wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Wrestling (6.11.1983) Review
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired June 11, 1983.
-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and KALB Channel 5 sports director Buddy Nichols.
TIM HORNER vs. RIP ROGERS
-Wait, shit, are we already at the end of the TV hour? Wow, not very memorable episode at all.
-Horner works the arm and we have a new referee in there this week. Rogers tries a waistlock but Horner turns it into a hammerlock. Side headlock by Horner. Dropkick by Horner and they criss-cross. Boyd is leaning back and letting Buddy steer, and he’s doing a pretty decent job. Only knock on him is he’s got that low energy style a la Marc Lowrence, but he’s saying all the right stuff.
-Rogers works the arm and whips Horner for a one-count. Horner counters a backdrop with a sunset flip. Rogers kicks out and Horner gets aggressive with forearms, and a bodypress ends it.
MAGNUM T.A. vs. TONY ZANE
-Magnum monkey flips Zane and armdrags him into an armbar. Shoulderblocks by Magnum, and dropkick. Armdrag by Magnum, and Magnum’s armdrag needs some work, Zane keeps flopping down on top of him. Bodypress by Magnum, but Zane rolls through and comes out on top for one. Corner charge is countered by a sunset flip. Zane kicks out, but an atomic drop does the trick and Magnum gets the win. Magnum looked not-great in here, as he still needed polish and Zane did not have enough of his own experience to make Magnum look like a star.
TITO SANTANA vs. MIKE VACHON
-This is Mad Dog’s son, apparently. No physical resemblance, but it’s actually the posture right before they lock up that reminds you of his dad.
-Tito works a side headlock and hits an inverted atomic drop. Tito finishes with a Fuller leglock! Wrestling needs more of that hold. I had never seen it until like three years ago, and it’s so cool looking.
SUPER DESTROYER & KING KONG BUNDY vs. DENNY ALBERTS & CRAIG CARSON
-Bundy slms and boots Alberts. Super D elbows him into the corner and Carson tags in. Alerts tags in somewhat fired up and sends Super D into the ropes, giving Buddy a chance to say “Alberts whips the big D” but Super D counters with a boot and superplexes him. And that could finish, but he offers Bundy a chance to finish. Bundy tags Alberts to his corner and swings his body toward Carson for a deliberate tag. Carson comes in and throws a lot of punches, and the crowd LOVES it, thinking for just a second that this is going to backfire in the best way possible, but Bundy shrugs it off and powerslams him for the five-count. Good finish.
-Butch Reed is here to complain about the fact that he was booked for a match against Tony Zane. He wants REAL competition, and instead Mid-South Wrestling is just letting the other guys in Mid-South use him as a stepping stone. And you know who’s really been taking advantage of him? JUNKYARD DOG! Oh yeah, he went there. JYD talks a big game about how you need to take on the best competition to make it in Mid-South, so by god, Reed is gonna do that now. He’s challenging his friend Dog. This…promo…goes…on…forever. I’m not sure if JYD missed a cue or what, but Reed makes his point in under two minutes and then cuts a promo that lasts for five. It’s so awkward as he just has nothing else to say and keeps repeating himself.
-So here comes JYD to accept the challenge and they throw down right then and there, but Ted DiBiase shows up and coldcocks JYD with his plaster cast, and it’s a 2-on-1 assault. Crowd is one step ahead of this angle and chants “Duggan! Duggan!”…but JYD and Reed take off before that can happen.
-We return with Bill Watts suddenly at the commentary table to announce that because of the previous segment, the advertised tag team title match is off, and we throw it to a pre-taped match from Houston on May 13 to fill the hour.
TED DIBIASE vs. CHARLIE COOK
-Joined in progress on a double clothesline, but DiBiase recovers from it shockingly fast and goes for a piledriver. Cook backdrops out and hammers DiBiase. Corner charge misses and DiBiase tries to finish with a stepover. Cook kicks him away. DiBiase gives Cook a shot to the throat and powerslams him to finish…but wait, the referee isn’t counting the pin. Referee shocks all of Houston by calling for the DQ on account of the shot to the throat, and it’s a big upset win for Charlie Cook. DiBiase is so damn mad that he throws Cook to the floor and drives a chair into him.
-Back in New Orleans, Bill Watts, commends the referee for showing rare courage in calling for a DQ, which you’re supposed to do for a throat shot but referees seldom do that.
HACKSAW DUGGAN & JOHNNY RICH vs. BORIS ZHURKOV & MR. OLYMPIA (with Skandar Akbar)
-Wild start to this one, as Duggan just storms the ring during the intros, sends Akbar out to the floor, and heads out there and just kicks the shit out of Akbar as the referee calls for the bell to start the match. Trouble is that Rich is kind of stuck in there as a result, and the heels give him a beating until Duggan gets focused and goes to his corner. So Rich takes his beating until he can make the hot tg, and Duggan fights the world until Olympia can load his boot. Rich sees him do it, so Rich does the bodyguard “NOOOOOOOO!” sacrifice and tags the dropkick, knocking himself out of the match pretty much for good.
-Heels try double-teaming, but Duggan clotheslines both of them. Spear sends Boris to the floor. He spears Olympia and then rocket-launches dazed-and-barely-conscious Rich’s body on top of Olympia, and the referee counts the pin, giving the jobber the victory. You can sense Duggan starting to catch up to JYD popularity-wise right now.
