Mid-South Wrestling (7.9.1983) Review

-Local promo with Boyd Pierce. Different music than they usually use at WWE Network, I think it’s the actual promo bed. And it’s 1983licious.

-Originally aired July 9, 1983.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts.

JOHNNY RICH & MAGNUM T.A. vs. DOUG VINES & BIG BOY WILLIAMS
-“Big Boy” is noticeably the smallest person in this match. Rich starts with a dropkick and an armdrag on Vines. Hiptoss and a slam by TA while Bill Watts mentions that Dusty Rhodes is in the building this week, which seems like a point in Magnum’s favor, career-wise.

-Slightly Below Average Boy tags in and gets slammed hard by Rich. Bill Watts mentions paying a visit to Tulsa Penitentiary and meeting a great bunch of guys who told him that all of the inmates watch Mid-South Wrestling every week. Man, be sure to put that in your info packet for advertisers.

-Magnum with a series of dropkicks on Williams. All four men end up in the ring and the jobbers get whipped into each other. Vines gets atomic dropped out to the floor. Double dropkick on Williams, and the belly-to-belly suplex (which Watts is suddenly pronouncing Solie-style) gets the win. Really good show for the faces.

-We’re off to Houston, where Dusty Rhodes is battling Nick Bockwinkel in a bullrope match for the AWA Heavyweight Title. We go to the footage, where Bockwinkel is bleeding early in the match and Dusty is as calm as can be about the ass-kicking. Ted DiBiase shows up out of nowhere for some attempted outside interference, but Dusty sees it coming and just gives DiBiase a shot with the bullrope…before pinning Bockwinkel clean as a sheet. Zuh? Dusty, doing commentary after the fact, declares himself AWA Champion as King Kong Bundy thunders down to ringside and attacks him with his fist and his entire forearm taped up and hammers at Big Dust with punches, which leads Dusty to declare that he wants a taped fist match with King Kong Bundy in Houston.

-So…Dusty just won the AWA Title there…so that was odd…I wonder if there was some sort of aftermath that would lead to Dusty being stripped of the title and the belt being given back to the heel champion, but that would seem highly unusual.

HANDICAP MATCH: KING KONG BUNDY vs. JERRY CALDWELL & RON ELLIS
-Bundy chops and pounds away while Bill Watts talks about Bundy’s disturbing reputation of assaulting people and smashing phone boots around the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. He should go directly to jail for that stuff, Bill.

-Choking by Bundy where we get a fascinating physics lesson from Bill Watts, who explains that a smaller man weighing 140 pounds appears to move faster than Bundy, but because of the sheer mass Bundy possesses, he only APPEARS to move slower because his body is more spread out than the 140-pound man when in fact he’s moving at the same speed. So just be aware when you watch a Bundy match that he’s surprisingly fast. Bundy powerslams one man on top of the other and pins both of them for a five-count.

-We recap Ted DiBiase’s plaster cast getting smashed in the most awesome way visually possible, and then a replay of the ENTIRE JYD/Duggan vs. DiBiase/Olympia-but-then-Bundy-instead title match from last week, just because it played out so great. In the context of the time, this makes sense. No YouTube, no B-show, no reruns, so if you missed a big match or a big angle, that was it. So it’s actually kind of a nice gesture for Mid-South to air it a second time, just in case.

MR. WRESTLING II vs. HACKSAW BUTCH REED
-Both guys throw leather right away before II goes to a front facelock and hangs onto it. Reed tries to power out, but II just hangs on and hangs on no matter how hard Reed tries to heave him or shove him in the corner. Reed finally just backs II into the ropes to force the break, and then boots II down and chokes him aggressively. Watts explains that Reed is disgusted with JYD for doing public appearances and acting like a celebrity when Reed has been working hard and training every day to climb the ranks. Okay, folks, it’s 1983, so show of hands, who here can guess what movie Bill Watts has seen recently?

-Knee off the second rope by Reed, but II kicks out at one. II fights back with a knee and knocks Reed silly with it. II capitalizes with punches and another knee, because damn it, the knee works for him. Running knee locks to finish, but Reed takes a step backward and II crashes into the corner. Flying tackle by Reed looks to finish, and it would have, but they’re so close to the ropes that II is able to get a foot on the ropes before three. he’s still in a weakened state, but Reed goes for the mask, which triggers the shit out of II and suddenly he’s Popeye. They collide on a shoulderblock and fall out of different sides of the ring in a surprisingly convincing visual. II crawls back in, but Reed climbs to the top instead and connects with a tackle from up there, and that’s a DQ in Mid-South, so II gets the win, but Reed has made his point. GREAT match, telling a clear story the whole way.

TED DIBIASE vs. TIM HORNER
-Horner surprises DiBiase with a pair of roll-ups right away, and then dropkicks him repeatedly until DiBiase goes to the floor, shocked by how much of an early struggle he’s having against a rookie. Back in, Horner works the arm, but DiBiase gets all cheaty with him, choking away and punching him with the gloved hand a few times. Horner goes for a second-rope bodypress at the wrong time and DiBiase gets out of the way. Horner crashes, and DiBiase powerslams him for the win. Mid-South continues to scratch its head and wonder what the hell to do with Tim Horner.

JUNKYARD DOG vs. BORIS ZHURKOV
-Hiptoss right away by JYD. Bearhug by JYD, and the Thump finishes with no trouble.

-We round out the hour with another rerun, this one from months back, and it’s one of the all-time great squashes, Kamala vs. Iron Mike Sharpe, with Kamala just committing legalized murder and leaving Iron Mike a bloody, injured wreck in the span of five minutes.

8.5

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

Another solid week from the best territory ever.