The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 09.21.85
Taped from Shreveport, LA
Your hosts are Jim Ross & Joel Watts
Al Perez & Wendell Cooley v. Jerry Grey & The Nightmare
The Nightmare, now unmasked, has fallen down the card into curtain-jerking tag team jobber to the stars role in record time. Poor Rex. Grey quickly gets slammed around by Cooley, so Nightmare comes in and beats on Perez before walking into a dropkick that gets two for Al. The champs double-team Nightmare’s arm in the corner and Cooley tries a victory roll, but Nightmare drops him on his FACE on the top turnbuckle. And Cooley has a nice face! He’s no Kota Ibushi but he’s pretty good looking. Thank god his moustache was there to absorb the force of the blow. Grey and Nightmare go to work on him in their corner and choke him out and Grey drops a leg for two. Nightmare comes in and drops Cooley on the top rope and chokes him out, showing some good fire from a guy plummeting down the card. Nightmare with a chinlock, but Cooley snapmares out of it, and Grey dives in to cut off the tag and goes to a nerve hold this time. Grey drops an elbow on him and goes to a chinlock, but Cooley fights up, so Grey pulls him down by the tights and puts him back in it again. Cooley fights out again, but he’s too close to the heel corner and Nightmare comes in for more damage. Cooley catches him with his head down, however, and it’s HOT TAG Perez and he nails Grey with a flying forearm and gets the german suplex on Nightmare, which is broken up. Nightmare tries the piledriver, but the babyfaces break it up and Cooley bulldogs Grey for the pin at 7:10. A very entertaining tag team match to open the show! 1 for 1.
Hacksaw Butch Reed v. Paul Brown
Reed works the arm to start as the announcers recap the story about Flair only wanting to defend the World title against the North American champion, whereas Reed is merely the TV champion and so he’s out of luck. Reed goes up with the flying clothesline and then picks him up and finishes with a gorilla press at 1:32 to make a point to Flair. 1 for 2.
Humongous & The Barbarian v. Tim Ashley & Steve Constance
I’m not sure what song is being overdubbed but the generic replacement is kind of awesome. They quickly demolish Ashley and Barbarian comes off the top with a headbutt and beats him down while Humongous tosses Constance and beats on him in the crowd. This allows Jake Roberts to run in at 0:52 for the DQ and beat the hell out of former partner Barbarian, but Humongous quickly stops that and they beat him down. Jake sadly has no friends to save him because he’s been a complete dick up until this point in his run, and he gets busted open and destroyed until Jim Duggan finally takes pity and saves with a chair. A hot angle that sadly never paid off. 2 for 3.
Bruiser Bob Sweetan v. Ken Glover
Glover grabs a headlock to start and Sweetan suplexes him on his head to break and then goes to a facelock and beats Glover down. Bob drops a knee to finish at 2:00. 2 for 4.
North American title: Dick Murdoch v. Steve Williams
Before we can start, Butch Reed interrupts and challenges the winner of the match. Murdoch tells him to get lost if he’s said what he wants to say. Murdoch takes Doc down and works the arm to start while Reed watches from ringside, but Doc reverses out and then Murdoch goes to a facelock on the mat. Doc deadlifts him up and slams him into the corner, trying to break, but Murdoch hangs on and takes him back to the mat again. So Doc powers up a second time and finally breaks the hold this time, then puts Murdoch down with a back elbow for two and goes to a chinlock. Murdoch breaks free and Williams tries the Stampede, but then just slams Murdoch instead and charges, missing that and landing on the floor. This triggers a brawl between Sweetan and Reed at ringside while the ref is bumped in the ring, so Sweetan knocks Murdoch out and puts Williams on top. Reed comes in and breaks that up, but he collides with Williams and gets knocked onto Murdoch himself. So Murdoch revives and sees Reed, turning on him because he thinks Reed was the one who attacked him, and then Williams and Sweetan double-team Murdoch and beat on him for a double DQ at 8:48. Murdoch really seems to have a problem with Butch Reed for some reason. Can’t put my finger on why that might be… 3 for 5. All the babyfaces save Murdoch, but then Murdoch and Reed get into another brawl as we head to the break.
El Corsario v. Jimmy Backlund
Backlund tries to attack to start, but Corsario uses a Puerto Rican judo chop to put him down and follows with a powerslam. Superkick finishes at 0:35. 3 for 6.
Dutch Mantel & Bill Dundee v. Pat Rose & Karl Stiles
At this point, Eddie Gilbert interrupts and puts over Bill Dundee because he was a big fan in Memphis and Bill has CLASS. So Eddie reveals that he took care of Bobby Fulton and he has recovered Dundee’s stolen pink ring gear from weeks ago! I did not expect that angle to suddenly be paid off weeks later, I have to say. Also, THANK GOD they decided to turn Eddie Gilbert heel because I couldn’t take much more of him trying to be a wholesome babyface. Dundee is all distracted by his good fortune and Rose is able to slug him down, so Dutch comes in and nails Stiles from behind, allowing Dundee to take over. Dutch takes the ref, allowing Dundee to come off the top with a flying knee for the pin at 3:04. 3 for 7.
And we finish with a video from Joel Watts, as the Fantastics are wandering the highway and get ghosted by a car that looks SUSPICIOUSLY like the one on the cover of a famous rock album of the time. And then the generic music is clearly an overdub of “Sharp Dressed Man” in case you needed any more hints. Luckily, the video ends with the car stopping this time, picking them up from a street corner. So apparently they’re working as male escorts on the side. Well, you do what you gotta do when payoffs are bad.
We’re getting into the thick of the good stuff now, which is a shame because the Network collection only runs until the end of the year and it’s doubtful we’re ever seeing more of it.