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Mid-South Wrestling (1.11.1986) Review

April 7, 2023 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Butch Reed Mid-South Wrestling 9-28-84 Image Credit: WWE
6.5
The 411 Rating
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Mid-South Wrestling (1.11.1986) Review  

-We get a Crockett-style cold open this week, with clips of last week’s Duggan/Slater match from the TV Title tournament.

-Originally aired January 11, 1986.

-Your hosts are Bill Watts and Joel Watts. Bill touts that Mid-South will be expanding to other TV markets in the near future because of the demand from fans around the country who want to see quality wrestling. Also, Dick Murdoch is back from his 45-day suspension.

-We take another look at the controversial ending of last week’s semi-final, with Dick Slater getting a tainted DQ win over Jim Duggan.

-Jim Ross is in the ring with the NEWWWWWWW Tag Team Champions, Ted DiBiase & Steve Williams. His career-threatening injury was an eye-opener, and he realizes after three years of chasing money that it didn’t mean anything if he didn’t have his health. So DiBiase pledges, you heard it here first, that he will never allow the pursuit of money to drive his career again. He’s also stunned that there were fans who actually gave a damn about his injury after all the rotten stuff he’s done, and he pledges that if the fans will support him, he’ll never let them down.

-Also, Jim Ross explains an incident that made the local news in Louisiana, where Williams happened upon the scene of a fiery car wreck and he ripped a door off the hinges to save some lives. I gotta say, after all my complaining about his fuzzy tweener run…that’s a pretty good way of turning face, Doc.

TED DIBIASE & “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS (Tag Team Champions) vs. J.R. HOGG & SHAUN O’REILLY

-O’Reilly tries to work Williams’ arm, but Williams is like “Nah” and steamrolls him with a shoulderblock. DiBiase tags in, wearing black tights, boots, and kneepads, and with the beard and blonde highlights, it really does look like a bizarro-universe WWF match with the Million Dollar Man as a face.

-Hogg tags in and gets worked over while Bill Watts goes into detail about the car accident, and you can just feel what a made man Steve Williams became in this promotion. One month ago, he’s awkwardly adrift while his partner is recovering, the next he’s INSTANTLY top-shelf babyface.

-So the jobbers keep having a bad night, and DiBiase finishes O’Reilly with a figure four, getting a huge pop from the fans.

“Mad Dog” BUZZ SAWYER vs. PERCY JACKSON

-Buzz has Brody-style fur boots now.

-Sawyer beats on Jackson, who won’t go through the ropes and take a concrete bump when Sawyer tries to make him. Powerslam by Sawyer finishes seconds later.

-Jim Ross talks to Dick Murdoch and the Masked Superstar. Superstar has been traveling around the world but somebody finally clued him in that the REAL competition is in Mid-South. He’s here to clean the trash out of the bottom of the Mid-South barrel as a favor to his good friend Dick Murdoch.

DICK MURDOCH & MASKED SUPERSTAR vs. TOMMY WRIGHT & STEVE DOLL

-Heels attack before the bell. Neckbreaker by the Superstar, but he refuses to pin because he wants to make a point. HE ASKS NO QUARTER AND GIVES NONE, so there’s Bill’s seal of approval on the new guy.

-Brainbuster by Murdoch gets three.

TERRY TAYLOR vs. THE NIGHTMARE (with Sir Oliver Humperdink)

-Taylor is a house of fire to start as Bill Watts excitedly mentions all the TV markets that are now carrying the syndicated Mid-South show, including TV stations in Atlanta, Dallas, and Memphis. Turn up the volume and you can hear Vince McMahon chuckling and counting his money as Watts excitedly makes the point that he’s not confining the company to a territory anymore.

-Taylor and Nightmare slug it out, but Taylor knocks him loopy with a five-arm and gets the win.

MATCH FOR THE SERVICES OF DARK JOURNEY: HACKSAW BUTCH REED (North American Champion) vs. DICK SLATER (with Dark Journey)
-But before we get started, Slater makes the kind-of-obvious point that it’s bullshit that the champion won’t put his belt on the line for a match where his opponent is putting an actual human being on the line, so Reed agrees to put the belt up for grabs, and Grizzley Smith, who’s mystified by the interest both men are showing in a woman who has to be at LEAST in her early 20s by now, agrees and sanctions the revised stipulations.

NORTH AMERICAN TITLE VS. THE SERVICES OF DARK JOURNEY: HACKSAW BUTCH REED (Champion) vs. DICK SLATER (with Dark Journey)
-Reed lays a beating on Slater right away as Watts declares the champ to be DOUBLE-TOUGH.

-Reed drops an elbow as Watts proclaims him to be WALKING TALL, right as Slater comes to life with an elbow to the head. Also, Bill Watts declares that Ric Flair is now refusing to wrestle matches for Mid-South Wrestling because Reed beat his ass so badly in a series of recent matches, so I guess that just goes to show that Flair isn’t a real champion and he can suck on it.

-Slater goes for a figure four, but Reed throws a SOUPBONE. It’s like Watts had a cliche clog and somebody poured Dran-o in him. The fight goes to the floor and before long, both men are back in the ring and dazed.

-Figure four locked on by Slater, but Reed reverses it. Hold gets broken. They trade roll-ups, and Slater gets a handful of tights and appears to get a three-count, but nope, the referee caught it RIGHT as he counted three, so he won’t call for the bell. Reed goes for a corner charge and misses. Referee gets bumped. Dark Journey passes a shoe into the ring, and Slater loads it with something and cracks Reed across the head, knocking him out as the referee recovers. Slater gets the three-count, wins the North American Title, and preserves the 14th Amendment. Good match but I still just hate every bit of this storyline.

AL PEREZ & BRETT WAYNE SAWYER vs. BROADWAY JOE MALCOLM & GUSTAVO MENDOZA

-Mendoza is wearing a shirt with “Nuclear Weapons” across it, like Ben Garrison is booking for this promotion now.

-Faces work Mendoza’s arm while Bill Watts lays out the complications of what’s just happened. Butch Reed vacated the TV Title because he couldn’t hold it and the North American Title simultaneously, which is why we’re having this tournament. And now, before the tournament has been settled, Reed has already lost the North American Title, and the new North American Champion, Slater, is in the finals of the TV Title Tournament. Yay, we get to have a tournament all over again! Vacant is on his way to having an epic Sammartino-like run with the TV Title.

-Powerslam/splash combo by the faces get the three-count.

6.5
The final score: review Average
The 411
Good main event and overall a quality hour, but the TV Title silliness and Dark Journey as property stuff just needs to be DONE.
legend

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Mid-South Wrestling, Adam Nedeff