The Precious Paul workout segments from mid '82 are really something else.

There's one where he invites two large women to sit on him while he does pushups.

In another, an oiled up Ellering climbs a ladder to do pull-ups with a child hanging around his waist.

I guess you just gotta see this ****. And the music...

Those Ellering segments are pretty amazing unintentional comedy. But I think he then disappears without actually getting into the ring.

The music, I think, is dubbed in by WWE because they were using stuff like "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John. The Mid-South podcast played the original audio of it.

The music has to be part of the troll job then. I'm not sure, but weren't his injuries bad enough that he was pretty much forced into managing right around this time?

Some Wattisms from a mid-July '82 episode.

"Iron Mike (DiBiase's father) would be turning over in his grave if he were here."

What? How?

"Roop claims to have run off Orndorff, who I hear is doing much better in another area now."

Never heard someone go about it this way, but Watts claimed that the competition in Mid-South makes wrestlers much more successful once they leave and face inferior competition and then went on to mention all their competitors.

"DiBiase is at ringside with a tablet."

Well, naturally, he's going to use modern technology to scout his...wtf...tablet? It's 1982! Once JYD pops him, we see a writing pad fly out of his hands. Turns out, Mid-South did not invent iPads or the internet in 1982. But it did drive me nuts for a good 5 minutes what the hell Watts was calling a tablet.

WCCW has brought in Superfly.

Really? I thought Snuka was in the WWF in 1982.

Oh, this is something completely different. It looks like Kamala dressed up as a pumpkin for Halloween.

Can't find out much about him. He may have been a man by the name of Ray Candy, who died just a decade later at the age of 42 and went by several other names during his career, none of which I recognize.

My attention was called to this by a podcast. The setup is that the Iron Sheik was charged with assault at some point in the mid-80s and his lawyer thought it would be a good idea if he got some of the people the defendant worked to serve as character witnesses via video. Either the lawyer knew the judge was a huge wrestling fan beforehand or this was a big mistake.

Probably a hot take, but: they should have stuck with the original name of "The Canadian Earthquake" for Tenta instead of shortening it quickly after his debut. More often than not, the one-word wrestling name doesn't play all that well or make the person seem like a worthwhile wrestler. I didn't like it when Sid Vicious/Sid Justice/Psycho Sid just started rolling with "Sid" either.

Very hot take, I remember thinking back in the day he needed to drop the Canadian part!

Skandor Ackbar has gotten the pile driver reinstated in Mid-South with the idea of the One Man Gang using it as a finishing move.

The Gang is facing Iron Mike Sharpe (yes, the perennial heel WWF jobber of the 80s, who's getting a solid babyface push here), who is able to flip the Gang when he goes for the pile driver. Ackbar runs into the ring and Sharpe pile drives him and covers him. The ref has to pull Sharpe off Ackbar and explain that Ackbar is not legally in the match. Iron Mike acts confused.

The next week, Iron Mike is facing another Ackbar charge, Killer Khan and the same thing happens. Only this time there's some sort of title on the line. Iron Mike pile drives Ackbar again and covers him. The ref pulls him off and Iron Mike believes he's won the belt.

Conclusion: Iron Mike Sharpe is a ****ing moron.

Agree! I would always picture the person being announced as the new champion, and almost always the single name just sounds generic and lame. Imagine if Hulk Hogan had just been "Hulk", no way it's the same.

A long single name like Yokozuna was okay because it was four syllables, but two syllables or less? Meh. Worked well enough for Kane I guess, but I do see him as the exception.

Yes again! Also Kane is a pretty unique name (which also fits great with a unique character), not just a common noun (Earthquake) or a standard name (Sid).

August of '82, Ric Flair is doing the tv rounds, first showing up in WCCW and then the next week in Mid-Atlantic.

Just a few months back, a clip was shown of Steamboat vs Flair with Slaughter attacking and both men joining forced to fend him off. Seemed to set up a Flair face turn and feud with Slaughter. That never seemed to happen and now Flair is back as heel in Mid-Atlantic with no explanation.

I used to roll my eyes at Flair claiming he never won matches. He was the NWA champ for nearly the entire decade of the 80's. Of course he had to win matches. However, watching a lot of this stuff now, all he ever seems to do is get his ass kicked and escape with the belt. While this wouldn't go over with a champion on tv every week (and sometimes multiple times a week) now, back then you rarely saw him, so it would work. And if you were watching him do it in Mid-Atlantic, you probably weren't seeing him do the same act in Texas.

That's how Flair was able to pull off his gimmick without ever really winning that era.

Who the **** is Col Buck Robley.

He looks like a guy they picked out of the stands that's subsisted on a steady diet of donuts and bear for the last half century, despite being under 40 with the personality to match, yet he keeps going over and getting involved in big angles in Mid-South.

Apparently, he was the booker. Also gets some credit (depending on who you talk to) for helping JYD and the Freebirds. He also trained Jake Roberts and was one of the first bookers to put marquee matches on free tv.

https://ringthedamnbell.wordpress.co...ow-but-should/

Robley has one of the worst wrestler looks I’ve ever seen. His look alone made it unpleasant to watch him do anything.

The hot feud in Mid-Atlantic during the summer of '82 is Piper/Brisco (Jack).

Piper stole Brisco's North American belt and wouldn't give it back until he $10K + a title shot. In July, Brisco put up $6K, borrowing to more from each Wahoo McDaniel & Ricky Steamboat. Piper whacks Briscoe with a roll of coins when the ref isn't looking and wins the title on TV.

On August 7th episode, Brisco re-emerges with the title, saying he won it back at a house show (which were the PPVs of the day).

The August 14th episode is one of very few missing for the year.

The August 21st episode starts with Jimmy Valiant and Roddy Piper tagging as a babyface team.

WTF? I knew there was a Piper turn coming at some point, but that was swift without any hint (except for one little thing) shown on any of the shows currently available on the Network. Major disappointment. I turn to google.

Apparently, Piper's turn in '82 had three different components, depending on where you were watching.

1 - At the end of the August 7th episode on the network, Oliver Humperdink is building his House of Humperdink, signing virtually every heel on the programming and even turning a couple of lower card faces (Leroy Brown & Paul Jones). He offers Piper a contract, but Piper tears it up and walks off. Assumed it was just Piper being his unpredictable self, but when we return on the August 28th episode, Humperdink appears very offended at this.

2 - The missing episode contains an interview mentioning that Ric Flair had turned on Piper in a tag team match and he was reaching out to Brisco & Steamboat for help, which they are willing to give him with some skepticism.

3 - If you watch World Championship Wresting from Georgia, they share virtually the same roster as Mid-Atlantic, but it's a different program with different announcers (Bob Caudle for MA, Gordon Solie for WCW). At least I think so, I don't know. There is no WCW from Georgia on the Network for this time period. However, here's the video of what went down:



The Mid-Atlantic show never mentions any of this or Gordon Solie at all. Interesting to note, Muraco was a key catalyst in Piper's '86 babyface turn in WWF too.

Always does seem like Kerry Von Erich was universally beloved backstage. Hadn't heard the part about him being dangerous in the ring, but it makes sense in context, since Warlord says it was purely a function of when he was messed up on drugs (which I gather happened more and more).

I've never heard anyone questions Kerry's intent or heart, but his mental state was frequently in question from stories like the unification match with Lawler, where he almost killed himself, to where Bret Hart claims that he was always talking about joining his brothers in the afterlife. His wikipedia suggests the drug use didn't start until after the accident.

Perfect segue into the 1982 NWA title match I was watching between Kerry and Flair last night. Two out of three falls. Kerry looks to have won the first one, but is DQ because he punched Flair. That's an odd one. They then turn the outsider NWA referee into the heel, who cost the hometown hero the championship with that ruling, as Kerry wins the second bout with an iron claw that made Flair bleed somehow, while the third match is a melee that never gets started.

The next week's Mid-Atlantic features Paul Jones winning the North American title from Jack Brisco with a punch to the throat right in front of the referee. Perfectly legal in this instance apparently. Isn't this match governed under NWA rules too? They certainly never expected anyone to be watching both of these shows at the time. Or, probably, more accurately, one was never even paying attention to what the other was doing, despite both being under the same banner.

An October '82 ep of Mid-South features (via video tape) a match between AWA champion Nick Bockwinkel and the Junkyard Dog in WCCW territory (Texas). However, they announce that the match is not for the AWA title, but the Dog's crown (whatever the **** that is). Makes the result kind of obvious. Dog beats him cleanly. It seems Dog and Bockwinkel had a few matches that year, some for the AWA title, despite being an NWA talent.

The same week on WCCW, the first mention of Hulkamania running wild in Japan. Also mentions Hulk's brother Dizzy Hogan (which we were all surprised to realize was a real thing on this forum awhile back).

[******* chants]
“I don’t know if you heard, but you’ve got about 15,000 people calling you an *******.”
[huge pop]

That was one of the rare dumb staples in the Steve Austin act.

The 10/30/82 episode of Mid-South is stacked.

They show a six-man tag in Texas where Mil Mascaras, JYD and Andre the Giant take on Killer Khan, Gino Hernandez and Tully Blanchard. Two stunning things about this match is that they continue to use the angle that Andre had his ankle broken by Killer Khan as a selling point in this match, despite it happening in the WWF. Andre is also the one who does most the selling in this match, making the hot tag, instead of the being the one on the receiving end. I can't ever remember a match where Andre did the majority of the selling, especially in a tag environment.

Gino Hernandez then makes his Mid-South debut later in the program.

They finish with the JYD/Olympia vs DiBiase/Borne tag match where the loser leaves town for 90 days. JYD loses when Hacksaw Dugan interferes in a monkey suit. I'm assuming this is where Stagger Lee is born.

Always believed Abdullah the Butcher & Cowboy Bob Orton were career heels. I certainly don't remember EVER seeing them in a babyface role, but these are the two guys Piper brings into Mid-Atlantic in late '82 to battle the House of Humperdink. Piper talks about going to war (his fourth is Jimmy Valiant), but War Games won't be invented for another few years.

Kabuki injures Kerry Von Erich in the fall of '82. Fritz Von Erich claims Flair paid him to do so.

In the coming weeks, Fritz claims he has proof. In November, he reveals a check from Flair to Gary Hart for $12,500.

King Kong Bundy, frustrated with pay from Hart, was the bag man for the bounty, but instead turns a copy of the check over to Fritz for $5K.

However, I believe Hart & Flair have deniability. Can you see why?

Should've written Rick Flare for the full effect.

I have to imagine this is almost entirely a Gary Hart plot, maybe without any involvement at all from Flair. Gary is always calling him Ricky Flair in interviews. But one would still think he would know how to spell the world champ's name.