Mid-South Wrestling (11.26.1983) Review

-Originally aired November 26, 1983.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts, who are both dressed like they just came here straight from a funeral.

-We go straight to an interview that Bill conducted with Krusher Darsow. Darsow has lost only two matches in Mid-South, one to Junkyard Dog and one to Nikolai Volkoff. Dog and Volkoff are set to wrestle each other soon, so Watts wants an assessment of both men from Darsow. Bill kind of rubs it in by making us watch Volkoff pin Darsow before he can even talk.

-Darsow cuts a modest promo saying that JYD beat him but didn’t make him feel overpowered. Volkoff flung him around the ring and lifted him like a child. He was just so overwhelmed that he has to call the win for Nikolai Volkoff. He says that he might not align politically with Volkoff, but he feels like he could learn a lot about strength training and powerlifting from the Russian.

NIKOLAI VOLKOFF vs. JOSHUA STROUD
-Stroud’s height probably held him down, but he’s got a physique that would get him a developmental deal on the spot today. Volkoff overpowers him quickly. He clamps on a body vice, squeezing Stroud to the rhythm of the name “Junkyard Dog” while Watts is still blah-blah-blahing about government contracts for wheat.

-Krusher Darsow is at ringside, apparently just observing the match curiously, and the press backbreaker by Volkoff gets the three-count.

JIM “The Anvil” NEIDHART (with Butch Reed, with leather suit) vs. TONY TORRES
-Torres dropkicks Anvil and they have some bad miscommunication on a backdrop. Anvil quickly declares “nuts to this” and slams Torres down. Biel and another slam, but Anvil misses an elbow. Torres tries to mount a comeback but gets clotheslined back down to reality. Samoan drop gets the three-count.

JUNKYARD DOG (North American Champion) vs. TONGA
-I wish all foreign wrestlers were named this way. “And his opponent, France.” Actually, the jobber is a shockingly hard-to-recognize Barbarian at the very start of his career!

-They trade arm work as Watts is immediately impressed by Tonga. JYD trips him and keeps him on the mat. Tonga tries sending him into the ropes and JYD does a weird jaunty slow walk into the ropes, as once again we’re starting to see the Dog checking out a bit. Reading the Observer at this point is interesting, as it seems that Watts was pushing JYD to the tippy-top as a means of lighting a fire under his ass and getting him back to being the JYD of two years ago, but it just wasn’t working, to the point that a group of fans in Houston were openly boycotting shows with Dog on them and making it emphatically clear that it was because his matches bored them. Meanwhile, Jim Duggan was jobbing in three-minute matches to Nikolai Volkoff at house shows to build to JYD/Volkoff matches, which seemed to puzzle Dave because Duggan was SO over that the solution to the “JYD doesn’t give a shit” problem was RIGHT THERE.

-Tonga kicks and chops Dog for a one-count. He applies a neck vice, but the Dog won’t give. Tonga goes to the top but gets caught with a shot to the belly. We seem to have quietly started allowing top rope stuff in Mid-South without really mentioning it, by the way. But Dog follows that with the Thump to finish.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Jim Cornette) vs. MIKE JACKSON & RICK ROOD
-This was part of a Memphis/Mid-South talent exchange that did wonders not only for Cornette and the new tag team, but also for one of the jobbers here. Rick Rude went off to Memphis shortly after this, developed an arrogant male stripper persona, and the rest is history.

-Cornette snatches the microphone out of Jim Ross’ hand to introduce his team, and since no one has ever done that before, Ross has a fantastic bewildered reaction to it, and he just stands there with a slack-jawed expression as Cornette welcomes the Midnight Express to Mid-South.

-Dennis Condrey starts with Rood. Rood surprises him with armdrags, but when he tries mat wrestling, Condrey manages to get on top of him and ties him up. Jackson tags in and wrings the arm. Condrey slips over and tags Bobby Eaton, but Jackson manages to slip away before they can double-team him.

-Hiptoss and a dropkick by Jackson. Eaton tries an Irish whip, but Jackson leaps to the second rope and connects with a bodypress for one, and so far it’s been a disastrous debut for the Express.

-Well, until it’s not anymore. Slam by Condrey. Midnights start doing quick tags to keep Jackson from making a comeback. Condrey lifts Jackson for a back suplex, and Eaton comes off the second rope with an elbow to get the win. Granted it was their FIRST match, but this wasn’t the type of Midnight Express squash match we’ve grown to know and love and it was weird seeing them looking like just another team.

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS vs. FRANK LAVERT
-Williams overpowers The Vert, but makes a heel-like mistake, celebrating his early edge and allowing The Vert to attack. Doc just gets mad and ties up The Vert in the ropes. Tackle and the stampede finish.

-Reeser Bowden is standing by with Magnum TA (wearing a suit), Leaping Lanny Poffo, and Mr. Wrestling II (cardigan sweater and a tie, apparently having just come straight from the set of Mister Wrestling’s Neighborhood). Reeser announces that Lanny and Magnum are forming a tag team, with Mr. Wrestling II acting as their coach. II cuts a really funny passive-aggressive promo about how Poffo’s dad and brother are both assholes, and Poffo fires back, saying there are no strings attached to him for a puppet master, unlike Magnum TA, and he walks off.

-So Magnum is a little shocked by how there’s already dissention in the new team, and makes it a point to say that he trusts Lanny and he’s only ever seen Lanny conduct himself as a sportsman.

MAGNUM T.A. & LEAPING LANNY POFFO (with Mr. Wrestling II) vs. DOUG VINES & KING KARL FERGIE
-Fergie is working his Jerry Lawler cosplayer look here. Magnum works the arm. Lanny heads in while Watts throws his support behind Lanny, because Lanny went on his own and wrestled in Canada when his father and brother’s behavior became too much for him to tolerate.

-Jobbers have some luck with double-teaming him. Fergie clotheslines him while Watts Freudian-slips and calls him Randy Poffo, which he quickly explains by just telling us “Randy Poffo is his brother, Randy Savage.”

-Magnum tags in to save the day, and the belly-to-belly on Doug Vines finishes.

-Ted DiBiase cuts a promo from the WTBS studios. His suspension from wrestling in the US is finished, and it’s time for him to come back to Mid-South and get his revenge on that filthy hippie Jim Duggan. We get a prototype evil laugh from him as he finishes up.

HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. LARRY HIGGENS
-Duggan and Higgens try to out-hoss each other with hard punches while Watts hypes the debut of Tom Lintz, Duggan’s opponent next week. Higgens gets Duggan on the mat and drops a knee, and Duggan slobbers all over the mat to sell it. I regret the lack of Jesse Ventura on commentary in a moment like this. Duggan fights back and gets the win with the spear.

-Bill Watts is here with Tom Lintz, who promises that he’s had a good scouting report assembled for Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and he’s ready for him next week.

8.2

The final score: review Very Good

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