The SmarK 24/7 Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – September 1 1982

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

 

– This is of course the show that eventually morphed into the modern WCW after Vince’s purchase of Georgia Championship Wrestling, and it’s taped in the familiar Techwood Studios. I don’t even know the significance of this episode and how it ties into the Gold Rush theme, but I love random stuff like this anyway.

– Hosted by Bob Caudle and David Crockett.

– Mid-Atlantic heavyweight title: Jack Brisco v. Paul Jones. Gerry tries to talk his brother out of the match because Jones has previously injured Jack’s leg, but the contract was already signed and Jack’s just too darn proud. Brisco chases Jones out of the ring, and then starts working the leg, stretching him into an STF long before anyone had a name for it. Jones makes the ropes and retreats to the corner, but Brisco takes him down with a drop toehold and ties him up in another leglock. Jones tries to grab him in a headlock, but Brisco reverses out with a slick bridge, forcing Jones to make the ropes instead. But Jack kicks that leg right down again and works on the knee. Jones kicks his way out of it, but Brisco puts him down with a kneecrusher and works it over on the ropes. Brisco wraps the leg around the post as Jones sells it like he’s got a broken leg or something. Jack fires away in the corner with palm strikes and then uses another wrestling takedown to put Jones on the mat, and it’s back to the leg again. Jones keeps begging off to buy time, and finally catches Brisco with a cheap elbow out of the corner. He quickly hooks his Indian deathlock, but Brisco kicks out of it. Jones tries to follow with a kneedrop, but misses and hurts himself further. He tries a slam, but Brisco falls on top for two and goes right back to that leg. Now that’s some good old school wrestling strategy. He twists the ankle with a toehold, while Greg Valentine joins us at ringside to help stablemate Jones out. Brisco pounds on the knee, but Jones uses the hair to escape and then clotheslines Brisco on the top rope. Back to the deathlock, but Brisco is still ahead of him and reverses out of it, then slugs him down. He goes for the figure-four to finish, but Oliver Humperdink distracts him and Brisco chases, hurting his knee in the process. Back in, Jones goes after the injured leg, but Brisco keeps slugging. Jones uses an illegal shot to the throat, however, and gets the pin and the title at 12:20. I was hoping for a finish where Brisco’s knee finally gave out, but this was some good hard-hitting stuff regardless. ***

– Kelly Kiniski joins us to comment on the match. Small world factoid of the day: My dad used to live in the same neighborhood as the Kiniskis in Vancouver in the 70s and was good friends with them.

– Kelly Kiniski v. Jos LeDuc. Hey, an all-Canadian match. They slug it out and Kelly wins that battle, then puts LeDuc down with a kneelift, but Jos uses his own knees in response, not really selling anything. LeDuc chokes away in the corner and follows with a belly to belly suplex for two. Backbreaker finishes easily at 3:59. Weird that they’d give Kiniski promo time and then basically squash him. 1/2* Kelly never did anything of note in the sport, retiring in 1987. His brother Nick showed more potential but also bombed out and retired in 1990.

– Jos LeDuc congratulates new champion Paul Jones and cuts his victory promo.

– Greg Valentine v. Mike Rotundo. Rotundo was pretty much a jobber at this point. Valentine takes him down and drops elbows on the back while holding a leglock, then takes him into the corner and pounds on the knee. Greg takes him down with a single-leg, but Rotundo kicks out of it and fires back with shoulderblocks in the corner. Hiptoss, but Valentine nails the knee again and applies another leglock. Rotundo kicks out of it and they slug it out in good fashion, until Mike puts his head down and gets clobbered. Valentine holds a facelock on the mat and tosses Rotundo. Mike fights in with a sunset flip for two and slugs away in the corner, but walks into an elbow and Valentine puts him down for the Hammer. A second elbowdrop finishes at 6:22. Good fire from the young Rotundo here, and he’d have his revenge 9 years later at Summerslam 91. **

– Roddy Piper & Wahoo McDaniel v. The Gladiator & The Medic. I don’t like the chances of the masked guys. Wahoo takes the Gladiator down and then works on a wristlock. Over to Piper (with incredibly ugly checkerboard green and yellow tights!) who goes a little nuts and smacks the Gladiator around, then whips him into a Wahoo chop. The faces double-team Gladiator and Wahoo hits the chinlock, then chops him into the corner and powerslams him for two. Back to Piper, who clubs the Gladiator down and chokes away in the corner. He was freshly turned and so he’s still a bit rough around the edges, I guess. Suplex gets two and he picks the jobber up, then no-sells the guy’s offense and takes him down with a neckbreaker. Wahoo chops him down to finish at 5:00. Aw man, we never even got to see if the Medic could turn the tide!

– And we wrap it up with comments from Gerry Brisco and Wahoo McDaniel and Roddy Piper, who advises us that you either soar with the eagles or scratch with the chickens, and he don’t scratch for nobody.

Hell, they should put this on a regular basis, too. I’d watch it!