Just one day after former AEW star “The Butcher” Andy Williams passed away, the wrestling world lost another key figure when Bill Dundee passed away at the age of 82. Ten days later, the territory star and former wrestling booker continues to be honored by many of his contemporaries, including AEW announcer Tony Schiavone. Remembering Dundee on “What Happened When,” Schiavone credited Dundee for being one of wrestling’s most intelligent personalities, as well as his booking of Memphis’ Continental Wrestling Association and development of several legendary tag teams.
“He knew so much about wrestling,” Schiavone said. “And he knew what worked and what didn’t. And when I think about the Memphis territory, you obviously think about Jerry Lawler, but you think about Bill Dundee in the same breath, at least I did. And he came up with some great angles and some…and look at that picture [of Lawler and Dundee]. That’s Memphis. That’s Memphis right there buddy. That’s what it’s all about.
“And they were just…Bill brought his intelligence, like you said, developing the Midnight Express with Jim Cornette, developing the Rock N’ Roll Express. And he came up with a lot of the great angles that Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler was in. I may be wrong, but he may have had something to do with the famous angle between Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler, because Bill Dundee worked very close behind the scenes. So a lot of the very legendary things that you saw with Jim Crockett Promotions in the early 80s, mid-80s, came from Bill Dundee. So it’s one of those guys that, obviously, is going to be missed.”
Schiavone and Dundee were briefly co-workers in the 1990s, when Dundee worked as a manager for WCW of future WWE star William Regal, then Steven Regal, under the name Sir William. Schiavone was also connected to Dundee via his son-in-law, the late Bobby Eaton, who was a along time veteran of WCW and Jim Crockett Promotions from the 1980s until 2000.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “What Happened When” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
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