The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 07.24.82

The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 07.24.82

Hey, I’m back home after my work conference in Vancouver this past week, and my compadre Daryl Stewart is still having a crappy time of it while fighting cancer in the hospital, so here’s another round of Mid-Atlantic to hopefully help him out a bit.

I was also inspired to go back to review some more territory stuff after reading Tim Hornbaker’s excellent Death of the Territories while on the plane, which is a great read covering the history of wrestling from the 50s – 80s, but depressing as hell by the end.

Taped from Charlotte, NC

Your host is Bob Caudle

Oliver Humperdink joins us to start, announcing that Bad Leroy Brown is now working for him, and will no longer be wearing overalls and a hard hat. It’s gonna be fancy suits and expensive cigars from now on! So this was actually the payoff of a long storyline we didn’t see on these shows for some reason, where humble working man Leroy challenged Ric Flair for the World title on a number of occasions and came close to winning, only for Flair to cheat and retain in the end. This led to Flair offering Leroy a chance to make a better life for himself by signing with Humperdink and living the “style and profile” lifestyle instead of doing construction work or whatever he was doing before, and Leroy shockingly accepted the offer the week before this show, and turned heel.

Bad Bad Leroy Brown v. Keith Larsen

He needs two “bads” because he’s really bad. Brown misses a charge, but tosses Larsen around with hiptosses and pounds on the arm. Keith tries for a slam and can’t get Brown up. Brown no-sells some shots in the corner and drops Keith on the top rope, and then drops an elbow for two before picking him up and then changing his mind and pinning him for real at 3:38. Brown continues the attack, but Ricky Steamboat makes the save and then finally Jack Brisco and Wahoo join in to chase off Leroy. Brown was not great in the ring, to say the least, and this heel turn soon led to an ill-advised gimmick change into “Elijah Akeem” as part of the Zambuie Express with Ray Candy (“Kareem Muhammad”), playing a pair of militaristic black Muslims before his untimely death in 1988. It was, I’m sure, social commentary from Bill Watts on the black power movement at the time.

Oliver Humperdink joins us again to set up a clip of a tag match with Roddy Piper and Don Muraco winning a squash, with both guys cheating egregiously. I could do with less Humperdink on these shows, as he always came off a C-level manager. Piper wins with a terrible figure-four because he’s trying to throw shade at Jack Brisco, but he puts it on the wrong leg and can barely apply it.

Oliver Humperdink joins us for a third time after the break, nothing that admiration and respect don’t put money in the bank, and so there’s no more dungarees and now Leroy Brown is going to be hurting people that Oliver wants hurt. Like Ricky Steamboat!

Jimmy Valiant v. Jeff Sword

Jimmy takes him down with armdrags while Uncle Ivan joins us on the commentary desk, and he’s pretty resentful of being called a coward by the fans for refusing to defend the TV title against Valiant. Basically Valiant is just not worthy of a title shot, possibly because eating American food has destroyed his brain and left his brain unable to function properly. He might be onto something there. Valiant works the arm for a bit and then finishes with the elbowdrop at 2:30.

Oliver Humperdink joins us AGAIN, with what I assume is a drop-in promo for local markets, and this time he’s managing Ivan Koloff, who is carrying around a shovel and wearing headgear to protect him from that maniac Jimmy Valiant. Oliver thinks that rock n’ roll music is the problem, and Ivan thinks it’s all anti-Russian propaganda music. This prompts Valiant to toss a garbage can at Koloff’s head from off-screen, and then storm into the interview area yelling about a street fight and threatening to KILL Koloff. Well that escalated quickly.

Sgt. Slaughter v. Tim Horner

Horner tries a headlock and gets tossed off by Sarge, but he goes right back to it and then takes Sarge down with some armdrags and an armbar off a dropkick. Slaughter fights out of it and tries the clothesline, but Horner catches him in the armdrag and takes him down again. Slaughter beats him down to escape, but he misses an elbow and Horner makes another comeback with a slam and dropkicks for two. Sarge tries an elbow and Horner ducks it and gets a crossbody for two, but another one is countered with the Slaughter Cannon for the pin at 6:52. Sarge was giving young Horner a ton of offense here. Unfortunately Horner didn’t have a lick of personality to back up his work in the ring. This was a good TV match, however. **1/2

Sgt. Slaughter then joins us at the desk, complaining about a conspiracy against him because he was expecting Abe Jacobs and got a “main eventer” instead. He blames Wahoo for these shenanigans, so Wahoo comes out and WHOOPS on him with a strap, chasing him off and promising more of that when they have lumberjack strap matches at an arena near you.

David Patterson & Ken Timbs join us for your local drop-in filler segment, as Patterson does a funny promo about their match tonight, promising to do it HARD AND NASTY against Ricky Steamboat and Jack Brisco, and then repeats the same thing in Spanish.

Ricky Steamboat & Jack Brisco v. David Patterson & Ken Timbs

Patterson tries to overpower Brisco and that goes badly for him, as Brisco hiptosses him and brings him into the babyface corner for some double-teaming. Steamboat comes in and goes to work on the arm until Patterson escapes and brings Timbs in. They manage to trap Brisco in the corner and Patterson holds him in a headlock, but Brisco has had enough and hits an atomic drop to escape, then brings Steamboat in to chop Patterson a whole bunch. But then Steamboat gets taken out by Patterson from the apron and the heels go to work on him and Steamboat is selling like crazy while the crowd goes nuts for him. Patterson with a dropkick for two, but Steamboat fights back with another chop and makes the dramatic hot tag to Brisco, even against a couple of enhancement guys. Jack comes in and drops a knee on Timbs before taking out the knee and locking in the figure-four. But then Patterson actually manages to save and the heels get the heat on Brisco again! Timbs beats on him with knees on the ropes and gets two off that, but he misses an elbow and Brisco hits him with a kneelift and brings Steamboat in for another melodramatic chop. Superkick follows and he suplexes Timbs, but then picks him up right away and lets Brisco back in for a double arm suplex. And that only gets two, so Steamboat comes in with a bridging back suplex, and that also gets two as Caudle is amazed that Timbs keeps kicking out of this stuff. Steamboat with a dropkick for two. Brisco tries an abdominal stretch this time as Caudle points out that Patterson already used his one save, so he can’t break it up. But Brisco rolls him into a cradle for two, as Timbs still won’t die. They collide for a double-down and it’s back to Steamboat, and he takes out Patterson on the apron so poor Timbs can’t tag out, and they double-team Timbs and finally finish him with a flying bodypress from Steamboat at 10:52. This was supposed to be a normal squash and it turned into this great story with Ken Timbs fighting for his life and the babyfaces trying to find a way to put him away. Great stuff. ***1/4 I love when wrestling shows just randomly put some someone over like that and keep things surprising.

Ricky Steamboat joins us at the desk to wrap things up, giving kudos to Timbs for putting up a great fight, and then they challenge Piper and Muraco to a series of Texas Death matches around the horn to settle things.

Hell of a deal this week, with a pair of really entertaining squashes that turned into competitive matches and lots of grudges furthered.