The Name on the Marquee: Mid-South Wrestling (5.29.1982)

-Originally aired May 29, 1982.

-Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts. This week, Mid-South Wrestling presents something unusual: a University of Oklahoma student will be wrestling his first match EVER, and it’s going to be on television. His name is Steve Williams, and while he’s wrestling professionally, he’ll still be playing football for the Sooners when the next season begins.

SPOTLIGHT
-Paul Ellering has some young boys with him while he explains that he starts his daily workout with something called a “lip up,” but this week, he’s teaching two boys how to do the military press. One of them barely gets the weights in the air, while the other just picks up the barbell like it’s a toothpick and does several reps with it. Awkward ending as Ellering boasts he’s going to do five reps of 300 pounds, but he can only do four, and everyone has to explain how that’s impressive anyway. I mean, it IS, but they didn’t have to air it if he didn’t get the full five.

TED DIBIASE vs. THE GRAPPLER
-Nice sequence of counters and reversals until DiBiase just lays Grappler out with a forearm and armdrags him. DiBiase tries to send him into the ropes for a clothesline, but Grappler does something I’ve never seen from a wrestler, he just resists it and deadweights, so instead DiBiase jerks him down by the arm and turns it into a hold. DiBiase hits the ropes for something and Grappler wallops him and hangs him in the tree of woe. DiBiase gets choked out and throws a weak forearm, but Grappler just shakes it off and gives him a neckbreaker for one. Little quirk I’ve noticed: Mid-South has far more one-counts than two-counts.

-DiBiase gets his second wind and backdrops Grappler. Dropkick by DiBiase, but an elbow drop misses. The guys collide coming off the ropes and Grappler falls out of the ring. Assassin runs to ringside and demands that the referee stop the count, but DiBiase drags him into the ring and starts handing him his ass. Grappler loads his boot and sneaks back into the ring, but Ernie Ladd grabs a chair and whacks him across the back, and DiBiase knocks Assassin to the floor, spins around, powerslams Grappler, and pins him. Good match, good storytelling. As Bill Watts points out, Ernie Ladd owed Ted a favor.

-Reeser Bowden talks to Skandar Akbar and his new talent, a man from Montana named “Hangman” Rick Harris. You might recognize him as Black Bart. Akbar insists that Hangman isn’t a bounty hunter, per say, but he has mentioned to Hangman that there’s a nice bonus waiting for him if Dick Murdoch HAPPENS to get injured.

“Captain Redneck” DICK MURDOCH vs. “The Hangman” RICK HARRIS (with Skandar Akbar)
-Murdoch takes the Hangman down to the mat and works the arm over. Hangman fights back with forearms and rams Murdoch into the turnbuckle. Hangman backdrops Murdoch and stunguns him, then applies a rear chinlock. Akbar takes advantage of the opportunity to steal Murdoch’s backpack, ruining the Dora & Diego cosplay that Murdoch and Dusty Rhodes were going to do for the Mid-South Halloween special in a few months. Akbar tries to use it as a weapon but accidentally knocks out his own man, and Murdoch gives him the brainbuster for good measure to get the win. Post-match, Murdoch goes after Akbar, but One Man Gang sneaks up and attacks, and Hangman lives up to truth in advertising laws by actually hanging Murdoch.

ONE MAN GANG (with Skandar Akbar) vs. COCO SAMOA
-Coco ducks the Gang and gives him a hard chop. Gang seems surprised by that, so Coco gives him another one and escapes to the floor to frustrate the big man. Back in, Coco agrees to a test of strength, but just kicks at Gang’s arms and suckers him into a chase. Gang gets his hands on Coco and hammers him down. Coco tries hit and run tactics but hurts himself on a shoulderblock. Gang keeps clubbering and Coco tries a desperate bodypress from the second rope, but Gang catches him and turns it into kind-of-a-back-suplex, and a big elbow gets three. Good chemistry on dis play here.

BOB ROOP & THE ASSASSIN vs. IRON MIKE SHARPE & MIKE HUDSPETH
-Another fun game of “spot the guy who gets pinned” from Mid-South Wrestling. Sharpe slams Roop and armdrags him. Assassin comes in and he gets armdragged around. Roop comes back in for more of the same, with Sharpe just lifting his whole body by the arm and whipping him up and down. Hudspeth tags in and apparently he’s a jobber from last year returning to the fold, and Bill Watts marvels that he’s gained weight. Holy shit, he’s built like a praying mantis and this is after GAINING weight? Roop and Assassin have an easy time with him, with Assassin throwing a dropkick and using the suspicious mask to get the win.

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS vs. THE TURK
-Watts already has a boner for Williams before the opening bell and you can tell he’s getting a mega-push. Fireman’s carry takedown gets a one-count. Snapmare into a chinlock by Williams while Watts goes into the backstory of the “Dr. Death” nickname from Williams’ high school wrestling days. Series of gutwrenches by Dr. Death get one. Turk throws a chop and tries shoulderblocks while Watts tells us that Williams is only going to be here for two months and then it’s back to football season. I don’t get the logic of putting him on TV then, two months isn’t enough time to build anything, which means he’s not going to be drawing money at house shows. Why not just let him jerk the curtain for a while and get his feet wet?

-Williams whips Turk and tackles him several times, and Turk begs off in the corner, and Watts dubs his powerslam the Oklahoma Stampede as Williams is the lucky duck who actually gets to win his Mid-South debut match. Williams looked pretty good out here for his first match.

JUNKYARD DOG & MR. OLYMPIA (Tag Team Champions) vs. RANDY BASE & JIM STARR
-Olympia fires punches at Starr and suckers him into chasing him. Starr runs right into JYD and tags out. Russian legsweep by JYD on Base. All four men end up in the ring and JYD hits the Thump, and we have a weird confusing finish, as JYD gets up from the pin too soon, and the referee just stays down and counts the jobber’s shoulders to the mat with nobody on top of him. Bell doesn’t even sound and the crowd gives a half-hearted “woo” when the referee raises the champs’ hands because that finish was so odd. And now we get a VERY clear shot fired from Bill Watts, as he’s spent weeks talking shit about “other wrestling shows” and how Mid-South “brings you action and not talk.” After the match, Bill Watts talks about wrestling fans with satellites can see wrestling from Georgia, and very often you see people wrestling in Georgia after you’ve seen them on Mid-South Wrestling, which should give you an idea of the difference in quality between the two promotions. “The guys who can’t make it in Mid-South Wrestling are the guys who go to Atlanta.” Mic drop.

JESSE BARR vs. BILLY STARR
-The bell sounds and that’s when you see Barr
Lock up with the bald guy that they call Starr.
Kneelifts and a cradle attempted by Barr
But the kickout shows it’s not over by far.
Seemingly in on the joke, they try an armbar
but Starr makes the ropes and knocks jaws ajar.
Bodyslam as the commentators countdown the time
And TV is finished before I finish my rhyme.

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

Mixed bag of matches but a nice bit of history with Williams' debut makes this week a keeper.