The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 11.13.82

The SmarK Rant for Mid-South Wrestling – 11.13.82

This season of American Democracy needs new writers. It’s just getting too unbelievable for viewers.

Taped from Shreveport, LA

Your hosts are Boyd Pierce & Cowboy Bill Watts

Bill Watts chats with Ted Dibiase & Matt Borne, comparing their plan to the Trojan Horse in what is pretty high praise. Dibiase complains that they beat Dog legitimately and now he’s still hanging around the territory as “Stagger Lee”. Watts points out that Dibiase did the same shit with the gorilla suit, and Watts is pretty pissed about being fooled by it. Also Bill demends to know the identity of the Masked Grappler, and Dibiase gives a sheepish “Well I don’t know who he is” as Watts really gives him the gears. So we get a replay of the tag team title win, and then Stagger Lee debuting last week and destroying Ted Dibiase with a headbutt and a powerslam. “Who else uses that powerslam as a finisher?” Dibiase rants at Cowboy. “Well you didn’t really put up enough competition for me to judge” Cowboy retorts. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH DAMN. Also Bill has more receipts, providing tape of Tony Atlas doing a bench press…with JYD and Stagger Lee together spotting him! Is like some kind of 1982 deep fake AI thing? JYD clarifies that he talks for Stagger Lee, who just stands there and won’t be saying anything or doing anything. That checks out. Also Atlas casually pressing insane amounts of weight is crazy. Dibiase can’t rightly explain what he saw in the film but he’s got confidence in Matt Borne, who is wrestling Stagger Lee tonight and will surely unmask the man.

Tony Atlas v. Vladic Smirnoff

Atlas works the arm while Watts talks about how Atlas left school at a young age and regretted it, forcing him to work twice as hard to accomplish what he has. I always found it interesting how Watts humanized the people in his territory. Atlas with a headbutt and he follows with a military press and then goes up with a flying headbutt to finish at 2:40. That looked awkward, but then Smirnoff is also like an all-time terrible worker.

Matt Borne v. Stagger Lee

Holy cow, this episode has the original “Stagger Lee” entrance music left intact and the song is kind of a banger. But why did the Network bother to edit out the song from the previous recap video 10 minutes earlier and then leave this one intact? Borne attacks him on the way into the ring and immediately goes for the mask, but Stagger fights him off. Borne keeps tearing at the mask as Stagger fights back, but he goes after Dibiase and Borne nails him from behind. Borne goes up with the Bombs Away and goes for the mask again, but it’s some other guy under the mask, and the real Stagger Lee hits the ring and chases the heels off. The fake one obviously was bigger than JYD. Now, they unmasked Stagger Lee and he obviously wasn’t JYD, so shouldn’t that put an end to the discussion?

Tony Anthony & Marty Lunde v. Buck Robley & Mr. Wrestling II

Interesting that Anthony is working under his own name as an enhancement guy again while still doing matches as Grappler #2. Young Marty Lunde is trying out new tights with straps and I’m not sure it works very well on him. Robley and Wrestling double-team Lunde and work the arm, and meanwhile Wrestling II has a discolored mask in a subplot that Bill promises to explain later. Over to Anthony, who gets a cheapshot on Robley, but Wrestling II quickly finishes him off with the kneelift at 2:33.

Iron Mike Sharpe v. Kelly Kiniski

Iron Mike grabs a headlock and squeezes him to death, and then reverses a hammerlock with a single leg and goes to work on that. Meanwhile Bill is disgusted to think of what Ted Dibiase’s dead father would think of what Ted has become, since he was a vicious rulebreaker but didn’t use SUBTERFUGE and would just punch you right in the face like a man. Kelly comes back with a slam and a kneedrop for two, and a dropkick and elbowdrop get two. Mike beats on him with forearms to take over again and gets a small package, but Kelly is in the ropes. Kelly beats on him in the corner, but Sharpe hits him with a surprise clothesline for the pin at 4:27. Bit of a hoss fight here.

Hacksaw Duggan v. King Cobra

Duggan gets some slams and misses an elbow, allowing Cobra to come back with dropkicks and chase Duggan out of the ring. Back in, Duggan puts him down with an elbow and drops a knee on him, and Cobra tries another dropkick but this time Duggan steps aside and powerslams him for two. Cobra with a sunset flip out of the corner for two and he goes to the middle rope, but Duggan smashes him with a headbutt on the way down and pins him at 2:37. King Cobra actually had an astonishingly long career and looked good here in losing.

The Grappler v. Chavo Guerrero

Chavo quickly takes him down with a flying headscissors. Grappler tries an armbar and Chavo flips out of it and takes him down with an STF. That turns into a bow and arrow, but Grappler escapes with a cheapshot and slugs away in the corner. Grappler drops an elbow for two and follows with an atomic drop for two. They slug it out and Chavo blocks a rollup and then does a cool springboard into a splash for two, and then dropkicks Grappler to the floor and follows with a tope suicida! In 1982! Back in the ring, Chavo decides to pull off Grappler’s loaded boot with time running out on the show, and Grappler runs away as time expires at 4:00 and we’re done for the week.

I think they’re playing this Stagger Lee thing way too much on the Mr. America comedy side thus far, but realistically this was the first time anyone had seen the angle done so I’ll cut them some slack.