Mid-South Wrestling (12.18.1982) Review

-Opens with the WWE Network warning about “original production difficulties.”

-Originally aired December 18, 1982.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts. They tell us that Paul Boesch will be sitting in on commentary later, which must be the production difficulty the Network was trying to warn me about.

-Bill Watts shows off a threatening letter sent to Mr. Wrestling II, along with a mannequin head wearing a II-style mask and blood-covered gauze.

CHAVO GUERRERO vs. MARTY LUNDE
-They trade waistlocks. Lunde slams him but runs into a double chop. Backbreaker and a snapmare by Chavo. Lunde fights back with another slam but misses a fistdrop from the second rope. Bee sting by Chavo sends Lunde out to the floor and Chavo slingshots himself on top, which pops Bill Watts. Back in, missile dropkick connects, and Chavo finishes him with a splash. Good squash. It went back and forth and you could always tell they saw something in Lunde from the beginning.

KAMALA (with Friday and Skandar Akbar) vs. LESTER PARKS
-Akbar is paying the jobber to wear a mask during the match as a form of training for Kamala. Kamala is clearly excited just at the sight of a man wearing a mask and has to be stopped from lunging at him until Friday has removed all of his entrance gear.

-Kamala runs right for parks and chops him all over the place. Big fat splash finishes.

NON-TITLE: TED DIBIASE & MATT BORNE (Tag Team Champions) vs. STAGGER LEE & MR. WRESTLING II
-Okay, we have to be getting some kind of a payoff this week. We have two concurrent angles going about guys’ masks and we have two masked wrestlers in this match. Donnysixer to start and the faces, or masks in this case, clear the ring.

-Stagger Lee battles with DiBiase. DiBiase targets the head and instantly pays for it. II backdrops DiBiase and DiBiase goes to the floor to walk it off. Champs try to gang up on II and he ends up fighting them both off and clearing the ring again. Another brawl breaks out and Matt Borne takes a beating from the faces. Champs are having the worst week ever and just continue getting mauled here until Borne throws punches and gets the better of II for a bit. Stagger Lee tags in and we have another pier sixer. Stagger Lee and DiBiase wipe each other out with a double clothesline. Borne sneaks up to the top rope for Bombs Away but the referee catches him. Referee gets distracted so Borne tries it again and Stagger Lee meets him with a hard shot to the gut and finishes him. Kind of a messy brawl and it made the champs look bad.

LOUISIANA TITLE: HACKSAW DUGGAN (Champion) vs. TONY ATLAS
-Atlas dedicates this match to his friend JYD and then asks Reeser Bowden to please just get out of the ring and let him win the belt.

-Duggan stalls for a moment before suddenly motioning that he wants an arm wrestling match, so they both lie on their stomachs and have an arm wrestling match. Atlas wins it with no trouble at all, and Duggan’s embarassed. He takes it out on Atlas with rapid fire punches. Atlas punches back. Duggan gets knocked out to the floor, and Borne & DiBiase show up to tend to their friend. Both of the champs try to sneak into the ring and Atlas ends up fighting both of them. Meanwhile, Duggan puts a suspicious-looking hood on his head and spears Atlas while wearing it, and Atlas is knocked right out. Duggan gets the pin and retains. That was fun.

MR. OLYMPIA vs. GORGEOUS GINO HERNANDEZ
-Paul Boesch sits in for commentary and is possibly on the verge of finally being decent at it. Olympia works the arm and Gino moves all over the ring trying to escape, finally making the ropes. Gino finally decks Olympia and gets aggressive, lobbing him out to the floor. Boesch’s pauses and dragging words sound like he’s reading his commentary from a script and he’s never seen what any of these words look like in his life.

-Olympia misses a corner charge but manages to cradle Gino. Both men are wiped out on a double shoulderblock. Gino revives first but misses an elbow, and Olympia backslides him for two. Sleeper is applied. Gino breaks by ramming Olympia into the corner. Olympia tumbles out to the floor and Gino suplexes him back in. Backward elbow off the second rope gets three, totally clean, no monkey business. Gino gets a victory, but it came at a price. We had to listen to Paul Boesch for five minutes.

IRON MIKE SHARPE & TIM HORNER vs. RICK & JOHN DAVIDSON
-Sharpe throws both Davidsons around as Paul Boesch announces our Christmas present for next week. We’re getting a rematch of this week’s non-title bout, except this time it’s a title match AND it has a loser-leaves-town stipulation, which Boyd points out takes us right back where we started with this whole mess.

-Horner with a side headlock. Iron Mike heads back in and cleans house, and a big clothesline gets the three-count.

KELLY KINISKI vs. BUDDY LANDELL
-Both guys trade arm work while Boyd Pierce breaks in to announce that a match has been signed for next week…and it’s the match he announced in the last segment. Thanks, Boyd. They keep battling it out as this is pretty clearly running out the clock this week. Buddy is bleeding hardway, possibly from listening to Paul Boesch on commentary, we can’t be certain. And hey, time’s up without a winner.

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

Some intrigue building, and obviously they've set the table pretty well for next week, but this one was kind of blase.