Mid-South Wrestling (3.26.1983) Review

-Originally aired March 26, 1983.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts.

-We get a personality profile on Andre the Giant. This looks like it was produced as a news package for a local station. Andre touches on life outside of the ring; he follows soccer and owns a share of a restaurant in Quebec. Kind of a sad moment the interviewer asks Andre about his plans for life after wrestling and Andre says he hasn’t even bothered considering it.

-Now Bill Watts welcomes Hacksaw Duggan. Watts reminds us about Kamala’s surprise attack on Andre the Giant during his match with the Rat Pack, and we finally revisit Duggan’s promo from the following week, where he adamantly tells us that the Rat Pack would never, ever, ever conduct business with Skandar Akbar, and it was just a coincidence that the surprise attack happened during that match.

-So now we jump ahead to February 25 in Houston, with Bill Watts and Duggan adding new commentary. Tony Atlas is battling Kamala. Atlas is hammering Kamala and actually dominating the match when the referee is suddenly wiped out. Hacksaw Duggan, who was feuding with Tony Atlas, comes in and attacks Atlas. He tells Friday to relay some instructions to Kamala, and Kamala holds Atlas in place, but Atlas ducks and Duggan accidentally spears Kamala. Duggan, on commentary, goes off on a tangent about how this kind of screw-up is exactly why he avoids collaborating with wrestlers from outside the USA, because a wrestler who was born here and speaks English fluently would have done that correctly.

-Atlas knocks Duggan out of the ring. Atlas dropkicks Kamala over the top rope and onto the floor, and Duggan heads back in again. Atlas takes him to the mat and Kamala makes it back into the ring and splashs Atlas while he’s down there. Atlas gets sent out to the floor and gets the win by count-out.

-Duggan reiterates that he was in there because of Atlas, and insists that he has no interest in doing business with Skandar Akbar.

-And now we revisit the Mr. Wrestling II/Mr. Olympia saga. Olympia’s luggage was filled with threatening messages to II and vandalized II masks, and Olympia insists that it’s his suitcase, but that he doesn’t know how that stuff got in there. Bill Watts pretty much chooses a side here, introducing video of a Mr. Olympia promo by calling him “The Judas Iscariot of Wrestling.”

BLACK NINJA vs. MIKE JACKSON
-And with 23 minutes remaining in the show, we go to our first match. Kickin’ and a’choppin’ and a’chokin’ by the Ninja. Nerve hold applied as Bill Watts says that “We still don’t know who controls this man,” which means Skandar Akbar’s presence is imminent. One more big kick finishes.

JUNKYARD DOG vs. GOLDEN DRAGON
-Black Ninja returns to the ring before the match starts and wants to do another demonstration with the kendo stick while JYD winds up his chain, ready to strike the moment he senses funny business. Once again, Ninja leaves without incident.

-JYD gives Dragon a hard right, which Watts declares to be “American ingenuity.” Full nelson by JYD. Dragon reverses, and JYD simply powers out of it. Bif forearm by the Dog, and the Thump finishes right away. So basically Dragon was just brought in as cannon fodder to build this feud.

SUPER DESTROYER vs. JOE STARK
-Side headlock by Destroyer. Stark goes to a top wristlock, but Destroyer slams him and beats him down while Bill Watts notes that Ted DiBiase is “mysteriously missing” from the Mid-South area as of late.

-Stark somehow has a nosebleed as Destroyer chokes him over the middle rope. Chinlock by Destroyer. Blood is just pouring out of Stark’s nose by the time be breaks out of it and Destroyer’s arm is covered. Super Destroyer comes off the second rope with an axehandle and chokes Stark some more. Superplex finishes. No idea what the hell happened to Stark’s nose but Super D looks like a total badass as a result of it.

NON-TITLE: MR. WRESTLING II & TIGER CONWAY JR. (Tag Team Champions vs. RAT PACK
-it’s Borne and Hacksaw Duggan, since DiBiase is missing for some reason. As the match starts, Super Destroyer returns to the ring and just calmly has a seat, watching for something.

-II single-handedly clears the ring. Everybody tags and it’s Duggan vs. Conway. Dropkick and an armdrag by Conway. Duggan is caught in an armbar. II tags in and applies his own armbar. Borne trips him from outside and the Rat Pack takes over. Borne slams II and goes for Bombs Away immediately, but II rolls out of the way and tags. Conway tags in and gets elbowed down. Duggan tags back in and gives Conway a backbreaker and a knee for a one-count. Conway surprises him with a cradle for a two-count.

-Borne tags in and tries to finish, but Conway slips away and makes the hot tag to II. All four men end up in the ring. Conway gets shoulderblocked out to the floor, which leaves II alone in the ring with two opponents. So Duggan…wait for it…tells Borne to hold up II for a spear, since Borne was born in America and speaks English. And once again, the move backfires. Duggan accidentally spears his partner and II rolls over and gets the three-count. Whoops! Good match with a totally unexpected payoff to something we saw earlier in the show.

-So after the match, Duggan and Borne get into an argument. Borne shoves Duggan and walks away, but Duggan responds with a sneak attack, and now suddenly Super Destroyer enters the ring, and at long last, Duggan has a friend who can do the spot correctly, as Destroyer holds Borne in place and Duggan hits the spear. A superplex by Destroyer leaves Borne for dead. That’s actually a hell of an ending for a Mid-South broadcast, which usually went for the more believable approach of ending with two jobbers filling time because they used up all the “good” matches.

7.1

The final score: review Good

The 411

They've been building this long enough that I now feel comfortable declaring the JYD/Black Ninja feud to be flaming death. The rest of the show was solid, though.