Mid-South Wrasslin!

[BruiserBrody]

3-30-84

This is all about heating up the Midnight Express vs Watts angle. We get lots of clips covering Watts/Corny's attacks on one another, Watts searching for a suspended JYD to use as a partner, and promos to set up the matches.

Mr. Wrestling 2 vs Mike Jackson - II looks OLD. Jackson was a world class jobber but he gets replaced by Magnum TA who tries to force himself into a match with his former mentor. II tries to talk his way out of it, then just walks off.

Hacksaw Duggan vs. Nikolai Volkoff - We see clips of Volkoff and Krusher Darsow trying to maul Duggan. The Rock and Roll Express and Terry Taylor make the save! Match only goes a minute before a Masked Commie and Krusher charge the ring. Taylor and the Express make the save again. Butch Reed comes down to mess with the babyfaces too.

Terry Taylor vs. "Hacksaw" Butch Reed- Reed got posted in the last segment and is injured. The Ref is future WCW ref Pee-Wee Anderson! Reed wants the match postponed since this is part of the TV tourney. Reed hits Taylor with a coal miner glove. Jim Ross sells each blow like it's a hammer being used. The Rock and Rolls make the save again.

Larry Santana vs. Masa Ito - The fans mock Ito by bowing at him. A fan has a Dr. X shirt on. What the HELL? That was an AWA gimmick for Dick "The Destroyer" Beyer 15 years before this aired. Match is a quick squash.

JR wraps things up.

Fast and fun 40 mins.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Fuck. Now I have to get the Network again.

 

[HSJ]

Hell yes - wrestling history.

 

[BruiserBrody]

 

[Damaramu]

So the Blade Runners are pretty awful. Warrior dropped the worst elbow I've ever seen. But this is awesome. Maybe it's the homer setting, but I love Mid-South most of the old territories now that I'm getting to watch.

 

[Damaramu]

So what is this "Power Pro Wrestling" stuff? Is it just the name of the show? They're acting like it's the promotion name.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Transition to the UWF.

 

[Damaramu]

Am I the only one that hated that UWF name? I don't know, there's just something classic about the Mid-South name.

 

[Richard]

I blame Herb Abrams.

 

[Cyrus]

It doesn't seem that bad for a national name. Just his attempt to top World Wrestling Federatiin.

Why did the expansion fail exactly? By all accounts, Watts had a hot hand as a booker and they had a lot of talent. Were they able to get any kind of momentum or did they just sink right away?

 

[909]

Overproduction of oil led to low prices, which killed business because the oil industry was very strong in Oklahoma and Louisiana, which meant nobody could come to the show.

Nobody going to the show in their home territory led them to go bust pretty quickly.

 

[BUTT]

The economy was a factor, but Watts also had to pay TV stations to air his syndicated show in the new markets and was unsuccessful in his attempts to sell national ads. Plus he had to sign the talent he had left to contracts, but they didn't draw big crowds. Eventually he was losing 50 grand per week and had to sell.

 

[Richard]

If you have some time to kill, her's a 3 hour podcast on the topic.

http://placetobenation.com/exile-on-badstreet-2-the-death-of-the-universal-wrestling-federation/

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhF5OG_GIyI

If you watched the build up to "The Last Stampede" and wanted to see the match, here it is!

 

[BruiserBrody]

Oops! The Birds have blinded the JYD again! This time in GA. But the Dog has one good eye and he may get his revenge at the Superdome.

--

Superdome Extravaganza 4/81​

April 18, 1981 in New Orleans, LA
The Superdome drawing 22,000

1. Luke Graham pinned Chic Donovan (5:00).
   
   
2. Carl Fergie pinned Kelly Kiniski (10:00).
   
   
3. King Cobra pinned Bull Ramos (8:00).
   
   
4. Cowboy Lang pinned Little Tokyo (10:00).
   
   
5. Cocoa Samoa pinned Larry Booker (4:30).
   
   
6. The Grappler & Super Destroyer beat Jake Roberts & Jimmy Garvin (11:00).
   
   
7. Andre the Giant & Dusty Rhodes beat The Wild Samoans (7:17).
   
   
8. Ernie Ladd & Leroy Brown beat Tony Charles & Don Diamond (10:00).
   
   
9. Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy beat Buck Robley & Cocoa Samoa (11:11).
   
   
10. The Grappler & Super Destroyer beat Andre the Giant & Dusty Rhodes (8:30).
    
    
11. Junkyard Dog & Dick Murdoch beat Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy (9:00).
    
    
12. Junkyard Dog & Dick Murdoch beat Ernie Ladd & Leroy Brown (6:00).
    
    
13. The Grappler & Super Destroyer beat Junkyard Dog & Dick Murdoch (8:00) to win the vacant Mid-South Tag Title when Grappler pinned JYD.

 

[JN News]

I love Mid-South Wrestling. One of my favorite territories.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Between the Sheets pod from March 86 says this card was scheduled to be sold/shown in syndication:

6/13/86 – Houston, TX
Texas Tornado Street Fight
Steve Williams & Dusty Rhodes & Bill Watts defeated Ivan Koloff & Nikita Koloff & Kortsita Korchenko
Terry Gordy defeated Terry Taylor
AWA Champion Stan Hansen no contest Nick Bockwinkel
Rock & Roll Express defeated Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts
Magnum TA defeated Baron Von Raschke
Missing Link defeated Jack Victory
Chavo Guerrero defeated Buzz Sawyer
One Man Gang defeated Perry Jackson

The UWF had just "debuted" under their new name around March time.
Bock had points in Houston, so I'm sure he helped broker the AWA title match. Hansen was about to quit the AWA. (Plus Boesch was an AWA guy after Harley Race pissed him off twice.)
This is one of the very very few matches Watts got with the Koloffs after the famous Russian Flag angle. IIRC it was like 3 towns, not even the week of big shows like the Last Stampede.
Watts famously roughed up the only Russian under his employ (Korchenko) on TV and drove him to quit.
Watts then pivoted to the Freedbirds attacking him, in order to try and actually draw money with guys he had under contract.

 

[snuffbox]

Wait, wait...Bill Watts fell for his own fake Russian act and went after the guy like some kinda crazed fan? That's some kind of stupid.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Wait, wait...Bill Watts fell for his own fake Russian act and went after the guy like some kinda crazed fan? That's some kind of stupid.

Watts was stiff on a good day, and Korchenko was Giant Gonzalez type of bad. I would guess the locker room wound Korchenko up as to how much the Midnights drew vs Watts a year earlier, so the big man tried to play $$ hardball, and Watts beat the piss out of him in front of a live audience.

Wrestling With Sin: 357

Brian Damage This is the 357th installment of the ‘Wrestling with Sin‘ series. A group of stories that delves into the darker, underbelly of pro wrestling. Many of the stories involve such subjects…

ringthedamnbell.wordpress.com

 

[snuffbox]

Watts might be the dumbest guy there's ever been in wrestling.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I wonder if CYN needs a grandfatherly authority figure.

 

[snuffbox]

Bill Watts vs Braun Strowman in an Austin Aries on a pole match!

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I'd spend like $5-10 to watch 82 year old Bill Watts try and shoot on the dumb MAGA wrestlers of today on Fite TV.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I'd spend like $5-10 to watch 82 year old Bill Watts try and shoot on the dumb MAGA wrestlers of today on Fite TV.

Watts' memory is gone. Corny said years ago already he couldn't recall details of the big 80s angles that fans were fawning over at conventions.

Watts might be the dumbest guy there's ever been in wrestling.

LOL. That's kind of the opposite take of everyone else...at least up to 1986.

---
Watts did fail to properly launch his own UWF brand though. The very 1st TV is on youtube, and IIRC the first segment is about the Crockett Cup so Flair and Dusty get put over and the tournament rankings have the UWF's best team at like number 4 or 5. SMH.

Even that Houston card above has Watts top heels losing to Crockett's team.

The UWF national tour, after most of the big names were gone off to JCP and WWF, was a total dud as they tried to run LA, Minnesota and many other spots far from Oklahoma.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I'm not even trying to be a Watts stan like my AWA defenses. I legit didn't really even know who Watts was when I first started learning online in 1999. I don't believe I even saw much WCW 1992 from what I can recall. Worldwide was on at midnight here, and I doubt Mama Brody was letting her 10 year old putz stay up that late. (Unless Daniel Cohen would have written some old Bruno stuff in his 80s books, I'm not sure where I would have picked up on any Watts stories pre internet).

I have since watched tons of Mid-South and dig it though.

Watts big runs in AWA and WWWF would be great to find. I think it was Bix who was recently talking about wanting to hear how cringe Watts; heel promos on Bobo Brazil were.

 

[snuffbox]

His Mid South booking was often good. But that shouldn't really be a difficult task considering the talent he had working there in those years. It isn't exactly writing Sopranos episodes. 1992 was 5 years later, not a century. He was given one of the strongest rosters ever in 1992 WCW and miserably failed the opportunity.

Mid South wrestling was awesome. But Bill Watts was an idiot, a racist, and never reached the successes of the similar Vince McMahon despite being given so many of the same entitlements.

 

[BruiserBrody]

His Mid South booking was often good. But that shouldn't really be a difficult task considering the talent he had working there in those years. It isn't exactly writing Sopranos episodes. 1992 was 5 years later, not a century. He was given one of the strongest rosters ever in 1992 WCW and miserably failed the opportunity.

Mid South wrestling was awesome. But Bill Watts was an idiot, a racist, and never reached the successes of the similar Vince McMahon despite being given so many of the same entitlements.

Trading in the Dangerous Alliance for Doc and Gordy certainly was a dud. I suppose he may have set the stage for a much better 1993, with Flair returning, the Hollywood Blonds rising and perhaps some intrigue with the SMW crossovers?

The Steiners were custom built to be Watts guys and he wound up splitting them and pissing them off enough that they went to Vince.

Also, his Mid-South booking was done by others, with Watts doing the fine tuning. Buck Robley booked the JYD blinding angle that set the Superdome record and Bill Dundee booked the Last Stampede and knew how to use smaller talents like the RnR Express. Once Dundee left Terry Taylor and later Dick Slater took over. Mid-South traded out the Express tag teams for Bob Sweetan and other hosses.

My favorite creepy Watts moment is from one of his shoots when he admitted he that he told Dark Journey that he wanted to fuck her. I picture Journey looking at the balding, pudgy 45 year old and recoiling. I wonder if that was after Slater and her split? IIRC that situation helped lead to Watts divorce, which didn't help his situation as business started to slide.

 

[snuffbox]

Ha, so the one thing I give the guy credit for, someone else was doing it for him.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Just like every other promoter praised for their product...

...except Heyman.

 

[snuffbox]

Well I'm not gonna give him much credit as a promoter/businessman. He was first in line for the current mindset of cosplay/worship a tv celebrity thing but it never really helped his companies out much. He watched so much Dallas he thought he was JR Ewing, moved his offices and tried to expand too far, too quickly, etc. That's not his own on-air wrestling character. He pretended to be a television character in his private, business life and didn't exactly hit a gusher.