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Mid-South Wrestling (1.1.1983) Review

September 7, 2019 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Mid-South Wrestling 1-1-1983 Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
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Mid-South Wrestling (1.1.1983) Review  

-Originally aired January 1, 1983.

-Your host is Bill Watts, and as they did last year, Mid-South is taking this week off and giving us a best-of show.

-And we start off with the Kamala introductory vignette. Less really is more sometimes, and this really is one of the all-time great “first looks” ever in wrestling. It’s this big terrifying mofo with a totally different look, staring at the Kamala while a voiceover guy describes him. They didn’t need to do more.

-Next we go to a six-man tag match from Houston, and (copy-paste) it’s a bitchin’ six-man tag: Andre the Giant, JYD, and Mil Mascaras vs. Killer Khan, Gino Hernandez, and Tully Blanchard. So, of all people ANDRE is the face-in-peril, as his ankle injury in the WWF was touched on in the build for this match, and the heels are just relentlessly going after his leg so hard that you can almost hear Andre yelling “My leg!” like a gag on “Spongebob Squarepants.” But a hot tag by Mil Mascaras saves the day, a pier sixer breaks out, and in the middle of it, Mil Mascaras gets the pin. And if you think that’s something, Mil Mascaras will be in the Superdome on Thanksgiving night.

-An AWESOME angle from another Houston house show. Referee’s been bumped during a match between Mil Mascaras and Gino Hernandez. Mascaras connects with a bodypress to go for the pin and a fan runs in from the crowd to count the pin. Mil hears a hand hit the mat three times, so he gets up to celebrate, and then the “fan” removes his hat and wig and IT’S TULLY BLANCHARD! Tully knocks Mascaras out with brass knuckles, and the referee revives to give Gino the three-count.

-Next, Bill Watts welcomes all the kids who are visiting the Irish McNeil’s Boys Club today because it’s on the state fairgrounds and the fair is going on this time of year. Bill Watts notes that there’s a nutty fan wearing a gorilla costume there, presumably to promote the live gorillas appearing at another attraction in the fair.

-And so that takes us to JYD and Mr. Olympia defending the tag team titles against Ted DiBiase and Matt Borne, and the loser of the fall must leave Mid-South. “WHAT’S THAT GORILLA DOING???” And JYD is suddenly out of a job.

-The following week, a scrawny jobber shows up for a Ted DiBiase squash match and unfurls a banner saying “S. Lee is Stagger Lee,” which brings out a very familiar masked man, who hands DiBiase his own ass.

-Next, another great angle, as Hacksaw Duggan plays the arrogant high school jock shtick for all it’s worth by strolling out and challenging pretty boy Tony Atlas to a push-up contest. So of course Duggan totally blows himself up in a contest that he insisted on having. It turns into a brawl and Duggan ends up a bloody mess, and Atlas beats two jobbers as a bonus. But some chicanery from DiBiase and Borne prevent Atlas from actually beating Duggan and winning the Louisiana Title.

-Onward to the saga of Mr. Wrestling II and his mystery stalker. II confronts prime suspect Skandar Akbar, who has trained Kamala to rip masks of people. Akbar very clearly denies having anything to do with it. II doesn’t believe him and starts laying waste to Akbar until Kamala lays him out and comes off the top with a deadly splash. That injury requires a last-minute substitution in a Tag Team Title Loser Leaves Town match, and Mr. Olympia has to take 90 days off.

-Off to Houston for the aftermath of a bloody brawl between Tully Blanchard and Mr. Wrestling II. II is disqualified for manhandling the referee but wins the war, just kicking the hell out of Tully and booting him out to the floor after the bell.

-Staying in Houston for a six-man tag bout. Stagger Lee, Tony Atlas, and Chavo Guerrero vs. all three members of the Rat Pack, 2 out of 3 falls. Gino Hernandez shows up with a folding chair and takes out the faces, but the referee catches it and awards the fall to the faces. Problem: Chavo is in no condition to finish the match, so they take him to the locker room for medical assistance and Paul Boesch allows the faces to recruit a substitute from the locker room.

-They return to the ring with Mr. Wrestling II. We get about four minutes of the second fall until Bill Watts cuts it off and says that unfortunately, they had issues with the video feed AND the audio feed in their production truck, and DiBiase is irate about it because he maintains that something strange happened in the third fall and that Stagger Lee’s mask came off, but Bill Watts smirks at the camera and says that there’s no way to prove that now due to the technical problems. Tune in next week!

8.0
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
A really entertaining greatest-hits hour, although they did the same odd thing they did last year where the highlights were predominantly from the past two months
legend

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Mid-South Wrestling, Adam Nedeff