Mid-South Wrestling (9.14.1985) Review

-Originally aired September 14, 1985.

-Your host is Boyd Pierce, standing in the ring at the start of the show, as they continue their light tinkering with the show’s format.

-Bill Watts is with Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Hacksaw Butch Reed, and Dick Murdoch to settle up a confusing situation that’s arisen with the NWA World Heavyweight Title. Ric Flair has faced all three men in the past in successful title defenses, but all three of them took Flair to the limit and he just BARELY escaped with the belt each time. Bill suspects that he’s trying to avoid wrestling any of these men ever again, so Flair sent a message to Mid-South Wrestling, stating that going forward, he will ONLY defend his title against the reigning North American Champion, whoever that is. This is clearly a scheme by Flair to get out of having to deal with at least two of them.

-Bill asks Reed a question, and Murdoch interrupts, insisting that as the reigning North American Champion, all questions should be addressed to him first. And yeah, Flair’s a chicken-hearted bastard but, uh, yeah, since Murdoch has the belt, I guess that just means he gets a title shot. Mildly curious detail on a close-up of the belt: at some point, somebody scratched an X across the front plate.

-The three guys erupt in an argument over who should get the next title shot and who’d win if Murdoch defended his title first to determine who gets to face Flair, and Watts is disgusted that Flair’s plan is working and all three guys are arguing, which means they aren’t focusing on beating Flair.

-We get an Al Perez music video, brought to you in Sexy-Vision. Perez enjoys exercising as much as he enjoys dinners in black-tie establishments with gold diggers.

NON-TITLE: AL PEREZ & WENDELL COOLEY (Tag Team Champions) vs. SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE & DIRTY DUTCH MANTELL
-Bill mentions that a Wendell Cooley music video is coming soon, and between that and the fact that Perez was getting pushed while Cooley was definitely a jobber, I’m beginning to think that the Perez/Cooley team was a very last-minute thing.

-Mantell gets double-teamed by the champs and Perez takes him down to work the arm. Dundee tags in and gets knocked around. Heels fare better with Cooley. Dundee works the neck over and Dundee drops the elbow for a two-count. Cooley keeps getting punished but finally escapes for the hot tag. Perez cleans house with his trademark right hands, but it’s time for the weekly ref bump. Mantell knocks Perez out with the handle of Shoobaby and gets ready to put Perez away, but Cooley steals the whip and clears the ring with it as the referee recovers. German suplex by Perez gets the three-count. Oh man, perfect screwy ending there and they surprised everyone with a win by the champs. That Watts likes his surprises.

-Oliver Humperdink is here to explain why the Barbarian turned on Jake the Snake, and Oliver says he doesn’t owe anybody an explanation. Oh screw it, Bill Watts, you’re better than that! Oliver gives a clumsy explanation that boils down to Barbarian turning heel because he has more in common with Humungous than he has with Jake. And even Watts, the guy who green-lit this angle, gripes that the explanation doesn’t make sense. He concedes that Humungous and Barbarian together will make an awesome combination, because they’re even larger than the Road Warriors.

HUMUNGOUS & BARBARIAN (with Oliver Humperdink) vs. KEN GLOVER & JIMMY BACKLUND
-All across the south, church groups are burning Humungous & Barbarian merchandise because of the offensive statement that they’re “bigger than the Road Warriors.”

-Glover gets cleared from the ring quickly, and a second-rope Hart attack finishes Backlund for the win.

JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS vs. PAUL BROWN
-Crowd is RABID for Jake, and he won’t even make them wait, he just hits that DDT and calls it a week. Babyface Jake = money, okay, got it.

-Rush Watts goes off on another unsolicited tangent about how he’s tired of mailing welfare checks over to Puerto Rico.

EL CORSARIO (with Skandar Akbar) vs. PAT ROSE
-Corsario connects with an enziguiri and a superkick for another quick win.

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS vs. KARL STILES
-Williams is decked out in red & yellow, but we’re still not at a point where Hulk ALWAYS does it so we’re probably not going to get a ridiculous tangent comparing weightlifting regimens and steroids.

-Williams backs Stiles into the corner as Bill Watts mentions that Ted DiBiase has returned from his tour of Japan and that he’s scheduled to appear on TV on two weeks. We get our first “asks no quarter and gives none” of the week shockingly late in the show as Williams does a waistlock takedown. Stampede gets the win.

THE FANTASTICS vs. LARRY CLARKE & JERRY GRAY
-Fantastics work over the arm. Clarke punches free, which makes him the most successful jobber on this week’s show so far. Gray tags in and runs right into a backdrop, and a splash off the turnbuckle gets the win for the Fantastics.

-We close the show with ANOTHER “coming soon” video for The Midnight Rider. Bill’s 90-day suspension will be up by the time he’s ready to debut!

4.9

The final score: review Poor

The 411

Weak heel turn explanation and a lot of here-and-done squashes this week. Kinda blah.