McMemphis: Chapter 15 - Vince Wears the USWA Title

[SaiyajinCMC82]

Wow...Vince's original heel run before an actual heel run in 97/98

[Buckeyecat2002]

Greasy, scary and intimidating.

[sithlord115]

srry torn the smokey mountain wrestling organization tried to invade before wwf becasue randthales was the promoter then and jerry jarret and herry lawler couldnt compete with raw and nitro in 96-97 so they sold it in late 96 ot early 97

[tornmask]

WOW!..the first hostile takeover in Wrestling history! =oO

[gregnice25]

how did this promotion combine with wwf? especially with vince on the show showing a different promotion belt...

[dwlightfoot]

Why couldn't the Mr. McMahon character be more like this...evil almost dangerous!

[jerzeefranky3475]

If they EVER decide 2 EVER re-unify the WWE & WORLD titles...Thesy SHOULD use either a re-issue of that there strap...&/or...The 1 USWA had b4 they decided 2 use this 1...It would OWN ALL...

[biffvonwrinkle]

mr mchmahon in the baby blue old skool suit is just too weird

[RSXemperor]

@SayHI2TheBadGuyMang He also had great bookers over the last 30 years like Ernie Ladd, JJ Dillion, George Scott and Paul Heyman. It also looks like Triple H is going to be running things.

[gjfwang]

nice laugh,he should have kept it.

[gjfwang]

lol, wearing the belt like that.

[FallenReich13]

Sad they did this to ECW years later....many years later.

[ErBoGoHabs]

Holy crap!

How come nowadays we can't have more promos like these instead of having everybody sounding exactly the same on the mic?

If the boss himself can talk that good, why would he accept any less from his employees / scripters ?

[NakedSamauri]

Just letting you know your video got tweeted by Joey Styles!!

[erastus25]

@NakedSamauri Which makes me assume Joey Styles reads Scott Keith's blog...

[TheKenolaBar]

The Mr. McMahon character was pretty much this subtle originally. They didn't start getting over the top and stupid with it until years later.

[oldboy81]

He called the championship a "belt." Current Vince would blow a gasket if he heard that.

[Crusader7077]

If Verne Gagne ever saw that belt around Vince's waist, Verne's dentures would instantly fly at least 20 feet out of his mouth.

[SuperAdventures]

@Crusader7077 LMFAO! I bet he STILL hate's Vince's guts for absolutely plundering his roster throughout the 1980's. He didn't look happy at all during his WWE HoF induction.

[RMilvae]

Were Vince and Lawler doing commentary on WWF together at this time? If so, that's gay.

[simian455]

...I like this evil McMahon more.

[ESome1980]

I wonder where that belt is now..in lawlers house?? or with all of the other old/outdated belts in the wwe offices in stamford?? 

[MrNWA4Life]

@ESome1980

Nope. It's in Dave Millican's house!

[TheManiacOnWheelsUSA]

Why didn't they do a crossover with the WWF? It would have been great for the USWA.

[NikDev5000]

@TheManiacOnWheelsUSA They did... sort of. During the ECW invasion angle, a lot of Memphis guys like Brian Christopher were brought in as representatives of the USWA because Vince didn't want the ECW guys going over his midcarders. They also acknowledged the USWA when they'd run shows in the Memphis territory to explain to WWF fans why Lawler was getting cheered despite using blatant heel tactics.

[Patrickdraven]

It was Tatanka who earned the title. He should be wearing that belt not Vince.

[rick187053]

the mr mcmahon character was born

[halleberrybabydaddy]

I have so many mixed emotions about Vince. He put the territories out of business, he watered down WWE with the PG rating, bought WCW, turned his back on pro wrestling and its fans by calling it "sports entertainment",pushing John Cena. But the man is an awesome fucking heel!

[RSXemperor]

@halleberrybabydaddy I do too but I can't deny that when the WWF product was great, it was great. The Bret Hart period, 2000 WWF, 1997 with the USA vs Canada feud and numerous great matches.

[RTF666]

Wow...Vince said "belt"...a no-no in today's WWE.

[suicidegothkid56]

god he is frightening he is the devil, lol wow i would love to seen Jerry Lawler vs Vince McMahon

[dillkidisback]

Wow, MR. McMahon in 1993 XD

[dondonisio]

Isn't that the old AWA title?

[MrNWA4Life]

@dondonisio

That's the old AWA World Belt. Lawler kept it it when Verne didn't pay him for SuperClash 3. Lawler had Reggie Parks make a Unified belt, but Eddie The Snowman Crawford walked off with it rather then drop it back to Lawler, so the AWA belt made it's return. It's now owned by Dave Millican.

[okrabay]

What made this angle so real was that most fans in the Memphis area really hated Vince for destroying the local promotions.

So their hate for him was real and the character he played was mostly real too.

[maxpower789z]

Truly one of the best heels (in and out of the ring) in history!

[anakincane]

His laugh sounds like Emperor Palpatine...

[piper727]

@anakincane kind of sounds like a cross between Joker's tape-recorded laugh after falling to his death in Batman 89 and the green creature that carries away the dead bodies in the C64 game "Barbarian". Such an evil laugh! ;)

[OtorresFitness]

Pre Attitude era Vince McMahon. Gotta love it!

[Chicagobillw]

the title is actually a version of the AWA world title.

[Neiler187]

Most epic heel laugh since Ted Dibiase!

[mistasmif31]

i'm sure that made verne gagne stomach turn to see vince with the awa belt around his waist

[MrNWA4Life]

@mistasmif31

Well if Verne had paid Lawler for SuperClash 3, he would have got the belt back.

[jaroncreed]

with every passing video he's becoming less babyface bad McMahon and more Heel Mr.McMahon

[brunorubio]

He looks like Reagan. I like that he's cutting loose, like he was never allowed to n his own show. And then things got crazy.

[supremeDestro]

that laugh at the end is creepy as fuck.

[wtcvidman]

It sounds a lot like the laugh coming out of the recorder the police pull out of the Joker's pocket after he falls off the cathedral in Batman (1989).

[manzi71]

Fuck,this Mr McMahon was better than the WWF Attitude Mr McMahon!

[supremeDestro]

i agree

[cattants]

The Mcmahon charactor way before its time...

[blasto1979]

Wow, it's amazing to see this stuff for the first time. I guess this is where, "Mr. McMahon" sowed his heel oats, and then a few years later used it in WWF.

[barbarash]

Thats the AWA belt..

[Patrickhollywood]

True, Lawler won it from Curt Hennig and never lost it cause Verne Gagne didn't pay him 4 Super Clash III so he kept tha belt and it became their belt in the USWA.

[phobos271]

Yes at one time it was but Jerry used it as the USWA title after his Unified belt was taken by the Snowman.

[PeterBluth]

Well, then, if you're a busy man then you know the only way to survive in that world is to flatten your competition.

[terryfink]

lmao at that laugfh

[quickhick]

That's a pretty righteous evil laugh he's got going on there. I'd almost say it puts Dibiase to shame.

[SunshineQP]

Jerry gave Vince his first taste of being a bad guy

[FlyswatterOne]

WOW...a glimpse into the future. What would become, Mr. McMahon

[MelancoliaI]

Eerie. Talk about foreshadowing.

[elmuhfuh]

white trash? 16 is the age of consent in most states. i dont think 40 something man and a 17 year old girl is normal, but its far from pedophilia. which is the term you used to describe it. ill restate. you said "aged 17-23" and you used the word "pedophile". there is no argument. i simply want you to admit that you are a sensationalist who chose the wrong word. i hate wrestling, i hate lawler and i hate idiots who take perversion out of the word pedophile by implying its sex with a 17 yr old.

[elmuhfuh]

marks?

yes it is slander. since the accusations were recanted and there was never an arrest or conviction (learn to use alleged). im not going to defend a man and whether or not he did something i dont know. however, what i do know is that you said "aged 17-23" and you used the word "pedophile". you have to be an absolute idiot if you think someone is a pedophile if they are doing anything with women aged 17-23. in the majority of states the legal age of consent is 16.

[3089280288]

I didn't follow WWF in the early 90's so I must have missed all of these takeovers of the smaller promotions. Most of the time I don't know where these show wrestlers came from.

[elmuhfuh]

17-23? a pedophile? you people amaze me.

pedophile = has or desires sex with prepubescent children.

ephebophile = has or desires sex with postpubescent teen.

law abiding citizen = has or desires sex with women aged 17-23.

maybe you dont like the guy, but you shouldnt slander him. the reason i didnt say please was because i figured it was some exaggeration or lie.

[SunshineQP]

its true its true Vince toke the wcw brand and ecw brand and toke a crap on it, ecw isnt even close to what it use to be and Taz just sits his out of shape ass there and let it spoil to hell in wwe guys are handed the belt who hasnt even been there a year and that should be a disrespect to other wrestlers, BastiCenasucks

[FlyswatterOne]

maybe get some spell check too...its TOOK not TOKE.

[SunshineQP]

i spell pretty good not to be from america and YOU can spell DEZ NUTS  asswatterone

[BOX5]

shut up mark stop fucc'n crying like a big as hicc baby yell

[SunshineQP]

mark dez nuts you retard you are just young and dont know wrestling history and i bet you think Batista is a great wrestler and Andy and Jerry Lawler were friends

[lockenjr]

how would roddy have done in memphis in the 80[s

[SunshineQP]

that would be a good fight jerry and roddy piper

[wtcvidman]

They had a match at King of the Ring '94. I would love if it there was a match in USWA, but I'm pretty sure Piper was fully out of wrestling until 1994 when he returned at KOTR.

[elmuhfuh]

would be pedophile jerry lawler? explain this statement.

[SunshineQP]

Jerry The King Lawler A Legend But Vince and the wwe wont tell you how many wcw and wwe wrestlers have came to Memphis and lost against Jerry and there is a long list Hogan,Undertaker,Ric Flair,Terry Funk ,yes Jerry was Hardcore also ask Mick Foley

[elmuhfuh]

me and my friend were just discussing this. youre exactly right. memphis was a big wrestling scene then too.

[BOX5]

it's a fucc'n work mark!!, why should they tell you that, damn you must be from memphis,and if so andy and honky was right about your marks down there yell

[BrightWave]

Heel Vince in '93. Hilariously fitting.

[HeyArnoldsspleen]

Jealous mark.

[PeterSmeter]

1998 Vince in 1993 LMAO

[crazy1355]

Thats the AWA belt. Vergne Gagne must of had a shit fit!!!

[MrNWA4Life]

@crazy1355

Not hardly, Gagne was out of the wrestling business by then. But, seing the belt Lawler kept, around McMahon's waist, would make me wonder.

[AmericanDragonfan]

wow i never seen this! this is pre MR Mcmahon, thanks!

[wwedude1987]

Wow! The Mr. Mcmahon character YEARS before its time. The birth of "evil" Mr. McMahon primarily started around '98 during the attitude era, but that promo was like a lost footage of the Mr. Mcmahon character. VERY COOL!

[Lfdjake91]

Vince is really getting into his Mr.McMahon character here.

[H83tr3d]

The birth of the "evil" Mr.McMahon!

[Patrickhollywood]

WOW, This is awesome I had no idea this shit existed

[miggy25]

wow i never knew this even existed!...i'm fron the NYC area and we didn't get many USWA telecasts and i had no idea Vince had the invasion angle and the Mr. Mcmahon character working back then....very eerie and cool promo!

[Freebleeper]

At :53, I can hear the crowd pop in my head!

[MarvinYoureNaked]

I like Vince's slivit waist.

[JCPviii]

Vince eats this sh*t up. He lives for the performance.

[chrisrodney79]

Great interview. Awesome.

[dbostick82]

Look, it's heel Vince circa 1993!

[kevinhardy]

sweet promo

[Freebleeper]

WOW! Vince doing the "Mr. McMahon" gimmick!! and having the USWA title before the WWE and ECW title!

[kdbarbaro]

Yeah. It was nice to see a little "foreshadowing" of the "Mr. McMahon" character that would ultimately debut against Steve Austin a few years later and would become arguably the greatest angle/fued in WWE history!

[Truthguy2121]

wow.Nice guy vince of the early 90s as evil Mr Mcmahon of these days? Quality promo!

[B44501xRacerEX]

That was awesome! Vince in USWA I had no idea.

[bubbaali021]

that is the old awa world title belt

[BIGCHILL3993]

Geez Memphis even polished Vince!!!

[antiembishop07]

damn

[BLaSt911]

What the fuck?

Vince doing the Mr McMahon character YEARS before it was actually BORN?

I never knew this. I NEVER knew he appeared cocky on television during his early RAW days, not even on USWA.

[robertmilvae]

This happened every monday.lawler would lose the belt on monday and win it back the next.so stupid.hes like a 35 time uswa champ.i'm actually serious.

[jerichofanforlife]

Yeah I hheard jerry lawler is a uswa champion more times than ric flair..lol. jerry lawler won the uswa title like..28..or 29 times?

[diakr0n]

Lawler held the Memphis territory's main title (be it NWA/AWA Southern, CWA World, USWA Unified) 120+ times. It helps to own the company.

[MrNWA4Life]

@diakr0n

Actually, Jerry Jarrett owned the company. Lawler was just it's biggest star.

[phi1166]

so this is where vince honed his craft as the evil mr. mcmahon character

[Unstoppable911]

Vince MCmahon is Gay COCK SUCKER

[ukvol]

Of course, Vince would call it the "United Championship." No way the head of the WWF would recognize a regional promotion's title as a "Unified World Title."

[RoderickStrong]

It's because it was not a "world" title. How can it be a "World" title when it was not defended all over the world?

[ukvol]

I agree with you. It was just funny to hear Vince say it.

[linkmand]

wrong it was a world title, it was the AWA World Title and it WAS defended all over the world. when Vince bought out just about all the other companies, it was classified as A World Title. it was the unified title because it was unified with the AWA and USWA.

[MrNWA4Life]

@linkmand

There's one problem here, the unification was between the AWA & World Class titles. World Class would change their name within a few months after Jerry Jarrett bought the promotion (but not the World Class name). The unification fell apart when Lawler quit working for Gagne after not getting paid for SuperClash 3 and Lawler was stripped of the AWA World Title. So Lawler was left with the World Class Title, which became nothing more then a title defended only in Memphis.

[AmericanNohbuddy]

@MrNWA4Life

Which is weird because right there that belt is the AWA title belt.

[MrNWA4Life]

@AmericanNohbuddy

It only represented the AWA World tile from 1986-89. It represented the USWA "Unified" title a lot longer, from 1990 until the promotion closed in 1997. I've actually seen the belt in person.

[AmericanNohbuddy]

@MrNWA4Life

When Larry Zybszko had it it was that very title design though when the promotion closed in '90

[MrNWA4Life]

@AmericanNohbuddy

Zbyszko's belt was different. It had a lot more added pieces as well as a logo plate and a tip at the end. This belt that Lawler kept only had the text plate and top piece as added pieces. Zbyszko's had the text plate, top piece, the leaf, and the eagles on the sideplates all added. Reggie Parks found the eagles at a flea market and thought they'd look good on a belt. Because of those eagles, Zbyszko's belt is impossible to make an accurate copy.

[AmericanNohbuddy]

@MrNWA4Life

Oh I know that Lawler kept the belt and they had to get another obviously. It's just it's the same basic design. Reminds me of when ECW had their TV title belt that was basically the winged eagle and their tag belts were that famous IC belt design.

[ShaneMullaney]

Well the WWE Title isn't defended all over the world either

[bubbaali021]

it been defended in canada so it's a world title

[bossking257]

rare. i thought he started this in 97 but he's been doing this since 93?!?! thanks for the upload

[y2jbrock]

thxxxxxxxx

[SuperBrian92]

THis is super rare

thanks for posting

[TrueAgendaSetter]

It's sort of funny how Vince mispronounces "svelte."

[sergrod1]

wow, this is special. thx 4 posting. true classic and never shown in the other us countries. he was "mr mcmahon before it's time

[boelefeld]

When Vince is laughing at the end of this promo he definitively looks like Satan himself AWESOME

[KIKE4762]

I wish theyd start that all wrestling channel so we could watch classic shit like this!

[HCWgm]

yeah my dad said back in the day USWA,Mid-South,and Memphis was all you could get down here until like somewhere in th 80's or 70's

[linkmand]

sorry you wont get this kinda stuff Vince would rather you pay for his WWE then let you get it cheaper on an all wrestling channel, simply becaause that would be admitting there was wrestling out there and not fn Sports Intercrapment.

[Lfdjake91]

Wow, bitter much?

[noktiis]

This is fucking awesome

[BrightWave]

Awesome. Those are signs of a the future Mr. McMahon character

[endofthelinejoel]

Excellent! YouTube is a godsend for these fan-submitted VHS conversions of rare pro wrestling footage. Footage that will never see the light of day.

Thanks again.

[Dave82481]

he messed up and called it the united championship lol it was the unified championship

[jordanryhme]

VINCE WAS BETTER HEEL BACK THEN

[HueyLewisandtheNuge]

Extra points for wearing the WWF blazer. Such a shame that the baby blue blazer was not as institutionalized as the ABC "Wide World of Sports" Mustard-yellow blazer for the WWF announcing cognoscenti.

[johnnyafairbanks]

Only Vince wore the blue blazer; Mean Gene Okerlund, Sean Mooney (who already left the WWF by mid-'93 for legit jobs in news), and the late Lord Alfred Hayes all had on black jackets with the WWF logo emblazoned on them.

[TheRealMooke]

the bebgining of the emergence of....Mr. McMahon.

[FilmMan5000]

My God, thank you for posting this!! I knew Jerry Lawler was always the top face in the USWA but I had no idea that most of the WWF/E guys came down and played heels. Much less Vince McMahon. It's like you said, it was taboo for McMahon to mention other companies at that time. Very cool and interestng.

[BLaSt911]

Right.

Almost a role reversal since Lawler was a heel in WWF at this time, too.

[elway0798]

Dude thx for uploading all this. I can't stop watching and were about to get to Randy Savage!!!!  OOOOOOOHHHH!!! YYYEEEEEEEAAAHHHH!!!!

[WWEFanatic2007]

That wouldn't be the last piece of gold Vince would have around his waist as a former WWF and ECW Champion that he later became. His delivery here is great but I still love the over the top "YOUR FIREEEEEEEED!" Mr. McMahon as well.

[Koolazzmike]

according to the "Legacy of the AWA" DVD, Verne Gagne never paid Lawler for SuperClash III, so he kept the belt.

[Koolazzmike]

Yes it was.

[HBK367]

wow great cause he is just playing him the way people thought he waqs in the 80s  trying to destroy teritories.

[uncletomthall]

Wow, I've never seen any of this before. Vince was great here...maybe even better than Mr. McMahon in the WWF/E.

[GhettoAttitude]

A preview of Mr. McMahon five years earlier.