Mid-South Wrestling (TV #138)
April 29th 1982
Irish McNeil Boys Club: Shreveport, LA.
Boyd Pierce & Bill Watts welcomed us to the show; the original recording, which I’m guessing was on BETA, got all messed up so I was unable to here Boyd run down the show like he does every week. Watts hyped the debut of Hacksaw Duggan and began his three-plus year run of pronouncing it: “Doogan.” Boyd congratulated Charlie Lay on being recently elected the President of Mid-South Sports, so he’s our new mysterious authority figure who never appears on camera, awesome. I believe the kayfabe chain of command goes something like this: Grizzly Smith: Matchmaker, Bill Watts, President of Mid-South Wrestling, Charlie Lay: President of Mid-South Sports. Lay was an old-timer who wrestled in the 40’s and later worked in an office role for Eddie Graham in Florida in the 70’s; I’m not exactly sure what his shoot role in Mid-South was, although it probably wasn’t anything drastically important. Watts put over Duggan as a former member of the Atlanta Falcon’s “Suicide Squad” and said Skandor Akbar had brought him in to get revenge on Dick Murdoch for nailing him with the shovel last week. They threw to a Skandor Akbar interview with Reeser Bowden at ringside and Duggan stood silently next to Akbar while he explained his diabolical plot. Akabar said that he brought Duggan in for $1,000 because he didn’t want to risk a member of his Army getting injured by the crazy Captain Redneck, Dick Murdock. Duggan kind of looked like the Barbarian, John Nord, complete with animal skin vest and wacky cartoony facials.
The Assassin vs. Tony Torres. – Squash for the Assassin in 1:40. Assassin cut a promo before the match and said he turned on Ernie Ladd for the money and told all the fans they would have done the same thing. Assassin killed Torres like a total geek and got the win with a nice flying headbutt. – Assassin looked a lot better here compared to last week.
Ernie Ladd vs. Larry Higgins. – Squash for Ladd in 1:45. Higgins, for the third week in a row, was utterly hopeless; how this man made it into the business is beyond me. Ladd beat him up with ease then won with a big boot and a legdrop. – Aesthetically, this sucked. However, having two rivals squash a pair of geeks in back-to-back segments is simple old-school booking which never happens anymore.
Non-Title Match: Bob Roop (North American Heavyweight Champion) vs. Ted Dibiase. – Dibiase over in 6:59. This was Dibiase’s return after 6 weeks due to “stretched ligaments” in his knee at the hands of Roop. Watts explained the whole “double, double cross” involving Roop, Paul Orndorff, Skandor Akbar & One Man Gang which allowed Roop to defeat Dibiase for the North American title. Dibiase was aggressive early and went after the jerk that screwed him out of his title. Roop cut him off and worked over the same knee that he wrapped around the ring post in their match 6 weeks ago! (Awesome!) Dibiase countered the Figure-Four then made a fiery comeback and pinned Roop clean with a powerslam. Watts put over the win big and Roop tried to attack Dibiase afterwards, but Teddy saw it coming and hit Roop with his own move, the shoulder breaker. Dibiase covered Roop again and counted his own pinfall; Watts explained that Dibiase was after revenge and wanted to beat Roop physically and emotionally. – Really great stuff here. Dibiase was the returning babyface out for revenge on the guy who stole his title and he was booked perfectly in that role. Roop working over the same leg he injured 6 weeks ago was just beautiful; the announcers didn’t even have to beat you over the head with it. You just understood what was going on because the story telling was so good.
“Special Challenge Match,” Dick Murdoch vs. Hacksaw Duggan w/Skandor Akbar. – Murdoch over in 4:50. Murdoch came out to the Marine Corps Hymn with his duffle bag, but thankfully he had on his tights this week. They brawled early and Murdoch intentionally tied himself up in his own army jacket so Duggan could land a bunch of free shots, before freeing himself and making a comeback; what a worker! Duggan looked kind of raw, but not necessarily green; he used some basic holds during the heat. Murdoch came back again and went after Duggan’s leg, which he didn’t sell at all. Finish was tremendously wacky: Murdoch hit the brainbuster, got his shovel out of the bag and chased Akbar around the ring. Duggan nailed him from behind and tried to use the shovel, but Murdoch countered with an Atomic Drop and the shovel went flying. Akbar jumped in the ring to try grab it; Murdoch kicked him away and nailed Duggan right in the face with a nicely worked shovel shot. Apparently this “Special Challenge” match was no DQ, because the referee didn’t call for the bell and counted the fall after the shovel shot. – This was a lot of wacky, wild fun. It would have been nice if someone explained that it was no DQ, but still that’s a minor point. Duggan didn’t really come off like an impressive monster heel like the rest of Akbar’s Army, although it took a shovel to the face to beat him so he was protected somewhat.
JYD (Louisiana Heavyweight Champion) & Mr Olympia (Mississippi Heavyweight Champion) vs. Bob Sweetan & Kelly Wayne. – JYD & Olympia over in 2:02. Watts mentioned that JYD & Olympia would be main eventing the next SuperDome show on May 1st. They wrestled, and beat, the Samoans in a Lights-Out match in front of 21,000 people. This wasn’t much of a match; the faces tossed the heels around briefly and Watts hyped JYD defending the Louisiana title against Sweetan next week. Olympia hooked Wayne with a sleeper, while JYD took care of Sweetan, and then got the win with an elbow drop. – Wayne did most of the bumping here, since Sweetan is getting a title shot next week, but still he didn’t look all that impressive. Surely nobody could have believed that Sweetan had a chance to beat JYD for the title.
One Man Gang w/Skandor Akbar vs. Cocoa Samoa. – Gang over in 1:56. Cocoa did a little better than most geeks do against Gang and used his speed to avoid the big man for a while. It didn’t last too long though, as Gang caught him with a bearhug. Gang hit a big bodyslam and won with his big splash. – I guess it is time for Gang to start beating guys at a higher level than the usual jobbers he faces, but it was sad to see the talented Cocoa squashed like a chump.
The Grappler vs. Buddy Landel. – Grappler over in 2:23. Match started with only 4 minutes of TV time left, so naturally I thought they were just going to do stuff until the time expired like every other “stand-by” match that goes on in this spot. Instead, they rushed through a match and Grappler won with a swinging neckbreaker.
Back with Boyd & Watts at the desk to wrap-up the show. They signed off by hyping One Man Gang & The Assassin vs. Ernie Ladd & Mike Sharpe, plus JYD vs. Bob Sweetan for next week.
This wasn’t an explosive hour of Mid-South like we’ve seen over the last few weeks, nor did it feature “Cowgirl” Wendy Richter (BOO!), but as always it was a solid show with a lot of emphasis on setting up next week’s show. The long term angle of Skandor Akbar’s Army injuring all the babyfaces is starting to take some new turns, with Duggan & the Assassin being added to the mix. Not to mention the return of Ted Dibiase, who was put out by Akbar’s goon, One Man Gang, which also weaves into the long running Roop/Orndorff/Dibiase feud over the North American title and the Figure-Four leg lock. I’m telling you, this long term booking thing is the future!
Cubed Circle Newsletter #201 – Pro-Wres Digest, Final G1 Coverage, RAW & NXT.
Cubed Circle Newsletter #200!!! G1 Wraps up, SummerSlam & Takeover recap!
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