Andrew Lutzke
Presented by Kayfabe Commentaries
They open things with a great voice over by Jim Cornette covering a brief history of Mid-South.
Cornette explains how the Mid-South had great TV that is still revered today, plus a collection of wild talent that were true outlaws being led by a sheriff known as “Cowboy” Bill Watts.
Hacksaw Duggan is introduced and he and Jim cover how Mid-South was violent (but not over the top gory) had real athletes who became wrestlers and tough men.
Duggan explains that he was a heel early in his career because it was easier to learn the business this way.
They cover how Bill Watts bought into the territory in the late 70’s and used his history of having learned booking from Eddie Graham to eventually take over a big chunk of the area from promoter Leroy McGuirk. Watts took Louisana and Mississpi as his territory and quickly established success.
Hacksaw explains how stiff everyone worked in the area, which was an eye opener for a greenhorn like himself.
Early gimmicks where Duggan played a pretty boy and a masked man known as the Convict didn’t last long. “Hacksaw” became a star once Watts got a hold of him.
Bruiser Brody convinced Duggan to come to Texas and learn under Brody.
Buck Robley was booking for Mid-South in the early 80’s. Corny and Duggan cover a few other bookers who worked under Watts like Bill Dundee. The bookers would often have their ideas “edited” by Watts.
Hacksaw covers how the cops weren’t much help to the heels since the cops were often marks who figured the heels had it coming.
The fans would wreck the heel’s cars. The bad guys learned to leave in groups in order to protect themselves.
Watts begin to book black men and Mexicans near the top of the card in order to draw in ethnic fans.
Mid-South created many stars out of guys who had been green or journeymen workers such as Ray Candy, JYD, The Freebirds and “Bruiser” Bob Sweetan.
The Louisiana and Mississippi areas were drawing big money while McGuirk’s area was dying. Watts liked McGuirk so he paid him for the rest of the territory.
Houston promoter Paul Bosch switched alliances from Joe Blanchard to Watts and that gave the Mid-South a Texas foothold as well.
JYD took off as a massive star and the fans were rabid towards any heels who messed with him.
Cornette covers a riot he was involved in during a JYD/Magnum TA vs. Midnight Express match up.
The fans came every week or sometimes every two weeks to the same arenas to see the wrasslin’
They share some funny stories about taping TV in a place with a LONG staircase which made entrances and run-ins rather difficult.
Cornette shares a story of having to dress in drag for an angle, only to roll his ankle from the high heels.
Duggan got his girlfriend involved in an angle with Dick Slater. Hacksaw ended up soaked in blood, which he spilled on her as he tended to his fallen beau. He then screamed “SUPERDOME!!” to really hammer home the hard sell for the big card that was upcoming.
The arena they taped TV in wasn’t air conditioned, so in summer it got very hot inside. To remedy this, giant fans were brought in to circulate air. This led to a comedic moment where Corny tried to use powder on JYD, but it just blew back in his own face. JYD had to rub his own face in the floor to try and be “blinded” after the miscue.
The TV had a staggered tape delivery system, which meant some towns saw things up to 5 weeks before other town saw the same tape, which made for careful planning when setting up promos and such.
To make sure wrestlers showed up on promo taping day, Watts made that day pay day.
The workers wrestled in a bunch of tiny towns, and since GPS wasn’t yet invented, finding arenas could prove difficult. To make matters worse, the fans would lie to heels about what the directions were.
Some towns had ratings that showed 30-60% of all TV watchers tuned into Mid-South wrestling.
Duggan and Terry Gordy got trashed on booze and drunkenly barraged into a room that they thought contained Len Denton, but was instead just a random guy who was frantically calling for help since two 300 pound monsters were trying to get in.
The same hotel had 10 dollar a night rates, and in some rooms you had to keep the light on or the rats would come out.
The workers had a 3500 mile round trip each week in order to hit all the house shows scheduled.
Duggan shares a bar fight story where he, Hercules and Doctor Death beat the piss out of a plethora of marks. The cops arrested Dr. Death for DUI and Hercules for assault. Herc attacked the cops during the arrest.
When you’re in he real world, everybody saw you as a phony wrestler, but once you were sent to court, you were portrayed as a trained killer.
Groupies were all over the place, especially in the rooms of Magnum TA, the Rock and Roll Express and Bobby Eaton.
Wrestlers were constantly getting in bar fights. They didn’t lose.
Houston was a LONG drive, but the pay was crazy good.
Duggan covers the night he accidentally took a metal bolt to the skull and split his head wide open. Later that night, Gordy pulled on his hair and the wound tore wide open.
Corny was in the business barely two years when he was already part of a headline feud with Watts and JYD at the Superdome.
JYD was paid to stay home for six weeks while selling being “blind”.
JYD was about to be attacked by the Freebirds, when a fan jumped the barricade and pointed a handgun at them. JYD couldn’t save them because he had to keep up kayfabe.
Duggan explains how close the guys were back then, with long car rides giving guys time to bond and discuss how to draw more and such things.
Little Rock, Arkansas was one of the best towns in the area for booze, broads and drugs.
Fans would load water guns with Draino to spray at heels while they hid behind the police.
Grizzly Smith took care of Watts’ business from town for town. The boys loved him for having their back in tough situations, even though he was also Watts’ stooge.
Fans were offered the chance to prove the wrestlers were fake by being given a chance to shoot with Dr. Death. This usually ended very poorly for the fans.
One of the local promoters for Mid-South was very racist. This led to the JYD namedropping him on promos were he talked about eating fried chicken and watermelon at the promoter’s house.
Duggan turned face and ended up as the area’s top babyface after JYD jumped ship to the WWF.
Mid-South re-branded as the UWF in 1986 as part of the effort to expand nationally. Meanwhile the talent kept leaving for the WWF and the NWA and the local economy collapsed. All this led to the expansion failing.
Kamala is put over for being a good man and a good hand in the ring.
The Mid-South title belt weighed 25-30 pounds and was a pain in the ass to carry around.
Hacksaw and Corny both decry that the modern product scripts so much both in the ring and promos which kills the workers creativity and freedom.
Sting and the Ultimate Warrior broke into the business in Memphis. They were so horrible that the whole locker room would watch their matches and howl with laughter.
Dick Slater was dating valet Dark Journey, Sting ended up banging her. When Slater found out, he broke into the babyface’s locker room and beat Sting into the bathroom, then sunk his head into the toilet.
Duggan points out all the stuff he, Gordy, Doctor Death, Hercules and others used to put in their bodies while running up and down the roads. Then laments that so many of his friends are now dead.
Magnum TA and Duggan smashed up their car while driving on a snowy road. Doctor Death was behind them and stopped to help. A semi came through and smashed into Doc’s car. The semi was carrying cement and that spilled all over the road. Duggan jumped out of the way when Doc’s car got smashed and rolled down an embankment. For a brief spell the others thought he was run over and dead.
The Midnight Express and Corny had their car break down once and hitchhiked with a farmer with a truckload of chickens. They showed up at the arena covered in feathers.
Cornette made 100K in one year with Mid-South and that was just his manager’s pay. Cornette was a mere 22 years old at the time.
Duggan recalls the locker room fight between John Nord and Butch Reed that was egged on by Watts.
Doctor Death was insanely strong. Corny watched him press slam a 360 pound Big Bubba Rogers with ease.
Nikolai Volkoff would sew Cornette’s jacket arms together as a rib.
Low card guys who worked the house show circuits could clear 50K a year in base salary when business was hot.
JCP grossed 20 million dollars in 1986 and within a year they were nearing bankruptcy.
JCP tried to run the Crockett Cup in 1986 in New Orleans, but the area was dead and the show bombed despite having wrestling stars from across the world on the card.
Corny feels that the fans in the Southern US stopped coming to the shows once Vince McMahon exposed the business because they had such a strong connection to the wrestlers only to find out the thing they loved was fake. Fans were once so involved in the product that they ended up in jail for going after the heels, now those same fans gave up as the magic was gone.
Final Thoughts: Hacksaw is a fountain of charisma and Cornette is always awesome, especially when it comes to talking wrestling history, so this wonderful combo made for a fun two and a half hours. Be warned that the DVD is largely just Duggan and Corny talking, with the documentary pieces shown in the trailer taking up only a few minutes tops.
