What I love about Memphis Wrestling is that, for all it's inherent goofiness (The tag team of Frankenstein and Leatherface...) it always made sense.
Bill Dundee was one half of the Southern Heavyweight Tag Champs with Wildfire Tommy Rich. As Lance Russell explains, Tommy couldn't be there because he's 'stuck in Nebraska due to contract issues' so Dundee is left to fend for himself as Jimmy Hart isn't going to let this opportunity slip away.
Dundee is a tiny Australian guy with a short temper and so he's not going to turn down a fight. I'm pretty sure Tojo's heyday was the 60's and 70's, or at the very least he moves like it was. Wayne Ferris shows all the early signs that he would be the Honky Tonk Man - namely not being particularly good at anything wrestling related.
The story of the match is that Dundee doesn't have to beat them, he just has to survive the 30 minutes to keep his tag belts. A lot of the beginning is Wayne Ferris not really improvising well with Dundee's carny drop toe holds and wrist locks. The moment Tojo comes in and strikes his karate pose the ref is quick to tell him that there will be NO Martial Arts in this match.
This was, of course, the 80's when martial arts were capable of killing people in short order. It'll just be plain old closed fist punches in this match, thank you very much.
At about the 8 minute mark, Dundee starts to recognize that fighting 2 men takes it out of you and he starts biding his time, including working the count to 9, quickly sliding under the bottom rope and back out again. It's a tribute to the connection guys like Dundee had with the fans that he had the fans ecstatic at these lulls in action, which included him taking a seat with the studio crowd.
Dundee seems to have things in hand before the future Honky Tonk Man busts him open with a chain. As noted, Australians have ridiculously fragile tempers and he goes nuts swinging away at both men. In the ruckus, Tojo tosses some salt in his eyes, rolls him up and we've got new Southern Tag Team Champions.
It begs the question, is it that we have to perceive our heroes as being supermen now? Is that why Triple H beats up regular tag teams with relative ease? Dundee couldn't be any more popular here, and it's not because he picked up people over his head, or fought off 10 guys, it's because he was human. That's a fairly simple concept. There aren't a lot of stories that go "He was the greatest guy ever and he never lost, the end."
Anyway, I loved the story of this match and I love that Martial Arts are deadly.
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