The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 07.31.82

The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 07.31.82

The Network’s listing skips the July 17 AND July 24 episodes for whatever reason, so we’re moving ahead a couple of weeks.

Taped from Shreveport, LA

Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Cowboy Bill Watts. Boyd’s outfit is coordinated with the backdrop this week so I’m shocked I can even see him.

But first! – Cowboy Bill talks about his Estonian wife and how her home country was absorbed by Russia, against their will, and if America doesn’t have a strong leader like Ronald Reagan, then America will also get absorbed by Russia too. Man the more you learn about him, the more all his stuff makes more sense.

Mr. Olympia v. Billy The Star Child Starr

Olympia tosses Starr across the ring, and then dodges a blind charge and hits him with snapmares to send him running to the floor. Back in with a dropkick from Olympia, but Starr uses some KARATE to put Olympia down with a throat chop. Starr with headbutts for two and he puts the boots to Olympia, but he walks into a sleeper and that’s all at 3:20. I’ve been looking into Billy Starr lately because he’s on every show in 1982 it seems like, and for whatever reason he left the business completely for more than a decade at the end of this year and then resurfaced working a couple of local southern shows as Festus the Hillbilly.

Steve “Dr. Death” Williams v. Mike Bond

Steve overpowers Bond to start while Bill talks about his 14 year old son Erik and how much Erik loves and looks up to Dr. Death. Yeah but wait until Erik tries to throw a dropkick on him a decade from now. Bond actually takes Doc down and gets a cradle, but Williams reverses out of that and Bond makes the ropes. This gives Cowboy a chance to go on his soapbox about big “rough and tough” guys who come in without knowing the basics of wrestling. I’d say that he’d hate the WWF in a couple of years but really that’s already no secret. Doc with a bearhug that goes nowhere, but Bond escapes and throws knees in the corner. Doc backdrops him out of the corner and clips the knee a few times before finishing with the Oklahoma Stampede at 3:30.

The One Man Gang v. Joe Stark & David Price

Apparently we missed Iron Mike Sharpe giving Akbar a piledriver last week, resulting in Akbar wearing a neck brace this week. Gang hammers on Price with clubbing forearms while Bill talks about how Ted Dibiase has introduced his new tag team partner, Hacksaw Duggan. “With 2 G’s” notes Bill, while still pronouncing it “Doogan”. Gang splats one of the geeks with a piledriver for the pin at 2:22. Apparently that move is now legal again because Skandor Akbar got the rule overturned by bribing the commission with “thousands of dollars”, which then immediately backfired on him.

Last week: Mike Sharpe slams One Man Gang during their match and then backdrops out of a Gang piledriver attempt before going after Akbar and hauling him into the ring for the DQ. But then Mike piledrives Akbar, as previously mentioned, while Gang falls out of the ring and sells on the floor.

Louisiana title: Killer Khan v. Iron Mike Sharpe

They fight for the lockup to start and Khan grabs a headlock, but Sharpe powers out of it with a wristlock. So Khan takes him down by the hair and chokes him out on the ropes before stomping him down and choking him out some more. “He’s going for the juggler” notes Cowboy. I guess Khan isn’t a fan of the circus. Khan misses a blind charge and Sharpe clubbers him with forearms and gets a bearhug, but Khan goes to the eyes to break. He drops an elbow and misses and Sharpe comes back again and works him over in the corner, but he misses his own charge and Khan puts him down with a superkick. Khan goes up, but he misses the deadly kneedrop and Sharpe makes another comeback and goes for the piledriver, and Akbar runs in for the DQ at 5:15 to save the title. So Sharpe throws out Khan and piledrives Akbar AGAIN, with the poor guy already wearing a neck brace. Ha, tremendous.

Hangman Harris v. Rick McCord

McCord was a guy who hung around for a while, and I tend to remember him from Central States later on. Harris beats on him and goes to a chinlock while Cowboy talks about the big storyline from last week, as Ted Dibiase is refusing to give JYD a rematch for the North American title, so JYD is refusing to wrestle on TV until he gets another match. However, he’s agreed to defend the Mid-South tag team titles in the arenas. That’s an interesting storyline, actually. Not sure what the real life reasoning was. Harris finishes with the Hangman neckbreaker at 2:51.

Hacksaw Duggan & Ted Dibiase v. Vinnie Romeo & Jesse Barr

Barr gets some suplexes on Dibiase for two, but Dibiase slams him and brings Duggan in. So Barr retreats and brings Romeo in, but he immediately gets slammed by Duggan as well. Hacksaw with the kneedrop while Cowboy explains the story about Dibiase recruiting friends to protect himself from JYD, and maybe going after the tag team titles himself as well. Dibiase runs Romeo’s head into Duggan’s head to knock him silly and then finishes with the figure-four at 2:54. Duggan also does an awesome flying forearm on Barr to keep him out of the ring, as he dives over Dibiase and Romeo to hit Barr.

Last week, Buck Robley is facing Ted Dibiase, and a bunch of babyfaces all surround the ring to cheer Robley on and make sure there’s no shenanigans. So Dibiase loads up the BLACK GLOVE, but it misses and the show runs out of time.

Col. Buck Robley v. The Assassin

So this week, Dibiase is hanging around ringside causing trouble. Robley takes Assassin down and works the arm while Watts talks about how Duggan is a wild man with no regard for his own physical safety, and you can hear how much he admires that. Assassin puts Robley down with a kneelift while Bill points out that Robley is wearing a shirt that says “No one calls me yellow”. But it’s a yellow shirt. Whatever. Assassin takes Robley down with a couple of snapmares for two, but Robley gets the sleeper and Assassin smashes into the ref to break. So that allows Dibiase a chance to run in and load up the glove, but he hits Assassin by mistake. So Robley loads up his own arm brace to get revenge, so Dibiase grabs the dazed Assassin and throws him in Robley’s path in a hilariously scummy heel move, and we’re DESPERATELY OUT OF TIME. That was so awesome. Dibiase is such a lowlife that he’d not only nail a fellow heel without thinking twice about it, but then actually SHOVE HIM IN THE WAY of the babyface while he’s trying to recover, all so he could save himself. Now that is a heel!

Continuing to love the 82 Mid-South and the imminent formation of the Rat Pack.