The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 08.21.82
The Network skips over the August 14 episode for some reason, but I’m sure Bob Caudle will catch us up if anything notable happened.
Taped from Charlotte, NC
Your host is Bob Caudle
And RIC FLAIR IS HERE to start the show, and it’s 82 Flair so he’s all coked up and at the top of his game. Flair was pissed off last week because Jim Crockett demanded a rematch for Wahoo McDaniel, but now he’s happy this week because the NWA board backed Flair instead. “Don’t get excited about this, just buy tickets next time I’m in town!” So Jim Crockett actually stepped down as NWA President in protest, but Flair is also a big man and he’s got lots of money now that he’s World champion, so he’s not going to get pushed around by Crockett anymore. WOO!
Back from the break, and Flair is supposed to face some scrub that I’ve never even heard of, and Flair is so disgusted with facing “Leroy Dargin” that he heads over to Bob to protest. “Where I come from, we don’t wrestle guys like that, we employ ‘em”. Yeah, and just guess what color the jobber’s skin is. Oh Ric. 1982 was a different time I guess. So Wahoo comes out to give Flair shit about this attitude, and Flair freaks out and snaps “You want me to wrestle that guy in the ring? Watch me!”. So Flair dives into the ring and is about to wrestle the guy, but Leroy has departed and JACK BRISCO is now the guy in the ring. Flair is not super happy about this but his word is his word.
Ric Flair v. Jack Brisco
Jack quickly puts Flair down with shoulderblocks and hooks him in the abdominal stretch, and Flair has to make the ropes. Brisco works the arm and takes Flair down with armdrags, but Flair takes him to the corner for some chops. Brisco quickly whips Flair into the other corner and he takes a Bret Hart bump instead of a Flair Flip, and Brisco takes him down and goes back to the arm again. Ric escapes with more chops, but Jack takes him down into a short-arm scissor and rolls him around the ring with that one. Flair rolls him over for two and they get into the ropes to break. They slug it out in the corner and Flair gets the worst of that one, and Brisco hits a bodypress for two. Flair dumps him to the floor and drops a knee back in the ring, which sets up the piledriver for two. Don’t see that very often from Ric. Flair puts him down with an elbow, but he tries a suplex and Brisco reverses into a sleeper, so Flair drops him with a suplex. Flair with the knee crusher and that sets up the figure-four, but Brisco immediately reverses it and Flair has to make the ropes again. So Brisco yanks him off the ropes and goes to the leg, but Flair pokes him in the eye to cut him off again. Flair goes to the TOP ROPE?! And of course Brisco slams him off and that sets up his own figure-four, which Flair also reverses immediately. Flair with a small package for two. They do the pinfall reversal sequence and Brisco gets the backslide and gets the pin at 9:55 for the non-title win. And Flair of course lays him out afterwards, and then runs away to avoid the wrath of Wahoo. This was a GREAT TV match, non-stop action start to finish. ***3/4
Jimmy Valiant & Rowdy Roddy Piper v. Jim Dalton & Ken Timbs
Well that is a unique team on the babyface side. Talk about Team ADD. Piper quickly blitzes Timbs with a pair of kneelifts, but picks him up at two, and Valiant comes in and chokes him out on the ropes, and then so does Piper. Nice to see them bonding. Over to Piper with the sleeper and he puts Timbs out at 2:10. I imagine they went back to the dressing room and celebrated with ALL OF THE DRUGS.
Back at the desk, Timbs and Dalton complain about all of the cheating from the babyfaces and call Piper a “dirty turncoat”. Bob points out that Dalton didn’t actually rush into the ring to help out his partner.
Paul Jones v. Keith Larsen
Jones is now managed by Oliver Humperdink as well as the Humperdink era drags on, and he hits Keith with knees on the ropes, but puts his head down and gets booted. Jones works him over in the corner and follows with an atomic drop for two. Larson chases him back into the corner and slugs away before bringing him out with a hiptoss and a slam for two. Jones drops an elbow for two, but Larson makes another comeback and finally Humperdink leaves the color commentary desk and distracts Keith, allowing Jones to finish with a brainbuster at 5:00.
Roddy Piper joins us at the desk, and he denies being any kind of hero, because he doesn’t wash behind his ears and he still pulls his woman around by the hair. But he does hate Oliver Humperdink and all the goofs he employs. He also stops to do an impression of Gene Anderson’s facial tics and that’s pretty mean. And then Jimmy Valiant storms out and they have an impromptu dance party while the Network censors desperately attempt to cut out all the music playing from Valiant’s tape player.
Sgt. Slaughter v. Jake Roberts
Slaughter apparently tore up Wahoo’s headpiece last week, and is now sporting feathers in his hat as a trophy. Jake grabs a headlock on Sarge and tries the kneelift, but Slaughter runs away and hides in the corner. They slug it out and Jake wins that battle, but Slaughter puts him down with a knee to the gut and works the back in the corner. Jake fights back and gets the kneelift, before following with a backdrop out of the corner for two. Slaughter beats him down in the corner to take over again, but they do a weird spot where Slaughter tries a clothesline and Jake ducks it, but appears to catch Slaughter with something and both guys kind of stumble to opposite corners and sell unrelated injuries. Not sure what happened there. Slaughter gets two from that, but Jake makes the comeback with another kneelift attemptd, but Slaughter hits one last desperation Slaughter Cannon and gets the pin at 5:00.
Gene Anderson, also now of the Humperdink team, promises to show Wahoo how he deals with Indians.
Wahoo McDaniel v. Gene Anderson
Man this episode was LOADED. Wahoo quickly hits him with a chop in the corner and then beats him down with chops for two. Humperdink panics and takes the ref right away, allowing Gene to get a cheapshot to take over before going to the chinlock. Humperdink doing the typical manager stuff feels so out of place on this show, as you never really see managerial interference on TV at this point. Wahoo comes back with shoulderblocks while Slaughter and Koloff surround the ring, and Humperdink interferes again for the DQ at 2:40. Didn’t like all the extracurricular stuff in this one.
And we finish with more from Humperdink and his goofs, in this case the fearsome trio of Ivan Koloff, Leroy Brown and Gene Anderson. They’re coming after Roddy Piper, and Leroy is still after Ricky Steamboat. Sgt. Slaughter also stops by, announcing that he’s facing Wahoo upcoming in Indian strap matches, with Wahoo’s hair against Slaughter’s title. But he’s got a plan. Well you know what Mike Tyson said about people with plans. Regardless, Slaughter did in fact lose the US title to Wahoo in that match, and then disappeared for a month before magically reappearing with Private Don Kernodle as his World tag team championship partner despite never winning those belts in the ring. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
Hell of a show this week! Having the Roddy Piper turn and Flair appearing immediately reinvigorated things.