wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Wrestling (10.27.1984) Review
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired October 27, 1984.
-Your hosts are Bill Watts and Boyd S. Pumpkins. Bill announces that Terry Taylor is taking a month off due to an undefined spleen issue.
-Also, Bill Watts goes into a long, rambling dissertation explaining why some weapons are allowed at ringside and others, why some matches seem to enforce the rules differently, and Bill’s explanation is pretty much “A wizard did it.”
-Dr. Death has his helmet this week, and he warns Duggan that he’s going to bury the Hacksaw so deep that it will take a shovel to dig him out. I mean, by definition, if he’s buried, Steve, that would mean…
-Hacksaw cuts a rebuttal promo, slipping in a sly dig about his career “in the NFL, not the USFL, Doc.”
-Jim Ross is in the ring with Skandar Akbar and Buddy Landell. They promise that Ted DiBiase will be in the building later in the hour, but he’s not here yet. In the meantime, Skandar is happy to announce that he’s signing Buddy Landell, the most promising young star in Mid-South, to his stable. Buddy promises to do Akbar a favor, indicating that they both know what he’s talking about.
THE MISSING LINK (with Skandar Akbar) vs. MIKE JACKSON
-Well, now that Link is back, could we possibly get closure about the “Who is the Missing Link?” angle that they kept pushing last year and never paid off?
-Link headbutts Jackson around while, and one big headbutt to the back from the second rope finishes things and gives Link the win.
FOOTBALL HELMET MATCH: HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS
-Everybody stands around waiting for Duggan for a little while, but for some reason he doesn’t show up. But Ted DiBiase does show up quite suddenly after a year and a half away. He has Duggan’s football helmet with him and says that Duggan attacked him outside the building, but DiBiase ducked, knocked him out with one punch, and stole Duggan’s helmet as a trophy from the surprise attack. He gives the helmet to Williams, who gleefully excepts as Bill Watts and Giant Traffic Cone agree that DiBiase’s story sounded like a crock.
-Back from commercial, Bill announces that Duggan has been located and he’s in bad shape.
-We go back to still-masked Jim Cornette, who has a check for $25,000 from his mama; all the Rock ‘N Roll Express has to do is sign a contract for a match. And to sweeten the deal, Cornette offers the Rock ‘N Roll Express their pick of match type and rules.
BRICKHOUSE BROWN vs. HACKSAW BUTCH REED
-Armdrags by the Brickly One as Watts marvels that Butch Reed is back so quickly from major knee surgery. Brickhouse tries mat wrestling but can’t really get anywhere. Reed stalls juuuuuussst a bit before going to a test of strength while Bill Watts boasts that we’re seeing an unpredictable match with two actual stars, which blows all of Titan Sports’ content out of the water.
-Brickhouse works the arm as they’re keeping this really slow and basic for some reason, but Reed just suddenly waffles Brown with a hard clothesline and dumps him onto the floor. Back in, Brickhouse suddenly gets the bright idea to target Reed’s bad knee, and all of a sudden Reed is reeling. Brickhouse throws dropkicks and backdrops Reed into place for a missile dropkick, but Reed gets out of the way and apparently top rope moves are legal now, I guess? Bill didn’t say anything. Maybe he just forgot.
-Anyway, Reed press slams him and follows with a legdrop, and that’s it, Reed takes the win clean as a sheet with no angle or build or anything. He just went out there and won. And it’s nice to see that once in a while, I just wish the match had been more engaging.
-Back from commercial, Duggan has crawled to ringside, absolutely covered head to toe in blood. Everyone is telling him to go to the hospital, and Duggan is insistent on cutting a promo before he gets in the ambulance. Duggan was getting his bag out of the trunk when four guys grabbed him. The only one he got a clear look at was Ted DiBiase, who attacked him with a slapjack, and all four guys left him beaten and lying in the mud. Duggan is doing an AWESOME job here, as he’s not just cutting A Wrestling Promo while he happens to be bleeding, he sounds like he’s seconds from death and the crowd is silent because they’re genuinely worried for him. Duggan crawled his way into the building and made his way to ringside to prove a point: He actually did show up, so Steve Williams can’t call him a coward.
NORTH AMERICAN TITLE: MAGNUM T.A. (Champion) vs. BIG ERNIE LADD
-They go straight to the mat for some amateur wrestling and also so Ladd can lie down for a bit. Back to their feet, Magnum shoulderblocks Ladd while Watts with a straight face puts over Ladd for his prowess at dominos. Front facelock by Magnum, but Ladd breaks with a forearm. Hard chop by Ladd, and he follows that with an Andre-style slam where he moves his own body as little as possible and just drops Magnum instead of actually slamming him downward. Ladd moves like he is in CONSTANT pain.
-Legdrop by Ladd misses and Magnum makes his comeback with a backdrop–a comebackdrop, I suppose, and connects with a missile dropkick from the second rope. Ladd crashes into the referee on his way down though, and it gives Ladd enough rest time that he can kick out by the time the referee counts two. Ladd goes into his tights as the referee gets bumped AGAIN, and Ladd strangles TA with something as a second referee tends to the first referee and doesn’t notice that Ladd is using a weapon.
-Second referee takes over the match completely and does a HILARIOUS spot where he makes Magnum’s unconscious body do a spot to make it look like he’s putting up offense. Magnum’s unconscious body gets a two-count when Ladd miraculously kicks out, and Ladd drops the big leg to get a three-count and capture the title. It really is for the best because Magnum’s entire title run has felt like an afterthought. I just wish they had a better heel than Ladd, who’s really in an odd spot. He’s so big that he doesn’t really work as a manager because he would just overshadow his men, but when he’s in the ring, you can tell that, as Cornette would put it, his joints have turned to oatmeal.
-Jim Ross is in the ring with the Rock ‘N Roll Express. The Express has a straightjacket because they’ve signed for a match where Jim Cornette will have to wear it at ringside the whole time, to prevent him from any kind of evil-doings. To make a point of how hard it is to move in a straightjacket, the Express does a demonstration where Robert puts it on, and the entire Irish McNeil Boys Club already sees where this is going, and the women are screaming at them about what a terrible idea this is, while the men in the crowd are just watching the entrance and waiting.
-And heeeeeere’s the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette. They take out Robert first, and since Robert is lying down in a straightjacket, Cornette has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kick Robert’s ass himself while the Midnights gang up on Ricky. Great segment!
TED DIBIASE (with Skandar Akbar) vs. JOHNNY MANTELL
-DiBiase goes right to work while Bill Watts announces that DiBiase is signed to face Master G this week, and that’s following an entire week off. You can feel this experiment drawing to a close, can’t you? DiBiase applies the figure four and gets the win.
