Mid-South Wrestling 25/12/1981

Mike George & Carlos Zapata vs Rick Ferrera & Jerry Novak

George is only tagging with Zapata due to an injury to the JYD, and this is basically a handicap match. Like Novak trying a cheapshot by kneeing George as he runs the ropes, even if he’s a touch late. The heels tie George up in the ropes and beat on him, whilst his useless partner does nothing. Zapata does comes in and immediately gets sent to the floor, so George ends up whipping the two heels together and pinning Ferrera with a dropkick, with his partner hilariously passed out on the floor.

Paul Orndorff vs Brian Blair

These two guys have been the highlight of my Mid-South watching so far, so I was looking forward to this. Really enjoyed the opening matwork, which isn’t something I associate with Orndorff. They actually work a fun sequence based around Blair holding Orndorff in a headscissors.  Blair keeps up with Orndorff, until an O’Connor Roll sees Orndorff duck through the ropes and Blair eats the top rope right across his throat. Looked nasty. Blair is kept strong throughout – he blocks a figure four, then counters a suplex with one of his own. He locks in a figure four but Orndorff reverses it. Blair can’t make the ropes but won’t quit, so the ref calls it to give Orndorff the win. Really good match.

Ted DiBiase vs Mike Boyer

This wasn’t very good, pretty scrappy from the start. A powerslam on Boyer looks terrible before DiBiase wins with the figure four. Exceptionally skippable.

Bob Roop & Bob Orton Jr vs Mike Bond & Frank Monte

I anticipated this being a straight squash, but Bond and Monte are made to look pretty good. It takes Roop antagonizing Bond to distract the ref and allow a double-team on Monte. Even this doesn’t last long, as the faces get to control again before the heels take over in a lovely sequence: Bond and Orton work a criss-cross spot, and Roop gets a blind tag. Bond performs an O’Connor Roll on Orton, but Roop hits a knee drop to the back of his head during the pin, and Orton gets the win with a piledriver. Fun match, the heels lost nothing by keeping it competitive, winning due to their smarts.

Ed Wiskowski vs Tom Renesto Jr

Pretty solid squash, with Wiskowski just beating down Renesto piece by piece. Really loved him hitting a squash across Renesto’s shoulders as he was sat down. Backbreaker completes the easy win.

The Iron Sheik vs Don Serrano

Sheik jumps Serrano before the bell, but this lasts barely 30 seconds before Paul Ellering leaps in to beat up Sheik for an earlier sneak attack. Ellering hammers Sheik to end the show.

Mid-South Wrestling 12/12/1981

B. Brian Blair vs The Monk

Or “Bryan Blair” as he’s known as here. Nice little bit of matwork to kick off, with Blair using a nice legsweep to down the Monk, followed by a nice leverage battle to push Monk’s shoulders to the mat. The Monk uses Blair’s hair to pull him to the mat, and this seems to infuritate Blair, who ups the tempo. Nice height on a legdrop, before Blair uses an abdominal stretch to pin the Monk down for three.

King Cobra vs Tom Renesto Jr

Cobra looks to be in great shape, and his movement is certainly better than that of the chubby Renesto Jr. Cobra controls with some uninteresting armwork before winning with a headbutt. Not much to say here.

Jimmy Garvin vs Ed Wiskowski

Both guys look pretty hench here, especially the burly looking Wiskowski. As opposed to the previous bout, Garvin actually does some nice work on the arm of Wiskowski, wrenching a hammerlock and driving knees into the elbow. Wiskowski has some really nice looking blows in the corner and soon finishes Garvin off with a running knee to the face, a stungun and a gutbuster. Really good work here.

Junkyard Dog & Mike George vs Jerry Novak & Aaron Holt

Blink and you’ll miss it, as JYD and George hit a double-shoulderblock on Holt and JYD hits the Thump to win.

Iron Sheik vs Buddy Ryan

I’m not even sure Ryan gets any offence in, but he’s a pretty generic looking guy especially in comparison to a man in shape like the Sheik. Sheik just blitzes Ryan with some fun suplexes, refusing to take a pinfall win in order to hit more offence. Nice double-underhook suplex, nice belly to belly and finally a nasty looking deadlift German win the bout.

Rick Ferrara & Diamond Lil vs Tony Charles & Barbie Doll

Really odd mixed tag match, with full-sized men teaming with female midget wrestlers. Never been a big fan of matches like this, as you lose the whole tag dynamic. You can’t really do double teams, it’s harder to work heat on the face and it ends up feeling like two matches bolted together. I thought Charles looked great here, before Barbie Doll pins Lil after a sitdown splash.

Ted DiBiase vs Paul Orndorff

Real fast tempo to kick things off here, really made it stand out from the other matches. Liked the focus from both men with DiBiase working an arm to start, only for Orndorff to take advantage of DiBiase hitting his head on a turnbuckle to put in some nice kicks to the skull. Thought Orndorff looked really good in the whole match, to be honest, felt really driven. The end felt a bit off, as DiBiase (the face) locked in a figure-four on Orndorff, which was then reversed with DiBiase only just hanging on before the time limit goes to save him from submitting. It was probably supposed to make him look tough for hanging on, but it really made him look dumb for getting his own hold turned against him and only not losing because the bell saved him. Small quibble aside, the match was fun.