you missed last weeks episode check it out here.
We join the show in progress and judging by the run-time on YouTube we are missing about 15 to 20 minutes of this show. We pick up with a match between the NWA U.S. Junior champion Jerry Stubbs against Jimmy Golden from a non-title arena match somewhere.
We then get the promo for the upcoming Monday night card at Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama. The NWA World Junior champion Les Thornton will be in town to face Norvell Austin (not under a mask as The Shadow for some reason), Mr. Saito (champion) will face Bob Armstrong for the NWA Alabama title. Then there is a one night tournament for a 1980 Corvette with first round pairings of the Tennessee Stud (Ron Fuller) verses Johnny Valiant, Jimmy Golden verses Jerry Stubbs, Brad Armstrong verses Dennis Condrey, Robert Gibson verses Randy Rose, and Paul Orndorff verses Ron Bass.
Les Thatcher tells us that there will be no NWA Southeastern Wrestling next week on channel 42 out of Birmingham, Alabama but it must have aired everywhere else as there is a January 17th show on YouTube. Les Thatcher then interviews Brad Armstrong and Jimmy Golden and they also go to a remote interview with Ron Bass and Jerry Stubbs. Brad is just starting out and does about a white meat babyface promo as could possibly be done.
Charlie Platt then interviews Johnny Valiant. Johnny Valiant is a terrible promo. They often drift and make no sense. Johnny Valiant apparently did wrestle last week and then turned on Ron Fuller so Valiant is a heel now. He doesn't last more than a few weeks in Southeastern so this might be one of his last appearances. Valiant says he was paid off to turn on Ron Fuller. That may or may not have anything to do with anything as Valiant's promos often go in directions unknown.
The first match we get is Ron Bass against Roy Lee Welch. Roy Lee Welch is, of course, a cousin to Ron Fuller and often worked as an enhancement wrestler in this area up until he got a push as a junior heavyweight in the mid-1980's. Roy Lee Welch takes most of the match until Bass turns the tables on a missed head scissors and power slams him for the pin.
We then get an old video from Mid-South wrestling of an arm wrestling match between Paul Orndorff and Ox Baker. This is to promote Orndorff coming into the area. Orndorff, of course, wins.
Charlie Platt then interviews Ron Bass about facing Paul Orndorff in the first round of the Corvette tournament. Platt then interviews Randy Rose about facing the returning Robert Gibson about the tournament. We then cut back to Les Thatcher who interviews Brad Armstrong about the tournament. Then back to Charlie Platt who interviews Dennis Condrey. Les Thatcher then interviews Jimmy Golden who has Jerry Stubbs in round one. Charlie Platt then interviews Jerry Stubbs.
Then Les Thatcher interviews the NWA Southeastern heavyweight champion Ron Fuller (without his mask as the Tennessee Stud) about facing Johnny Valiant in round one. Valiant says he doesn't need a Corvette because he drives a hot-rod Lincoln.
After a lot of talking we finally get another match. Norvell Austin (again, inexplicably not wrestling as the masked Shadow) verses Oki Shikina. Norvell Austin beats Shikina with a body press.
The tape ends there before we get the main event which I believe was to be the Armstrongs in action. A pretty forgettable episode of NWA Southeastern Wrestling but several things were unfortunately missing from the tape.
January 10, 1981 (Television Show): Hosts Charlie Platt & Les Thatcher: Highlights of Jimmy Golden defeating Jerry Stubbs in a non-title U.S. Junior heavyweight match... Interview with Brad Armstrong & Jimmy Golden and Jerry Stubbs & Ron Bass... Interview with Johnny Valiant... Ron Bass defeated Roy Lee Welch... Video of Paul Orndorff verses Ox Baker in arm wrestling... Ron Bass interview... Randy Rose interview... Brad Armstrong interview... Dennis Condrey interview... Jimmy Golden interview... Jerry Stubbs interview... Ron Fuller interview... Johnny Valiant interview... Norvell Austin defeated Oki Shikina... (Referee: Tommy Weathers)
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