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Mid-South Wrestling (7.7.1984) Review

February 20, 2021 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Mid-South Wrestling 7-7-1984 Jim Cornette Mr Wrestling II Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
7.5
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Mid-South Wrestling (7.7.1984) Review  

-Your host is July 7, 1984.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts.

-Jim Ross is in the ring with a severely overmodulated microphone, as well as Jim Cornette and Mr. Wrestling II. Cornette’s life is officially in danger, so he’s hired II as his new bodyguard.

NON-TITLE: MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Tag Team Champions, with Jim Cornette & Mr. Wrestling II who for the record is technically Mr. Wrestling III if you’re new to these recaps) vs. THE P.Y.T.s

-Debut for the PYTs, consisting of Michael Jackson and Eddie Murphy Raw…no wait, this is actually Koko Ware and Norvell Austin but damn they spent some money on that red leather. Express attempts a pre-match attack but the PYTs clear the ring and get down. Big surprise right away, as Watts actually calls him “Koko B. Ware,” which I absolutely thought was a WWF invention. Express takes turns getting their arms worked over and they’re having a really off night, to Cornette’s dismay.

-Austin dropkicks Eaton, and it’s beautiful. Condrey makes a pin behind Koko’s back and gives him a forearm to the head to take control. Austin makes a quick hot tag to Koko and we have a donnybrook that devolves into a pier sixer, as the referee is knocked out. Cornette tries to capitalize with a run-in, but he gets dropkicked out to the floor. II avenges him by heading to the top rope, but before II can make the jump, Hacksaw Jim Duggan runs in and slams II off the top rope, ripping his mask off at the same time, and somewhere in all that, the PYTs get a pinfall. We have a hot new tag team on the scene, Duggan has a feud, and the II gimmick is dead in Mid-South, as the “new” Mr. Wrestling II is unmasked and the real Mr. Wrestling II is off to the WWF for the weirdest run of his career.

-And by the way, if you didn’t know until now that Mr. Wrestling II was ever in the WWF, go to Cagematch or The History of WWE and look his career up, it’s bizarre. II was in the WWF from 1984 straight through to 1986, and here’s a round-up of all the times he appeared on WWF TV in that time:
Prime Time Wrestling – once
Championship Wrestling – once
WWF Georgia Championship Wrestling – twice
The end.

-And the weird thing is, considering Bob Backlund balked at a feud with Hogan, I think II would have been the perfect guy to give them the kind of feud I think they wanted with those two. Look back at the past six months of heel Mr. Wrestling II, how great would it have been to see two or three months of Hulk Hogan leading the rock & wrestling connection against crotchety old dick Mr. Wrestling II yelling at clouds?

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS vs. HANS SCHROEDER

-Williams still has the TV Title medal, and it’s weird how they won’t go all-in with this heel turn because he’s fighting a big fat blonde German, so…it’s not like the crowd is going to boo him, but Williams is absolutely the heel in the Terry Taylor issue.

-Schroeder has the edge early on, but Williams comes back with a tackle and a stampede to finish.

-Terry Taylor heads to the ring, and Williams immediately puts on the TV Title medal to make a point. Taylor politely but firmly says he wants his TV Title medal back, and Williams shoves him flat on his ass like a schoolyard bully and walks off. Watts, Williams’ mentor, finally straight up says that yes, Williams is in the wrong here.

THE FANTASTICS vs. DALE VEASY & BOB BROWN
-Really like the Network’s choice of stock music for the Fantastics.

-Bodypress by Tommy Rogers looks like it’ll finish immediately, but Brown escapes and applies headscissors just to try to slow Tommy down. Tommy escapes and ends up in a side headlock. Bobby Fulton tags in and Veasy knees him in the back. Quick tag by the Fantastics, and Rogers puts him away with a powerslam.

SONNY KING vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL

-King gets Landell in a front facelock, but it turns into a fight quickly, as Landell has something to prove. King ties him up in the front facelock again. Landell gets in the ropes and throws a right hand to force King to break. King cradles Landell out of nowhere in a weird finish, and Butch Reed hits the ring with a chair in tow. He smacks King over the head hard enough to shatter the wood backing off it, and King just shakes it off like it’s nothing, and Reed runs for his life when he realizes it had no effect.

MR. WRESTLING II vs. MIKE JACKSON

-So all of a sudden, II is in black tights, and he snatches the microphone out of Jim Ross’ hands to declare that his name is Hercules Hernandez, he has a body of horned steel and sex appeal, and he’s the mayor of Badstreet. Zuh?

-So Herc just beats on Jackson to make a point. Jackson comes back with a dropkick, but he runs right into a powerslam, and a big elbow gets three.

BIG ERNIE LADD vs. STEVE BRINSON
-But first, Ladd wants to know where the hell Magnum TA is and why he’s not agreeing to sign a title match for television. He reasons that Magnum must be talking with his family to get his affairs in order.

-Ladd works Brinson’s leg and pounds him a bit. Double legdrop by Ladd, but he’s not satisfied yet and just rams Brinson repeatedly into the mat. He does the legdrop again, and this time he settles for a victory.

KRUSHER KRUSCHEV vs. RICK MCCORD

-Kruschev press slams McCord onto the top rope and McCord does this awesome bounce down to the mat. Krusher applies a rear chinlock and grinds away at McCord’s face. Hard Irish whip and a clothesline by Krusher, who’s just working his ass off at dishing out a beating and has worked up a hell of a sweat for as short as this match has been. Body vice gets the submission.

-We end the show with a Magnum TA music video, and he just checks every box for a star here, even with a layer of 80s cheese slathered onto him.

-Bill Watts chats with Krusher. Bill Watts announces that Krusher is signed for a match against Sonny King next week, and Krusher makes it emphatically clear that he doesn’t care, and he’s more upset about his stolen TV Title medal, and he demands satisfaction from Dr. Death, the thief, who just turned heel. It’s so funny, a decade later, yeah, obviously this would be building up to a three-way match, but here, you have three guys who are angry at each other and it’s just building to different one-on-one combinations of them.

7.5
The final score: review Good
The 411
They're all-in with Ernie Ladd, for better or worse.
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Mid-South Wrestling, Adam Nedeff