The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 12.07.85
Oh hey, back to the Day One ads again before the show. The Rumble sure made THAT look like a hell of a lot better show in retrospect.
Just one more after this one and then it’s farewell to Mid-South unless a miracle happens and they add more.
Taped from Shreveport, LA
Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts
Bill Watts explains that the TV title tournament begins this week, but there’s no brackets like all the other sissy promotions use. Well we doesn’t call them sissies but you can tell he’s thinking it. Anyway, they’re going to draw matches at random for the first round, and then put everyone’s name in a hat and draw matches at random for each round following as well.
BREAKING NEWS! Ted Dibiase has been upgraded further from “dead” to “alive” to “back in two weeks” and he’ll be back on Christmas Night thanks to medical science, and he wants either Ric Flair or Dick Murdoch when he returns. And coincidentally, Murdoch’s suspension ends on December 21, so this is definitely a thing that could happen.
Meanwhile, Flair does a promo from a dressing room somewhere, and he’s pissed about getting fined $5000 for his role in Butch Reed’s attack, and he clarifies that he doesn’t like Butch Reed at all because “he’s a big monkey with no brain” and thus had it coming. Now Dick Slater, there’s a man with CLASS. And $5000 is nothing to him, because one time Slater charged him $5000 for a night with Dark Journey.
MORE BREAKING NEWS! They were going to announce the winner of Eddie Gilbert’s portrait tonight, but Eddie is claiming that it’s been stolen. Huge if true.
Dick Slater stops by with his sweet porkpie hat, declaring that Butch Reed has NO GUTS. No one single gut in his body! Watts points out if he keeps getting $5000 fines, he’ll run out of the $50,000 he got from Flair pretty quick. Cowboy tells him to step off and take up his beef with Grizzly Smith, because he already had matches with Reed and got whupped.
The Hacksaws join us in the ring for an interview with Jim Ross, and Duggan’s girlfriend Debra is back after her injury, and now he’s trained her a little bit so she can defend herself. And as far as Butch is concerned, Slater is history and has nothing further to offer him.
Hacksaw Duggan & Hacksaw Butch Reed v. Tiger Tabb & Mike Scott
I’m assuming Tiger Tabb is Big Bill Tabb. The Hacksaws toss Scott and hit Tabb with a double shoulderblock and pin him at 0:30. 0 for 1. Notable here for Scott getting thrown out and Watts declaring “Mike Scott took a dump on the floor out there!” PHRASING.
TV Title round one: Ricky Gibson v. Tommy Wright
Bill Watts is still talking about how they’re negotiating a junior heavyweight title tournament, which of course led to nothing because the entire promotion reorganized a couple of months later. Gibson works a headscissors on the mat while Watts talks about how there’s no time limits on the matches like those other sissy promotions! Well he doesn’t call them sissies here, either, but you know he was thinking it. Gibson switches to a headlock while Watts puts over the “clean scientific wrestling” on display here and then back to a headscissors. I believe “boring” is the word he was looking for here. More laying around on the mat while Watts talks about the Murdoch angle, and Brett Wayne Sawyer’s impending move from “Channel 17”, and Ted Dibiase, and a million other things that are not this dull match. Wright comes back with a cradle and a bodyslam for two, but Gibson wraps him up in the leglock cradle for the pin at 5:29 to advance in the tournament. 0 for 2.
Eddie Gilbert v. Steve Doll
Eddie takes him down with an armdrag while Watts accuses Eddie of stealing his own portrait so he can retain possession and stare at himself every night. Doll gets his own armdrag but Eddie takes him down and works the arm again, but Doll makes a brief comeback before walking into a hotshot at 1:51. Also, Terry Taylor is coming back! This was an OK squash. 1 for 3.
TV title round one: The Nightmare v. Shawn O’Reilly
Shawn manages a rollup for two, but misses a dropkick and Nightmare drops an elbow on him to take over. Nightmare with a legsweep for two and finishes with the piledriver at 2:29. 1 for 4.
TV title round one: Dick Slater v. Al Perez
Dick Slater again has words for Butch Reed, which brings out Butch to confront him man on man, again reminding Dick that he’s got no place to even ask for a title match anymore. But then he’s got an idea – if Slater puts up Dark Journey for 30 days as a prize, he’ll give the title shot! And then when he beats Slater, he’ll put Journey back on the street to work where she belongs. Oh, the 80s were a different time. Perez gets some babyface shine to start, hitting a dropkick, but Slater takes him down with a hammerlock and hangs on through a slam. Slater takes him to the corner but can’t ram him in the turnbuckle and decides to go back to the hammerlock again. Slater takes him to the floor and they slug it out, but Dick catches him on the way back in and takes him down with a headlock this time. Perez with a backslide for two, and then he reverses a figure-four into a cradle for two. Slater hits him with an elbow in the corner, but Perez reverses into a german suplex, which leads to Journey putting Slater’s foot on the ropes to save him. Perez gets all distracted by that, and Slater elbows him and goes for a piledriver. Perez escapes that and makes a comeback, but Journey takes the ref and allows Slater to reverse a rollup and use the tights to advance at 6:03. Very entertaining match that gave Perez some shine. 2 for 5.
Buzz Sawyer & Dr. Death Steve Williams v. Jimmy Backlund & Mark Cooper
Sawyer quickly destroys Backlund with elbows while shrieking like a maniac, and then Doc comes in and presses Backlund before putting the boots to him. Back to Mad Dog for more screaming and abuse, and he lets Cooper come in so he can personally beat on him as well. Back to Doc, who finishes with the Stampede at 1:25. Those poor fools got wrecked. 3 for 6.
And we wrap it up with Dick Slater and Mad Dog ranting at the desk about Jim Duggan and his old hag.
Next time: More of the TV title tournament as we say goodbye and wrap up Mid-South.