The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 04.03.82
Man I don’t know how people do drugs. I take one sinus pill in the morning and I’m done for the rest of the day.
Taped from Shreveport, LA
Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts. Bill immediately has a bit of a boo-boo, talking about Paul Orndroff failing to win the North American title “last week”, which was actually two weeks ago in TV time. And then we take another look at Bob Roop winning the title from Ted Dibiase in case we missed the past two episodes where they showed it. But Bill wants to stress that we cannot overturn decisions we don’t like via videotape evidence, because that would be COMMIE TALK. Well he didn’t say that but we know he’s thinking it. And then we take another look at the melee between Orndorff and Roop from last week as well, as the first 10 minutes of the show end up being a recap of stuff we’ve already seen.
Bob Roop v. Coco Samoa
Samoa apparently hails from “Pango Pango”, which I suspect is a mangling of “Pago Pago”. Roop whips him into the corner and Coco gets a bodypress for two and goes to an armbar on Roop. Meanwhile Watts talks about various heels being a “Rat Pack”, which is a term that would return soon in the territory. Roop beats on Coco with elbows and slugs him down, and follows with a neckbreaker before putting the boots to him. Coco gets his own neckbreaker and hits a big splash for two, then puts him down with a double chop and legdrop for two. Monkey flip out of the corner, but he tries another one and Roop blocks it while Watts notes that “Coco was trying to climb him like a tree, like he’s climbing a tree back in Samoa”.
Oh dear. Roop whips Coco into the corner and he tries another bodypress, but this time Roop reverses him into a powerslam and pins him at 4:25. Casual racism aside, this was a good TV match. 1 for 1.
Paul Orndorff v. Mike Boyer
Paul is now freshly shaven, literally going babyface, and he gets an armdrag takedown and follows with a dropkick for two. Paul works a hammerlock on the mat and drops a knee on the neck while Watts keeps calling him “Bob Boyer” before correcting himself. Orndorff finishes with a powerslam at 2:40, now fully in babyface mode after straddling the fence a bit at the last tapings. 1 for 2.
Meanwhile, Skandor Akbar answers for some mysterious things that have happened lately, like Killer Karl Kox not showing up for any of his bookings lately. Akbar posits that he might have had “a heart attack or stroke or someone beat him up on the way to Dallas.” Recer Bowden points out that no one said anything about Dallas, but Akbar presses on with his promo and just warns everyone not to team up with JYD because he’s a marked man. I mean, he’s not wrong, JYD’s partners tend to turn on him.
The Wild Samoans v. Buddy Landell & Jesse Barr
Buddy’s hilariously miscast early role as plucky young underdog babyface continues here. Get that kid to Memphis, stat! The enhancement guys manage to fight off their initial attack and clear the ring, and Buddy works a headlock on Afa and slugs away on the mat. But then he misses a splash and hits the knees, allowing Afa to run him into Sika’s head to take over. Buddy tries to fight back on Afa and gets nowhere, and Afa backdrops him before missing a headbutt. Barr manages to get a hot tag and then runs into Sika’s elbow like a geek, and Sika finishes him off with a samoan drop at 3:05. Fun squash. 2 for 3.
The One Man Gang v. Rick Ferrera
Gang stands there while Ferrera bounces off him, while Watts notes that there’s a series of spectacular cards coming up and wrestlers are paid based on percentage of the gate so they’re motivated to sell tickets. But I thought wrestlers were all destitute geeks who were beholden to WWE for whatever meager income they could scrape up? I’m so confused. Gang with the big splash at 1:42. 2 for 4.
Meanwhile, Ernie Ladd has a cane for whacking rats and now he’s got a MYSTERY PARTNER, even though he tried to call his so-called brother Junkyard Dog and Dog hung up on him! But now he’s got a real partner, even though everyone else like Akbar and the Samoans betrayed him. Ladd is tremendous.
Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia v. Tully Blanchard & Wayne Ferris
Oh my dudes. Now we’ve got Tully teaming up with debuting, long blond-haired, Wayne Ferris from Memphis, playing the character that Buddy Landell should be playing. Talk about the potentially world’s most annoying heel tag team. Tully works on Olympia with armdrags to start, but Dog beats on him and he lets Ferris have a shot. So Wayne takes him to the corner and they double-team him for a bit, but Olympia comes back with a dropkick before missing another one. Ferris comes in with a fistdrop, but he misses an elbow and Dog gets the hot tag and beats on Ferris in the corner. Tully gets tossed, but he manages to trip up the Dog and Ferris tries for a powerslam. But then Olympia hits them with a missile dropkick to knock them over, and Dog finishes Ferris with the Thump at 3:40. A very fun little tag match, also notable because Ferris was just a couple of months away from dying his hair jet black and slicking it back into a pompadour for an unlikely career revival as The Honky Tonk Man. 3 for 5.
Iron Mike Sharpe v. Ron Cheatham
Time is running short here, although to be fair they’d have more time if we didn’t have 10 minutes of recaps at the beginning of the show. Sharpe pounds away on Cheatham in the corner and follows with a slam before finishing with the body vice at 1:40 to wrap up the show.
Another solid episode of building to the big stuff coming in the summer.