Mid-South Wrestling (7.27.1985) Review

-Originally aired July 27, 1985.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Joel Watts.

KAMALA & KAREEM MOHAMMED (with Skandar Akbar) vs. WENDELL COOLEY & FRANK LANE
-So now we’re playing with the spelling of Kareem’s name, just to screw with us. Kareem attacks Cooley as the current deal with this team is that absolutely everything Akbar’s men is called “terrorist tactics” by the commentators.

-Kamala chops away at Cooley. Kareem tags in with a terrorist-style bodyslam. Lane tags in and Kareem stunguns him. Meanwhile, at ringside, Skandar is managing them terrorist-style. Lane gets caught in a fat guy sandwich, and a big splash finishes. Of note is that they do the “Kamala doesn’t know how to pin someone” gag here, which became his entire identity in his 1990s WWF run.

HACKSAW BUTCH REED vs. TOM PRICHARD
-But first, here’s our friend Ted DiBiase. He challenged Terry Taylor to a match three weeks ago and beat him, which SHOULD make him #1 contender for the NWA World Heavyweight Title. And when Ric Flair heard what DiBiase did, he offered DiBiase a bunch of money to stay on his good side, but DiBiase isn’t interested in money, he’s interested in Flair’s TITLE. So he turned down Flair’s money and he’s here to issue a challenge right now to Butch Reed for a one-on-one match, and the winner is the undisputed #1 contender and the loser won’t complain about it. So Reed throws Prichard to the floor to clear the ring, and we have a #1 contenders match…

HACKSAW BUTCH REED vs. TED DIBIASE
-And it’s a fistfight right away, with Butch Reed getting the better end of it and knocking DiBiase so loopy that he falls to the floor. Reed whips him back in, and DiBiase asks for a time-out, then sucker punches Reed to take control.

-Reed fights back and gets DiBiase in a standing side headlock, and he wrenches and wrenches and wrenches away at it, until DiBiase is too dizzy to even stay in the hold and collapses. Reed goes to the mat to reapply the side headlock. DiBiase rolls over and goes for the pin with a handful of tights, but the referee catches it and won’t count the pin. JR, meanwhile, drops an insider scoop on us. After Ric Flair’s last title match against Butch Reed in the Superdome, somebody heard Flair say out loud in the locker room, “I don’t want to wrestle Butch Reed again.” So he’s running scared.

-SOUPBONE! DiBiase goes for a handful of tights and a pin again, and referee Carl Fergie keeps rolling the two guys over every time DiBiase gets caught, so Reed keeps landing on top. Funny moment on commentary as Joel boasts that Mid-South is the ONLY promotion that would bring you this match for free on television, and then he points out that, actually, technically, Mid-South isn’t bringing you this match, because the guys booked it themselves and agreed to the terms.

-DiBiase resorts to choking and fatigue is starting to set in as DiBiase goes to a chinlock. Reed fights out, but DiBiase uses a handful of hair to bring him back to the mat. Reed fights back to his feet and rams DiBiase into the turnbuckle to create separation and dropkicks DiBiase. Double shoulderblock and both men are out.

-DiBiase recovers first and loads the glove while Reed gets back to his feet. Reed ducks the punch and atomic drops DiBiase. Reed drives the hand into the turnbuckle over and over. Backdrop by Reed, and a tackle gets three, clean as a sheet, and Reed is definitely 100% no-arguing the #1 contender. Just a fantastic match. Reed was having the best year of his life in this promotion and DiBiase is a true uncrowned champion, and they had a hell of a TV bout.

COWBOY BILL WATTS & HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. THE BOUNTY HUNTERS
-Watts tries a slam on Bounty Hunter #1 or A or whatever his name is, according to JR, because apparently we’re not even going to bother with names for these guys.

-#1, I guess, shoulderblocks Watts on his ass, and Watts seems surprised at being overpowered. Duggan slips in with a forearm, and helps the Cowboy with a double-backdrop. Duggan drops the knee and rams #1 into a turnbuckle.

-Bounty Hunters try to double-team Duggan, but Duggan spears one, and Watts is WALKING TALL. Duggan hits a spear on the other one and gets the three-count. After the bell, Watts stampedes the other one. I’m thinking they were supposed to do the simultaneous three-count spot, but somebody in there screwed up some part of it.

MIKE GRAHAM vs. DUTCH MANTELL
-Dutch isn’t introduced as TV Champion, which sends me scrambling for info, and apparently, Butch Reed just won the TV Title at a house show a few days ago, negating the premise of a TV Title, and they didn’t mention that when Reed was out here.

-But before the bell sounds, Skandar Akbar shows up, dressed to wrestle, and says he made a mistake hiring two fat slobs to do his dirty work with him. He declares that Mid-South isn’t big enough for himself and Watts and that’s very obvious to everyone here, so he tells Watts to get down here and let’s just end this thing.

COWBOY BILL WATTS vs. SKANDAR AKBAR
-So Watts immediately starts beating the hell out of Akbar. Dutch hits the ring to get some cheap shots, so Graham hits the ring to neutralize that threat. but now Kamala and Kareem show up to help Akbar and shit gets crazy. Watts gets splashed by Kamala and Akbar goes into his tights to prepare a fireball. Graham tries to stop Akbar from getting the paper lit, so Akbar just uses the fireball on him instead and Graham’s face is lit. Meanwhile, various combinations of feuding wrestlers are on the floor and in the aisle, as guys ran to the ring to help their side and then opponents would come to stop them, and it’s chaos as all the various fights have to be broken apart. Watts has injured ribs, and Mike Graham has a burned face.

NON-TITLE: THE NIGHTMARE (with Sir Oliver Humperdink) vs. BRICKHOUSE BROWN
-JR is shocked at the terrorism we witnessed in the last segment.

-Nightmare with a back suplex on Brickhouse. Nightmare drops an elbow and claws away at the face. Dropkick by Brickhouse misses, as Brickhouse just cannot get anything going, and a piledriver by Nightmare gets the win. Surprising and total squash.

STEVE “Dr. Death” WILLIAMS vs. AL PEREZ
-Perez takes Williams to the mat as Ted DiBiase suddenly shows up at ringside to support his partner.

-Series of armdrags by Perez. DiBiase trips him from the floor to give his partner a little bit of help. Elbow by Dr. Death gets two. Slam gets another two. Williams tries a front facelock. Perez comes to life but misses a bodypress. Williams goes for a Stampede, but Perez wriggles free and turns it into a German suplex, and DiBiase runs in to attack Perez before he can get a three-count. Not much to this one.

“Captain Redneck” DICK MURDOCH vs. MARK HAWK
-Grizzly Smith of TV’s Dark Side of the Ring walks into the ring to announce that Dick Murdoch was injured in the fracas earlier, so a substitute opponent will be coming to the ring shortly.

-Oliver Humperdink gives a damn about this for some reason and hits the ring to go off on a tangent about how yellow the man is and how Murdoch can’t back up anything he claims about being a big tough Marine. Mark Ragin comes into the ring to take Murdoch’s place, and Humperdink is still ranting and raving about what a coward Murdoch is for taking the night off because his arm hurts.

-And then the Marine hymn strikes up and Dick Murdoch comes to the ring just to prove a point to Humperdink. Murdoch squashes Hawk using only one hand and pins him in seconds, and Dinkster gets out of there.

-We finish up with a clip of wild incident from Power Pro Wrestling, and we’ll see the full match NEXT WEEK, for proper context.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

This promotion would not allow you to get bored. And I love them for it.