Mid-South Wrestling (12.6.1984) Review

-Originally aired December 6, 1984.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts. The first Dream Match will be taking place this week, a North American Title match…

-AND! We have new Tag Team Champs! Bill Watts offhandedly mentions that the Rock & Roll Express have finally run the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette out of the territory (awwww) but there’s no rest for champions in Mid-South Wrestling, and they immediately had to follow that with a defense against Sheik Hercules Hernandez and Ted DiBiase.

-We go to the highlights. Hercules is a beaten man, but Buddy Landell hurries to the ring to pass a loaded glove to Ted DiBiase–okay, this came up when Krusher Kruschev was still in the territory. Why does Mid-South think that there’s exactly ONE glove in the known universe? All the heels have to share. Robert Gibson is knocked out cold, DiBiase scores the three-count, and DiBiase and Hercules are your new champs.

-We get our first promo from the new champs. Butch Reed owes Skandar Akbar for a damaged $10,000 watch, and payback is COMING. Akbar keeps misusing the word “dividends” here and it makes it sounds like he’s going to pay Butch Reed for coming to get his ass kicked.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs. TERRY ELLIS & RANDY BARBER
-Barber gets knocked around, Ellis gets knocked around, and a double dropkick finishes for the Express.

TV TITLE: SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE (Champion) vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL
-The one thing worse than a wrestler walking around with a title belt draped across the shoulder is that Dundee comes to the ring clutching the TV Title medal. You know, the medal with the ribbon that allows you to wear it around your neck? And he just holds it up like a little kid holds up something he found on the ground. And what did Dundee wear to the ring? His Elvis jumpsuit. A medal would have completed the ensemble.

-Dundee works the arm, but Landell gets a handful of hair to force the release. Landell whips Dundee and follows with a backbreaker for two. Dundee fights back with a shoulderblock but gives it so much oomph that he knocks himself out of the ring, and Landell just rams him into the barricade, and Dundee is bleeding. Watts shows that this is proof that Landell has learned a lot by associating himself with Skandar Akbar. Buddy Landell had to be told that you can hurt a guy by ramming him into a barricade.

-Back in the ring, Landell drops a big elbow, and gets the three to take the TV Title. Holy damn, Dundee has to be finishing up here because he got SQUASHED.

NORTH AMERICAN TITLE: BIG ERNIE LADD (Champion) vs. HACKSAW BUTCH REED
-Bell sounds, but Buddy Landell hurries back to the ring to whisper something to Ernie Ladd. Reed ain’t havin’ it so he noggin-knocks them and applies a standing front facelock on Ladd to wear him down. Landell stays at ringside, presumably picking the right moment to finish whispering to Ladd.

-Forearms to Ladd, followed by a backdrop. As much as I draw Andre/Ladd parallels, to his credit, Ladd could still go airborne for something like that. Ref gets bumped and Landell runs in for a two-on-one attack, but that’s not quite enough to get the job done, so Kamala and Friday show up fresh from their WWF run for a surprise attack, and Kamala unleashes splash after splash after splash. The jobber locker room empties out, gets their asses kicked, and then the Rock & Roll Express and Terry Taylor run in for the rescue. I like how they send the red shirts out there before Kirk and Spock will do one damn thing for their supposed friends.

ALAMO BUSTERS vs. MIKE JACKSON & JIMMY POWELL
-The Guerreros now have entrance music and some BADASS white & gold bandito outfits. Powell tries mat wrestling but gets totally outclassed by Chavo while Watts lays out some character motivation for the Guerreros (they hate Mexicans who immigrate to the US because they’re traitors) and it turns into a long political tangent about how the wealthy in Mexico use up so much of the country’s resources that it’s caused a severe class divide and there’s no thriving middle class in Mexico to support the economy, the way the thriving middle class supports the economy here. (Laughs in American)

-Jackson comes in and he gets knocked around before throwing some right hands, and then employing the Special Delivery Jones strategy of letting the new guy come back in. Full nelson/somersault combo finishes for the Guerreros.

MAGNUM T.A. vs. “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS
-Amateur wrestling to start and the boys turn out to be pretty evenly matched, which shocks Watts because Magnum actually successfully overpowers him, and Williams needs to get to the ropes to force a break. Takedown by Magnum, and he works the arm over. Dr. Death tries a hasty tackle, but Magnum ducks, Williams hits the corner, and Magnum wrings the arm to capitalize. Williams uses the hair to turn that around while Bill Watts mentions that they get phone calls from fans in New York who say that Mid-South has the best TV wrestling show. You can tell he’s making that up because a real New Yorker would have worked “fuckin'” into that compliment in at least six places.

-Magnum dropkicks Williams, but he’s so fired up he shoves the referee down, and Williams takes advantage of it by grabbing the helmet and knocking Magnum out cold, giving Magnum the win by DQ, which is a weird payoff. Magnum shoved the referee down, either make it a double DQ or give Williams the pin. Pretty damn good match until then, and I can’t hate the finish THAT much.

BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. JACK VICTORY
-Mid-South, bringing you the TBS filler matches of the future today! Armstrong gets him on the mat. By the way, there are rolls and wrinkles all over the mat this week and it’s noticeable. It’s like they put a 20-foot mat on a 16-foot ring. Brad is holding this armbar for a while so I needed something to type there.

-Armstrong stays on the arm while Watts talks about how he recently visited New York and he was in the crowd for the last wrestling show at Madison Square Garden. He says the only thing that impressed him was that the fans had good sense, because they chanted “Boring” through the whole show and they were right, it was terrible and the fans were demanding action! Hold on, checking…

WWF @ New York City, NY – Madison Square Garden – November 26, 1984 (22,090)
-SD Jones pinned Charlie Fulton (sub. for Samula) at 10:40 with a headbutt
-Moondog Spot pinned Jose Luis Rivera (sub. for Billy Jack) at 9:16 with a clothesline from the middle turnbuckle
-Bobby Heenan pinned Salvatore Bellomo at 8:56 by blocking a sunset flip into the ring and punching Bellomo in the face
-Angelo Mosca defeated Mr. Fuji via disqualification at 8:01 when Fuji threw salt into Mosca’s eyes as Fuji was caught in the sleeper (Mosca’s MSG return after more than 3 years; his final MSG appearance)
-Bob Orton Jr. pinned Swede Hanson at 8:51 with a reverse splash off the top
-Roddy Piper (w/ Bob Orton Jr.) fought the Tonga Kid (w/ Jimmy Snuka) to a double disqualification at 7:03 when both Snuka and Orton interfered; after the bout, Snuka and Tonga cleared the ring
-Barry Windham pinned Moondog Rex at 12:11 with the bulldog (Windham’s MSG debut)
-Tony Atlas pinned the Executioner at 1:48 with a gorilla press slam and splash
-David Schultz pinned Rocky Johnson at 9:25 after reversing a powerslam attempt into a cradle
-David Sammartino (w/ Bruno Sammartino) defeated Ken Patera (w/ Capt. Lou Albano) via disqualification at 12:24 when Albano tripped David from the outside; after the bout, Bruno chased Albano in and out of the ring (Bruno’s MSG return after a 4-year absence)
-Tito Santana fought WWF IC Champion Greg Valentine to a curfew draw at 22:23; after the bout, Santana had to be held back from further attacking the champion

-I’m in favor of giving a show a chance if I haven’t seen it, buuuuut I can believe a “boring” chant for at least four of these matches. And actually to tie this into something Watts said earlier in the show, Mid-South did a “fan appreciation night” and bragged about how 12,000 fans showed up. Meanwhile, the week prior to this show, the WWF made their Oklahoma debut and with Junkyard Dog in the main event, they drew 1,500, giving Vince his first heads-up that the Mid-South territory was going to be a tough nut to crack. But Bill’s whole tangent about MSG puts something into focus about the difference in how the WWF and Mid-South: the WWF’s marketing revolved around “you’ll see the stars.” Mid-South was all about the action. I mean, yes, obviously, you have to have stars who will sell tickets, but they constantly hype the level of STUFF that happens each week on the show and Boyd throws it to every commercial by asking us to “stay tuned to the EXCITING Mid-South Wrestling!” The core of their marketing is “We will not allow you to get bored.” And it worked for them!

-Armstrong dropkicks Victory and finishes with a sleeper, and it looks really bad because Victory was expecting a clothesline and he was already on his back by the time he figured out that Armstrong was holding onto him. Man, truth in advertising, shouldn’t they be making this guy wrestle as Jack Job until he finally gets a win?

NON-TITLE: TED DIBIASE & SHEIK HERCULES HERNANDEZ (Tag Team Champions, with Skandar Akbar) vs. TERRY TAYLOR & TIM HORNER
-Thinking about it too much, it’s kind of intriguing that somehow, DiBiase hasn’t met whatever the qualifications are for an honorary Sheik title.

-Herc and Taylor start. Herc misses an elbow and Taylor goes to work. Horner and Taylor double-team to keep the arm work going. Herc boots Horner away and tags DiBiase. Horner gets a near-fall on DiBiase as they’re serious about this push. DiBiase ends up in the face corner and gets pinballed, a spot he really, really liked as a heel. Back in, a back suplex stops Horner’s progress and Herc gets back in and press slams him. They’re still trying to make “Hercules Unchained” a thing at this point, and it’s such an irritating nickname because he already has TWO damn nicknames in his billing and, I mean, he’s a dastardly, cheating heel. “Unchained” as opposed to what?!

-Taylor tags in and he and Herc wipe each other out on a double clothesline. Double tags and Horner cleans house(!) as Reed comes back to ringside to give Akbar a receipt, just beating the shit out of him on the concrete floor, but oops, the referee is distracted by that, so out comes the glove. Horner is knocked out cold, and DiBiase gets the pin.

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Well, it was certainly better than that damn New York wrestling!