Mid-South Wrestling (1.25.1986) Review

-Originally aired January 25, 1986.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross & Joel Watts.

-This is the point where the promotion is rapidly expanding and airing in new markets, and they actually do something pretty brilliant: the entire first segment is just dedicated to getting you up to speed. Joel Watts narrates a video explaining that Dick Slater is the North American Champion, Jake Roberts is the TV Champion, and there are some guys named Terry Taylor, Buzz Sawyer, Dick Murdoch, Ted DiBiase, and Steve Williams. Also, here’s some footage of Butch Reed taking the L against Dick Murdoch and Buzz Sawyer, so we can go ahead and forget his name, I suppose.

-Jim Ross is in the ring with Dick Murdoch & Masked Superstar. Dick Murdoch makes it EMPHATICALLY clear that Butch Reed is gone from the promotion and we’re never going to see him again. Murdoch issues a challenge to Ted DiBiase to meet him one on one, without Steve Williams present, and he pledges that Masked Superstar won’t enter the building if DiBiase honors that promise.

-Next, we talk to Terry Taylor, who says he’s back because he wants that North American Title back in 1986. We get a Terry Taylor music video to “When the Going Gets Tough” by Billy Ocean, one week after the WWF aired a music video set to that same song. SHOTS. FIRED.

TAG TEAM TITLES: TED DIBIASE & “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS (Champions) vs. EDDIE GILBERT & THE NIGHTMARE (with Oliver Humperdink)
-Champs wear OU jerseys to the ring. Okay, Boomers.

-Williams starts with a great power move, lifting Gilbert atomic drop-style and just hurling him across the ring. Then he sets up a reverse atomic drop and does the same thing. And Gilbert is already just over this and tags out.

-Nightmare is able to match power with Doc and actually gets an atomic drop (or “the weird backbreaker” if you’re Joel) on Williams. And Williams retaliates with a press slam to make this the fastest that JR has ever lost his shit in a Dr. Death match.

-Everybody tags and DiBiase punches Gilbert right between the eyes. JR points out he’s not even wearing the black glove tonight, which suggests that DiBiase feels pretty sure of his chances. Williams tags in, but he misses a blind tag by the ex-champs and a clothesline grounds him.

-We get a donnybrook on pier six, and it ends with DiBiase rolling up Nightmare and getting the pin. VERY abrupt ending, which bums me out because they were just getting warmed up in there and it was shaping up to be a hell of a match.

-Jim Ross is in the ring and declares himself the greatest North American Champion of ALL time. And that brings out Jake Roberts, who says that Slater got dropped on his head and lost a title match last week, so he hasn’t exactly declared the “greatest” moniker yet. Slater agrees to defend the North American Title…IF the DDT is barred for that match.

-…And Jake actually expresses some admiration for Slater actually thinking of that. Jake agrees to ditch his secret weapon of Slater will ditch his. He’ll accept the banning of the DDT if Slater agrees to ban Dark Journey from the ring in the same match. Slater stalls and acts like he’s walking away, so Jake walks off. Slater tries a sneak attack, but Jake anticipated that and the brawl is on UNTIL Dark Journey maces Jake. Jake is blinded, but Dark Journey is still standing near him, so Jake reaches out and grabs her, and DDTs her.

-Okay, two notes about that single moment. #1, the crowd reacts to this like an 8th grade class hearing a teacher announce, “Actually, you’ll never use algebra.” You could hear this pop from space. #2. They’re going for the plausible deniability thing where Jake is blind so he MAY have thought he was DDTing Slater, but Dark Journey instantly screwed up just getting into front facelock position at the start of the spot and Jake had to take a solid three seconds just to adjust her body and get everything exactly right, so he cannot have possibly thought it was Slater.

THE FABS vs. STEVE DOLL & RICKY GIBSON
-The Fabs are The Fabulous Ones with some slight rebranding. Commentary establishes that they’re supposed to be heels but the women in the crowd aren’t buying that.

-Jobbers get some token offense until the Fabs get the edge and JR explains, “These men HATE the Rock & Roll Express,” so they are the heels, boo. Ricky Gibson tags in and gets a flurry of offense on Stan Lane. Everybody tags and Steve Keirn stalls. Steve Doll crashes on a dropkick, and a knee from the top by Keirn gets the win.

BUZZ SAWYER vs. BROADWAY JOE MALCOLM
-So, uh, Broadway Joe turned face, I guess, I dunno.

-Dropkick by Sawyer as he’s already ditched the ridiculous furry boots we saw him in last time. Powerslam gets a fast three.

AL PEREZ & BRETT WAYNE SAWYER vs. DICK MURDOCH & MASKED SUPERSTAR
-Faces storm the ring and just assault the heels, apparently taking the “do unto others before they do it to you” strategy.

-Heels take over and Superstar gets a neckbreaker on Perez, but again, he refuses to pin after hitting his finisher, the second time we’ve seen Superstar do that. Murdoch tags in and goes for a corner charge, but he runs into a boot and Perez makes the hot tag. Sawyer gets some offense until Murdoch goes to the eyes, and the heels switch off on him, but again they just refuse to finish when they could.

-Sawyer gets a lucky punch and we get Hot Tag #2. Perez cleans house, but he goes for a flying headscissors too close to the heel corner, so Superstar just jerks his head down on the top turnbuckle and renders him helplessly dizzy. Superstar misses a corner charge and get our THIRD hot tag. Sawyer fights the world and Murdoch is fed up and just grabs a chair and clonks him, getting the heels DQed as TV time runs out.

6.8

The final score: review Average

The 411

Bungled angle but otherwise a solid outing.