wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Wrestling (4.9.1983) Review
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired April 9, 1983.
-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts. Boyd’s suit appears to be a parquet floor.
-We recap the Mr. Wrestling II/Mr. Olympia feud. I stand by my complaint that it took WAY too damn long for them to pay this off, but at least the shocking reveal went somewhere.
MR. OLYMPIA (with Skandar Akbar) vs. TIM HORNER
-Olympia should be inducted into the “Hall of Infamy,” says Watts. Snap. Olympia goes aggressive in accordance with his newly acquired heeldom, ramming Horner into the turnbuckles and dropping fists on him. Horner is able to give it back to him for a bit but he crashes on an attempted dropkick. Olympia capitalizes with a backbreaker, but it only gets a one-count. Horner still has some fight in him but Olympia ducks him and rams him neck-first into the top rope, and the sleeper hold finishes…eventually. Nice touch, as the referee forces him to release because the new evil version of Olympia turned it into a chokehold, so Olympia has to do the sleeper a second time to get the win.
-Oh, more seed-planting from Bill during that last match, as Bill off-handedly mentioned that Hacksaw Duggan had some “family trauma” during the Iranian hostage crisis, which is why he was so insistent on making sure the entire world knows that the Rat Pack won’t do business with Skandar Akbar.
-We flash back a few weeks ago to the Rat Pack bungling an attempted double-team on Tiger Conway, which led to Duggan and the debuting Super Destroyer attacking Matt Borne and apparently ending the Rat Pack for good.
JUNKYARD DOG vs. SUPER DESTROYER
-Dog goes right on the attack as Watts says that JYD doesn’t even know who he can trust anymore because his friends keep turning on him. He’s kind of turning into Mid-South’s version of Hulk Hogan, where you side with him at first, but eventually so many friends betray the Junkyard Dog that it makes you think. Dog works the arm over. Destroyer fights back with a bodypress, but Dog shakes him off and goes back to the arm. Olympia gets back to his feet and rams Dog in the corner to break the hold. Dog headbutts him down and snapmares him, but he misses a falling headbutt and Destroyer goes to work.
-Tangent out of nowhere from Bill Watts about Terry Orndorff, who you don’t see around Mid-South anymore because he wouldn’t put in the time going to the gym, whereas JYD puts in the time and gives it his best. This masterfully-timed tangent is followed by JYD doing the laziest one-legged sideways flop of a “bump” by JYD to sell a snapmare.
-Dog fights back with a clothesline, and the Thump finishes clean as a sheet. Good little match.
-King Kong Bundy puts Mid-South on notice. He only wants to wrestle JYD and Andre the Giant, and making him wrestle a bunch of jobbers is insulting.
KING KONG BUNDY vs. JOHN DAVIDSON
-Davidson gets pounded down and shoulderblocked in Incredible fashion. Big splash gets the five-count.
KAMALA & BLACK NINJA (with Skandar Akbar & Friday) vs. ART CREWS & RON ELLIS
-Crews trades chops with Ninja and has some luck with it, but Ninja connects with kicks and appears to take over. Crews keeps fighting with a flurry of punches. Kamala tags in and does his version of chops all over Crews. Ellis tags in and doesn’t last long at all, getting splashed for the three-count.
HACKSAW BUTCH REED vs. KELLY KINISKI
-Kiniski goes on the offensive right away with an Irish whip. Reed fights back with an atomic drop and dropkicks, with Kiniski doing a GREAT bump from the atomic drop. Shots to the neck by Reed as Watts mentions we have three minutes left, but since these boys know they don’t get paid by the hour, we’ll probably be able to finish this match. And sure enough, a press slam and a flying shoulderblock finish.
-And they went home WAY too early, as Bill Watts begins to sign off and somebody clues him in that there’s still three minutes left in the show, so he and Boyd explain the Olympia heel turn one more time (with Boyd using the term “crossing over”).
