wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Wrestling (10.8.1983) Review
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired October 8, 1983.
-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Jim Ross.
-The big news to start off is that North American Champion Butch Reed seems to have formed an alliance with Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart” and they’ve formed a tag team. We go to the ring, where Butch Reed complains about the conspiracy in Mid-South to mess with him until he makes a mistake that will cost him his title.
JERRY & MARTY OATES vs. JIM “The Anvil” NEIDHART & HACKSAW BUTCH REED
-I don’t get this. The in-ring promo was pre-taped, and we go live to our first match, which involves exactly the same guys.
-Jerry starts with Butch and they don’t really get anywhere. Neidhart tags in and applies a side headlock and gains some traction with it, although a handful of hair helps. Reed tags back in and gets armdragged as we’re already retconning the Oates, with JR clarifying that they’re cousins, not brothers. I’m guessing everyone suddenly remembered that Jerry blurted out “I’m an only child” while cutting a promo in 1978 and, you know, kayfabe.
-Reed applies a chinlock on Marty Oates. Forearm to the throat by Reed, and now Oates is caught in the bad part of town and Hacksaw and Anvil gang up on him. I hope they call their team The Toolbox. Marty gets the hot tag and all four men brawl. Reed gets dropkicked out to the floor, and the Oates boys double-team Anvil. Spinning toehold applied by Jerry looks to finish. Reed comes off the top rope to break it with a flying clothesline, but Jerry ducks and Reed crashes.
-All four men brawl again, and this time Jerry gets flung over the top rope and Anvil knocks Marty out with a headbutt. Samoan drop gets the win. That turned into a pretty good match after a slow start.
-We backtrack a few weeks to Boris Zhurkov vs. George Weingroff, with Boris losing and getting buried like no one has ever been buried before; Nikolai Volkoff storms the ring, kicks the shit out of him, and exposes him as an American wrestler who’s just pretending to be Russian.
NIKOLAI VOLKOFF vs. GEORGE WEINGROFF
-So now the story here is that Slick Nik signed for this match so that Weingroff can experience actually wrestling a legit Russian. Volkoff pounds away and lifts Weingroff with one arm for a chokehold. Press slam/backbreaker by Volkoff gets the win.
JUNKYARD DOG & KRUSHER DARSOW vs. FRANK LAVERT & TOM STANTON
-Were there some unanswered questions from last week’s Darsow/LaVert confrontation that I’m not aware of?
-Dawsow hammers Stanton and slams him down. LaVert comes in and gets punched out to the floor with one big punch. Darsow tags in “Mr. Box Office” and LaVert gets lit up with headbutts. Darsow comes back in and slams LaVert. Body vice by Darsow gets the win.
MAGNUM T.A. vs. DOUG VINES
-Magnum starts off with a nice sequence of fireman’s carry slams and amateur holds. We’re getting to the point where you can see Magnum getting really comfortable in the ring. Growing into his paws. Magnum works the arm and slams Vines. Dropkick by Magnum gets two. Belly-to-belly finishes it.
MAX THE MISSING LINK & KING KONG BUNDY (with Skandar Akbar) vs. ART CREWS & MIKE BOND
-Crews rams Max into the turnbuckles and of course that just makes Max happy and he does it to himself. Crews is unfazed, ducking a second rope bodypress and connecting with dropkick after dropkick until Max finally just gets frustrated and makes the tag.
-Bond tags in and slugs it out with Bundy. Bundy hangs in there with clubbing blows, and a splash gets the five-count. Max is apparently bleeding hardway from something and celebrates the win by attacking his own head to open it up more.
MIKE JACKSON vs. SAM HALL
-This is clearly going to be a good scientific battle, as they lock up and roll around for a bit. Hiptoss by Hall is reversed into a wristlock by Jackson. They go to the mat with Jackson applying a side headlock and Hall turning it into headscissors. Jackson turns it back into a pinning combination for two.
-They continue sciencing until Jackson lets it all hang out with an anziguiri, and a pair of dropkicks gives Jackson the win.
-We go back to the loser-leaves-town match between Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Ted DiBiase. It’s only four weeks old but I swear it feels like 100 years ago now.
