wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Power Pro Wrestling (1.5.1986) Review
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...-Let’s check in with the B-show again. Maybe this week’s matches will be in black and white!
-Originally aired January 5, 1986.
-Your host is Jim Ross.
TV TITLE TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL: HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN (with Debra) vs. DICK SLATER (with Dark Journey)
-Joined in progress from Oklahoma City.
-Duggan misses a kneedrop and Slater hits a JYD-style crawling headbutt. Neckbreaker and a chokehold by Slater. Action goes to the floor, with Duggan taking a hard bump over the barricade and landing among the fans. Wild to see the flying flip Duggan does on this bump. It was just something that you would never see again once he jumped ship.
-Back in the ring, Slater drops a forearm for one. Chinlock applied, but Duggan lets out a loud “Hooooo!” to let us know he’s still in this. Duggan blocks a turnbuckle shot and hulks up. Spear by Duggan, but he’s so groggy that he can’t really take advantage and pin Slater. They both recover and get to their feet. Dark Journey heads up to the apron to pass off a weapon. Debra catches her and gets in a shoving match, while Duggan steals the weapon, knocks Slater cold and gets the three-count. HA! Just kidding, referee Tommy Gilbert spots the weapon after raising Duggan’s hand and reverses the decision, so Dick Slater gets the win by DQ. Boooooooooooooooooooooooo.
TERRY TAYLOR vs. GENTLEMAN CHRIS ADAMS
-Adams offers a gentlemanly handshake but Taylor isn’t buying it.
-They trade side headlocks while Bill Watts spins a legit-sounding yarn about accidentally showing up at Chris Adams’ wedding. Watts actually kind of rationalizes Adams’ heel tactics, noting that you really just need to get ahead in the wrestling business any way you can.
-We return from commercial with Adams clamping on a wristlock as Bill Watts declares this a main event anywhere in the country. The subject of today’s installment of Bill Watts’ Stern Lecture: commercials are necessary to support television shows, so when you have two skilled athletes who are evenly matched, it’s simply necessary to interrupt the action, so stop complaining. It’s only a warning this time but I’m guessing that next week, Bill starts fining fans who complain about commercials.
-Electrifying headscissors by Terry Taylor, as this match is giving Watts so little to talk about that he veers into a history lesson about how ring construction has changed since olden times. Honestly, I feel like Gorilla Monsoon & Bill Watts would have been a fun trainwreck of a commentary team because they would keep getting sidetracked over and over again with conversations about this stuff.
-Adams throws Taylor out to the concrete and the cameramen are having trouble keeping up with it. Back in the ring, Taylor fights back with a dropkick, but the referee gets bumped and Adams goes for an illegal top-rope body press, and Taylor rolls through (meaning that they collide and fall near each other and then Taylor just kinda has to grab onto Taylor while rolling over) as the referee recovers, and Taylor gets a flukey three-count. This was not the greatest match in the career of either participant.
-We get comments from the new North American Champion, Dick Slater. He makes Dark Journey hold the belt for him, which lead to her having to change her name to Dark Jernia.
-Terry Taylor, being pushed as a dashing heartthrob, wears Phil Donahue eyeglass
es while promising to take on top competition like Humungous. Why were glasses in the 1980s so damn big?
-HACKSAW BUTCH REED & JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs. RIC FLAIR & DICK SLATER
-This is like a match you’d have if Mid-South Wrestling released an arcade game.
-Again, Reed tries to wrestle with his neckbrace and it gets knocked off the moment he exhales. Reed cleans house with press slams. Watts seethes because Ric Flair has declared that he’s never coming back to the Mid-South area again, and he thinks it’s ridiculous that the NWA caters to Flair’s mood swings. It’s funny how I’m only like 75% sure Watts is saying this in kayfabe.
-Reed “walks tall” with Flair and tags in Jake. Jake goes for the DDT but Flair grabs a rope to block it. Chops by Flair, but Jake reverses a backslide and Flair panics and tags as soon as he kicks out.
-Back from commercials, the heels are working over Reed in their corner, and Dark Journey runs over to “slander him.” Figure four by Flair, with Dark Journey helping him with leverage. Since the figure four isn’t enough to finish Reed, Slater tags in and piledrives him for two.
-But Reed makes the hot tag and we end up with all four men in the ring. Reed gets knocked out to the floor and the heels try to double-team Jake, but Reed trips Slater from the floor, and Flair falls into a roll-up by Jake for a three-count. Jake Roberts pins the champion, which almost certainly is going to put Jake in the front of the running for an NWA World Title shot if Flair ever does return to the Mid-South area. Unless Jake isn’t there when Flair comes back, but how likely is it that Jake would walk away from an opportunity like this? Pretty formulaic but entertaining.
BRETT WAYNE SAWYER vs. BROADWAY JOE
-Watts explains Brett’s story: He’s a babyface, and he’s Buzz’s brother, and he loves his brother even though he doesn’t support his tactics, and he’s asked Mid-South never to book him against his brother.
-They lock up as Watts boasts that Mid-South has wrestlers of all sizes, not just a bunch of giants in one match after another. Wrestling is more interesting when the card has a variety of athletes, and you GET that with Mid-South.
-Dropkick by Sawyer, suplex and a splash from the second rope gets the win for the new kid.
