Mid-South Wrestling (8.4.1984) Review

-New opening this week, and I know they changed the theme music too, but WWE Network keeps the same generic piece they’ve been using.

-Originally aired August 4, 1984.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Joel Watts. JR gives all the credit for the new opening to Joel, who really did have a talent for this kind of thing. And my hat’s off to Bill for this, I know it’s cool to snark on him for pushing Erik, but I appreciate the fact that Joel showed talent for something that wasn’t being an in-ring performer, and Bill Watts happily had him do that instead of sending Joel out there in tights and boots to fail.

-We go to Bill Watts, who is with Terry Taylor, and Bill Watts has the TV Title medal in his hands. We go back to last week, when Dr. Death knocked Taylor out cold with the TV Title medal and refused to give it back. Watts says that Williams is a huge disappointment to him, but in an unusual ending to an angle like this, Watts pretty much dug his heels in after last week’s show and demanded the medal back, Doc reluctantly turned it over, and now Watts hands it back. And that’s it, that’s the end of the angle. No final match with Doc to determine rightful possession, Bill Watts just got the medal back from him and turned it over to Terry Taylor. I feel like there’s a story here because that’s such an ODD ending to this saga.

HERCULES HERNANDEZ (with Jim Cornette) vs. ROCKY SMITH
-Cornette announces that he’s doing guest commentary for his man’s match and this would appear to be the start of that bit of Cornette’s shtick. Cornette goes into some exhaustive detail about how the shinin no maki works, like they had a feeling that fans weren’t getting the idea. And once Cornette’s explanation is done, Herc locks the hold on and ends this right away.

-Bill Watts talks about how it feels like wrestlers keep breaking rules to force no-DQ matches. The strategy, as Watts explains it, is that it gives wrestlers excuses to injure their opponents, or it forces opponents to take bigger gambles by agreeing to sign for dangerous matches. Watts goes through a long history of violent gimmick matches, all of which were invented because guys wanted to try to operate outside the normal rules of wrestling. Well, the severe injury to Sonny King a few weeks ago has made him think that wrestling has gone too far and it needs to be reined in a little bit.

-Sonny King is with him and Sonny wants to make the point that wrestling is real, because his dislocated shoulder has cost him three weeks of income. Sonny argues that what happened in the moment with Duggan and his 2×4 was the right thing to do and makes it emphatically clear that he disagrees with Watts’ attitude. Watts stands by the $10,000 fine and his worried that someone will suffer a permanent form of his injury. Sonny wraps up with an odd promise, saying that he isn’t medically cleared to wrestle, but he WILL be in attendance for every house show where he’s been advertised for a match, and he’ll have a surprise with him. Ice cream sandwiches? Tickets for a tour of the coal museum?

THE FANTASTICS vs. BOB OWENS & TIM HORTON
-Tommy Rogers dropkicks and armdrags Owens as Joel Watts mentions after 2 1/2 months that Ric Flair is the NWA champion again because Kerry Von Erich got a raw deal in Japan, and holy crap the match is already over, as Rogers just splashes Horton and ends it in under a minute, which is not how this company usually does tag team matches. That’s odd.

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS vs. RICK MCCORD
-And see, this makes it even weirder. If it was a case where Doc left the company abruptly, fine, but he’s in the damn building. Why are we just dropping the angle?

The last match ended so abruptly that the commentators are STILL talking about Kerry Von Erich to complete the point they were trying to make, which is that Mid-South Wrestling has signed a Von Erich/Flair rematch in Mid-South territory, because the feeling is they’re in a “neutral location” as far as both guys are concerned.

-Williams whips McCord aggressively and rams him in the corner, and the Stampede finishes, no sweat.

TAG TEAM TITLES, NO DISQUALIFICATION: MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Champions, with Jim Cornette & Hercules Hernandez) vs. JUNKYARD DOG & HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN
-Krusher Kruschev shows up for some reason and hands Cornette and Hercules a wad of money. The three of them whisper something back and forth, and Cornette rushes over to grab the microphone and announce that he feels so safe in this building, he’s decided he doesn’t need Hercules at ringside, so Hercules and Krusher BOTH leave ringside. Ooooo, intrigue.

-JYD with the rolling headbutts right away on Eaton, and yup, the guys are tagging in and out for a no-DQ match. Duggan heaves Eaton over the top and onto the concrete. Back in with a slam and a big elbow, as Eaton is having an awful night. Dog and Condrey do battle, and Condrey has just as much trouble, but they collide on a double shoulderblock and JYD is wiped out. Hot tag to Duggan and soon all four guys are in there. Cornette throws powder in JYD’s eyes, and it’s hilarious because Cornette uses up all the powder he has, but it’s clear that none of it came anywhere NEAR JYD’s face, and it’s awkward for both of them. You can actually see JYD pausing to think about it for just a moment before he decides he’ll sell it, and he flops down so his face hits the mess of powder on the mat, so when he shows his face again, it’ll have the powder on it. Not sure if he really chose to do that or if it was pure instinct when he saw the powder, though.

-Referee gets wiped out as JYD and Condrey brawl on the floor and they aren’t even pretending he’s blind here. Hercules rushes to ringside with a coal miner’s glove and knocks Duggan out with it, and the commentators explain that this must be why the money changed hands, because everyone knows that the coal miner’s glove belongs to Krusher, so he must have given it to Hercules. I love how “He went to the coal miner store and bought his own coal miner’s glove” isn’t even a possibility here. Surely there’s only one coal miner’s glove on Earth so the heels have to share.

-So we get post-match words from Jim Cornette. Bill Watts never mentioned coal miner’s gloves, so fuck him, they’re just going to carry one around all the time now.

THE P.Y.T.s vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL & KRUSHER KRUSCHEV
-TV time is almost up, so Norvell Austin goes right to work with a side headlock on Krusher. A side headlock so lethal that it may end this match in only two minutes. Landell tags in but misses a corner charge. He drops Norvell neck-first on the top rope, but Norvell tags in Koko for the hot tag as they’re cramming everything they can into this two-minute window, and the TV time runs out with all four men brawling in the ring.

5.7

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

This is the WEIRDEST episode of this show I've watched to date. The Taylor/Williams feud just ENDS right there with no actual payoff, the silly extraneous angle with Krusher, the abrupt Fantastics match...eh...we all have off-weeks.