Lance Russell and Dave Brown were the television commentators and hosts for the Memphis territory, including the Continental Wrestling Association.

The professional wrestling territory[2] commonly referred to as the “Memphis Area” was originally part of the NWA Mid-America promotion that was founded in the 1940s.

Such teams as The Von Brauners, The Interns, The Infernos, The Bounty Hunters, Tojo Yamamoto and Jerry Jarrett, Don and Al Green, Bobby Hart and Lorenzo Parente, The Fabulous Kangaroos, Jerry Lawler and Jim White, The Fabulous Fargos, and a host of other teams were regulars.

Jerry Jarrett was in charge of Memphis, Louisville, Lexington and Evansville while still part of NWA Mid-America, while Nick Gulas, who had been the primary booker, continued to promote the other half of the territory.

Jarrett decided to break away by starting competing cards at the Cook Convention Center in March 1977.

Gulas, who lived in Nashville, eventually made "Music City" his home base, running weekly cards at the Fairgrounds and all over mid-Tennessee.

Jarrett, however, was backed by Jerry Lawler, who had just toppled Jackie Fargo as the headliner of the Memphis area.

The cornerstone of the CWA was the weekly Monday night shows from the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, where the cards regularly drew full houses.

These shows showcased a series of wrestlers as they made their way through the Memphis territory including Hulk Hogan, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Jack Brisco, and Ric Flair.

Included in this list were The Iron Sheik, The Dream Machine, The Nightmares, Eddie Gilbert, Ken Patera, Jesse Ventura, Hulk Hogan, Bugsy McGraw, Kevin Sullivan, Bobby Eaton, "Killer Tim Brooks", and Paul Ellering.

The federation also aired live Saturday-morning wrestling cards from the studios of WMC-TV in Memphis, hosted by Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

Throughout the late 1970s, the 1980s and into the early 1990s, Jerry Lawler also engaged in feuds with Dutch Mantell, Robert Fuller, The Mongolian Stomper, Bruiser Brody, Jimmy Valiant, Austin Idol, Rocky Johnson, Tommy Rich, Randy Savage, Rick Rude, and Bill Dundee among others.

The fans loved every second of it, watching the local star defend the sport against the arrogant actor from Hollywood.

During the inevitable Lawler/Kaufman match, Lawler executed two Piledrivers (a move that was "banned" in Memphis) after which Kaufman was carried out of the arena on a stretcher (kayfabe).

Several weeks later, Kaufman returned to the Mid-South Coliseum wearing a neck brace, vowing to get even with Lawler.

The antics of Lawler and Kaufman made the NBC network executives uneasy, believing that the hatred between the two was real and that mayhem could break out at any time.

Although officials at St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography "It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes," Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet.

On the night of the match, manager Jimmy Hart showed up in Bockwinkel's corner, face bandaged after being beaten up by Lawler in December.

Near the end of the match, Jimmy Hart showed up revealing the bandaged man to be Andy Kaufman.

On May 9, 1988 in Memphis, Lawler took on the reigning AWA World Champion Curt Hennig and won the title.

In retaliation, Lawler kept the physical AWA World Heavyweight championship belt for not getting his payoff for SuperClash III.

[3] Dundee lost this match, but the week after promised to beat Lawler for the title or else he would shave his wife's head.

[1][3][4] That is roughly an average of 8,500 people coming to watch wrestling every Monday night at the Mid-south Coliseum.