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Mid-South Wrestling (4.6.1985) Review

May 16, 2022 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Jake Roberts Mid-South Wrestling 3-9-1985 Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
7.2
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Mid-South Wrestling (4.6.1985) Review  

-Originally aired April 6, 1985.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Joel Watts.

-We’re finally starting the TV Title tournament, and yes, yes, YES, much like the last one, they have a janky handwritten bracket on posterboard to keep track of the brackets. Your first-round matches:

-Hacksaw Jim Duggan gets a bye
-Tim Horner vs. Tom Prichard
-Terry Daniels vs. Steve Williams
-Jake the Snake vs. Brad Armstrong
-Steve Casey vs. Chris Adams, winner gets a bye to the semi-finals

-Standard rules are in effect, but any match that ends in a time-limit draw MUST have a winner and a rematch will be held the following week.

-UPDATE: Friday is in no condition physically to continue accompanying Kamala to the ring for matches, which leaves Skandar Akbar unable to communicate with Kamala, and that could potentially screw up a lot of his future plans. We get words from Akbar, who warns Taylor that he’s a marked man but insists that one way or another, Akbar will find a way to control the Ugandan giant.

TV TITLE TOURNAMENT MATCH: TIM HORNER vs. TOMMY PRICHARD

-It’s theoretically face vs. face, but Prichard has a heel swagger during his intro that seems to be dropping a hint. They shake hands at the bell.

-Hammerlocks are traded and countered, but neither man can gain an advantage. Prichard goes into the ropes and tries to leapfrog Horner, but he overshoots the jump and stumbles through the ropes and onto the floor. Horner does the gentlemanly thing, breaking the referee’s count, checking on his opponent, and allowing him to rest up before coming back in, which gets boos from the crowd.

-Horner has more and more of an edge, getting that hammerlock cinched on at long last and keeping it locked on. Horner goes for a backdrop, but Prichard makes it a cradle for two. Horner goes for an abdominal stretch, but he doesn’t have that foot where it needs to be, and Prichard flings Horner out to the floor. Prichard breaks the referee’s count and goes out to the floor to check on Horner…then stunguns him on the barricade and heads back in to win by count-out. And there you have it. Prichard’s a heel and he sails into the next round.

BRICKHOUSE BROWN vs. THOR

-Kevin Wacholz has a great look at this stage in his career–picture a more built Danny Spivey.

-Dropkick and an armdrag by Brickhouse. He works the arm, but Thor nailz him with shots to the back and gut. Irish whip, but Brickhouse manages to position himself on the second rope and faceplants Thor for three.

BARBARIAN vs. RICHARD DYE

-Every time Barbarian does his Mario. Bros Sidestepper hop, I feel like any week now, we’re going to see a match where he just totally blows out his knees during the introduction.

-Dye gets desperate quickly and goes to the second turnbuckle, but Barbarian just slams him down . Full nelson by Barbarian gets an easy victory.

BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. EDCAR “Boo” THOMAS (with Steve Williams)

-Thomas was apparently a legit friend of Williams from OU days and gave wrestling a try, and since he’s a black guy with legit sports credentials, he has Bill Watts written all over him. For whatever reason, though, he didn’t take to pro wrestling and he’d be out of the business completely in under a year after this.

-Thomas gets some early offense and is way too cocky about it, but Armstrong stings him with some dropkicks and ties him up on the mat to work the arm over. Side headlock by Armstrong. Williams tries to help his buddy by distracting the referee, but he screws it up, as Thomas rolls over in the hold and gets a visual three-count on Armstrong, and by the time Williams gets the referee to turn back around, Armstrong has kicked out.

-Chinlock by Thomas, but Armstrong fights out with punches. Armstrong whips Thomas into the corner and tries a monkey flip, but Doc grabs onto Edcar’s singlet for leverage and Armstrong crashes on the mat. Thomas tries to finish with a splash but crashes, but Armstrong sunset flips him for three. Armstrong carried him to a pretty decent match there.

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS & JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs. PRIVATE TERRY DANIELS & SHAWN MICHAELS

-I’m a bit surprised that Shawn’s here because a key element of the Kamala angle last week was that Shawn Michaels died without even making it back to his home planet.

-Williams and Michaels criss-cross, and Shawn shocks the entire building by getting a roll-up and a near-fall on Williams. And this is seriously impressive as the crowd comes unglued for the fact that Shawn even made it that far. Everybody tags and Daniels shoulderblocks Roberts down. Storyline here is that the heels are a little shocked at how the jobbers seem to be up to the task.

-Daniels charges and runs into a clothesline as Watts lays out a character sheet for Jake: “Nothing is his fault, society made him what he is, and if anything goes wrong, it’s the fault of somebody who cut him off in traffic or something.” That’s pretty much Dad’s assessment from listening to shoot interviews over the years.

-Jake applies a sleeper on Daniels. Daniels fights out but accidentally drop-toeholds Jake straight into his own corner. Dr. Death tags in and Daniels gets the hell out and gives Michaels another shot. Michaels gets an SD Jones-style flurry of token offense before blocking a monkey flip and letting Shawn crash. DDT gets 1-2-3. Again, there are all these indications that they really, really want to find something for Shawn to do, but they never quite go anywhere with him.

TV TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL: GENTLEMAN CHRIS ADAMS vs. STEVE CASEY

-Adams rears back for a punch; Casey ducks and the momentum causes Adams to tumble out to the floor. Back in, Casey works the arm over. Adams keeps trying to fight back, and Casey just waps him with aggressive forearms. Casey tries to put him away, but Adams fights off the attempted pin and superkicks Casey over the top and out to the floor.

-Casey still has fight in him, but he’s really rubber-legged, and Adams slams him into position. He heads to the top rope and tries to finish with a splash, but Casey rolls out of the way, and oh by the way, yeah, the top rope is a DQ here, so Adams just screwed up and eliminated himself. Adams tries to win the war post-match but misses a charge and crashes to the floor again. Good match augmented by a stunningly white-hot crowd.

KERRY VON ERICH & TERRY TAYLOR vs. PAUL BROWN & JACK VICTORY
-Boyd Pierce bills the faces as “The Dream Team.” Taylor comes to the ring carrying the massive North American Title belt around like he found it in the parking lot and he’s looking for the owner.

-Victory starts off, having a fairly crappy night with both opponents. He tags Brown in, Brown gets slammed by Kerry for a series of two-counts. All four men end up in the ring. The jobbers get Irish whipped into each other, and they try to counter with a do-si-do, but Taylor five-arms Victory and Kerry claws Brown, so we get simultaneous three-counts.

7.2
The final score: review Good
The 411
A step up from last week's oddity.
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Mid-South Wrestling, Adam Nedeff