The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 03.16.85
Taped from Shreveport, LA
Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts.
Bill wants everyone to know that Mid-South stands behind the authorities with regards to Ted Dibiase smashing up Jim Duggan’s windshield, but Duggan is a real man who fights his own battles, so he won’t be pressing charges.
Last week: Jake Roberts finally gets his shot at that chicken, Terry Taylor, but falls victim to the flying forearm and gets pinned, and so he lays out Taylor with his own boot and then DDTs him on a chair to get some revenge. Hell of a DDT, too. Wussy bladejob, though. In fact I didn’t even notice that he gigged himself until watching it back this week.
Terry Taylor, dressing in his finest Red Rooster gear, is here to offer Jake a rematch this week, but Ted Dibiase butts in and wants to add the TV title to his North American title because Mid-South is on the Superstation now nationwide and so a TV title is worth more. Can’t argue with that logic. So tonight’s a title v. title main event and Bill Watts is all about that.
North American title v. World TV title: Ted Dibiase v. Terry Taylor
And of course Jake Roberts runs down and bitches about having his title shot taken away again, and he’s gonna take Taylor out back and shoot him like an old horse. Or an old rooster. Taylor wins a battle for a takedown and controls on the mat, but Dibiase counters a headlock by pulling the tights and rolls him over for two. Taylor counters a backdrop attempt into a butterfly suplex for two and Dibiase bails to think it over. Back in, Dibiase slugs him down with the ISOTONER OF DOOM and takes over with a slam for two, but Taylor fights back and they have a hell of a slugfest in the corner until Dibiase cuts him off again. Taylor comes back with a suplex for two as Jake Roberts tries to get involved, but Terry nails him, and he accidentally trips up Dibiase in his dazed state, allowing Taylor to roll him up for two. Taylor collides with Jake and Dibiase loads up the gloves, but Taylor hits him with the flying forearm (five-arm) and wins the North American title at 6:10! Huh. That seemed like it was gonna be a fuck finish with Jake for sure, and they just put Taylor over clean and it was pretty awesome.
Kamala v. Steve Miller
This could go badly for this poor joker. He should just take the money and run. Kamala wallops him and he’s a choker, a smoker and a midnight toker, and then goes up and flies like an eagle, or more accurately a jet airliner, and ABRACADABRA, that’s a DQ at 1:35 for coming off the top.
Iceman Parsons v. The Barbarian
Barbarian pounds away with forearms in the corner, but Iceman fights back and then misses a blind charge, hurting his shoulder and allowing Barbarian to finish with the full nelson at 3:30. So now he’s Ken Patera, good for him. Nord keeps beating on Iceman afterwards, but Butch Reed makes the save as they keep trying to make Reed as top level babyface into a thing. I was hoping for a glorious explosion of terrible but it was just Nord pounding on him for the entire match and it was more boring than anything, sadly.
Brad Armstrong & Tommy Prichard v. Sheik Hercules & Jack Victory
So it’s this point in the old Observers that Dave really starts heaping praise on Jack Victory as the most underappreciated guy in wrestling, and then proceeds to never shut up about it for months. The babyfaces frustrate the heels with headlocks in their corner, but Hercules hits Brad with a backbreaker. But then he tries it again and Brad counters with a headscissors in mid-move for a unique counter. Over to Tommy, who I guess was just in pre-med studies for desire at that point. And then Herc yanks him by the hair from the apron and the heels take over, with Herc dropping an elbow for two. Prichard fights out and makes the tag to Armstrong, and he quickly cleans house and rolls up Victory at 5:21. Perfectly Acceptable Wrestling here.
Chris Adams v. Tim Horner
More WCCW crossover, as Adams brings the American heavyweight title here, albeit in a non-title match here. Adams offers a handshake and Horner dropkicks him and works the arm, but then Adams nails him in the corner to take over and clotheslines Horner for two. He goes to a chinlock and gleefully sneers while using the hair to keep him down. He teases a shoulderbreaker but then hits a kind of tombstone piledriver instead, but he stops to showboat and then misses a splash off the middle rope. Horner fights back, but Adams legsweeps him and finishes with the SUPERKICK at 4:33. He just totally destroyed Horner there.
The Rock N Roll Express v. The Golden Terror & Steve Brinson
I’d point out that the Golden Terror has a green shirt and silver mask, but really that’s the least of the problems with the whole thing. The RNR double-teams Brinson, but he manages to send Morton into the corner and tags in the Terror, who the RNR promptly finish with the double dropkick at 1:22.
These shows are really hitting their stride just before they run out of episodes on the Network.