wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: Mid-South Wrestling (12.12.1981)
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired December 12, 1981. This is the first episode available on WWE Network.
-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Ernie Ladd. There’s three weeks remaining for Dream Match voting.
BRIAN BLAIR vs. THE MAN KNOWN ONLY AS THE MONK
-The hold known only as The Waistlock Takedown begins this match. Blair trips The Man Known Only as the Monk and applies the hold known only as the sugar. He switches to the scissors known only to the leg. Mat is covered with green stains so apparently WWE is starting the run during Leonard Nimoy’s brief but memorable run as top heel in the territory. Abdominal stretch by Blair, and he falls backward with it to pin the Monk.
KING COBRA vs. TOM RENESTO, JR.
-Criss-cross leads to a backdrop by Cobra. He works the arm and we get a great bit as Renesto yells “No” repeatedly and the crowd chants “Yes” each time. Dropkicks by the Cobra before going back to the armbar so the fans can have their fun again. Cobra misses a dropkick and Renesto takes over with right hands. Cobra bounces back with a backdrop for two. Headbutt’s enough to put Renesto away.
JIM GARVIN vs. ED WISKOWSKI
-And we go RIGHT to the next match. Nobody has mike time on this show! Garvin looks like a white version of the Soul Glo guy from “Coming to America.”
-Wiskowski applies a side headlock, but Garvin turns it into a top wristlock, and he gets Wiskowski down on the mat for a hammerlock. The green stains on the mat seem to be getting darker somehow. Garvin stays on the arm until Wiskowski hangs him in a tree of woe and stomps away at him. Garvin comes back with a forearm and applies a sleeper. Wiskowski grabs a rope and lunges forward to dump Garvin out to the floor and tries to slam him back in, but Garvin rolls through and makes it a cradle for two. Wiskowski tries a hot shot next, and the backbreaker gives Wiskowski the winner.
-We flash back to last week’s incredibly intricate finish to JYD/Terry Orndorff, where a hundred little things happen in under a minute and it ends with Orndorff getting a screwjob win over the Dog. Ernie Ladd takes a whole lot of glee in recapping this.
JUNKYARD DOG & MIKE GEORGE vs. JERRY NOVAK & AARON HOLT
-Mike George is so ripped that I’m actually surprised he didn’t end up on Vince McMahon’s radar. Novak is from “Eastern Europe.” Are there a lot of guys named Jerry running around eastern Europe?
-Fistfight between George and Novak and it turns into a pier sixer early. Jobbers are whipped into each other, and the Thump finishes in seconds.
IRON SHIEK (with Skandar Akbar) vs. BUDDY RYAN
-It’s casual day for Akbar, who’s just wearing a shirt and slacks and his keffiyah like he’s modeling for Sears in Iran. Elbows and stomping by Shiek, yelling “USA” to punctuate his offense. Pierce clarifies that Shiek’s boots are special “camel-kicking boots” and Ladd speculates that Buddy Ryan must be a camel. German suplex gets the three count.
MIXED TAG: BARBIE DOLL & TONY CHARLES vs. DIAMOND LIL & RICK FERERRA
-Reeser Bowden touts this match as a battle of “little girls and big men,” so thank you for locking in on the single creepiest way you could have explained it, Reeser.
-The ladies start. Doll gets Lil on the mat for a toehold. Lil boots her to the floor, then slingshots her around. The men come in and Charles takes control with headscissors and a side headlock. Ladies tag back in. They have a weird issue on an Irish whip as Barbie just collapses during an attempted Irish whip. They criss-cross and Barbie backdrops Lil, then finishes her with a sitdown splash. This was okay, just no flow to it, which is an inherent problem with mixed tag, nobody can really get in TOO much trouble.
NON-TITLE: TED DIBIASE (North American Champion) vs. PAUL ORNDORFF
-Orndorff cradles DiBiase early on for a VERY close two-count. Sunset flip is countered by DiBiase for his own close two-count. DiBiase goes to work on the arm. Orndorff rams him into the corner to stop that and stomps away at DiBiase. DiBiase comes right back with LEGAL forearms. DiBiase shows some really fluid motion here, powerslamming Orndorff and using the momentum from the impact to apply a figure four. Orndorff rolls over to reverse it and everyone is like “HOLY SHIT” because Bob Roop teased last week that Orndorff had figured out a counter and it turns out he really did. But DiBiase hangs on and hangs on and hangs on…and TV time expires, so DiBiase survives the pain and gets a draw. Orndorff refuses to release as we sign off.
