The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 10.12.85
Taped from Shreveport, LA
Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts
Hold on a sec, is it me or there is suddenly more Mid-South here? It’s now up to December 14 1985 on the Network and I had thought it ended in November previously.
BREAKING NEWS: The Barbarian has “mysteriously disappeared” according to Bill Watts, aka flaked out and went back to Minnesota to sell cars or jumped to the AWA.
Meanwhile, Ric Flair chats with Jim Ross, and he’s making it clear that he will not defend the NWA World title against anyone but the North American champion, but otherwise he doesn’t care who the champion is and they can fight amongst themselves to earn the shot. He’s not getting forced into doing anything he doesn’t want to do! Interesting choice of words on his part there.
Meanwhile, at a house show in Alexandria LA, Flair is wrestling Jim Duggan and gets the figure-four at what Bill Watts describes as “around the 25 minute mark of a grueling match.” I can’t even imagine Duggan in a 30 minute match. Duggan reverses out, so Flair slaps the ref and tries to get himself DQ’d. Duggan of course begs for the match to continue and makes the comeback, but he runs into a knee in the corner and they fight on the floor. Duggan runs him into the post, but that’s a DQ on Duggan this time, so the ref decides they’re now even and the match continues. Duggan suplexes Flair into the ring (which Duggan would no doubt consider a “fancy dan move”) but the ref declares that it was an illegal suplex so he won’t count. Duggan goes for the three point stance, but Flair pulls the ref in the way and knocks him out, which finally is enough for a DQ. Seemed like a pretty good match actually. 1 for 1.
Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer is in the ring mouthing off at Duggan in the meantime, so Duggan tells him to shut the hell up and Watts reminds Duggan that it’s a $2500 fine if he leaves the desk for the fight. Man, that’s almost 10 gallons worth of gas!
Buzz Sawyer v. Mike Nichols
Buzz slams the jobber into the mat and beats the hell out of him, then puts him on the top rope and brings him down with pretty epic powerslam to finish at 1:03. Bron Breakker should steal that shit. 2 for 2. But then Buzz uses his chain to beat the guy down further, and thus Nichols wins by DQ.
Meanwhile, Al Perez and Wendell Cooley are still the tag team champions, and now they’re cowboys who ride horses in their spare time as well! But their hair is still perfectly maintained, I can’t stress that enough. Also the idea of AL PEREZ as a cowboy is pretty funny.
Al Perez & Wendell Cooley v. Gypsy Joe & Brody Chase
Boyd describes Joe as “experienced”, which is a gross understatement. Perez quickly slingshots Chase into the corner and finishes with the german suplex at 1:00. 2 for 3.
Meanwhile, we get a video package about Dick Slater’s mysterious valet Dark Journey, who at least has a name now. It’s mostly her dancing around on a photo shoot with whatever pop music replaced by generic stuff. I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and say it was “Obsession” based on the new fake bassline and synths.
The UNPREDICTABLE Dick Slater v. Steve Constance
They call Slater UNPREDICTABLE about 7 times, almost like he’s the booker or something. Meanwhile Watts relates a story about Constance’s former partner Tim Ashley, who broke into the sport with Constance but then suffered a “brain concussion” and decided that wrestling wasn’t the sport for him because he wasn’t tough enough. Slater beats Constance down and gets a neckbreaker, and then finishes him off with a sleeper at 2:25. I didn’t even predict that would happen! 2 for 4. This allows Bill to talk about the time that a “television talk show host” discovered how dangerous the hold is when a wrestler applied it to him and then dropped him on the floor and left him with 21 stitches in his head. Wow, hope he sued that wrestler and got enough to buy a new house out of the deal.
The Nightmare & Humongous v. Don Turner & Tony Falk
The graphic identifies him as “Tony Fauck” but it’s clearly Falk. So with Barbarian gone, they slotted Randy Colley right into the spot and instantly heated him up again. Falk gets murdered and Nightmare runs him into the hockey mask of Humongous, busting him open, and the cobra sleeper finishes at 2:00. Wasn’t hard to replace the Barbarian in THAT team. 3 for 5.
Ted Dibiase v. Nick Patrick
Yup, it’s the young son of the Assassin, working as a cruiserweight here before suffering a neck injury later on in the year and turning into a referee. Patrick actually gets some offense on Dibiase with a series of slams, but he puts his head down and gets caught, allowing Dibiase to toss him to the floor. Back in, Dibiase with a back elbow and the fistdrop, and he goes up with an elbow before choking him out on the ropes. Dibiase with a suplex for two, but he picks up Patrick and then misses a charge. But he quickly recovers, takes Patrick down, and goes to finish with the figure-four. But then Bob Sweetan comes down and attacks Steve Williams on the floor, so Dibiase loads up the glove to defend himself and the ref disqualifies Patrick for Sweetan’s interference at 4:45 as a result. Patrick was showing a lot of promise here and it’s too bad his career ended so soon. 4 for 6.
Dutch Mantell & El Corsario v. Jim Duggan & Jake Roberts
Words of wisdom from Bill Watts: Don’t take something into a fight that’s not chocolate because you might have to eat it! So is he advising us to use chocolate as a weapon? I’m confused what the lesson is there. Dutch starts with Duggan and gets nowhere, so it’s over to Corsario and Duggan quickly elbows him down and drops a knee on him. Jake comes in and goes for the mask, but he gets distracted by Dutch and Corsario, the mysterious martial arts expert ninja from Puerto Rico, attacks from behind to get the heat. Dutch works the arm and Corsario comes in with a superkick and back elbow as Jake is over huge as a babyface now while Bill bitches about “people with national TV exposure” trying to imitate the DDT but failing at it. I wonder who the target of his whining was? Duggan gets a hot tag and Dutch freaks out and grabs the whip, but Duggan CATCHES it mid-snap in a cool spot, and while Dutch is trying to yank it back, Jake hits him with the DDT and pins him at 4:00. A fun match with a cool finish. 5 for 7.
Hey, that was a good episode and we’re inching closer to the one of the most legendary angles of the decade with all the “Flair will only defend against the North American champion” stuff.