wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Wrestling (3.15.1986) Review
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...-The influence of JCP on TBS is showing a little bit an entire year before they buy this promotion. We have a cold open now with exciting chaotic clips of Koko B. Ware cleaning house in last week’s feature match.
-Originally aired March 15, 1986.
-Your hosts are Bill & Joel Watts. Bill Watts announces that since Dick Slater threw away the TV Title medallion, Slater has a one-week deadline to replace the medallion, and he must do it out of his own pocket. AND he has to defend that TV Title next week.
-Also, next week, Mid-South’s new name will be announced.
-Breaking: The Guerreros and the Koloffs have entered the Jim Senior Cup Memorial Crockett Junior Million-Dollar Tournament and Great American Waffle House. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson have entered. Jim Duggan & Terry Taylor will represent Mid-South. Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood will also be teaming up.
BRETT WAYNE SAWYER & DAVID PETERSON vs. GUSTAVO MENDOZA & SEAN O’REILLY
-Sawyer cleans house with a series of dropkicks. Peterson comes in and throws a dropkick. Heels get whipped into each other and Peterson finishes with a Thesz Press. Peterson is a weird example of the X-factor in pro wrestling. He has a great look, he’s a good worker, but there’s just SOMETHING missing from him.
TERRY TAYLOR vs. ROB RICKSTEINER (with Buzz Sawyer)
-Sawyer is now mentoring Ricksteiner, and you can tell wrestling is a work because if this was reality, Sawyer would just take $1,000 from Ricksteiner and fuck off to another promotion without telling him.
-Ricksteiner goes for a hiptoss, but Taylor turns it into a backslide for two. Sawyer pauses the match to pep-talk his trainee. Ricksteiner press slams him for two, so the advice must have worked. Chops and chokes by Rick Steiner. Taylor fights back with a knee for two, and the five-arm gets a three-count.
HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. RICK DAVIDSON
-Duggan wrestles with Davidson while Bill Watts wrestles with the words “aficionado” and “arthroscopic” on commentary. Three-point stance into a spear to win.
-Buzz Sawyer charges to the ring and demands a fight, if Duggan has any GUTS. Duggan is game, so Sawyer heads in for an unexpectedly one-sided ass-kicking, as Duggan just beats the hell out of him and knocks him out to the concrete.
HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. “Mad Dog” BUZZ SAWYER
-Back from commercial, we learn that a referee came to the ring to make it a proper match two minutes ago, and we return to the show right in time for Duggan to clothesline Sawyer and get the three-count, so now he has an official victory over Sawyer.
-Duggan heads to the locker room, but Sawyer puts on one end of his dog chain and insults Duggan’s girlfriend, and Duggan takes the bait and agrees to a chain match.
CHAIN MATCH: HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. “Mad Dog” BUZZ SAWYER
-So Duggan takes the bait and puts on the other half of the chain, with two referees assisting him, and while none of them are looking, Sawyer puts his end of the chain around the top rope, so Duggan is now attached to the ring itself and doesn’t know it.
-Sawyer attacks Duggan with a cheap shot, then runs to the other side of the ring, so when Duggan runs after him, the chain snaps his neck back and Duggan is HURT. Sawyer whips Duggan repeatedly with the chain and fights off every jobber who tries to rescue the Hacksaw. Steve Williams and Ted DiBiase hit the ring to make the save, and Sawyer walks off, cackling evilly about lasting an entire week more in this promotion, setting a new record for himself. Great angle!
-We get words from the Rock & Roll Express, who are coming back to the Mid-South area for a tour as part of the Mid-South/JCP cross promotion effort.
-Terry Taylor is sitting in for commentary now because Dick Slater is wrestling in the next match and he wants to study Slater’s ring style for himself.
DICK SLATER (North American and Television Champion, with Dark Journey) vs. TRACY SMOTHERS
-Slater clamps on a side headlock and the action stays pretty basic until Slater just suddenly throws Smothers out to the concrete. Suplex and a neckbreaker by Slater gets two, and the fans are surprised and impressed that Smothers is hanging in there. Smothers even gets a backslide for a one-count, and Slater goes for a cradle, settling for any win he can get on Smothers at this point.
-Smothers tries a sunset flip but gets blocked with a punch. Smothers just keeps up the fight, but Slater suckers him into trying a move off the second rope, and Slater steps out of the way, lets him crash, and finishes with a Samoan drop. Pretty good stuff, with Smothers showing some potential in there.
KORSTIA KORCHENKO (with Eddie Gilbert) vs. RICKY GIBSON
-It’s funny how Korchenko has a distinctive haircut, dyed facial hair, and big furry boots, and even with all those modifications, he STILL manages to just look like your average guy who belches in mid-sentence while asking which aisle has the WD-40.
-Korchenko chokes out Gibson. Gibson throws dropkicks that rock Korchenko a little bit, but it doesn’t knock him over. Korchenko shakes it off and hits a backbreaker for three. Watts is just in his glory here, ranting about the number of foreign wrestlers who not only come to a capitalist country to make a living in wrestling, but Watts hears these filthy commies even keep their money in American banks because they know that America has better interest rates.
SHEEPHERDERS vs. PERRY JACKSON & STEVE DOLL
-Luke drives elbows into Doll. Butch tags in and chokes him out. Jackson tags in and takes his share of the beating. Double gutbuster gets the three-count. I still don’t get how multiple wrestling promoters settled on New Zealand as a good target for USA vs. The Other Guys. Is there now or has there ever been anyone in America with any significant negative thoughts about New Zealand.
-And here are Ted DiBiase and Steve Williams, waving the flag and standing up for America, triggering an end-of-show brawl.
