wrestling / Video Reviews
Mid-South Wrestling (8.25.1984) Review
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired August 25, 1984.
-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce and Joel Watts. I don’t get this company’s revolving door approach to people at the mic. Pick two people, slap headphones on him, stick one guy in the ring and hand him a microphone.
-Jim Ross is at ringside with Ernie Ladd and Buddy Landell. Buddy takes an extra second to remind us that he chased JYD out of Mid-South and accuses Brickhouse Brown of being a ringer for Grizzly Smith, who’s been trying to get rid of Buddy Landell for months. Ernie Ladd announces that he is now joining Buddy Landell as an advisor because he keeps his eyes and ears open for new talent, and he knew Brickhouse had a reputation in the Carolinas before he showed up and got a surprise win over Buddy.
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Tag Team Champions, with Jim Cornette and Hercules Hernandez) vs. THE P.Y.T.s
-Irish McNeil Boys’ Club now has barricades around the ring, which is weird because this is a pretty consistently well-behaved group.
-PYTs work Condrey’s arm. Eaton tags in with a back suplex on Austin to take over, and just when things are threatening to look normal, Jim Duggan flies in out of nowhere and tackles Hercules out of his chair, then charges into the ring armed with a large pair of scissors. Brawl breaks out and Koko busts Hercules open with a chair. Heels clear out, and Duggan, still wielding the scissors, wants to cut SOMEBODY’s hair.
HERCULES HERNANDEZ (with Jim Cornette) vs. MIKE JACKSON
-Hercules is still bloodied and bandaged up, and by god, Cornette DEMANDS justice. Bill Watts stood here and declared that using a chair was a $10,000 fine, so either get Koko’s ass out here and make him cut a check for 10 grand or boot his ass out of the territory. Hercules doesn’t even care about the money, he just wants to get even with Koko, and Koko shows up and he’s feeling froggy, so he decides to jump…
HERCULES HERNANDEZ (with Jim Cornette) vs. KOKO WARE INSTEAD
-Koko starts with an early flurry of offense. Koko fights back as Joel Watts explains that Koko was unpopular in Memphis because he tended to bend the rules in that territory, so Herc had better watch out because Koko can match him for shady tactics. Koko hits Herc hard enough to loosen the bandages, so Hercules starts pouring blood again. Herc stops him with a backdrop and clamps on the best-looking chinlock in the history of the business, no sarcasm. Hercules above all others could make this hold look absolutely lethal. Koko elbows free so Hercules switches to the scrawny-knee Mookie, and Koko passes out. Herc exacts his revenge and does it totally clean.
-Dr. Death is here with his helmet and demands to know why it’s been an ENTIRE WEEK and nobody, not Magnum TA, not Terry Taylor, has accepted his challenge.
SONNY KING vs. HANS SCHROEDER
-Snapmare and a neck vice by King. I think King is supposed to have the shape of Louisiana on his boots, but because of the way Louisiana is shaped, it just looks like his boots have a picture of a boot on them.
-They slug it out and King backdrops Schroeder. He sends Schroeder into the ropes and just charges head-first into the chest, which is enough for the three-count.
BRICKHOUSE BROWN vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL (with Ernie Ladd)
-This is a rematch, with Landell now understanding that Brown is legit, and with a new advisor in his corner.
-Brickhouse gets an early edge and sends Landell retreating to the floor. Commentators note that Landell promised to “dust Brickhouse Brown,” so I’m guessing he ate lots of baked beans and broccoli before coming to the ring, but so far it’s not working.
-Brickhouse drops a leg on Landell and Landell hides in the corner for another consultation with his advisor, who tells him that without a shadow of a doubt Brickhouse Brown is kicking his ass. Irish whip/backdrop combo by Brickhouse allows Landell to live up to the “Nature Boy” name. Ladd finally reaches in and trips Brown to give Landell a breather. Landell tries to capitalize with an elbow and misses. Brickhouse dropkicks Landell AND Ladd, with Ladd taking a super-duper bump over the top rope and then over the new barricade, and Landell and Ladd are so frustrated that they both just give up and leave the ring entirely, and Brickhouse gets the win by count-out. This is why pro wrestling is weird. I know in wrestling logic, a count-out isn’t a “real win,” but Ladd & Landell giving up and walking away after one guy kicked both of their asses seems pretty damn decisive.
-Encore presentation of the Fantastics music video. Not sure what the original song was but if it was “It’s Raining Men” it wouldn’t surprise me.
FANTASTICS vs. RANDY BARBER & ART CREWS
-Fantastics work Crews’ arm. Barber tags in, gets slammed into position, and Rogers finishes right away with a splash from the second rope.
-ANOTHER music video, this one for Magnum TA. It’s funny that Watts’ failure in WCW was so easily attributed to being “stuck in the past,” and yet here, we see how easily this guy adapted the first time that he was caught in the middle of big changes in the wrestling business. A year ago, the MTV influence would have been totally alien in this territory but Watts had it proposed to him and added it to the brand right away.
ERNIE LADD & KRUSHER KRUSCHEV vs RICK MCCORD & JOSH STROUD
-This is honestly the best use of Ladd at this point and it’s a lot like latter-day Andre, as Ladd has a couple of things that still look good and as soon as he does then, he gets the hell out. Worth noting that everybody in this match is wearing matching red tights, which really does leave me wondering if wrestlers of this era brought more than one pair of tights with them. Jobbers get dismantled, and Ladd finishes with the big boot and legdrop.
-Jim Cornette and Hercules are back. They took care of Koko but for the love of god, get his ass back out here and make him cough up $10,000. The PYTs head to ringside and Cornette is hilarious, deputizing Jim Ross and telling him that he has to enforce the rules of Mid-South. Koko and Norvell refuse to pay the $10,000, on the grounds that Cornette was never fined for hitting them with a tennis racquet. So his attitude is, they’re even.
