wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Wrestling (3.8.1986) Review
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired March 8, 1986.
-Your hosts are Bill & Joel.
-The 1st Annual Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament Cup for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence is coming in April, and there will be NO television coverage of it, because how the hell can you expect a wrestling promotion to make money with television coverage of supercards?
-In other Mid-South news, Bill announces that the promotion has grown exponentially in the past year or so, so the name “Mid-South Wrestling” just doesn’t make sense anymore. In two weeks, an announcement will be made about the new name of the promotion. Aww. This is the Mid-South Wrestling version of the episode where Holly comes back to the Scranton branch. You watch it in hindsight and all it means is “the good times are ending soon.”
-We go to Houston, where the North American Title is on the line in a no-DQ match between Jake and Dick, with Dark Journey suspended from a cage over the ring. Dark Journey manages to pass a chain through the bars and Slater makes full use of it, then throws Jake over the top rope. Jake crawls back in, and Slater jumps off the top rope with a forearm to achieve a hat trick of illegal tactics being exploited. And he pins Jake clean as a sheet, under the circumstances, which makes him both the North American Champion and the TV Champion. And with that, Jake is free to go to Titan Sports and adjust to life in spandex. But I’m sure he and Bill Watts will cross paths again someday, and it’ll be a warm, joyful reunion for them.
-We go to a bridge near the arena on the single windiest day of 1986. Dick Slater gripes that Mid-South powers-that-be are trying to deny him the right to hold both titles at once, and he offers to solve the problem by “retiring” one title for them, and he tosses the TV Title medal into the river.
TERRY TAYLOR vs. MIKE SCOTT
-Slugfest to start, but Taylor takes control with a backbreaker and an arm wringer. Five-arm gets a quick pin.
KOKO B. WARE vs. EDDIE GILBERT
-Gilbert offers Koko a chance to become part of Hot Stuff International, and Koko responds to that with a less-than-impressed right hand to the jaw. Koko won’t let up and Eddie’s a little surprised at how up-for-a-fight Koko is. Koko finally manages to string together some offense with an atomic drop. Bill Watts gripes that he’s recently learned that Eddie Gilbert is getting money for his talent from some wealthy woman who just bankrolls Eddie’s entire life for him, and Watts can’t believe how pathetic it is that Eddie just depends on a woman for all of his money. MEN are supposed to earn income for themselves, according to Bill, and this makes Eddie no better than that sissy Jim Cornette.
-Eddie misses a second-rope bodypress from the second rope, and Koko doesn’t waste a moment heading up to the second rope himself for a missile dropkick to get the three-count. Taurus Bulba runs to the ring, straight from his bar stool on Tatooine, and attacks Koko. Eddie grabs a chair and gets ready to finish Koko off, but Koko dropkicks Eddie and grabs the chair, and the forces of evil book it out of there while Koko celebrates with a dance. Pretty fun bit of business, if a bit short.
-The Sheepherders DEMAND a Tag Team Title match!
TED DIBIASE & “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS & SEAN O’REILLY & GUSTAVO MENDOZA
-Williams mows down O’Reilly. Sheepherders show up with the New Zealand flag while the jobbers gang up on Williams. Williams fights back and throws Mendozaaaaaaaaaa to the floor, then brings him back in for a lariat. Stampede finishes.
KORSTIA KORCHENKO (with Eddie Gilbert) vs. RON ELLIS
-Korchenko pounds down Ellis as Watts theorizes that that no-good Mongolian, Taurus Bulba, lives near the evil Russian Korchenko. Well…yes, that is how geography works, Bill. Backbreaker finishes.
BLADE RUNNERS (with Eddie Gilbert) vs. STEVE DOLL & PERRY JACKSON
-Oh, THESE guys! It’s Ultimate Warrior, or “Rock” at this stage in his career, and Sting, or “Flash” wearing minimal black facepaint, black lipstick, black gauntlets on their arms, and long black tights. Warrior is the bigger of the two, with Watts even noting that, but Sting/Flash looks about 20-25 pounds bulkier than he’d be by the time he reaches JCP.
-Shoulderblock and a slam by Flash. Rock tags in and lifts Doll up for a choke. Big elbow by Rock. Jackson tags in and falls victim to a shitty version of the Hart Attack, as Sting doesn’t jump in the air for it, he just kinda reaches up and wallops the guy. And that’s it.
DICK MURDOCH & THE MASKED SUPERSTAR (with Masked Superstar II) vs. RICKY GIBSON & TRACY SMOTHERS
-Heels work over Ricky. Baby Tracy Smothers tags in and gets mowed down with a clothesline for three.
