The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 07.10.82
Taped from Charlotte, NC
Your hosts are Bob Caudle and David Crockett
Roddy Piper joins us to start, and he’s still carrying around his stolen Mid-Atlantic title belt, and David pays Piper $10,000 in cash on behalf of his brother to get the belt back and face Brisco for the title, but Piper “counts” the cash (because they don’t take cheques in Scotland!) and claims that Crockett is cheating him and there’s not actually $10,000 there. He doesn’t give the money back, of course. So then Wahoo and Steamboat also come out and put in $2000 each of their own money to sweeten the pot, as long as Piper actually agrees to get in the ring and face Brisco like a man. So Piper accepts that deal, as long as Wahoo and Steamboat are banned from the building. Wahoo isn’t worried about Brisco losing and he agrees to that deal as well. So winner gets all the money, and the belt, and if Wahoo comes to ringside to interfere, Piper wins by forfeit and gets all the cash and the title.
Back from the break and Piper is still counting the cash while ranting in a coke-fueled paranoid rage, and he’s in rare form making sure that if Wahoo so much as steps foot in the building, he wins. The poor referee is standing there in the background and Piper suddenly snaps “If you move from there I’ll KILL YOU!” to make sure we know how tough he is and how much he totally wants to do this match with Brisco.
Mid-Atlantic championship: Jack Brisco v. Roddy Piper
To recap, Brisco is actually the champion, but Piper stole the belt and has been holding it hostage, refusing to “defend” it against Brisco in a rematch until Jack put up $10,000 in exchange. So really it’s a no-lose situation for Piper. Brisco calmly takes Piper down with an armdrag and Piper bails and complains about hair pulling and whatever else he can come up with. Back in, Piper tries to out-wrestle Brisco on the mat and he loses that battle, as Brisco rides him, so Piper yanks on the hair blatantly. So Jack flips him out of the ring to break free. Back in the ring, they fight for a lockup and Jack takes him down with a headlock for two and he cranks on that while Piper gets flustered trying to shake him off. Piper tries to run him into the corner and Jack walks the ropes and flips him over for two, holding the headlock with this awesomely unhinged look on his face as he’s had enough of Piper’s nonsense. I feel like that might backfire on him before the end of this match. Piper desperately tries to throw him into the corner and Brisco just keeps grinding on the headlock. Finally Piper gets a desperate cheapshot to break free and lays in some STIFF chops to put Brisco down, before putting the boots to him and going to a facelock. Jack fights free of that, but Piper runs him into the corner, so Jack starts punching him in the knee to soften it up for the figure-four. Piper tosses him and just lays into him with more chops out there, and they slug it out back in the ring, before Piper gets a sleeper. Piper declares the match OVER, but Brisco makes the comeback and powers up…before Piper pulls the hair and takes him down again. Brisco powers up again and drops Piper with a back suplex. Jack comes back with his own sleeper in the 1982 version of finisher spamming, but Piper claws at his face and pokes him in the eye to break free and David is MORTIFIED. So Jack comes back again and beats on Piper in the corner, sending him running to the floor, but Piper goes to the tights and finds a roll of coins, knocking him out for the pin at 15:10 to win the title and the money. The camera shows the coins all over the ring in a nice touch. This was AWESOME. It was all about Brisco using basic wrestling to frustrate Piper, until Roddy just decided to use a roll of coins to cut the Gordian knot. ****1/4 Piper does the Daffy Duck victory speech afterwards, screaming “IT’S MINE! I AM THE CHAMPION!” while clutching the belt. Also the coins came from people throwing money from the crowd, not him. “I hit him with nothing but POWER!” he notes. This was of course a legendary match that still gets talked about today for good reason. Also it was 150% better with David Crockett on color commentary.
King Parsons chats with Bob afterwards, and he’s already beginning to do his jive-talking interview style that would define his later run as Iceman Parsons.
Sgt. Slaughter v. King Parsons
Parsons gets a slam on Sarge to start, but Slaughter puts the boots to him and chops Parsons down before dropping a knee for two. Slaughter gets a standing dropkick, but Parsons comes back with a backdrop. Slaughter gets a backbreaker for two and apparently Sarge is working with a broken nose here. Who is he, Britt Baker? Slaughter hits him with chops and puts him down with a back elbow for two, but Parsons gets a sunset flip for two. Small package gets two. Sarge beats on him with more chops and elbows on the ropes, and a slam gets two. Parsons comes back again and gets a rollup for two and then puts him down with dropkicks. But Slaughter hits him with the Slaughter Cannon to finish at 4:54. You could see they were getting Parsons ready for bigger things and gave him a ton here, and it was a good match.
Roddy Piper joins us again, $10,000 richer and the Mid-Atlantic champion. He’s gonna go party with Ricky Steamboat’s money! Sounds like one of Rick’s ex-wives. Piper is now claiming that he was just playing with Brisco for the whole match and he’s got hours, nay, DAYS even, left in him after making Jack look like “a squaw” in the ring.
Greg Valentine v. Keith Larson
Keith, the future Rocky Kernodle, takes him down with an armdrag and goes to work on the arm, but Greg hiptosses him to escape. Keith goes back to the arm, but Greg takes him down with a legbar and Larson has to fight out of that. Greg chops him down and then whips him into the corner before beating on him with elbows and a back elbow to follow. And Greg drops the HAMMER to finish at 3:33.
Greg Valentine joins Bob at the desk afterwards, bragging about his recent tour of the Northeast and how he won the World title from Bob Backlund while he was there. Well that’s stretching the truth, as they actually did a wacky finish where Bob pinned Valentine to retain the title, but the referee had been knocked out and accidentally awarded the belt to Greg while he was recovering, which led to a held up title and rematch that Bob won. Moving on, Greg is pretty pissed at Ric Flair, who refuses to defend the NWA World title against him despite their history as tag team partners and champions. This brings to mind a story from my youth, as I hung out with the other wrestling nerds in grade 8 and I had brought some old wrestling magazines to school one day. Our minds were BLOWN when they revealed that in fact not only were Greg Valentine and Ric Flair former partners, but they were actually tag team champions at one point! The world before the internet was a crazy place for us.
Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood v. Bill White & Ali Bey
Good lord, it’s Bill White and his weird powder blue trunks that look like underwear again. The faces double-team Bill and trap him in the corner, and Steamboat puts him down with chops and then picks him up for a series of backbreakers. Over to Jay for a double chop and he works on White with a headlock. Steamboat with a chop to put him down, and then he presses Youngblood onto White for the pin at 3:33, which would become their famous finish over the years.
Wahoo McDaniel joins us, and he points out that you can always make more money, but losing your pride is forever. Jack Brisco also stops by and he feels super bad about losing his friends’ money, but Wahoo assures him that there’s always more money. If Wahoo was a less forgiving soul that might have led to a great feud over the lost money, but I don’t think they ever went there.
Well this was an all-timer! I absolutely recommend checking out the famous Piper-Brisco match, which I think has featured on a couple of DVD releases as well in years past. Probably the peak of the 82 shows if we’re being honest.