Mid-South Wrestling (1.12.1985) Review

-Originally aired January 12, 1985.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Joel Watts.

-JR talks to Dr. Death, who has Mr. Helmet with him out of spite. Williams cuts a Patera-caliber promo where he tries to make it sound like getting rid of the helmet was totally his OWN idea, because everyone knows he doesn’t need it, and he’ll prove it today…by winning the North American Title.

-RIP Mr. Helmet.

TIM HORNER & PVT. TERRY DANIELS vs. DALE VEASEY & RICK OLIVER
-Daniels is still wearing the full Marine dress uniform to the ring and honestly, it amazes me that it took the Marines complaining to get him to stop doing it, because the bigger issue is it takes him 15 minutes to remove the full uniform between his intro and the referee calling for the bell.

-Veasey slams Daniels and tags in Oliver. Daniels armdrags him and goes to work on the arm. Oliver pops him one right in the old schnozzola and goes for a suplex, but Daniels blocks and reverses. Horner tags in and before long, we have a donnybrook, and Terry Daniels…LOCKS ON THE COBRA CLUTCH AND WINS! Holy crap! Make a note of this episode!

-We go to Tulsa, Oklahoma on New Year’s Eve. Bill Watts steps in the ring and asks Hacksaw Jim Duggan to come down for a special award. The promoters and the board of directors in Mid-South came together and cast votes for the Mid-South 1984 Athlete of the Year. Duggan is the winner, and Bill presents him with a set of Lucian Picard gold and sapphire cufflinks. Watts jokes about how cufflinks kind of fly in the face of the way Duggan usually dresses and says that they called his parents to tell him their son was going to win the First Annual Bill Watts Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence, and Mama Duggan joked that Mid-South should give him something that’ll force him to dress a little nicer. Duggan is so flattered that he promises that the next time he’s on Mid-South TV, he’ll actually make an effort to dress nice, just as a show of gratitude for the award.

-Next, he calls Bill Dundee to the ring for a special award…but it’s a ruse. It’s actually Joel Watts’ 21st birthday, and Bill Dundee hands him a Supermarket Sweep-sized bottle of champagne. Hacksaw leads the fans in a rendition of “Happy Birthday,” and the royalties were so prohibitively expensive that Bill Watts was forced to sell the company two years later.

-Back to live action, Ted DiBiase is at the commentary table fuming about how Duggan is somehow the Athlete of the Year even though DiBiase whipped his ass on his first day back into the promotion. And Lucian Picard cufflinks for Duggan? Come on! DiBiase is out here in a suit and he deserves a nice pair of cufflinks more than Duggan. He’s a better wrestler AND he has more class. And to prove the point, he wants Duggan to keep his word and show up on TV in a tux next week just so we can all point and laugh at him for how ridiculous he looks.

-Nice added bit here, as DiBiase also wants to complain about Joel Watts’ birthday being treated like some big deal, but JR reminds him about the time that Jim Cornette said nasty things about Joel, and DiBiase IMMEDIATELY changes his tune and wishes Joel a happy birthday.

TV TITLE: TERRY TAYLOR (Champion) vs. SHEIK HERCULES HERNANDEZ (with Skandar Akbar)
-Herc overpowers Taylor with a top wristlock, and then they battle for a hammerlock. Herc tries elbows and has a bit of success with those. Buddy Landell shows up to make trouble, so Taylor yanks him into the ring and starts to lay a beating on him, but Sheik Hercules grabs his keffiyeh from Akbar and chokes Taylor out for the DQ. They gang up on him until Mid-South Wrestling Black Guy of the Week Iceman King Parsons comes out and puts a stop to it. And again, the crowd reaction for Parsons is just SILENCE and it’s instantly clear that he’s not the new JYD either.

ICEMAN KING PARSONS vs. JACK VICTORY
-Parsons throws punches and comes off the second rope with an axehandle, but his aim is off in a way I’ve never seen with this move and he falls short and just BARELY makes contact by stretching out his arms and tapping Victory’s chest, and that’s enough to get the three-count.

-Buddy Landell is back and he wants a match with the Iceman right now.

ICEMAN KING PARSONS vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL
-Parsons chops away at Landell and backdrops him as JR declares that “a lot of soul is exploding.” Clothesline off the second rope wins it in a total squash for Parsons.

JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs. MIKE JACKSON
-Jackson applies a side headlock, but they do a “big man” spot with Jake, of all people, as he carries Jackson over to the top rope and plants him there. Jackson surprises him by leaping off the top rope and Jake heads to the floor for a quick escape. Back in, stomachbreaker by Jake, and he stays with the target, driving knees into the gut and tackling him.

-Another stomachbreaker gets two as Jackson gets a foot on the ropes. Jackson throws punches, but Jake shakes them off, and the DDT finally puts Jackson away.

KAMALA (with Friday & Skandar Akbar) vs. ROCKY KING & GEORGE SOUTH
-Kamala chops at South while King tries a sleeper. Kamala just shakes that off and bearhugs both men simultaneously. Kamala chokes the life out of both men, then knocks King to the floor, and with him out of the way, a splash on South gets the three-count.

NORTH AMERICAN TITLE: BRAND ARMSTRONG (with radiator that has “North American Champion” engraved on it) vs. “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS
-Armstrong gets the upper hand with a waistlock, so Williams breaks out with cheap shots and goes to work on the arm. Armstrong sends him into the ropes, and Williams just shoulderblocks him all the way across the ring for a great visual. Williams goes back to the arm, but Brad uses the free arm to daze him with forearms. Williams is a hoss, though, and he keeps an armbar locked on all the way through the punishment.

-Williams clotheslines Armstrong down for two and Williams is starting to blow his stack about the fact that he can’t just FINISH this thing. Belly-to-belly by Doc gets another two. More near-falls as Dr. Death cannot figure out the missing ingredient here and Armstrong just hangs on for dear life. Williams tries a corner charge but runs into a raised knee. Armstrong with another raised knee…and the bell sounds for TV time!

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Back on track after a sugglish couple of weeks, but the Iceman is a flop in this area.