The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 09.11.82

The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 09.11.82

Oddly there’s no September 4 episode on the Network so we’ll move ahead a week.

Taped from Shreveport, LA

Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Bob Roop

LAST WEEK: In the big angle that we missed out on, Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia were supposed to be defending the tag team titles against Ted Dibiase & Jim Duggan, with Mr. Wrestling 2 as the special referee. So Bill is interviewing Wrestling 2 in his ref’s outfit, but ANOTHER Wrestling 2 hits the ring and attacks him, laying him out with the kneelift and chasing him off as Watts looks on confused. So the guy who is the real Wrestling 2 reveals that the other guy has been posing as him in Mid South for the past month while he was out wrestling at the Omni. WHAT? That’s kind of a crazy twist. Cowboy Bill knows that the second guy is the real #2, because he faced Wrestling 2 in the ring many times and knows his COLD BLUE STEEL EYES.

So later in the show, Dibiase and Duggan challenge for the titles, with the real Wrestling 2 now in there as the referee, and we join the match at the end with everyone brawling, but Mr. Wrestling takes a bump and lands on the floor while JYD hits the Thump. So the imposter ref hits the ring, and loads up his boot, thus revealing himself as the GRAPPLER all along, and boots Dog to make Dibiase & Duggan the new tag team champions. However, Bill Watts reveals that because of the referee shenanigans, the decision has been reversed and so Dog & Olympia are still the tag team champions.

Back at the studio, Bob Roop rages against this injustice against Ted Dibiase. It was a solid plan! Yeah they cheated but so what? Anyway goddamn we missed a show last week it sounds like.

Dick Murdoch v. Billy The Star Child Starr

Murdoch beats on Starr with elbows and follows with a backdrop. Starr fights back and gets put down with a back elbow and brainbuster to finish at 1:20.

Mr. Olympia v. Ron Cheatham

Olympia works the arm and hits Cheatham with a dropkick for two and then goes back to the arm and slugs away before hitting a slam for two. Cheatham makes a bit of a comeback before Olympia catches him with a sleeper to finish at 3:00.

Junkyard Dog v. The One Man Gang

Dog is in NO MOOD this week and hits Gang with a headbutt right away, sending Gang flying, and that gets two. Dog with a clothesline and then he powerslams the ONE MAN GANG like he was nothing! Akbar runs in and Dog slams him as well, and then Killer Khan runs in and Dog kicks his ass too. And then Gang charges him and Dog hits him with ANOTHER Thump! And that gets the pin as Dog single-handedly destroys the entire Akbar stable in 1:39. Holy shit that was awesome! I’m assuming that’s the end of Gang in the territory because he just got pulverized. A quick check reveals that it wasn’t quite the end but he and Khan were basically jobbed out over the next two weeks on the way out for good.

North American champion Ted Dibiase v. Tim Horner

Horner uses his speed to evade Dibiase to start, but Ted slams him and hits him with a back elbow. Horner was trying for something and missed, so Dibiase obliges with another back elbow spot and Horner tries whatever suplex he wanted AGAIN and fucks it up AGAIN, so Dibiase cuts him off and drops him on the top rope to take over. Dibiase with the powerslam and he finishes with the figure-four at 1:55.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan v. Mr. Wrestling II

In kayfabe this is presumably the real Wrestling II now. He goes for the kneelift right away and Duggan runs to the floor. Back in the ring, Wrestling with the headlock and backdrops Duggan out of the corner, but Duggan bails again to escape the kneelift. Back in the ring, Wrestling with a headscissors on the mat, but Duggan reverses out of it, so Mr. Wrestling lives up to his name and switches to a hammerlock. So Duggan gets frustrated and charges in with a big boot, but Wrestling traps the leg and takes him down for a leglock in a nice little spot. Duggan goes for the mask and Wrestling cradles him for two and then facelocks him and rolls him over for one. Duggan finally gets a cheap knee to the gut and stomps him down to take over, and a slam gets one. But Wrestling comes back with a backdrop and hits the kneelift, which sends Duggan to the floor on the bump. So this brings Dibiase out to offer some advice and a hand back into the ring, but Dick Murdoch chases him off and Duggan accidentally runs into Dibiase on the chase, allowing Wrestling Ii to finish with the kneelift at 6:42. Duggan continues to impress in this run.

The Grappler v. Vinnie Romeo

Grappler takes Romeo down as Roop talks about how all those masked wrestlers look alike to him. That’s kind of racist against people from Parts Unknown. Grappler slams him and drops elbows on Romeo and then follows with a boot to the gut, but Romeo makes a comeback with a dropkick. But then he puts his head down and Grappler hits him with a powerbomb (!!) and finishes with a Wrestling II kneelift at 2:53. This brings out an enraged Wrestling II, but Grappler walks off and avoids the fight.

Col. Buck Robley v. Tony Anthony

So Anthony has moved over from Mid-Atlantic and will shortly be repackaged into the second masked Grappler I believe. Robley puts him down with an elbow and blocks a blind charge with a kneelift and then drops knees on Anthony for two. Anthony slugs back and puts Robley down with an elbow for two, but Buck elbows him down again and then drops an elbow on him to finish at 2:12.

And we wrap it up as we learn that next week Skandor Akbar will be wrestling and that’s about it.

But HOLY COW you gotta check out that Junkyard Dog squash of One Man Gang. That is how you put someone over.