“The Big Cat” Ernie Ladd vs. Magnum TA (and other Dream Matches!)

By Jabroniville on 28 October 2026

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This time, I complete that Mid South TV show from 1984, and OH MY GOD it’s an epic one! I really couldn’t have chosen a better one in retrospect, with one famous angle and one top-tier main event one between Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Ted DiBiase. And in there, there’s a great Ernie Ladd vs. Magnum TA match for the North American Title! With some of the greatest heel trickery I’ve ever seen!

So come watch the Missing Link vs. Mike Jackson, “Hacksaw” Butch Reed vs. Brickhouse Brown, and Ted DiBiase vs. Johnny Mantell, plus Jim Duggan cuts an S-Tier Main Event Promo, and the Rock N Roll Express demonstrate the effectiveness of the modern straightjacket- surely the Midnight Express will take note of THIS!

And that’s not all! Following that I watch some 1999 WWF, with the Public Enemy’s much-maligned WWF run leading to a Tag Title match against Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart, as they further the “everyone in the company hates them” angle AND the “Jim Ross hates Vince McMahon and is on the outs with the company” angle as he does commentary on the match! Then his buddy “Dr. Death” Steve Williams wrestles Tiger Ali Singh of all people on WWF New York! And finally, there’s a new PWI 500 out, and that gives me a new #500 to investigate- it’s manager Sidney Bakabella! Watch as he takes on an obese “Independent World Champion” Matt Tremont in a comedy match!

MID SOUTH WRESTLING:
(Oct. 26th, 1984)
* And the sequel to last week’s show! This one has a LOT of big matches! Dr. Death vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan in a “Football Helmet” match!

We start with Boyd Pearce (in an absolutely GLORIOUSLY hideous bright orange suit) and Bill Watts talking about the angles of the day, with Watts bemoaning how they’re TRYING to regulate all this use of weapons in their territory (especially “things that can cause fatalities”), but declares that if the laws of our government cannot prevent CRIME, then how can they regulate all the weapons? Then it’s a promo from Steve Williams, showing why he never became a name in the U.S., while Hacksaw’s cocainey promo demonstrates why he DID, random and boisterous as it was. In-ring, Skandar Akbar announces he sees the potential in “Nature Boy” Buddy Landell, and pays him more money that he’s ever seen in his life to join Akbar’s army.

THE MISSING LINK (w/ General Skandar Akbar) vs. MIKE JACKSON:
* Presumably this soft-bodied guy with no physique and a greying beard is not related to a Young Buck. I’m told that Jackson was a “jobber wrangler” from Oklahoma- training guys and bringing them in to do jobs. The Link was a classic territory guy- one of the big “wildman” gimmicks, with his face painted green and a tuft of hair at the front and a caveman ‘do in the back. A big, roided up dude.

The fans chant “Bang your head!” so the Link smashes his head into the corner repeatedly- Jackson whiffs by a foot on a dropkick but spams more (Watts: “I don’t think the dropkicks have solidly connected” then explains that “if you see the move coming, sometimes you roll with the impact like a fighter” to explain why Link took a bump anyways, lol) as the Link lunges forward to meet one and then bumps into him on a whip. Jackson redeems himself by SAILING backwards out of the ring between the ropes off an elbow. The Link quickly plants him with the World’s Strongest Slam, then leaps up to the second rope for a big elbow smash to the back of the head, pinning him at (1:22). Well they managed to blow a bunch of spots in a 1-minute match but Jackson started bumping his ass off and took the finisher well.

Rating: 1/4* (pretty ugly at first but some good bumps by Jackson- 2/5 on the Squash Scale)

FOOTBALL HELMET MATCH:
HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. “DR. DEATH” STEVE WILLIAMS:
* So the gimmick here is that the two big ex-footballers are wearing football helmets, presumably making headbutts legal. Williams is in a blue singlet, declaring Duggan is a COWARD for not coming out yet, and Ted DiBiase runs in, cutting a promo that Duggan tried to jump him, but Ted knocked out that “no-good drunken hippie” and left him in the gutter where he belongs. Sherlock Ross is doubtful, explaining his clothes aren’t wrinkled (“You got into a fight outside; you stayed clean?”). The weirdest thing is Bill Watts being the only person to say “Duggan” as “Doogan”- Ross, DiBiase, etc., all pronounce it right. Is this like Bret Hart adding “The” to things that don’t need it (“The Summerslam”)? But during the break, we learn that Duggan WAS in fact found outside the arena, “he’s in bad shape”. And so there will be NO MATCH! BAIT AND SWITCH!

Jim Cornette, still with a mask, explains that the Rock N Roll Express are scared of his Midnight Express, and says that he got his mother to send down a blank $25,000 check for any team with the guts to face his. The Rock N Rollers can even set their own stipulation and rules for the match, so confident is Jim!

“HACKSAW” BUTCH REED vs. “BRICKHOUSE” BROWN:
* Yes, the company has two guys named Hacksaw in it. Wiser heads did not prevail and name one of them “Garrison” Butch Reed or something. Reed is a huge, ultra-muscular dude with puffy “Vince-pleasing” muscles, acting as an arrogant heel, while Brown is JYD Knockoff #2 or 3 by this point- ie. an Upstanding Black Babyface to try and make “JYD money”. Alas, like most promoters, trying to make Clones of your main guy nearly always fails, because they lack the charisma or “It Factor” that’s what truly defines those acts. AJW in the ’80s had a lot of “Chigusa Clones” to try and replicate the success of Chigusa Nagayo, too, and even the talented ones failed at it. Brown at least is RIPPED, but shorter and leaner than a monster like Reed, with dreadlocks- he looks more like someone the WCW Power Plant was churning out in the late ’90s. Both are in red trunks.

Brown hits a pair of armdrags and does a quick little shimmy as Reed jaws at the ref. Jesus, this guy is HUGE. He looks like a totally different species than his opponent, completely dwarfing him as he does a headlock takeover, but Brown counters two of those with a headscissors, taunting Reed with the same little quick-step. Butch comes up with a test of strength, and they grapple like that for a while, Butch having to boot the gut to take over (which is funny given how immense he is). Brown gets up from his knees, then does a clunky backwards roll and takes Reed down with a wristlock. Reed piefaces him into the corner, but bounces off the other one with a crushing clothesline. Legdrop & swinging neckbreaker get two. Brown is tossed to the floor and Reed keeps him out of the ring, but gets tripped up and his surgically-repaired knee is repeatedly smashed into the apron, sending him into convulsions. Brown hits some dropkicks for two, but isn’t reacting to the fans at all and thus they’re pretty quiet, and he misses a missile dropkick in dramatic fashion and Reed hits a press slam into another legdrop for the pin at (6:26). I’m surprised he used two legdrops given one was supposed to end it, actually. Reed leaves as Bill Watts announces that Jim Duggan is staggering back into the studio as we speak, and they’ll talk to him after the break.

A decent little match, mostly a showcase for how decent Reed was, as he was clearly controlling the whole thing, setting up Brown’s comebacks. You could see the weaknesses in Brown pretty handily- he just sorta did the same little dance after every move, never once looking at the fans or selling overly much, so nobody gets behind him- he does the dance just because he knows you have to do a thing after hitting moves, not because he feels it or is trying to connect with the crowd. So he’s athletic and quick, but nothing’s really having any impact. Reed, meanwhile, keeps talking shit, posing, taunting and doing pretty smooth offense.

Rating: ** (decent TV match but nothing fancy)

And then, in a GREAT bit, Jim Duggan is seen absolutely CAKED in blood, his clothes shredded and staring up at Bill Watts while he’s crouched on the studio floor with two men holding him up by the arms. Watts says he doesn’t WANT to do an interview like this, but Duggan insists he needed to. Duggan explains that he was getting his back out of his trunk when “three or four guys” jumped him and used a slapjack on him. “And I look up… and that SONUVA…” *points dramatically at the camera* “The only face I can make out of the group… is Ted DiBiase… they had me… and Ted DiBiase took it to me with a slapjack!”. He breaks down in tears, fighting up with sobs of agony as he swears to the fans he was going to come back and get them- “But I told you people… I told you I’d come back… I told you I’d take it to Dr. Death for what he did to other people!” and then collapses to the ground as all his energy is gone- only his RAW HEROIC COURAGE kept him going this far.

AMAZING segment, with Duggan showing “Top Territory Babyface” energy. Damn he really WAS slumming it in the WWF. Like, he really did have a handle on being a potential main event guy, but he was probably fine with being a third babyface making more money than a territory guy was- less pressure, stress and workload.

NORTH AMERICAN HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
MAGNUM TA vs. “THE BIG CAT” ERNIE LADD:
* Ladd gets booed in the intros and shouts “Shattup!”. He’s in red, TA’s in black. Last time they met, TA ran into the ring to fight Ladd and got his ass kicked when Buddy Landell hit the ring.

Ladd immediately does his backwards-rolling armbar from last week, and when Magnum easily escapes, Ladd just pulls him back down by the hair to reapply, then when Magnum gets all fired up about it, Ladd just ducks into the ropes to make him waste all that energy, haha. Ladd tries to smash him out of a corner break but Magnum slugs away at him, Ladd jerking around twice and flailing back on the third sell, then escapes a headlock by pulling TA’s trunks- lol yeah, he only has about 80 pounds on his opponent- he better take every shortcut he can. Magnum bounces off of him with some shoulder charges, Ladd standing upright but wobbling, and a dropkick brings him down! A back elbow drops him and he shakes it off on the floor, and practically headstands when Magnum snapmares him back into the ring- he uses a forearm out of a corner break to take the lead, chopping TA down and headbutting him (selling being stunned a bit himself) before locking in a bearhug, then punches him in the gut & big boots him off a break. Ladd celebrates to the booing fans, but tries that Double-Legdrop Slam from last week and BIFFS IT, crashing out when TA rolls away.

TA pops him in the jaw and fires off two big running elbows that Ladd sells perfectly, standing there wobbling and dazed and then crashing into the bottom rope with his angry look. TA follows up with a back body drop and a 2nd-rope missile kick but the ref goes down on the bump and he’s not there to count! Ladd easily escapes because of that delay, and Ladd further cheats by shoving Magnum right into the ref and going for an object in his tights- HE’S GOT A ROPE! He strangles TA and drags him to the mat. Magnum goes limp and Ladd sneaks the rope back into his trunks as a referee swaps in- he’s suspicious when he sees Magnum all dead, but Ernie motherfucking PRETENDS HE’S AWAKE by having him “counter” a powerslam by falling back and “kicking out”! I have never seen that tactic before! Ladd hits a Double-Legdrop Smash! And another! Ladd wins at (5:28), winning the North American Title! What a miscarriage of justice!

THE TRIUMPH.

Ernie is so good, man. I wish stuff from 10 years before this was easier to find because he does it all- all these little cheap shortcuts to avoid working hard to beat up his opponent- dirty breaks, headbutts, tights-pulling, slinking into the ropes to prevent a comeback, etc. Just playing up that he’s a dishonorable slimeball but a wise, wily veteran. And then one of the most ingenious finishes ever, choking his man out and then being like “oh NOOOOOOOOO” and taking a pretend counter so the ref won’t get suspicious and DQ him or stall the match so Magnum can recover, then hitting his finish and winning. Work smarter, not harder, ya big dummies! It’s great because Ladd is aged and less athletic than his prime, but knows all the tricks to work and looks like a complete asshole as well.

Rating: ***1/4 (Ladd is the BEST!)

hahahaha these dumb fucks.

Oh Jesus Christ, and after all that brilliance the Rock N Roll Express come out and do THAT angle. They agree to Jim Cornette’s stipulations, and come up with their stips: Cornette must wear a straightjacket! Which they of course demonstrate to the fans by having Ricky tie up Robert in the jacket, leaving him completely helpless to demonstrate how Cornette will be unable to use ether or his tennis racket! CUE THE MIDNIGHTS! Bobby & Dennis assault the two brain surgeons, pushing a helpless Robert around and handing Ricky his ass to Cornette’s excitement, and then Jim starts putting the boots to Robert and slapping him around, giving maximum humiliation. That’s amazing because Cornette is the pussiest coward who ever lived, but is acting all tough mounting Ricky to slap him around and rain down punches. Ricky is crushed by a piledriver into a Boston Crab/Flying Kneedrop until the babyface brigade rushes in to chase the heels off. Bill Watts: “This has been a DAY OF INFAMY here on Mid South!”.

TED DiBIASE (w/ Gen. Skandar Akbar) vs. JOHNNY MANTELL:
* oh geez lol- I was just going through open tabs on Chrome to close and I discovered 4 minutes left on this one and realized I hadn’t actually watched all the way through! This is probably also going to a Time Over… or an enraged Duggan coming for DiBiase’s head. What is it with Mantell drawing this spot?

Ted annihilates the smaller Mantell with shots into the turnbuckles and slams, but Mantell ducks an elbow and hits a dropkick & backdrop and is FIRED UP and starts kicking his ass. Ted gets monkey-flipped out of one corner, but holds onto the ropes in the other and hits his falling fistdrop, then the Figure-Four Leglock finishes (1:32). Well that got me! He was competitive with Buddy Landell last week and this week goes down instantly! Ted comes out and cuts a promo on next week’s opponent Master G about being the master of Mid South and the master of the Figure-Four.

Rating: *1/2 (actually the fastest and most well-executed micro-matches ever- 1:30 and they were balls to the wall and slick the whole time, lol)

haha WHAT A GOD DAMN SHOW. Not only do they have a great TV main event with Ladd & TA, but three top angles in succession that will give the promotion MONTHS of content- the furious Rock N Rolls will demand revenge for this act of humiliation, Magnum TA will demand his title back after that disgusting example of cheating, and Jim Duggan will seek GLORIOUS REVENGE against that snake in the grass Ted DiBiase for jumping him with some goons! Amazing babyface energy throughout and you know they’re all gonna want murder. And wrestling attains its maximum potential when the babyfaces want to literally beat their opponents to death and feel justified in doing so, and Mid South somehow attained doing that THREE TIMES in a single 40-minute episode.

And now to more random dream matches!

“DR. DEATH” STEVE WILLIAMS (w/ Jim Ross) vs. TIGER ALI SINGH:
(WWF New York, April 10th 1999)
* Oh my freaking god, lol. Speaking of that weird Williams/Ross era, here’s a random look at Dr. Death and I find him versus TIGER ALI. From his legendarily short WWF run in 1999. On WWF New York. With Evil Jim Ross as manager. And VINCE RUSSO on commentary. The wildest shit and it just falls into my lap when looking for stuff for this column. Dr. Death’s in black trunks, looking very generic and plain, while a scowling JR follows him out, and Tiger Ali’s in a black & red singlet, having turned heel but with no manager at this point. Russo’s always jawing, talking about “Jay Awwww”, sounding like he has a 45 IQ and trying to be snarky about everything.

Tiger Ali heels it up by grabbing the Indian flag and assaulting Williams from behind before the bell, and the camera cuts away while Cole goes on a staccato rant about kids watching at home not imitating these moves, then about the angles of the day (X-Pac & Kane are currently tag champions). Singh does overhand shots to Steve’s back, then chokes him in the corner and I guess this is heel vs. heel. Williams reverses a whip and press slams Tiger Ali up and drops him on the top turnbuckle face-first, then celebrates to the fans, who don’t react with anything but piped-in “constant noise” since this is a syndicated show. Russo brings up JR, then then gets annoyed when Cole changes the subject (“You still sufferin’ TRAWMA?”) as Williams puts the boots to Singh and chops him, Tiger Ali flinging his legs up on the sell. Williams follows him to the opposite corner with a clothesline, but enters the three-point stance and misses a charge, getting rolled up for two. Russo points out “Dr. Death is a lawtta things, but he’s no speed demon in that ring” as he fires off loose punches and bowls Tiger Ali over. Singh grabs the ropes to prevent a German Suplex from hitting him, but charges right into a spinebuster (planting his foot on the mat before the bump, which diminishes it). He immediately nopes out of a Backdrop Driver (no shit) and charges off the ropes, getting powerslammed for two, and Steve finishes him with the Oklahoma Stampede (2:30). Wait, he used a powerslam counter, then hit a regular running powerslam to win?

Rating: 3/4* (A pretty weak squash- Tiger Ali wasn’t competitive, but resisted a bunch of moves and hit little of his own, looking kind of flaily. No way he was taking that Backdrop Driver, of course. Williams also felt like he was doing the “baby” version of all his moves)

WWF TAG TEAM TITLES:
OWEN HART & JEFF JARRETT (w/ Debra) vs. PUBLIC ENEMY (Flyboy Rocco & Johnny Grunge):
(WWF RAW, March 15th 1999)
* Here’s JR & Dr. Death out with a SECOND commentary table, placed defiantly in front of the standard RAW Cole/Lawler commentary booth for “JR is RAW” because Ross was doing a gimmick where he let out real-life frustrations against Vince but also turned heel and acted like an ingrate. Meanwhile, TPE are in the WWF for two months, the company running an “Everybody hates them and doesn’t want them around” angle that was also IRL what everyone was thinking. Out in black jerseys and shorts, they look like total losers coming out to generic “clangy guitars” music and sirens. They do a backstage promo with Kevin Kelly saying they don’t want handouts and want to EARN respect, which would be great if they showed any fire or charisma instead of looking totally defeated by life.

Grunge & Owen slug it out while Rocco easily lays out Jarrett across a table and prepares to dive through it, but Owen crotches him and hits a superplex & legdrop. Hitting a superplex with no cover seconds after the bell? Oh it’s the Attitude Era alright. Owen gets a spinebuster as Lawler talks about how PE have “wrestled for not one, but TWO extremely crappy wrestling organizations!”. Jarrett’s in for some double-teams and whips Rocco to the corner, then has to go after him (was he expecting him to come out with something and feed more offense?). The fans chant “Nugget!” at Owen as he misses a move and Rocco tags out- Grunge hits some babyface bump & feed stuff (or he would, if PE were over with the fans at all), and then the ref openly stops him from punching Owen and looks at Jarrett smash a guitar over Johnny’s head with an “oh well” shrug and turns away, letting Owen hit a Flying Splash for the pin at (1:54). Yes, the gimmick was that Public Enemy were not only hated by the boys, but the REFEREES, as even the refs would fuck with them and ignore rule violations.

Mostly nothing as a match- all PE did was punches and Owen & Jarrett were just blankly going through their stuff into the finish 2 minutes in. The angle with “Everyone hates PE” never really went anywhere because they were, in fact, disliked, and out of the company in 2 months (this is the 4th of their 6 matches). And it was like… not designed to give them SYMPATHY, either, because they didn’t act particularly upset or hurt, and nor did it serve to make them heels, because they weren’t acting heelish. It was more like Russo or someone was like “Hey everyone hates them, let’s do a SHADES OF GREY where this is acknowledged, bro!” and, like a lot of Attitude Era booking, was just a lot of STUFF that happened. Rocco & Johnny looked about as bewildered as the fans, probably dying inside as they were in the top company and this was what they were dealing with.

Rating: * (not much to work with)

THIS WEEK’S PWI #500: SIDNEY BAKABELLA (Joey Eastman, Wally Dangus, Dr. Spite):
Appearances: #500 in 2026

-There’s a new PWI 500 out! And the new #500 is… some 45-year old guy! Sidney Bakabella is a 20-year veteran who has like… a single match on Cagematch for each year since, meaning he either almost never wrestles, or he’s not a giant mark who goes and fills out his own Cagematch stuff whenever he works. He wrestles mostly out of Massachusetts. He seems to be a manager these days, and most of his matches involve Trevor Goodz & Little Mean Kathleen. He’s a short, squat, rotund fellow with a good “manager” look, complete with egregiously obvious hairpieces, and from the looks of things the entire gimmick is that, like most managers, he can’t fight at all and is a snivelling coward when forced to actually wrestle.

IWTV WORLD TITLE:
MATT TREMONT vs. SIDNEY BAKABELLA:
(Beyond Independent Wrestling TV, Jan. 29th 2023)
* …. look, it was this or the Hornswoggle match, okay? Sidney has a black singlet that emphasizes his big belly, and a grey toupee. Plus packing airbags wrapped around his body. Tremont is an ugly-looking, pasty guy with a gut and a Tupac ECW T-Shirt of Shame, and a messy beard. With the “army print” sweatpants and torn-off sleeves and that facial hair, he looks more like a homeless person than a wrestler, but certainly looks tougher than Bakabella. Looks like he’s more of a CZW deathmatch type of guy. This card has 14 matches on it- beat THAT, AEW!

Bakabella immediately bails at the bell and starts hiding and stalling for time- he tries to beg off with a live promo, gets startled when he accidentally steps on one of his bags (“I’ll pay your booking fee- DREW! DREW! Let me borrow twenty dollars!”), acts like he’s rich, then tries to shake hands… and like a good heel, screams in agony at the squeezing grip of Tremont. Tremont stomps on his hand, causing Bakabella to scurry off and hide in the stands. It’s five minutes before he’s finally in the ring, eating a single bodyslam after Tremont easily blocks his punch, then Tremont starts the GARVIN STOMP to pop all the packing bags! Tremont then theatrically removes the bags to hit a chop on Bakabella’s unprotected chest, causing him to go wide-eyed on the floor. The ref goes to check him and does the dreaded “X” with his hands as Bakabella has something wrong with his knee… and then another wrestler (Channing Thomas) comes in with brass knuckles and knocks Tremont out! And magically Bakabella’s knee is FINE and he runs into the ring for the pin at the Title at (8:09)! But the referees review this and decide that the match must RESTART! Tremont finally gets to his feet and knocks Thomas flat. Bakabella begs off, but a single punch KOs him and Tremont comes in with a running legdrop that knocks his toupee off, and that’s the pin at (0:17)- Tremont retains!

Stupid fun. It’s funny that some indie wrestling is just insane MOVEZ while other guys are still doing goofy shit like this. Bakabella is a pretty good coward, though nothing on the classic managers like Jimmy Hart or Bobby Heenan or whatever. You know it’s the indies when the one-sided comedy match is 8 minutes long and full of stalling.

Rating: * (I mean, it’s amusing at points, had decent cheating and the fans seemed to like it, which is remarkable considering how little they really “did” in there)