The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 08.28.82
Taped from Charlotte, NC
Your host is Bob Caudle
Jack Brisco joins us to start, and he ran into Paul Jones in the most dangerous place for any wrestling studio, THE PARKING LOT, and he ended up with a bad leg and skinned elbow as a result. So next week he’s facing Paul Jones for the Mid-Atlantic title because he’s still man enough to defend the title even when injured, although Steamboat and Youngblood warn him against doing so. Carrying on, Ricky is pretty sick of Oliver Humperdink, but in good news, Sgt. Slaughter has lost the US title to Wahoo McDaniel and is also suspended for 30 days as a bonus. And then we’re also blessed with a Jay Youngblood promo, as he does a promo as a proxy for Jimmy Valiant, who can’t be here. Well that’s quite the step down. It’s just not the same when Youngblood is promising to shave someone else bald on half of Jimmy.
Jay Youngblood v. Private Jim Nelson
So as it turned out, Slaughter’s Privates were split up, as Nelson ended up as a solo act while Slaughter and Kernodle suddenly became NWA World tag team champions because of reasons. Slaughter is a Hall of Fame guy because he survived having one of his Privates shaved bald and turned red. A normal man would have been out for a long time from that. Youngblood controls on the mat with a headlock after some chops, but Nelson rolls him over for two. Fairly notable here is that Tommy Young is now refereeing, which is the first time I can recall seeing him on these shows because it’s usually Sonny Fargo. Nelson hits Youngblood with knees on the ropes and runs him into the corner to take over. Nelson with the chinlock, which he then turns into a cobra clutch after Jay fights out of the chinlock. Youngblood makes the ropes, so Nelson backdrops him and goes back to the sleeper again. Nelson goes up, but misses an elbowdrop from the middle and Jay makes the comeback with the TOMMYHAWK CHOPS. Nelson whips him into the corner, but Youngblood does a Flair Flip to the apron. Sunset flip back into the ring gets the pin at 6:54. A really entertaining opener! You’d think cutting half of Slaughter’s Privates off would have crippled them, but apparently not. **1/2
Greg Valentine & Bad Bad Leroy Brown v. Ron Ritchie & Keith Larson
Oh boy, Oliver Humperdink gets another addition to his stable with the Hammer. Brown pounds away on Ritchie and Valentine comes in and pounds the back with elbows while Humperdink joins us on commentary and reminds everyone that Valentine broke Wahoo’s leg a couple of years ago. To be fair, I don’t think Greg let ANYONE forget about that. He had a t-shirt and everything. Valentine drops Ritchie on Brown’s knee, and Leroy whips Ron into the corner and misses a blind charge. So Keith Larson comes in and slugs away on Brown, but Leroy just ignores him and it’s back to Hammer for a back elbow before tossing Larson to the floor. Man, Ritchie and Larson are both really good at babyface sympathy selling and they were really underrated at this point. They should have found a gimmick for Ritchie and pushed him way harder than they did. Back in the ring, Leroy drops Larson on the top rope, and Keith takes a HUGE bouncing bump off that, which sets up Brown slamming him across the ring and then choking him out on the ropes. Over to Valentine, who drops the HAMMER on Larson and pins him at 6:19. Really good squash here, with Larson in particular doing a great job of making Leroy Brown look like a halfway competent wrestler.
Porkchop Cash joins us at the desk, and Bob makes sure to put over the effort of Keith Larson in the last match, which is a detail I always like to see. Porkchop does the most laid-back R&B soul singer type of promo possible, talking about his betrayal at the hands of former friend Leroy Brown. And then King Parsons has words for Paul Jones in advance of their match later tonight. Even funnier to hear Parsons talking like a normal human being instead of the wound up maniac he became a few years later.
King Parsons v. Paul Jones
They trade slams to start and Jones drops a knee on him and goes to a front facelock. Parsons escapes and takes him down with an armbar, then hits Jones with a series of dropkicks, but misses one and falls victim to the Indian deathlock at 5:00. That’s foreshadowing for next week’s title match, by the way.
Wahoo McDaniel joins us and shows footage of when he won the US title in the strap match last week, but then Slaughter uses the strap to tie him up while Humperdink and Leroy Brown cut his hair and then cut Jimmy Valiant’s hair for good measure. Wahoo isn’t worried about losing a bit of hair because he’s got a shiny new belt to cover it up.
Joe LeDuke v. Mike Davis
I assume it’s supposed to still be Jos LeDuc and the TV guys didn’t know how to spell it correctly. And OF COURSE LeDuc is part of the House of Humperdink because they’ve literally only got one manager in the entire territory. Jos grabs a headlock on Davis and gets some cheapshots from that, and then chops him down and chokes him out on the mat. Davis fights back and dropkicks him into the corner, but LeDuc puts him down with forearms and then slugs him down as Davis takes a facefirst bump off a rabbit punch. LeDuc with a bearhug that he turns into a flapjack, and then finishes with a legdrop at 3:20. LeDuc absolutely did not need a manager talking for him.
Afterwards, Jos joins us at the desk and clarifies that he’s not here to make friends, he’s here to make money. What is he, on a reality show? Anyway he’s basically functioning as Humperdink’s bodyguard, which is fine.
Roddy Piper & Ricky Steamboat v. Juan Renoso & The Ninja
Piper just took to the babyface role like a duck to water, and he immediately jumps Renoso and stomps him down, and then Steamboat comes in and works an armdrag on the Ninja, and even Steamboat seems energized by Piper’s wacky babyface energy and the crowd’s reaction to it. So Renoso goes after Piper and slaps him, and Piper freaks out and bites him on the ear and tosses him as a result, which the crowd eats up. He drags Renoso back in and chops him down and then pokes him in the eye. Renoso fights back in the corner and Piper is trapped there and worked over by the heels, and Ninja gets two. Renoso goes to a chinlock on Piper, but Roddy flails his way back to the corner and Steamboat comes in and chops Renoso down. Back to the Ninja, but Steamboat chops him down as well and gets a slam and backdrop suplex for two. Ninja actually cuts off Steamboat’s comeback and traps him in the corner, but Renoso comes in and quickly falls victim to a neckbreaker from Piper and flying bodypress from Steamboat for the pin at 5:34. Man this crowd was READY to cheer Piper and you can tell.
Back at the desk, Humperdink and Paul Jones accept the challenge of Jack Brisco for next week. Jones notes that “if you slap a coward around enough, he’ll come out of the closet, and Jack came out of the closet.” Insert George Takei meme here. Also Greg Valentine makes sure to remind us that HE BROKE WAHOO’S LEG and he can do it again. Also Jos LeDuc knew Jimmy Valiant when he was in Memphis in 1978 and then tells a story about chopping down trees in Canada. He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK, apparently.
Really enjoyed this one as they’re turning a corner after Ole Anderson’s departure and we know it’s also building to something really big at the end of the year.