Mid-South Wrestling (5.25.1985) Review

-Originally aired May 25, 1985.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Joel Watts. Skandar Akbar is back in Mid-South and Joel admits that his dad has snapped because of all the stress.

-We go to pre-taped words from the Cowboy himself. Jim Duggan got his face set on fire, even though–wait for it–he asks no quarter and gives none. And then two draft-dodging bums assaulted Terry Daniels, a man who wore his country’s uniform. And THEN Skandar Akbar lawyered up because there are lawyers in America who will stoop to representing Skandar Akbar. He’s tired of bureaucracy, he’s tired of navigating through lawyers and contracts and technicalities. He wants wrestling to go back to just plain WRESTLING–two guys fight and one guy wins, end of debate. So Watts announces he’s coming out of retirement to stand up for wrestling AND America.

-We go to more pre-taped words from Skandar Akbar, who says the only thing he agrees with Watts about is asking no quarter and giving none. Akbar says Watts is crazy for coming out of retirement and promises to ruin Watts if he tries to make a career out of wrestling again.

KAMALA (with Skandar Akbar) vs. VERN DEATON
-Chops by Kamala, and a big choke follows. Big splash finishes right away.

THE BRUTE (with Skandar Akbar) vs. FRANK LANE
-Akbar introduces his new charge, and Googling around has turned up nothing about him. But before we even really see anything of him, Jim Duggan shows up, somehow more bandaged up than he was last week, and beats the hell out of Akbar. Brute tries to rescue his manager, but a boot to the gut is all it takes to neutralize him, and Duggan clears the ring, or “walks tall” in Mid-Southese.

RICK FLAIR (World Champion) vs. WENDELL COOLEY
-Come on, spelling it with a K? I expected better from Mid-South. Flair is a tweener here, shaking hands with Cooley before starting the match.

-They go to the mat as Joel Watts explains that given the difference in experience, no one could expect Cooley to win this match, but if he can last the ten-minute TV time limit, it would certainly advance his career.

-Cooley hiptosses Flair. Flair fights back with a nice double underhook for two. Flair throws Cooley out to the floor and rams him into the barricade, revealing a “mean streak” as Joel notes that he’s technically sound but he’s never considered himself above that kind of conduct.

-Back in, Flair is feeling cocky about the beating and very nonchalantly prepares to finish him off, but Cooley surprises him with a bodypress for two and Flair freaks out, immediately backing into the corner and begging off. It turns into a fight, and Cooley cradles Flair for two. Flair is straight-up panicking now. Boot to the stomach and a suplex by Flair turn the tide for him, and a figure four finishes. Flair gets the win, but Cooley gets street cred even from this losing effort.

BRICKHOUSE BROWN & BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. THE BARBARIAN & JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS
-Brickhouse starts with Snake. Brickhouse applies a side headlock. Jake gets free, but Brickhouse surprises everyone by clearing the ring with dropkicks. Jake’s pajama-pants look is so weird; he’s talked in shoot interviews about how Vince pretty much put a gun to his head and told him he had to switch to tights if he wanted to be in the WWF. The pants that he wears here just make him look like a schlub who’s working his first match ever and showed up totally unprepared for it.

-Brad works Jake’s arm, and Jake’s had enough and lets Barbarian take over, and Barbarian’s more than ready, as he just takes over and dominates Brad. Jake tags back in now that Brad’s weakened, but Brad has just enough left for one good clothesline, and it’s hot tag to Brickhouse. Brickhouse goes back to the dropkicks, since it worked the first time, and Barbarian ends up on the floor from one good dropkick.

-Jake dodges a second-rope bodypress and Brickhouse crashes. Barbarian shakes off the cobwebs and tags back in, applying the full nelson. Brickhouse fights it and fights it and fights it and fights it and fights it and fights it and fights it and fights it and fights it and fights it. Brad finally sneaks in and throws a dropkick on Barbarian’s back just to force the break, but it causes everyone to collide with the referee, so Jake slips in and DDTs Brickhouse, and by the time the referee recovers, Jake is on top of Brickhouse for a three-count. Great match with a solid story all the way through it.

TERRY TAYLOR (North American Champion) vs. GENERAL EDDIE GILBERT
-The shot of Terry Taylor wearing the title belt is more than enough ammo for saying that the North American Title really was one of the worst belt designs ever, as Watts apparently had it designed for Mabel-sized workers and Taylor looks like the son of a wrestling champion walking around the house with Daddy’s belt on.

-The feeling-out process starts as Ric Flair suddenly comes to the ring to scout Terry Taylor, and the commentators suspect that Flair is quietly worried about Taylor as an opponent.

-Bodypress by Taylor gets two. Gilbert keeps trying to get some offense going, but Taylor just reverses and counters everything, finally putting Gilbert into the figure four for a quick submission. Taylor absolutely squashed Gilbert and Flair freaks out at how easily Taylor won that. He gets into the ring and jaws with Taylor, and it turns physical, with Flair locking on the figure four…but Taylor has mastered the reversal and Flair frantically screams “YES!” indicating he would actually submit if this happened in a sanctioned match. Eddie Gilbert tries to avenge the loss by attacking Taylor as he releases the hold, but Snowman shows up to help his friend Terry Taylor, so we’re just gonna keep trying.

TED DIBIASE & “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS vs. MIKE SOMAINI & JIM JEFFERS
-Williams takes down Jeffers and drops the leg, and the commentators credit DiBiase for how rapidly Williams has improved as a worker in just a few months. Simaini tags in and DiBiase does a little work, but Williams hits the piledriver and the Stampede for an easy victory.

TV TITLE: SNOWMAN (Champion) vs. TOMMY PRICHARD
-At the VERY least, explain why we’re calling this guy Snowman, because unless we see some Joel Watts-edited video of him selling cocaine with his buddies to the music of Eric Clapton, there’s no visible reason that the black guy with black tights should be walking around with the name Snowman. Powerslam by Snowman gets a quick pin because they started a TV Title match with four minutes left in the show.

-Ric Flair storms over to the commentary table and cuts a promo to save face after the embarrassing showing a few minutes ago.

8.3

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

"The Ric Flair Show" was pretty great this week, with the whole hour just being a master class in making the local guy look like a star.