Mid-South Wrestling (12.10.1983) Review

-Originally aired December 10, 1983.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts. Okay, what’s with everyone suddenly having boring wardrobes at the commentary table? They look like they’re here to ask me a lot of questions about if I’ve kept receipts.

-Bill Watts glumly states that Krusher Darsow’s narcotic-like fixation with gaining strength led him down a dark path to godless, wheat-purchasing communism.

KRUSHER DARSOW vs. MIKE JACKSON
-So Darsow has totally changed his look since last week, switching from his denim cutoffs to plain red wrestling tights and a shaved head. Press slam by Jackson as Volkoff walks to the ring to look at his new protege. This is a great detail to reward long-term fans; Nikolai ran Boris Zurkov out of the territory for being an American who just wanted to pretend he was Russian, and now he’s on Darsow’s side as Darsow begins doing the same thing. Volkoff is a hypocrite, and that’s great, because he’s a heel. Body vice by Darsow gets the submission.

-Volkoff hits the ring afterward, and the crowd reaction is great because apparently there are fans in the building who made the same connection I did and they’re genuinely expecting Volkoff to just turn on him right there, but instead, Volkoff hands him a gift box and surprises Darsow with his own Soviet flag.

HACKSAW BUTCH REED & JIM “The Anvil” NEIDHART (Tag Team Champions) vs. RANDY BARBER & KOKO WARE
-Okay, We HAVE to be at the point where Bill Dundee is booking if Koko is suddenly here. Anvil shoulderblocks Koko but runs into a gorgeous dropkick. Reed backdrops Koko, “the man who has no brother,” as Watts apparently expects us to be confused by the sight of a black wrestler trying to win a match involving another black wrestler.

-Also, Watts wants us to know that Reed considers JYD to be an Oreo. So there’s that.

-Neidhart lifts Barber in the air and knocks the wind out of him with a Samoan drop to get the three-count. As a white man, I am utterly confused by the sight of a white man using a wrestling move to defeat another white man and I wish Bill Watts would provide some sort of clarity about that situation.

LEAPING LANNY POFFO vs. JEFF SWORD
-Poffo gets Sword on the mat as Watts emphasizes that every man has things in his past that he’s ashamed of, and as far as he knows, Lanny is not in regular contact with his brother. This is such a let-down because I know this payoff is never coming but Watts is pretty much promising us that Randy Savage is coming into the territory here and as long as Bill Dundee had the book. In fact, the WWE Network version of this episode is only 39 minutes long, which got me curious, and it turns out the four minutes that got cut out were a video package about Randy Savage, set to “Eye of the Tiger.” Bonus: 99% sure the woman with him in the video is Elizabeth. You only see the back of her head but it pretty much has to be her. So…yeah, we were absolutely supposed to get Randy Savage in Mid-South Wrestling for a while.

-Sword press slams Poffo and hiptosses him, but Poffo comes back and hits a nice combo to finish, splashing Sword with a somersault and then a backflip in quick succession for three.

-We go to footage of Mr. Wrestling II and Magnum TA sitting at a bank of video monitors, watching clips of Magnum’s squash matches. Magnum is genuinely appreciative of all of this, nodding his head and taking the mentoring to heart, but II is kind of a condescending douchebag. II goes a little darker, telling Magnum is too nice, and “nice guys don’t win championships.” II argues that the key to success is to do something that his opponents never see coming.

MAGNUM T.A. (with Mr. Wrestling II) vs. TOM LENTZ
-Magnum and Lentz trade arm wringers. Magnum drops to the mat and trips Lentz to get a firm grip on him. Magnum stays on the arm and hiptosses him. Belly to belly finishes. Magnum seems more angry about the win then happy about it, but Mr. Wrestling II seems happy about it.

-Jim Ross is in the ring with Krusher Darsow. JR, who’s been skillful but pretty neutral for the most part until now, is suddenly putting a line in the sand and asking if Darsow realizes WHAT he’s doing by accepting that Russian flag. Krusher brings up Junkyard Dog as an example, saying Dog never did anything to help advance his career. That brings out JYD to address the charge, and JR is like “You know what? Say it to his face?”

-So Darsow says he threw away the $500 from Skandar Akbar because he thought JYD would be so impressed that he’d help Darsow get a main event match signed and JYD is like, no, you start at the bottom and work up to that. He slaps the shit out of Darsow for being such a whiner, and that brings out Nikolai Volkoff, and it’s a 2-on-1 attack. Jobber parade can’t do anything to help, so Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Magnum TA run out, and the Russians get away because “Russians don’t want anything with even odds!”

-We go to a video package narrated by JR, showing Steve Williams attending classes at OU with his classmate Joel Watts. JR says Dr. Death is trying to decide between pro wrestling, pro football, and a career in Recreational Management. No disrespect toward his wrestling career, but I wish he had gone into recreational management as a career because I’m sure the Steve Williams Pyramid of Excellence would have been fantastic.

ICEMAN KING PARSONS vs. DOUG VINES
-Vines throws chops and Parsons chops back while Watts stews about unreliable the Soviet Union is when it comes to nuclear treaties. Rumper Stumper finishes.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Jim Cornette) vs. JOHN KING & GEORGE WEINGROFF
-Cornette stands right up against JR through the entire jobber intro, waiting for him to shut up and finish.

-Express slams King around and somebody must have told them that there’s only a minute of TV time left because they go STRAIGHT to their finisher and close the show.

7.7

The final score: review Good

The 411

I heartily endorse this show.