wrestling / TV Reports

Mid-South Wrestling (2.23.1985) Review

December 22, 2021 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Mid-South Wrestling 5-12-1984 Hacksaw Butch Reed Image Credit: WWE/Peacock

-Originally aired February 23, 1985.

-Your hosts are JR and JW.

HACKSAW BUTCH REED vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL

-Reed knocks Landell on his ass with one punch. Landell tries to play it off as no big thing and dares Reed to hit him again. So Reed just throws another punch and Landell’s dramatic sell is an instant classic. Chinlock by Reed. Bulldog follows as even the commentators point out that this is just a total drubbing. Reed works the leg and whips Landell, but Landell avoids the corner charge and then chokes Reed frantically. Reed comes back with choking of his own, and a tackle finishes. Yeah, Landell definitely has a foot out the door.

-We go to house show footage of Butch Reed receiving a special award from the local Boys Club, and it’s the most magnificently awful “plaque” from a company that totally had the money to go a trophy shop and just get “Butch Reed” engraved on a thing. The “plaque” Butch receives is just a slab of wood with “BUTCH REED” stenciled in magic marker, and when Butch holds the back of it towards the camera, the back is so weather-beaten that it’s clearly just a sawed-off piece of an old picnic bench. Butch Reed says that the boys at the club are an inspiration to him. They didn’t used to be, but then Junkyard Dog quit and all of a sudden kids were inspiring to him.

DIRTY WHITE BOYS vs. TOMMY PRICHARD & PVT. TERRY DANIELS
-Rare pre-med appearance by Prichard, who locks up with Denton and he’s here to impress somebody because they have a Flair/Garvin-style chop battle that shocks the crowd in the best possible way and they’re instantly into this.

-Tony Anthony tags in and they work his arm. Daniels tags in and that’s when it goes wrong for them. Denton rams Daniels’ head into the mat repeatedly. Elbow misses and Prichard is a house of fire, but the referee gets distracted and The Dirty White Boys cheat–I mean, “Dirty” is right there in their names, they have to be ready for that. Double Russian legsweep, and a Samoan Drop finishes for the Dirty White Boys.

THE BEST-DRESSED MAN IN MID-SOUTH II
-Now with an electronic monitoring system per DiBiase’s demands. DiBiase once again comes armed with a baseball bat. We get a cool behind-the-scenes shot of the production truck used for the TV tapings, and they have the applause meter hooked up there, so Joel Watts is outside to report on the meter readings.

-DiBiase once again demands a pat-down of Duggan before he’ll surrender his baseball bat. JR explains how an applause meter works (“Boos count the same as cheers”) and both of them model their tuxes for readings. DiBiase gets a pretty respectable response for a heel in Mid-South, but Hacksaw gets triple the response. DiBiase now disputes the way that Jim Ross explained how to respond for the meter readings, saying that his choice of words subliminally steered the fans towards cheering for Duggan and not him, and then DiBiase grabs his bat and storms out to inspect the applause meter, even though that wouldn’t matter if Jim Ross was the problem. Again, DiBiase is fantastic at instantly contradicting himself when he doesn’t get his way.

-So Joel Watts just blows him off on the grounds of “too bad, so sad,” but DiBiase notices that Duggan’s Cadillac is parked next to the production truck, and hey, he has his bat, so why not. DiBiase just obliterates the windshield with the bat until Duggan sees what’s happening on a monitor and runs out to check on his car. DiBiase takes off running before Duggan makes it to the car–this is great, as the fans have rushed out of the building and followed Duggan out there to see what’s going to happen, and Duggan is so mad that he demands the cameras turned off because he just can’t even with this.

TERRY TAYLOR & ICEMAN KING PARSONS vs. PAUL BROWN & THE BLUE DEMON

-Jake Roberts storms into the ring and demands a TV Title now, because he’s clearly recovered from last week’s injury (“You have a TAN!”) Terry calls him out for shit-stirring, as he waited until this match was not only already signed, but in the ring about to happen, so he can run in there and complain about not getting his way, when he sat back and allowed a situation that would prevent him from getting his way.

-So some referees cajole Jake to the back. Iceman starts with the Blue Demon, a masked man who can’t possibly be Owen Hart but may have once served Owen a burger. Demon gets knocked around and Brown is so green that he puts his arms up and waits when he knows Parsons wants an armdrag. Clothesline by Parsons gets three.

TAG TEAM TITLE: ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS (Champions) vs. ALAMO BUSTERS

-Funny announcement leading to this one, as, per the request of the Alamo Busters, this match will only have one referee, since requesting two referees backfired on them last week.

-Ricky Morton armdrags Hector all over the ring. Chavo tags in and gets the arm worked over. Hector tags back in and takes control with a SWEET hammerlock/headscissors combo. Chavo goads Robert into coming into the ring, which gets the referee’s attention while the Guerreros gang up on Ricky, so it looks like one referee is working out. Ricky gets caught in the corner and the referee has to break that up, so since the referee is dealing with that, now Robert just comes in and attacks, and the Express ends up clearing the ring. I love how much they’ve been able to work with “number of referees involved” as a story across two matches now.

-We’re back from commercial with Hector splashing Ricky and tagging Chavo back in. Boston crab by Chavo, but Ricky mnakes the ropes. Hector with a powerslam for two. Guerreros keep cutting off the tag until Ricky can kick away an attempted backdrop. Hot tag Robert, and all four men end up in the ring. Chavo takes out the referee with an “accidental” elbow, but JR picks up on the strategy and realizes that Chavo did it on purpose so they could have the match with zero referees.

-Robert Gibson ends up on the floor and he’s taken out with a slingshot splash on the concrete. Guerreros gang up on Morton with a double surfboard. Once the Guerreros are both on their back with Morton in the air, Gibson hurries back into the ring and slips in the space in between them to pin both Guerreros at once, and the Guerreros can’t realize the hold in time to kick out! The Express retains!

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Mid-South Wrestling, Adam Nedeff