Mid-South Wrestling (9.28.1985) Review

-Originally aired September 28, 1985.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts.

-BREAKING NEWS: Kerry & Kevin Von Erich are the new American Tag Team Champions, and the fans presented them with a special Get-Well-Soon for Mike Von Erich, and Kevin proudly announces that contrary to doctors’ expectations, Mike does not have brain damage, and he’ll be appearing in public in two weeks. Sigh.

-Bill Watts recaps Ric Flair’s edict that he’ll only wrestle the North American Champion, and no one else in Mid-South Wrestling, ever, under any circumstances. We re-watch the hot angle last week, with Butch Reed and Dick Murdoch brawling because the chance to wrestle Ric Flair is too critical for friendships to survive.

-Bill Watts laments that “the man who causes more controversy than anyone else in Mid-South,” Ted DiBiase, is back in the area. DiBiase now has the blonde highlights AND the beard, so we’ve achieved Full Ted DiBiase.

-Jim Ross is with DiBiase, Dr. Death, and Bob Sweetan. Recap: DiBiase and Dr. Death were the reigning Tag Team Champions. DiBiase got a sweet business deal to wrestle in Japan for one month, so he made arrangements for Bob Sweetan to become a proxy champion until he got back. Williams and Sweetan managed to lose the title, so DiBiase is back in the U.S. and just found out he’s not a champion anymore.

-DiBiase says that if everyone is gunning for Flair’s belt, then so will he…and there’s an audible pro-DiBiase fan base in the crowd when he says it. He hates Murdoch, Duggan, and Reed, and the way they always get what they want just by asking. DiBiase always has to have leverage to get something. So he’s here to issue a challenge to Butch Reed, because if he beats Reed, he’ll get a North American Title shot, and once he wins that, no one can tell him no, and he gets his match against Flair.

-That said, DiBiase also wants to call out Bob Sweetan for screwing up his end of the deal by blowing it in a title match. Sweetan tries to say some words in his own defense, but DiBiase and Dr. Death just gang up on him and heave him out to the floor.

-And DiBiase STILL isn’t done. He wants a Tag Team Title match against Al Perez & Wendell Cooley and he wants it NOW! He demands Grizzly Smith get his ass down there to draw up the papers, but while DiBiase is waiting, Sweetan recovers and beats the hell out of Williams & DiBiase, clearing the ring with a chair. Damn, that was quite a busy promo.

-We go to footage of Joel Watts having a meeting with Dick Slater and some mysterious woman in Atlanta. Slater says that he’s just in the business for the money at this point because he’s won all the titles that matter. He lays out a weird, cryptic M.O., saying that he has a plan in Mid-South that involves a specific person. He won’t say who, but he’s biding his time until he’s ready to do something to somebody that he has his eye on. He also refuses to say who the woman is or why she’s with him

-Bill Watts says the target of Slater’s wrath is pretty wide open because a bunch of new wrestlers are on their away to the area, so it could really be anybody.

DICK SLATER (with the unidentified woman) vs. BROADWAY JOE MALCOLM
-Slater lasts exactly one minute before Bill Watts declares that he asks no quarter and gives none. Watts isn’t sure who Slater is after, but it must be some fellow who asked him for quarter once.

-Russian legsweep looks to win, but Slater drops Malcolm’s leg over the rope himself to force a break and beat up Malcolm more. Samoan drop gets three.

HUMUNGOUS & BARBARIAN (with Oliver Humperdink) vs. TONY FAULK & PAT ROSE
-Humungous slaps and throws Faulk around while Bill Watts gives a kayfabe explanation of squash matches: in sheer numbers, there are more heavyweight wrestlers than lightweight wrestlers, so to advance in the rankings, lightweight wrestlers HAVE to wrestle heavyweights at some point, no matter how big a mismatch it is. Second-rope clothesline gets the win.

-Buzz Sawyer is in Mid-South Wrestling. Buzz Sawyer got a staggering number of opportunities for a guy who repeatedly fucked up and seemed to just annoy everybody in real life wherever he went. And in fact, his debut promo here is him explaining why he keeps washing out of different promotions! He showed up in the WWF, but he slapped Hulk Hogan and demanded a fight, so they kicked him out! Then he went to Atlanta, Georgia and beat everybody there, so he had to come to Mid-South for the REAL competition.

“Mad Dog” BUZZ SAWYER vs. RICK DUNN
-Sawyer takes Dunn down and rubs his face in the mat until he bleeds. Chops and bites by Sawyer. Powerslam gets the win in short order.

HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN & JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs. THE NIGHTMARE & JERRY GREY
-Babyfaces feel like a team that you’d pick in a video game or something.

-Jake sends Nightmare into the ropes and tags Hacksaw, who shoulderblocks Nightmare. Grey tags in and gets slammed down. DDT by Jake gets the win.

TV TITLE: HACKSAW BUTCH REED (Champion) vs. BAD BOB BROWN
-Bill Watts seems to have a bug up his ass about “critics” who say that Reed is muscle-bound, and speaks in defense of the man’s entire athletic background.

-Reed kicks and flips Brown as Watts is STILL griping about how “nobody is ever going to build a statue of a critic!” And in the worst timing everrrrrrrrr, the very next thing that happens is a miscommunication on an attempted press slam by Brown, and it looks awkward as hell. Press slam by Reed finishes soon after.

THE FANTASTICS vs. “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS & TED DIBIASE
-Dropkicks and armdrags by Fulton wear Williams down right away, and he works Williams’ arm. Williams breaks and presses Fulton, then makes the tag. Fulton goes back to the armdrags because they work for him. Tommy Rogers tags in and runs full-force into a hard elbow.

-Fantastics make a comeback, clearing the ring with dropkkicks. We suddenly revisit Eddie Gilbert’s mysterious means of getting Superstar Dundee’s suit back, and Watts reveals that he called a booking office in St. Joseph, Missouri and found out that Little Coco is in the hospital, but the reason why can’t legally be disclosed yet. But it was due to “something heinous.”

-DiBiase applies a sleeper on Rogers. Rogers rams him into the corner to break it. Williams tags in and Rogers does some really messy stuff that looks really bad, then just gets out of there and makes the hot tag to Fulton.

-All four men are in there and the heels get whipped into each other. Double dropkick on DiBiase. DiBiase loads the glove while Dr. Death puts too much oomph into lifting Bobby Fulton for an atomic drop and drops Fulton straight on his head, and I truly don’t know how Fulton walked another step after that.

-And the crazy thing he, he’s able to shake it off and just go right to the next spot after that. Not much more to say though, as DiBiase pops him in the jaw with the loaded glove and Williams gets a tainted win.

7.8

The final score: review Good

The 411

Another full rich day in my favorite territory.