a few weeks ago we started out venture into the bizarro world era of pro wrestling known as “McMemphis” where Vince McMahon and the WWF (at the time) “invaded” Jerry Lawler’s Memphis promotion USWA.

The USWA was in the process of becoming a “feeder territory” to the WWF – that is, a place where wrestlers would go while they were honing their skills and the creative team were preparing something for them to be / do on WWF TV.

Jerry Lawler was just starting to become a fixture on WWF TV in the commentary booth, working as a heel / villain in preparation for an in-ring debut later in the year. We all saw how that went, and it was good fun, but what was even more fun was how this partnership was portrayed on the USWA TV show.

See, Lawler had for years been known as “the king of memphis” – something that extended beyond his wrestling persona, and it was almost impossible to get the fans to turn on him. Which they would have had to do to align what the USWA was doing with what WWF was. So they didn’t.

Vince McMahon and his merry band of global TV superstars, rocked up to show dominance over the little “mom and pop” territory. We got the first glimpse of something that would once again rear its head about 3-4 years later, when the “friendly enthusiastic commentator” showed up as the evil bastard megacorp owner. Lots of fun and unexpected developments throughout this year – and the infiltration starts to be come a little more apparent in the USWA programming from february which we’re visiting today from about 11:30