by Liam Byrne
We get a debut for Pez Whatley next, as we go back to the Sportatorium for a match with Ray Harris. A lock up leads to a waistlock takedown as Whatley takes the fight to the floor immediately. Harris manages to fight his way back to his feet, only to be taken back down with a side headlock. Harris uses a drop toehold to show his own wrestling chops, only to end up in an armbar on the canvas moments later. A small package for Whatley gets nothing, before Harris actually hits an armdrag and slaps on a front facelock that leaves Whatley needing to get into the rope to break. Whatley tries to force the pin just as it becomes clear that the audio is still from the arena as we hear a random bell ring. We get the acceptable in the 80s spot of Whatley no-selling a turnbuckle smash, with Whatley finishing the contest with two dropkicks and a flying body attack. As always with Whatley, he just doesn’t do a lot that it particularly exciting in squash matches.
The bell we heard signalled the beginning of a Superstar Billy Graham versus Mike Fever contest which we are thrown to as Graham is kicking Fever in the corner. A thrust to the throat puts Fever on the mat, as does a back elbow off of an Irish whip. Graham cracks Fever with a double throat chop off of another Irish whip, before hitting him across the back with two big forearms. This is all a setup for the full nelson that finishes off Fever. Standard Graham squash.
Dory Funk Jr. is mid-ring as we come back from a commercial break and he is due to meet John King, though King takes his time to get into the ring as Funk Jr. is swinging the whip around with ease. Funk Jr. also takes King down to the mat with ease with an early side headlock that he lays in for a one count. King reverses an Irish whip into the corner and hits a back body drop to show that he isn’t to be taken lightly. Funk Jr. spins around the back of King and takes him to the ground with a trip before working the arm with an armbar and an armdrag, the second move whilst maintaining control of the limb. A handful of hair is used to move King to the ropes for an Irish whip and back elbow combination, which earns Funk Jr. a two count. In what appears to be a neat spot rather than a mistake, King doesn’t manages to get over Funk Jr.’s head on a leapfrog, ends up clutching his knee and getting pinned in a stepover toehold seconds later. Funk Jr. seems to be trying to help King, but King strikes out – a bad mistake to make on one leg. Funk Jr. grabs the whip and begins to work over on King, until Billy Jack returns to run him off.
Barbary Clary talks to Blackjack Mulligan about the decision of Mike Davis to become ‘The American Dream’ and Mulligan’s makes the suggestion that Kevin Sullivan might be possessing Davis like a Charles Manson type. Mulligan then talks about Sullivan possessing a girl that Barry Windham used to know, and how they will get her back – it is unclear whether that is reference to The Lock or not; it is all just a little bit confusing. However, what it does lead to is a huge potential match as Kevin Sullivan hits the ring to the strains of ‘Thriller’ to take on the aforementioned Mulligan. It does also potentially explain who the woman Mulligan was referring to is, as Sullivan has a woman in chains alongside him.
Mulligan gets jumped as he steps into the ring, before Sullivan throws Mulligan over the top rope as they take the fight immediately to ringside. Solie drops into the commentary that this is a Hangman’s Noose match, which has gone from a match that was banned to one that they are happy to show on their weekly television. Sullivan uses the ringposts and a chair to split Mulligan open as the Blackjack has not had a chance to get started. Having been hit with three chair shots, Mulligan fires up and begins to punch his way back into the contest. The match is back in the ring as Mulligan grabs a choke that is broken up by a thumb to the eye. Sullivan goes to grab the noose too early and is pulled off of the top rope.
The Lock enters the ring as Mulligan is in control, throws a snake (!?) at him and suddenly Billy Graham and Oliver Humperdink are also in the ring. Mulligan ends up with the noose around his neck and it takes a chair-wielding Mike Graham to run off the heels. A bloodied Mulligan joins Solie and talks once more about getting the woman back, whilst Graham talks about making sure that Mulligan is never alone just like Sullivan always has people in his corner. The match was really just a brief brawl that setup the finish, but with what little I saw of him, Mulligan is really lazy in his offense – it looks really poor, saved somewhat by Sullivan’s bumping.
A mixed bag this week, especially as it felt incredibly messy with how the Jack/Funk Jr. angle played out and the moving between the Sportatorium and the Arena. Whilst I appreciate that the Sullivan versus Mulligan/Rhodes family feud was Florida’s bread and butter, it wasn’t one that hit it out of the park week after week when it comes to television.
Mid-South Wrestling TV 9.8.84
As we join Boyd Pierce and Bill Watts at the announce desk, we are let down almost immediately as the match the closed out the show the previous week – The Pretty Young Things versus Buddy Landell and Krusher Kruschev – can’t take place as Kruschev is due to wrestle the Junkyard Dog. However, Pierce makes it clear that we won’t be missing out as we’ll have two main events: the aforementioned Kruschev versus Dog contest, whilst Butch Reed will step into the Russian’s shoes to team with Landell against the PYT Express. That makes that second match immediately better by my reckoning. Watts’ involvement in the initial rundown is to talk about Magnum TA’s desire to beat Butch Reed to prove himself as North American Heavyweight Champion (a match that has been booked), before throwing to the ring where Jim Ross is with TA, Tommy Rogers and Terry Taylor, who are going to fulfil a fan request by showcasing how they train for contests.
Taylor and TA lock up in a collar and elbow as both Watts and then TA explain the benefits of the hold as a means to develop coordination and strength. With Rogers, TA gets down on the canvas and grapples, before Taylor ends up down on the mat as well on a second go round with the champion. The crowd are quiet up until the off-screen arrival of Butch Reed and Buddy Landell, with Reed questioning how good the quality of the training is with the weak guys TA is fighting with. Just as it looks like Reed is going to step up to Magnum, Landell holds him back and decides that he will step into the ring instead, especially as Reed would just put Magnum in the hospital otherwise.
TA gets into the referee’s position, but finds it easy enough to fight his way back to his feet as Landell tries to smother him. When the positions are reversed, TA has little difficulty in keeping the egotistical heel down to the point where Landell needs to grab for the ropes to break. Annoyed, Landell takes a swing at TA, misses and gets a hiptoss for his troubles. Reed looks once again like he is about to get into the ring, but with the title match booked, he decides that discretion is the better part of valour and walks out. It says a lot about what is considered television worthy in the 80s that I legitimately thought we might just get an in-ring training session, but anything that leads to more TA and Reed interaction works for me.
With a real focus on the use of illegal weapons in Mid-South at the times, we get shown the finish of the Mid-South Tag Team Title match from the previous week as Hercules Hernandez used a coal miner’s glove to help the Midnight Express retain over The Junkyard Dog and Jim Duggan in a no-disqualification match. According to Watts, Jim Cornette paid Kruschev $10,000 for the coal miner’s glove, a frankly ridiculous amount of money. Watts finishes the segment by talking about the passions of the wrestlers and their desire to win, with the commentary team only being able to call it as they see it in the future.
After a commercial break, we have Jim Ross in the ring with Jim Cornette, who has requested interview time at this point. Cornette claims that Duggan and JYD wanted the no-disqualification rules so they could declare open season on him, whilst it actually backfired. Having ranted about Duggan’s actions, Cornette introduces a Joel Watts-produced video about Duggan that he suggests Mid-South have chosen not to show as it highlights how Duggan can’t get the job done without his two by four. The montage begins with a pro-USA interview Duggan gave during his feud with Skandor Akbar, whilst continuing with a mix of action in the ring and him dri
ving/marching around in what appears to be a ranch or farm of some sort. For all of Cornette’s complaints, he doesn’t use the two by four very much at all, with Ross saying he thought it was a great video. Cornette calls Duggan a redneck hillbilly as well as railing against Joel Watts playing favourites with the footage and the choices he makes with his montages.
The first of our big matches announced at the top of the show is next as Krusher Kruschev takes on the Junkyard Dog. This is also the first actual match of the show from the current week, eighteen minutes into the show. The two men lock up, with Dog offering a clean break as they end up in the ropes. Dog works the arm with an armbar as Watts talks about Nikolai Volkoff disappearing since the Russians didn’t show up to the Olympics. JYD uses his power to put Kruschev up onto the top rope as a novel way of breaking a side headlock, before utilising one of his own. To give Kruschev his due, he replicates that move, but a decision to try and punch the Dog is a poor one as it gets blocked and he winds up getting hit with several headbutts.
A missed falling headbutt give Kruschev a chance to take control, grinding at the Dog’s face with the help of the ropes. It is brief, however, as the Dog dodges a charge in the corner, hits an atomic drop and a powerslam for three. It was almost a little anticlimactic as it happened so quickly, without shenanigans or any sustained offense by Kruschev. Whilst the Dog is held higher in the Mid-South hierarchy than Kruschev, it still feels odd to have such a decisive loss for the Russian sympathiser.
After another commercial break, we got to the other big match of the evening as Butch Reed and Buddy Landell take on the PYT Express. Ware avoids two attempts by Reed to go for a collar and elbow tie up, whilst he takes Reed over with two armdrags when they do lock up. Landell runs in to complain about a handful of air, before hiding behind Reed the moment it looks like Ware might go for him. Ware also avoids a punch in the heel corner that sees Reed blast Landell instead, a move that leads to the two men having a brief hug to apologise for the miscommunication. Austin is now in the ring and is able to use Reed’s arm to keep him initially under control, with Austin also avoidin a punch against the ropes, though this time it leads to a tag rather than a strike upside Landell’s head.
Landell is the one who turns the tide when he blasts Austin with a big elbow, allowing Reed and Landell to double team Austin illegally. A tag is made moments later to Ware, but the referee misses it in his efforts to halt the double team offense, though also allowing Reed and Landell to drop Austin throat first on the top rope. Landell nails his elbowdrop and just like the last match, the three count comes somewhat quickly. At least in this example, the throat drop/illegal double teaming element can be used as a reason for the PYT getting beaten so quickly, it just feels like it was wasted potential for a really good match.
Mike Jackson versus Tim Horton is the first of the standby matches, with Jackson outgrappling Horton on the mat in the early exchanges and grabbing a nearfall after an awful looking back elbow strike off of an Irish whip. Jackson controls the arm with an armbar, but Horton sends him hard into the turnbuckle to break the hold. The two men exchange punches, but Jackson hits a step up enziguiri which is missed by the camera as it chooses to focus on Butch Reed who is now at ringside. Two dropkicks is enough to put Horton down for the three count, but the attention is no longer on the match in the ring at all. Reed grabs a microphone and refers back to Jackson beating him with the help of Sonny King a few weeks back. Jackson, in a real rarity, gets a moment on the mic as he accuses Reed of having no class. From that, we have an impromptu match.
Reed attacks Jackson in the corner, before using a snapmare and a fistdrop to keep Jackson on the canvas. Jackson is trying to fire up, but Reed is not messing around, using the ropes to choke his opponent. However, Jackson fires back with a leapfrog and three dropkicks in a row, as well as a monkey flip. Jackson ducks a Reed punch and lands another dropkick to send Reed into the corner before following up with some punches. The two men botch an Irish whip into the far corner which detracts a little from Reed wrestling control back with a clothesline. One gorilla press slam later and Reed has gained a measure of revenge over Jackson.
Pre-taped footage with Ross talking to Steve Williams follows, with Williams complaining about Mid-South’s treatment of the Television Medal that he had taken from Terry Taylor. Williams suggests that the following week will see him reward the toughest man in wrestling with an award of his own creation next week.
We get another Joel Watts video montage to finish the show as the Fantastics train wearing the smallest speedos imaginable. They leave very little to the imagination.
To finish, Watts offers his heartfelt support to Kerry Von Erich as he goes after the NWA World Heavyweight Title for the first time after losing it to Ric Flair in Tokyo, with some suggestion that the footage might be seen at some point in the near future. After announcing the debut via video tape of Adrian Street on next week’s show, Watts and Pierce talk about how everything has heated up in the territory, as it usually does during the hot summer months.
Watts may believe things are heating up, but this is a rare misstep for the promotion as the show was really a let down. Two matches that might have been good were anticlimactic, whilst even the angles around the main events felt more like segments designed to create a holding pattern – nothing feels like it has moved on due to anything that occurred in or outside of the ring this week. Shame.
CWA Championship Wrestling 11.8.84
There is an excitable crowd on hand for today’s episode of CWA Championship Wrestling, unsurprisingly when you hear Dave Brown and Lance Russell rundown what looks like a stellar card. In the first match, Jerry Lawler will take on the Animal. Alongside the King, Eddie Gilbert will be in singles action, whilst the New Generation will take on Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler. The Nightmares and the Rock and Roll Express make up the expiration of time match, a rematch from three weeks ago, in a potentially stacked show.
Jimmy Hart joins Russell prior to the opening match and talks about how he has signed ‘The Beekeeper’ as a member of his entourage to help look after his wrestlers due to him having so much business to take care of. The Animal jumps Jerry Lawler the moment he gets into the ring, beating him down with forearms, punches and chokes, with the fight going to the ringside floor early on. Lawler gets his head rammed hard into the ringpost, but this just riles up the King as the fight returns to the ring. Lawler drops the Animal with one punch before throwing several more in quick succession down on the canvas, whilst both Hart and the Beekeeper are on the apron to complain. One more punch and a second rope fistdrop are enough for Lawler to win in a match in which he used just punches to defeat the Animal. A quick, yet fairly fun, brawl.
As can be the way, this match seems more of a sideshow for Lawler to talk about other things in the promotion with Russell. Russell congratulates Lawler for his success in the tag team elimination tournament from the Monday just gone alongside Jimmy Valiant. Lawler thanks the fans, as does Valiant in a pre-taped promo that also includes him mentioning how he wishes the tournament was in Russia so they could show the Russians a thing or two and that they are going to drop the bomb on Japan in a very unfortunate reference. The two men would go to All Japan in January/February 1985, so this did have some actual validity – thus, it wasn’t particularly surprising to see Lawler win.
After the commercials, Russell introduces footage from the tournament, with an initial focus on Tommy Rich and Jackie Fargo against King Kong Bundy and Ric Rude in the first round. We join mid match as Bundy misses an elbowdrop and Rich fights off both of the heel team as Fargo has his hands full with Hart at ringside. Rich hits the Thesz Press on Bundy, but Eddie Gilbert hits the ring to land an elbowdrop that is enough for Bundy to pick up the three count. Gilbert is still at ringside though, so Rich launches himself at his ex-partner. Things don’t end up particularly well for Rich as Gilbert bloodies him – and there is a lot of blood - with a shoe in the middle of the ring.
Gilbert joins Russ
ell at the commentary booth, but the quality of the audio mixed with Gilbert’s soft tones makes it hard to pick out every word he says. Gilbert retells finding out about Rich teaming with Fargo, as well as an altercation that took place in the parking lot before the show in which Rich squared up to him. Interestingly, Gilbert talking about beating Rich’s brains in gets some cheers from the studio audience. Gilbert believes that what he did was proving he could beat up Rich if he wanted to, whilst it was Rich who continued things by jumping him at ringside. Boos ring around the studio as Hart comes out to shake Gilbert’s hand to congratulate him. As Russell calls Hart a vulture, Hart offers Gilbert his management services. However, Gilbert makes it clear that he hates Hart and the First Family, whilst also blaming Hart for the calls he has been getting from people about him turning bad. Against Gilbert’s will, Hart says he will be in his corner for all of his matches, which begins with Gilbert versus Ken Raper in the following match.
Gilbert punches Raper to the canvas and kicks him whilst he is down, laying in with stomps as the referee warns him for his aggressive tactics. A back body drop leads to several more punches to the face as Hart dubs him ‘Wildfire’ Eddie Gilbert. Raper tries to fight back with some punches to the stomach, but Gilbert cuts him off with another right hand of his own. Gilbert lands a suplex and a second rope kneedrop, yet chooses to rub Raper’s face into the mat rather than go for the pin. Several slaps show how little respect Gilbert has for Raper, with Gilbert also using Rich’s finisher, the Thesz Press, for the victory. An in-ring showcase of Gilbert’s new more aggressive attitude.