Mid-South Wrestling (3.10.1984) Review

-Originally aired March 10, 1984.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Jim Ross.

-Bill Watts is at ringside with Mr. Wrestling II and Magnum TA. Bill replays last week’s incident when Magnum came to II’s rescue and is clearly trying guilt as a tactic, but anybody in 1984 wearing a brown disco leisure suit like II is wearing is incapable of feeling shame, so it doesn’t really work. And then II screwed Magnum later in the show by throwing in the towel with exceptionally bad timing, causing TA to lose by “submission” in a situation where he had the match won.

-Back to the live interview, II directly contradicts himself, saying that he was looking out for TA’s safety, but then turning right around and saying he heard TA say “I quit,” and Bill calls him out on the hypocrisy. But more importantly, this is the moment where Magnum finally says ENOUGH and stands up to II. II winds up and tries to slap him again, but this time, TA blocks the slap and climbs right in the ring and offers II the fight that II wanted last time. But II says TA will just make excuses when he loses, so nah.

NIKOLAI VOLKOFF vs. KRUSHER KRUSCHEV vs. JOE SAVOLDI & JOHN KING
-It always felt like from week to week they couldn’t decide how to spell Krusher’s last night, which is amazing since they took the name from a real person so they had a point of reference.

-King gets double-teamed repeatedly even though he’s wearing red tights and kneepads and looks like he’s on their side. Savoldi tags in and just immediately winds up in a body vice, and the Russians take the win by submission.

TV TITLE TOURNAMENT, QUARTERFINAL: TERRY TAYLOR vs. MASAO ITO
-Taylor applies a wristlock. Ito escapes but falls into a hiptoss and an armdrag. Taylor stays on the arm and slams him for a one-count. Ito gives him a shot to the throat, then locks on a devastating fat grab and that is all that happens between now and Tuesday night’s spot show in Natchitoches. Taylor finally gets as bored as the rest of us and punches out, but he collides with the referee on an Irish whip,and Ito throws Taylor over the top rope before dashing over to revive the referee.

-The referee wakes up and Ito tries to tell him to count out Taylor, not seeing that Taylor has crawled under the ring and gone across to the other side, so when the referee and Ito go to look at Taylor, they don’t see him, much to Ito’s confusion, and Taylor sneaks up behind both of them and rolls up Ito for a three-count, and that would have been a great finish if it wasn’t for the part where Ito and the referee went to the wrong side of the ring first and both of them totally saw Taylor. Dull match, bungled finish, and I don’t say that often about this territory.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Jim Cornette)
-This is, if you can fathom it, the first meeting ever between the teams, and Cornette cuts a pre-match promo to explain that a second team using “Express” branding rubs him the wrong way and he asked for this match just to scout the new guys and see what they’re worth. Crowd is PUMPED right away too.

-Eaton and Gibson start. Gibson with flying headscissors. Morton comes in with a Frakensteiner and the crowd just loses their shit and you can see dollar signs all over these four guys. Condrey tags in and Morton clears him out of the ring with a dropkick, and again, the crowd is cheering like this is the main event blowoff to a long-simmering feud.

-Everybody tags and Eaton launches Gibson high in the air for a backdrop. Everybody tags again and Morton gets shoulderblocked repeatedly. Morton fights back with dropkicks because they work, and Condrey goes out to the floor for team huddle. The advice works and a double underhook has Morton reeling. He survives and tags out unusually quickly by his own standards, and the Rock & Rolls connect with a double dropkick, but shockingly Eaton kicks out at two…and here come the Russians with a pair of scissors, and to the crowd’s horror, they cut Ricky Morton’s hair, and they chop off quite a bit of it before Magnum and Terry Taylor come to the rescue. Great little TV match that made me want more. Worth noting that Ricky would drastically change his tune about haircuts in future years because he ended up walking out of the NWA in 1988 over plans for an angle with the Sheepherders.

JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs. JASON WALKER
-Jake works the arm and takes him down aggressively while Jim Ross reports that fans are writing in wondering what’s up with Hacksaw Jim Duggan because apparently they saw him on TV in Florida beating up on the popular wrestlers there, and JR hopes we can have updates in future weeks on that mystery. It’s “The Case of the Slowly Dissolving Territory System.”

-DDT by Jake finishes in short order, and JR doesn’t even know what to call it, he just knows Jake is the only one who does it.

HACKSAW BUTCH REED & “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL vs. LEAPING LANNY POFFO & GEORGE WEINGROFF
-Weingroff reverses a hiptoss on Landell. Reed tags in and Lanny Poffo applies a hammerlock on him while throwing kicks at Landell on the apron. Weingroff comes back in to do his own arm work. Poffo and Weingroff do a nice job of cutting the ring in half and tying up Reed until Poffo crashes on a corner charge. Landell tags in but can’t capitalize. Poffo slips away and tags in Weingroff. Weingroff takes on both opponents, but Reed slips in with a stealth tag and gorilla presses Weingroff, and a big elbow finishes.

-We finish the hour with a video package highlighting the great city of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Okay.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

It's Rock & Rolls vs. Midnights! Do you need my permission to watch? Really?