Mid-South Wrestling (10.23.1982) Review

-Originally aired October 23, 1982.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce in a disappointingly ordinary navy blue off-the-rack suit and Bob Roop. Bob Roop proves he’s in the right business by saying that 100 million people a week watch Mid-South Wrestling.

MR. WRESTLING II vs. HANGMAN HARRIS
-Harris suddenly looks HUGE this week. Not muscular, not fat, just like somebody went into Photoshop and increased him by 15%. II works the arm while Pierce seems to be workshopping a catchphrase, “WTK” for “Watch that knee!”

-Harris goes to work with fists while Roop complains about the prejudicial chant of “Two! Two! Two!” from the biased fans. Backdrop by II. Harris fails to WTK and he’s so dazed that he falls victim to a German suplex for three.

-LAST WEEK! Hacksaw Jim Duggan captures the Louisiana Title from Iron Mike Sharpe!

HACKSAW DUGGAN & TED DIBIASE vs. TED ALLEN & MARTY LUNDE
-Both heels have singles titles now. Allen takes the opening beating. Shoulderbreaker by Duggan doesn’t end it, so Lunde gets to have a turn, and future Double-A gets double-teamed by the double-D team. Allen heads back in and slugs it out with DiBiase. DiBiase gets the upper hand, and Duggan heads in to finish with the spear.

KAMALA (with Friday) vs. BOB STABLER
-Kamala chops Stabler from every direction and chokes him out. THREE big splashes end it right away. One little issue I have with Mid-South, and it’s a small one, is that there’s no time after the match to dwell. Kamala gets the three-count and goes straight to commercial, whereas the WWF got him over as a monster by lingering for a little bit after every match and showing the jobbers getting scraped off the mat and loaded onto a stretcher.

NON-TITLE: JUNKYARD DOG & MR. OLYMPIA (Tag Team Champions) vs. THE GRAPPLERS
-Olympia locks a side headlock on #2 and he’s caught in the face corner. JYD works the neck over and Olympia tags in for some double-teaming. Olympia goads #1 into coming in and beats up on both Grapplers as Roop figures out the game here and tells us the story. Next week they have a huge title defense against DiBiase and Duggan, a team known for dirty tactics, and JYD and Olympia are here to show that they can fight dirty too.

-Grapplers take over and now Olympia is caught in the corner. They work over the arm. Hot tag to Dog and he starts cleaning house. All four men end up in the ring, and in the midst of it, JYD hits the Thump to finish clean as a sheet. Honestly not much to this one.

VLADIC SMIRNOFF (with Skandar Akbar) vs. TIM HORNER
-Horner throws dropkicks that daze Smirnoff. Smirnoff fights right back with a backdrop and drops a big elbow. Smirnoff slams Horner and drives a knee into him. Backbreaker finishes, and just in time as Smirnoff’s boxers are starting to creep out of his singlet.

IRON MIKE SHARPE vs. VINNIE ROMEO
-Romeo gets scientific with a waistlock and a roll-up for two. Sharpe monkey-flips him while Roop goes on this hilarious run about how Sharpe got his ass kicked by Jim Duggan last week so Vinnie Romeo is a terrible opponent for him to handpick because beating him won’t impress. “If he wants people to think he’s tough he should challenge Andre the Giant or…I dunno…Godzilla.” Clothesline by Sharpe finishes without any trouble.

JESSE BARR vs. KELLY KINISKI
-They opt for scientific wrestling as Roop predicts one of these guys will get desperate in this match and we’ll see how nice they really are. Barr works the arm and cradles Kiniski for a one-count. They go to a test of strength and Jesse monkey-flips Kiniski into a wristlock. Kiniski fights out and gets dropkicked down and Roop is just totally disappointed in both guys for still working cleanly. “Hey, that’s they’re philosophy. If they wanna lose by it, fine.”

-Kiniski fights to his feet and sends Barr into the ropes, catching him in…well, it’s a stungun, but it’s short of the ropes so he just hits the mat face first, but that gives the win to Kiniski. Good straightforward mat wrestling.

-Duggan and DiBiase show up, and there’s some nice continuity here as Roop runs from DiBiase even though they’re both heels now. They’re ready for next week, because after next week, they’ll have all the titles, baby!

5.7

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Really a pretty skippable week, but hey, next week sounds promising...