Mid-South Wrestling (6.22.1985) Review

-Original airdate June 22, 1985.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross, Joel Watts, and a cameraman in dire need of a new tripod.

-Skandar Akbar introduces his new protege, Zambuie Express, who, despite the name, is one guy.

ZAMBUIE EXPRESS (with Skandar Akbar) vs. PVT. TERRY DANIELS
-Express is Kareem Muhammad, a/k/a Commando Ray, a/k/a Ray Candy, dressed in the Destitute Indy Wrestler Special: camouflage shirt and slept-in sweatpants. Express fat-guys Daniels around as Joel slips up and calls him “Ray Candy” before catching himself. Diving headbutt by Express gets the win.

-Dick Murdoch is back in the territory because Bill Watts personally called him up in a honky-tonk in the middle of Tokyo and told him that he’s having some issues with Ted DiBiase, Skandar Akbar, and the Dirty White Boys. So Murdoch is back to help Watts straighten things out.

“Captain Redneck” DICK MURDOCH vs. KARL STILES
-Stiles attacks in the corner, but Murdoch slams him and follows with some boots to take firm control. JR tells us that, although Murdoch’s tactics are unorthodox, he can “carry the mail.” Hellooooooo, Murdoch.

-JR explains that Murdoch is here because he decided that running Akbar out of wrestling was more important than winning back the WWF Tag Team Title, which is the single LEAST petty thing ever said about the WWF on this show. Brainbuster by Murdoch gets the win.

JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS & THE BARBARIAN vs. WENDELL COOLEY & FRANKIE LANE
-Wait, didn’t these guys just turn face three weeks ago?

-Barbarian hammers away at Cooley but misses a corner charge. Joel speculates that Jake and Barbarian don’t have it together as a team because Jake is still fixated on winning the TV Title, and you can’t be a cohesive tag team when you’re hell-bent on winning singles gold.

-Jake tags in and gets caught in a bodypress for two. Lane tags in and goes for a backdrop, but Jake kneelifts him. Funny ending to this– Jake goes to the corner to taunt Wendell for how badly Lane is getting beaten, so Cooley just belts him in the mouth, and Jake is so annoyed at being put in his place that he just marches back over to Lane and DDTs him, pretty much pinning him out of spite.

TV TITLE: THE SNOWMAN (Champion) vs. RANDY BEASON
-Funny how the jobber comes to the ring wearing a shimmering red cape and then it turns out his name is just Randy-something. Also I typed that and instantly realized “Well…a guy named Randy wearing shimmering capes got over at least ONCE, I guess.”

-Snowman powerslams Beason and gets the pin right away.

BRICKHOUSE BROWN & MARK RAGIN vs. TOMMY PRICHARD & PAT ROSE
-Rose and Ragin fight it out to start. Brown tags in and helps with some double-teaming to take over. Rose gets out of dodge and Prichard gets armdragged all over the ring by Brickhouse. Rose comes back in and is BLOWN UP after getting a minute’s breather on the apron. He gets Irish whipped and walks to the ropes, and can’t leave his feet at all for flying headscissors, he just collapses in place. All four men end up in the ring, and there’s a crazy moment where Ragin starts to whip Rose into the ropes, and Rose pretty much goes “nope” so Ragin just tags in Brown, and Brown sunset flips him without really doing anything first, and that’s your three-count.

BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. DUTCH MANTELL
-Armstrong applies a side headlock. Dutch takes over and works the arm for a spell. Backbreaker and an elbow get two. Brad gets whipped into the corner and surges right back and elbows Dutch in the jaw. Dropkick by Brad, but Dutch comes the comeback with an eye rake. He sends Brad into the ropes and gets mowed down by a clothesline, and Brad sees his opening and applies a sleeper. Dutch backs him into the corner to break, and finishes a few seconds later with a dirty rotten handful of tights and a roll-up for three.

THE FANTASTICS vs. THE DIRTY WHITE BOYS
-Again, I have to hand it to whoever picked the royalty-free stock music for dubbing these old shows, because they dug up a piece with the quintessential “80s pretty boys” vibe.

-Tommy Rogers takes Len Denton down to the mat, but before long, all four men end up in the ring. Fantastics battering-ram the DWBs’ skulls into each other and follow with a rowboat. Tony Anthony tags in and has a rough night, so Denton tries again and connects with a dropkick on Bobby Fulton. Neckbreaker by Denton gets two as JR gives us a two-minute warning for the hour.

-Anthony tags in and tries to finish with a splash, but Fulton rolls out of the way and makes the hot tag. We have a pier sixer, and Denton pulls his boot off, intending to use it as a weapon, but he accidentally KOs his partner, and Rogers cradles Anthony for three. That was a complete surprise.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

The Snowman's push still isn't lighting the world on fire and the Jake/Barbarian tandem is a puzzling piece of business, but the rest of the show was good as usual.