The SmarK DVD Rant for Mid South Wrestling: Giants, Midgets, Heroes & Villains (Volume Two)
Carrying on with another one that’s been on the review pile for a while, the third DVD I picked up from http://universalwrestling.com/, as they sell off their inventory following the WWE buyout.
NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Ted Dibiase
This is repeated from the first Mid-South DVD I did, but is still worth watching again. Dick Murdoch turned on Dibiase and bloodied him up good because he’s jealous. Flair is more than happy to take the forfeit win, and we take a break. Back with Bill Watts in the dressing room, who reports that Dibiase is getting his gruesomely scarred face wrapped up in bandages, and he’s still gonna challenge for the belt. So if there’s children watching, parents might want to change the channel. So back to the ring we go, and Flair just kicks the shit out of Dibiase right away, throwing chops in the corner until Dibiase comes back with a backdrop. Fistdrop and Flair backs off, so Dibiase stomps a mudhole, but Flair clips him and goes to work. The bandage gets dislodged and Dibiase is a MESS. Backdrop suplex gets two and Jim Ross is having a heart attack. Now this is the match where you want to have JR on commentary. Flair pounds him in the corner and now Dr. Death comes out because even he is concerned for Dibiase’s well-being. Dibiase comes back and we get the Flair Flip, and a suplex back into the ring gets two. Dibiase wraps him up with an abdominal stretch into a rollup for two, but he’s so weak he can’t even hold the pinfall. Flair tries a piledriver and Dibiase backdrops out and throws down in the corner. Flair Flop, but the ref wants to check the cut. But Watts said they wouldn’t stop it for blood loss! Flair clotheslines him and goes up, but Dibiase slams him off. Powerslam gets two and again Dibiase can’t cover to completion. Dibiase tries a figure-four, but Flair is in the ropes, and he kicks Dibiase right over the top to break. And Dibiase is out due to blood loss, so he gets counted out at 7:20. And then Dick Murdoch returns and kicks Dibiase’s ass AGAIN, including a brainbuster on the concrete! Still one of my favorite matches of all-time, making Dibiase into a giant star and the biggest babyface in the territory. ***1/2
This DVD adds footage of Dibiase getting carted to the back on a piece of table and treated by EMTs.
Butch Reed cuts a promo with Jim Ross, showing off his giant swollen eye, which prompts Bill Watts to praise him for not being a “Hollywood actor or overweight pachyderm from Titan Sports”. OUCH.
Jake Roberts & The Barbarian v. Paul Brown & Richard Dye
The Barbarian would be of the Nordic variety, not the Sionne variety. Can’t say as I like Dye’s chances here. He gets worked over by Jake, and Barbarian comes in with a flying shoulderblock on Brown. A full nelson finishes for Barbarian at 2:44.
Bill Dundee & Little Tokyo v. Wendall Cooley & Little Coco.
Wildcat Wendall Cooley was a guy with a good look who just never escaped the southern territories for whatever reason. This is supposed to be a mixed match but there appears to be two midgets on the heel side. Usual midget stuff, but the ref is bumped and Dundee drops an elbow on Coco, leading to the Fantastics coming and laying out Dundee to avenge the midget…and Coco pins Dundee at 2:46! That’s pretty great, actually. * Afterwards, Dundee bitches about the Fantastics.
Ted Dibiase & King Kong Bundy v. Steve Williams & Magnum TA
There are two referees for this to prevent Dibiase from cheating, so you know that’ll just encourage him to try even harder. Dibiase slugs away on TA, but a crossbody gets two. Ted Dibiase with a child molester moustache is not a good look. Over to Bundy, but Magnum evades him and brings in Doc, who overpowers Dibiase and sends him running away. So Bundy comes in and neither guy can get the advantage until Dibiase cheapshots Doc and elbows him down. Middle rope elbow gets two. Bundy drops a knee for two. Another one misses and it’s hot tag TA, the role he was born to play. Sleeper for Dibiase, and it’s BONZO GONZO. Dibiase retrieves his foreign object from Skandor Akbar and puts Magnum down with it, but Jim Duggan steals it, knocks Dibiase out, and TA gets the pin at 6:05. **1/2
The Midnight Express v. Junkyard Dog & Jim Duggan
This is just the ending, as Dog collides with Condrey and Duggan gets the hot tag and everyone brawls. Jim Cornette throws powder at Dog’s eyes rather ineffectually, but Dog is nice enough to roll around in the powder to make it look better. Duggan beats on Cornette, but Hercules comes in and puts Duggan down with a loaded glove, allowing Eaton to pin him.
Football Helmet Match: Steve Williams v. Jim Duggan
Pretty self-explanatory, you’d think. Duggan is nowhere to be found, which brings out Ted Dibiase to explain that Duggan jumped him backstage and thus he had to knock out “that glass jaw Jim Duggan with one punch”. An incredulous Jim Ross recaps this ridiculous story like a good straight man. Ted Dibiase as a slimy heel is just the best. So they take a break and return with Bill Watts having found Duggan, absolutely covered in blood, mud and with a ripped up shirt, barely able to stand but still vowing to fight Williams anyway. I’m really disappointed that they show this stuff out of order and without the blowoffs because I really want to see these storylines through.
Art Crews & Mike Jackson v. Kamala & Kendo Nagasaki
Quite the freakshow on the heel side. Nagasaki uses his far east martial arts on the jobbers, but Jackson evades Kamala. Crews manages to fight back on Nagasaki and Jackson comes in with a dropkick, but walks into a superkick, allowing Kamala to finish with the splash at 3:02.
Nikolai Volkoff v. Mike Jackson & Randy Barber
The jobbers wisely double-team Volkoff and dogpile him for two, but Volkoff puts them both on the floor. Volkoff dogpiles the jobbers onto each other and pins them at 1:30.
Jim Duggan: The Video Retrospective. He drives trucks, beats people up, and loves America.
Jim Duggan v. One Man Gang
Gang beats on Duggan and drops him on the railing outside, but Duggan slugs away back in the ring. Gang bearhugs him and pounds away, but Duggan keeps fighting with a clothesline. Shoulderblock gets two, but Akbar gets involved for the DQ at 4:11. *1/2
And now we get the Ric Flair-Kerry Von Erich cage match where the Freebirds turned, which would have aired on Mid-South because Watts does the intro to it. Well there’s two classic angles on this disc for you.
Junkyard Dog v. King Kong Bundy
Dog tries a slam and gets nowhere, allowing Bundy to work the arm. Dog responds in kind, but Bundy powerslams him and gets…four. Dog kicks out and makes the comeback, but Buzz Sawyer runs in for the DQ at 6:00. *
Steve Williams & Jake Roberts v. Terry Daniels & Shawn Michaels
Yeah, that Shawn Michaels. Shawn rolls up Doc for two, which has the heels backing off. Daniels puts Jake down with a shoulderblock…and my disc glitches out. Well, shit, there was still another hour to go on the disc. Further attempts to get this thing to play on either the PS3 or Xbox fail, so I guess we’re done.
The Pulse
Oh well, DVD-R technology ain’t what it’s cracked up to be sometimes, I guess. I still love this stuff anyway.
Bundy powerslams him and gets…four.
ReplyDeleteIT HAPPENED! IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! I *knew* somebody had to book that spot somewhere.
I have to say, I just watched some mid-south stuff for the very first time on the Legends DVD that was just released and it is really great. It reminded me why I like wrestling in the first place, it's just an interesting bunch of characters, with hot crowds and great stories. I particularly liked the whole Mr. Wrestling II training Magnum TA and then turning on him. There was a sit down interview with Mr. Wrestling talking deadly serious with Jim Ross....while wearing a suit and his mask. That's the kind of stuff I love, the carnival aspect of wrestling, with an underlying grittiness. I will definitely be looking into getting a hold of more mid-south stuff, it's awesome.
ReplyDeleteSince this is a Mid South related thread, I just finished watching the Legends of Mid South DVD that WWE put out this week. I was extremely hyped up for this particular set because of all the good things I heard about them. After watching, I was really disappointed.
ReplyDeleteDisc 1: The best match was Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase in the tuxedo, coal miner glove, steel cage match. Everything else was pretty basic.
Dis 2: There were two fun Rock n' Roll Express vs Midnight Express matches.
Disc 3: I did not find anything on disc 3 to be entertaining other than a Blade Runners match.
The frustrating part is that they showed highlights of matches when talking about the history of Mid South / UWF. Those matches looked interesting and were the type of matches I wanted to see on this set. Instead, I get a Rick Steiner vs jobber Nick Patrick on it for no reason.
I think with Old School wrestling if you didn't live through it you might not enjoy it as much as somebody who did. MSW was the best territory for wrestling IMO, better than JCP, AWA, WCCW and the WWF. Again though it probably depends on your age as somethings don't hold up 25 or 30 yrs later.
ReplyDeleteThe Flair vs DiBiase match isn't a repeat from the first disc that came out. They only showed the angle with Murdoch on the first one. I always thought it was dumb for them to split it on 2 sets like that. Maybe it was done to get you to buy the second disc to see the complete angle and match.
ReplyDeleteJust read the Bill Watts shoot interview today. Good stuff. Wished he'd talked about the racist memo or the reason he felt that he'd be packing heat walking around the CNN center.
ReplyDeleteLiving in Mass, we didn't get the Mid-South wrestling up here. Only Titan Sports and the Superstation. Sounds like I missed out on a lot.
You bring up a great point. I was concerned as to whether these older would hold up after so many years. But I could still watch an old match and be entertained. I was just watching a Pat Patterson vs Sgt. Slaughter street fight from MSG back in the day and it it still awesome.
ReplyDeleteBut unfortunately, several of the Mid South stuff just didn't age well for me as a viewer.
I'm ready for Legends of Mid South Wrestling blu ray
ReplyDeleteDidn't Bundy have that happen to him against Hogan once? If not, it should have...
ReplyDeleteI was referring to the "Mid-South's Greatest Matches" DVD that I had previously reviewed.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm pretty sure I saw that finish with Hogan and Bundy at a house show in 86, although I would have been 12 at the time and going to my first show, so who knows how my memory was .
ReplyDeleteTHREADJACK:
ReplyDeleteSeptember 24 we will head back to 1993 with Lex Luger in "Timeline: The History of WWE - 1993" and watch the transformation from The Narcissist to the patriotic hero leading the charge across the US. That bus tour was a shoot and the schedule was maddening. As Lex will tell you, he thought the world revolved around him at the time. And now he will let you into that world in the year the indictments came down, the gas was banned, Yoko got slammed, and the Lex Express rolled on. Coming to DVD and OnDemand on Sept 24!
... And I see this when I go look at their page:
ReplyDeletehttp://kayfabecommentaries.com/you_shoot_info.html
WHAT?
oh... lol... i have to submit a question
ReplyDeleteYeah. He pinned Hogan for 3, asked the ref for a 5 count but kicked out at 4 and...you know the rest.
ReplyDeleteI always thought it would've been great if Bundy pinned Hogan for 3, then got up and started celebrating with the title.
ReplyDeleteWhy bother putting jobber squash matches on a video compilation like this?
ReplyDeleteWhen they said they had a huge announcement for their You Shoot, I was excited...and then when the announcement came out, I couldn't have been more disappointed. What a crock of shit.
ReplyDelete