Mid-South Wrestling (2.9.1986) Review

-Originally aired February 9, 1985.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross & Joel Watts.

BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL
-Early flurry of offense by Landell, but Armstrong stops him with slams and a dropkick. Armstrong goes to a wristlock and Buddy can’t break the hold to save his life. Armstrong slams and drags him, then applies an armbar. Landell gets Armstrong to the ropes to force the break, then surprises everyone by catching Armstrong in mid-air and making it a backbreaker. Camel clutch by Landell.

-Armstrong squirms out and rolls away from a knee and an elbow, hurting Landell enough to give himself a chance to rest. Hiptoss and a dropkick as Armstrong has his second wind now. Sleeper applied by Armstrong is enough to knock Buddy out, and Armstrong wins this cleanly and without incident. I sense that we’re getting close to the end with Buddy. Good bout, though.

KAMALA (with Friday and Skandar Akbar) vs. TIM HORNER
-Horner tries a side headlock, but Kamala just lifts and shoves him across the ring as the commentators call Hercules’ Friday disguise a heinous act of subterfuge. And, again, a totally unnecessary one. It was a great idea wasted on a dumb angle. If Hercules had shown up without the disguise, he would have accomplished the same thing.

-Kamala keeps chopping and kicking, shaking off everything Horner tries to do. Big splash by Kamala, and Kamala forgets how a pin works and the referee has to tell him to roll Horner over to finish the match. Another thing that I thought was a WWF creation, but still…Kamala should have had it down by seven years later.

TED DIBIASE (North American Champion) vs. PRIVATE TERRY DANIELS
-And again, this show just stops cold as Daniels has to peel off his entire uniform plus a t-shirt underneath before this match can start.

-DiBiase gets Daniels in an armbar to start. Daniels fights back with forearms and meets him with a bodypress for two. Cradle gets another two as Daniels looks like he’s feeling lucky this week. He tries a sunset flip, but DiBiase drops a gloved fist on him to stop the hot streak.

-DiBiase gets aggressive. Daniels fights back but misses a kneedrop and that’s good news for DiBiase. He goes for the figure four, but Daniels keeps resisting and kicking him away. Daniels backdrops DiBiase, but appears to hurt his knee doing it. Daniels goes for a missile dropkick, but DiBiase gets out of the way and lets him crash, and DiBiase changes up his battle plan and since Daniels landed on his back, DiBiase makes it a Boston crab again, and that gets the submission. Another good battle!

MIXED TAG: ICEMAN KING PARSONS, LITTLE COCO, & COWBOY LANG vs. JACK VICTORY, LITTLE TOKYO, & LORD LITTLEBROOK
-Jim Ross says we’re looking at the reason that Mid-South is the #1 wrestling promotion in the country. Jack Victory?

-Parsons knocks Victory around and they tag. Cowboy Lang gets Tokyo on the mat for an armbar, and Coco tricks Littlebrook into chasing him back and forth so they keeping running across Tokyo’s body. Coco tags in and Victory gives Coco a sinister knee from the apron. Iceman is so disgusted by the cheating that he just steps in and carries Coco over to the corner and tags himself in. Wild spot sees Coco & Lang lock arms and backdrop Victory, which is a spot I’ve never seen in one of these matches. Elbow from the Iceman gets three.

JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS & SHEIK HERCULES HERNANDEZ (with Skandar Akbar) vs. SHAWN MICHAELS & JASON WALKER
-But before the match can start, Iceman Parsons shocks everybody by hustling to the ring and clearing the heels with a gigantic leather strap. Iceman wants a strap match, and he doesn’t want to wait, he wants this match called off and he wants Sheik in a strap match right now. Sheik Hercules stands on the floor and refuses to get back in, and Parsons, cool as can be, just walks over and WHAPS Hercules with the strap, and the entire Boys Club crowd is like “DAMN!” at the crack of that strap. Akbar and his men want no part of this and just leave. No match.

HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS
-Williams whips Duggan, but Duggan hiptosses him. Elbow misses, so Williams goes to a chinlock just to try to keep Duggan in one place. Williams elbows Duggan down. Duggan fights back and clotheslines Williams down.. They collide so hard that they both fall out of the ring. They brawl on the apron on their way back in. Duggan snaps Williams’ arm over the exposed steel turnbuckle bar, apparently breaking Williams’ arm. Spear finishes for Duggan, and Williams is writhing on the mat afterwards as JR speculates that we have an injury here. It was fine, but the match was rushed.

TV TITLE: TERRY TAYLOR (Champion) vs. HECTOR GUERRERO (with Chavo Guerrero)
-Hector tries mat wrestling but Terry’s too fast for him. They criss-cross as the commentators mention that Jake is angry about not getting a TV Title match, with Joel saying that Jake has said in the locker room that he thinks the TV Title is the easiest one to win in this territory.

-Hector tries a splash, but Taylor is still too quick, raising the knees to knock the wind out of him. Backdrop by Taylor. He hits the ropes but Chavo trips him and Hector goes for a spinning toehold to take advantage. Rock & Roll Express comes out to chase Chavo off, but the chase ends up in the ring, so the referee calls for the DQ, and the Guerreros are furious because they just got screwed out of ANOTHER title! 10% match and 90% angle.