Mid-South Wrestling (11.8.1984) Review

-Originally aired November 8, 1984.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts. Get pen and paper ready because we’re going to get a chance to do Grizzly Smith’s job! I’m assuming the pen and paper will be used to make a FREE CANDY sign for the side of my windowless van, then.

-Oh, it’s just another Dream Match contest. Well, that’s far less troubling, then. Send in a postcard with the match you want to see on Mid-South TV.

-So…two weeks ago, Jim Cornette wanted a rematch so badly that he put up $25,000 of Mama’s money AND sweetened the deal by saying the Rock & Roll Express could have any stipulations they wanted. So they decided on a stipulation where Jim Cornette would have to wear a straightjacket for the entire match. This leads to last week’s shocking–well, not that shocking–beatdown of the Rock & Roll Express.

-Well, since the match hasn’t happened yet, the Rock & Roll Express was free to add more and more stipulations to the match, so they’re pushing it even further, and Bill Watts, looking nervous, admits that if he was still wrestling, he would never, ever agree to the new stipulation they just came up with, but he thinks Ricky & Robert have been pushed to a point where they feel like they have to do something that’s just going to force one team or the other out of wrestling.

-And with that, we go to Jim Ross, who is on location with the Rock & Roll Express in an empty arena, and the camera pulls out to reveal that they’re standing on top of a 20-foot scaffold.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS (Tag Team Champions) vs. DALE VEASEY & JACK VICTORY
-Express attacks the jobbers for a wild brawl to start, because they’re just plain ANGRY at this point. Double dropkick on Victory finishes in about 30 seconds.

-Jim Ross is in the ring with Skandar Akbar, Jim Cornette, Buddy Landell, and Hercules Hernandez. Skandar Akbar has made Cornette a gigantic offer for Hercules’ contract, and Cornette made a logical decision: The entire original reason he hired Hercules was to fend off attacks from Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Well, Jim Duggan was pretty much murdered by DiBiase and some assorted goons a few weeks ago, so Hercules’ services are no longer needed, so why not sell off the contract?

-Akbar formally welcomes Hercules into the fold by giving him his own kaffiyeh and rebranding him Sheik Hercules Hernandez. Hercules is pretty funny, as he just does not give a shit about the new title and just asks if access to a harem is part of the deal, and Akbar hastily changes the subject.

-Buddy Landell tries to share some of the credit for arranging the deal, but Akbar isn’t having it, and he notices that Landell is wearing that obscenely expensive wristwatch. Akbar’s mood suddenly does a 180-swing when he realizes this, and he’s furious at Landell because Landell STILL hasn’t completed his end of whatever mystery deal they’ve made, and Akbar warns him that he has until the end of the hour to deliver results. Landell, cool as a cucumber, promises that everything will be finished by the end of the show, no problem.

HACKSAW BUTCH REED vs. JIM HORTON
-But first…

-Buddy Landell suddenly hits the ring and asks that the match not be started because he has to do something really important first. He pulls Reed over to a corner, and they have a conversation off-mic, but it’s clear that Reed doesn’t like whatever he’s hearing. Apparently, the big deal is that Landell promised to talk Reed into joining Akbar’s stable. Reed’s attitude is that he’s the top guy in Mid-South anyway, so he doesn’t need to be part of a group. He tells Landell to get the hell out of the ring…

-But Landell makes a last-ditch effort at getting Reed to change his mind, taking off the watch that Akbar gave him and gives it to Reed. Reed says no again, and to make his point, he throws the watch down, totally shattering it on impact, and knocks Landell the fuck out with a right hand, and in an instant, Butch Reed becomes New JYD II.

-Skandar Akbar hustles to the ring with Sheik Hercules and Ted DiBiase for damage control, appealing to Reed himself, but Reed wants nothing to do with them, and with Landell making it back to his feet, Reed decides fuck it, he’s going to fight four guys at once. Reed is overwhelmed, but Hacksaw Jim Duggan, freshly recovered from the assault a few weeks ago, storms to the ring with a 2×4 and chases everyone off.

-The Hacksaws agree on “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” so they put aside all of their past issues because they want a piece of Akbar’s men, and they promise to join forces from now on.

CHAVO & HECTOR GUERRERO vs. SHAWN MICHAELS & MIKE JACKSON
-A shadier promoter would have booked these guys for an indy show just to put MICHAELS/JACKSON on all of his posters and marquees, but hey, if they weren’t already savvy enough to take advantage of one guy’s entire name being Michael Jackson, how were they ever going to think of that? By the way, there’s a story here, as Shawn Michaels no-showed the last Mid-South TV taping because he didn’t realize that everybody was expected to come to TV tapings, whether the promoter told you to or not, so he got fined for it and stayed pissed off for 11 years until Bill Watts came to the WWF for his one-month run as booker and this exchange happened in the locker room:

SHAWN: Hey, asshole! You fined me two weeks into my career!
WATTS: Did I ever fine you again after that?
SHAWN: No.
WATTS: Well, then it worked.

-Chavo takes Jackson to the mat, and Hector tags in quickly to work the arm as Watts dubs the debuting team “The Alamo Busters.” Jackson is putting on a great exhibition with the Guerreros as Watts hastily prioritizes covering a plot hole in the big angle of the week. Yes, Duggan brought a 2×4 to the ring, and although Watts made a sweeping ban on weapons earlier in the year, he clarifies that the specific language of the rules only prohibits four weapons in particular, so Duggan’s 2×4 is technically legal, the best kind of legal.

-Michaels tags in and gets worked over. Michaels has made a well-advised switch to long tights and already looks 10% more like a star as a result. Michaels, overwhelmed, tags in Jackson, who takes on both Guerreros until he misses a dropkick. Brainbuster by Hector, and Chavo comes in for an awesome finisher: Hector locks on a full nelson, then falls backwards so that Jackson is lying on top of him and unable to move, and Chavo comes off the second rope and just dive-bombs him with a somersault for three. Jackson worked 90% of the match and looked like a stud, while Shawn just looked like a punk for the 30 seconds he was in the ring, which I’m assuming was part of the penalty.

TED DIBIASE (with Skandar Akbar) vs. LEE RAMSEY
-DiBiase just beats on Ramsey while demanding that Duggan watch everything he’s doing. Powerslam and a figure four by DiBiase get the easy victory.

MASTER G. & BRICKHOUSE BROWN vs. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Jim Cornette)
-Well, in light of the two big angles from the past hour, I don’t see good things coming for the Creative Has Nothing For You Connection.

-Midnights launch an early offensive, but G and Brown clear the ring. Back in the ring, Bobby Eaton tries to launch some offensive, but Brown shakes it off and tags in G. Shoulderblock by G, but when he goes for a slam, Eaton manages to tag out in the air, and Condrey sneaks in with a surprise shot to take over.

-G is in peril until he reverses a suplex and tags out, and before long all four men are brawling in the ring. Cornette trips Brickhouse from the floor and Eaton gets a back suplex. G stops the pin as Dennis Condrey runs to the top rope. Referee yells at him to get down from the top while G stands poised and waiting for him, and nobody sees Eaton climbing to the top rope on the other side of the ring for a flying elbow. G is utterly oblivious and walks back to his corner when he sees Condrey climb down, so Condrey just dashes in and tackles G out to the floor while Eaton scores the three-count on Brown. The Midnights are geniuses, but the finish makes G look like such a doofus that you can just instantly tell they’re done with him, and Bill Watts on commentary pretty much went “Yes, well, he’s certainly been feuding with Butch Reed these last few months, but, uh, hey, look over there!”

BIG ERNIE LADD & BUDDY LANDELL vs. SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE & TONY FAULK
-Magnum TA heads to the ring and tells the jobber to take off, and Dundee happily accepts the new partner. Ladd and Landell nope out of this one, which means no match is happening.

-We’re at the end of the show anyway, so here’s Steve Williams with his magic helmet and promises he’ll be here next week if Jim Duggan really wants that helmet match that he was demanding a while ago.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

I'm not sure Butch Reed has "babyface" in him, but that's where Bill Watts' brain was at this point. Fun week, though!