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Mid-South Wrestling (4.30.1983) Review

April 1, 2020 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
King Kong Bundy Mid-South Wrestling 4-30-1983 Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
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Mid-South Wrestling (4.30.1983) Review  

-Originally aired April 30, 1983.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts. Mid-South Wrestling just set the attendance record for any event ever held in the month of April in the Superdome, and we have highlights this week courtesy of videographer Greg Solie.

-We lead off with a music video of sorts, shot by Solie, of fans arriving at the venue at dusk, and whatever music was here originally HAD to have been better than WWE’s choice of dubbing fodder. We get soundbites from various kids on their way inside, and everybody came to see the Junkyard Dog. Thing that jumps out at me is that there isn’t one white person among the soundbites. Bill Watts did an amazing job of reaching out to every audience.

-Bill Watts lays out your complicated storyline: The Tag Team Titles changed hands three days before the Superdome card, so the Superdome card had to be rearranged. Watts also boasts that for the first time in history an unadvertised steel cage match happened as a surprise bonus for fans. Not advertising the match went over so well that today, WWE house shows consist entirely of surprise bonuses for the fans.

TAG TEAM TITLE: TED DIBIASE & MR. OLYMPIA (New Champions, with Skandar Akbar) vs. MR. WRESTLING II & TIGER CONWAY, JR.

-II whips and backdrops DiBiase, and DiBiase gets sent out to the floor. Back in, the faces work the arm, and flying headscissors sends DiBiase back out to the floor. Watts lays more pipe, saying this was originally supposed to be DiBiase and Black Ninja against II and Conway, but DiBiase and Olympia won the belts and Mid-South Wrestling changed the card, even though that now forces Olympia to wrestle twice in one night. His next match will be against JYD.

-Olympia tags in to face II, and Olympia is making life hell for the fans in the cheap seats because he’s wearing a white mask and white tights. Champs get Irish whipped into each other. Faces just dominate, but Conway tries to finish with a victory roll and Olympia overpowers him, turning it into a a stun gun. Olympia goes in for the kill immediately, applying a sleeper hold. Watts does an awesome job of putting over the damage done to Conway’s throat here. The only reason he’s not crying is because he’s not getting enough oxygen to do it.

-All four men end up in a brouhaha and the referee breaks it up, but while the referee is dealing with II, DiBiase knocks out Conway with his loaded glove. Olympia slips over and applies a sleeper on him, and the arm drops three times, so DiBiase and Olympia retain. Crowd is pissed off. The champs just got annihilated and then did one sleazy thing and pulled out the win.

-We go to the interview area at Irish McNeil where Hacksaw Jim Duggan stands alone and says he’s disappointed in his best friend. Ted DiBiase looked him square in the eye and pledged that he was never going to align himself with Skandar Akbar, and then he pulled THIS. Duggan basically says he wants a peaceful split and tells DiBiase to go his way, and Duggan pledges to go his way, and he just wants to leave it at that, but he gives Skandar Akbar a verbal middle finger to finish up because he’s disgusted with the shady business deals he’s made in Iran to build his fortune.

SURPRISE BONUS STEEL CAGE MATCH, HELD-UP NORTH AMERICAN TITLE: JUNKYARD DOG vs. MR. OLYMPIA (with Skandar Akbar)

-Watts explains that not only is it a surprise for the fans, but they didn’t tell the wrestlers, so they’re only seeing the cage when they come down the aisle for the introduction. JYD walks in cool as a cucumber, but Olympia, who’s already wrestled, throws a fit about being tricked into wrestling a cage match.

-JYD punches and strangles Olympia, who’s trying to climb out of the cage, but JYD drags him back in and makes him face his punishment. Great spot with Olympia getting his foot tangled in the ropes while in a prone position, so JYD does one headbutt after another.

-Suddenly the cameras cut to a silhouette running away from the ring and Watts says that this was a dastardly act by Akbar. He knew a camera was recording tonight’s event so he unplugged a cable so there’d be no video to review of what’s happening. The shadowy figure running away is Black Ninja, and the camera hastily turns back to the ring where JYD is staggering and covering his eyes in pain. GREAT passion from the fans here, as a fan throws a drink at Dog to try to clear his eyes. Olympia capitalizes by locking on a sleeper. JYD goes limp and slumps backwards, falling on top of Olympia…and getting a three-count. JYD wins the North American Title by complete accident.

-We go to Akbar and Olympia, who magnificently, angrily, hypocritically complain about how JYD didn’t deserve to win, and they got cheated out of the victory and the belt.

-We go to pre-taped words from King Kong Bundy, wearing a suit and smoking a cigar, and holy SHIT that’s a great look for him. He looks like the guy who’d be sent to break a gambler’s thumbs. He promises to unveil a new wrestling “technique,” called the Atlantic City Avalanche.

KING KONG BUNDY vs. DON CLARK

-Bundy pounds away at Clark and cracks him with a Flair-style chop. AMAZING finish to this, as Bundy whips him to set up the Atlantic City Avalanche in the corner. And Clark legit trips and falls to one knee in the corner as Bundy is already half-way across the ring, and Bundy has to stop himself from hitting the move. Bundy is visibly disappointed, and when the jobber gets to his feet, Bundy just does the laziest avalanche ever, just pretty much pressing up against him as Watts can’t even pretend it looked devastating, and Bundy just powerslams him to end it. Eleven and three-quarter stars. Bonus points to Boyd Pierce, who puts over the avalanche by saying it’s move we’ve seen before anyway, Bundy just calls it something different. This match truly answers the question “What is the sound of a wrestling promoter flipping his desk over after a TV taping?”

BLACK NINJA (with Skandar Akbar) vs. KEN WOODBY

-Kicks and chops and chokes and kicks and chops and chokes and SURPRISE Hacksaw Duggan shows up and attacks Ninja! Ninja gets his feet tangled in the ropes and with Ninja unable to move, Duggan just beats the holy stuffing out of Akbar and rips his clothes off.

JUNKYARD DOG (North American Champion) vs. RON CHEATHAM

-They heavily tout that Dog has new entrance music this week, which of course doesn’t matter here. Dog makes short work of Cheatham, which serves him right. Who would ever want to cheat on ham? Thump ends it.

MR. OLYMPIA (with Ted DiBiase) vs. ART CREWS

-Slams and elbows by Olympia as Watts notices the curious way that DiBiase is dressed, wearing a suit but also clearly wearing his wrestling boots, so he seems like he wants to be ready for something. Olympia is aggressive and moving at a quick clip, clearly pretty angry about how the past week has gone. Atomic drop by Olympia gets a two-count while Watts sucks himself off for the surprise cage match stunt. “Other promoters advertise cage matches and use it as an excuse to jack up the prices!”

-Crews comes to life with clotheslines as Watts predicts he’ll turn into a star at some point, but Olympia cuts off the comeback and piledrives Crews. Sleeper is academic.

-Akbar staggers out here in his shredded clothes and waves DiBiase and Olympia over. He orders that Hacksaw Duggan be eliminated from Mid-South. DiBiase has an unexpected reaction to this, noting that Duggan said in his promo earlier that he wanted a peaceful split, and DiBiase is actually fine with that, so he tells Akbar, very straightforward, that as long as Duggan doesn’t interfere in one of his own matches, he won’t pick a fight with the man. Akbar just looks so annoyed, standing there in his torn clothes and listening to DiBiase nope out on this plan, so he says “Fine” and declares that he’s just going to make Ninja fight Duggan.

9.0
The final score: review Amazing
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Mid-South Wrestling, Adam Nedeff