Piper and Slater have a really legit looking brawl on Mid-Atlantic. Of course, Piper has a reputation for making things sometimes too real and it being a studio show, they knew it had to be real snug for it to look good. The result is that Piper's been getting into some brutal looking fights over the last month or so.

The turnover in Mid-Atlantic is so crazy in the early 80s that it's impossible to complete any story that lasts more than a month. The House of Humperdink vs Piper's Palace falls apart so quickly. Orton is gone about a month after he appears. I don't think Abdullah ever even showed up. Even Humperdink may be gone now, as they mentioned that Dick Slater is now managing One Man Gang, neither of whom were part of the original feud between Piper & Humperdink.

Dizzy Hogan is given his first interview time last episode of Jan '83. Asked who he wants to face, Dizzy says he can't wait to "work with" Rick Flair. Jeez.

Dusty Rhodes is coming in to collect the $100K Dory Funk Jr has put up to any man who can pin him. He states that he's beaten Dory before. He's beaten his father. He's beaten his brother. He can probably beat Mother Funk too. This last one is bleeped out on the network.

Kamala slams Andre on free TV during a run in. (Feb '83 Mid-South)

While Bill Watts is talking about lots of things outside his territory (Freebirds/Von Erichs, Andre/Kahn), even an LSU amateur wrestler named John Tenta, other territories like Mid-Atlantic are pretending that places like WCCW don't exist. It's actually fairy odd the way Gary Hart is brought in.

He's introduced as the manager of the Great Kabuki in Texas. And it's stated that Hart left that place because Kabuki got deported. Meanwhile, Kabuki was just on the WCCW show, teaming with Bundy as the newest member of Devastation Inc.

Bill Watts likes to say that the crowd chants "Two. Two. Two" in support of Mr. Wrestling II, but I think it's because he's the shitz.

March of '83, Dugan, claiming he's the only Hacksaw, cuts a promo on Hacksaw Bruce Reed (and he says it several times).

Andre is all over the territories in early '83. They're setting up feuds for him against big men (Kamala, One Man Gang) in almost every territory, as well as showing up on WWF house shows at MSG (which were the PPVs of the day).

A lot of wrestlers are being booked in multiple territories, some with vastly different storylines and alliances.

Jake Robers has returned to Mid-Atlantic after a short absence as a heel under Paul Jones. We never see the actual turn, but we do see the DDT as his finisher now too.

1990 Royal Rumble opens with the Bushwhackers going over the Rougeaus, who had largely retired and just agreed to come back to do this show, and then follows with a singles match for The Genius, who never really carried a full-time wrestling load.

I'm sensing a limited roster.

Hopefully he has ditched the cowboy hat by this point too.

Greg Valentine vs. Ronnie Garvin is third.

While this is not particularly appealing, I at least know that this was the result of a well-built feud of 6+ months.

Garvin wins with the "reverse figure four," per Schiavone. Would later be popularly known as the Sharpshooter.

Dusty Rhodes legit deserves credit for getting the stupid polka-dotted WWF character over. And I don't get the sense that any big amount of it was WCW carry-over; the wrestling fanbases were pretty segregated, and I feel like the majority of fans were not following both, particularly as WWF was syndicated and WCW was only available to people with cable.

Was that ever anything other than Vince wanting to humiliate the 2nd biggest star of a rival promotion?

Definitely seemed like that was Vince's whole game there, but then Dusty got it over anyway. It's not quite a Red Rooster level of sabotage, but it was a lot for any wrestler to overcome.

What was considered Dusty’s high point in WWF? I never remember him being more than at most an upper-mid card babyface. I want to say he captained a Survivor Series team but was never in any title pictures.

Oh he wasn't really more than upper midcard; he basically fulfilled a Duggan position. But he got great crowd reactions. They programmed him in feuds with people like Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase, so he was getting booked against the best non-title guys available.

I remember the chops in this match were brutal

Joe LeDuc has just been turned on by Humperdink and friends.

He cuts a promo how he's gonna get Slater & Valentine, but he's all alone and that's the way he likes it.

They show a short video of Ric Flair in action.

We come back to LeDuc again telling us that he's all alone.

Commercial

A third LeDuc segment in a row. He's all alone like he just said, but he has a surprise. He's part of a six-man tag.

By the end of the show, LeDuc is part of a group promo with all the babyfaces who have accepted him into their group, despite him telling us three times that he's all alone.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1UrG...JkNXJqcGEyN2tj

How did I forget Ricky Steamboat speech rehab therapy sessions during the run up to WM3 ?

Haha I've never seen those, Ricky deserves an emmy for that performance

Kevin Von Erich is asked why he's targeting Terry Gordy in this episode (aside from the title on the line). Kevin says that he's the oldest Von Erich and Gordy is also the oldest brother, so it's big brother against big brother.

Gordy is the youngest Freebird.

Chris Adams makes his WCCW debut and I'm hit by the significance of his contribution to the industry. He may had some personal issues, but I believe he was the originator of the superkick and just 6 years after this point, he would train and break into the business a young Steve Austin.

I've heard the old rumors that Andre didn't like Studd and you could certainly see the increased physicality in their matches in '83. Bruce has said that Andre being too stiff with Studd was the reason for his leaving twice.

Always sounds like Andre was just being a territorial prick.

Andre was always fearful of someone else trying to be the big man....that was really all he had going for him. He actually refused treatment for his condition because he was afraid it would interfere with his gimmick.

Anyone who even challenged his status was treated pretty roughly. Studd, Bam Bam Bigelow, and more have talked about it at one point or another.

Size alone is something that’s true of The Great Khali, but I wouldn’t describe Andre that way. He had charisma in spades and was a good worker until his body fell apart. But I know that was his fear, so territorial seemed like the best description for it.

I heard Studd quit because paying $10K to Andre every time he got bodyslammed started to get pricy.