Mid Atlantic Wrestling 26 September 1981

On this week's episode of Mid Atlantic Wrestling we have a NEW World Heavyweight Champion!

Also on the show this week is Ole Anderson, Jay Youngblood, Ron Bass, Jake Roberts, Bad Bad Leroy Brown and much much more.

If you want to follow along, this episode is available on the WWE Network

https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Mid-Atlantic-Championship-Wrestling-3559

You can contact me via email retroreviews@hotmail.com

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/retrowrestling4

Transcript

Hello everyone, I’m Gus Edwards and welcome to the Retro Wrestling Reviews podcast.  On today’s show we are going to be looking at the 26 September 1981 episode of Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling.  I just want to again give a big shoutout to everyone who has listened to the show and also to everyone who has gotten in touch via email with feedback and questions.  In fact we are going to start off the show with a question from Josh in Chattanooga who sent in an email which said “Hi Gus, just wanted to send a quick email to say I’m really enjoying the podcast so far.  Unfortunately with these episodes not being available on Peacock I haven’t been able to watch along with you yet.  I do have a question though, can you tell me what titles are in Mid Atlantic and who all the champions are?”  That is a good question, so lets go through them.

There are two types of titles in Mid Atlantic, there are the main NWA titles and then there are the regional titles, specific to Mid Atlantic.  We will start with the Mid Atlantic titles.  We have the Mid Atlantic Heavyweight champion who is Ivan Koloff, who we saw on the first episode, but haven’t seen him since.  He beat Ricky Steamboat back in April 1981 to win the title.  Then we have the Mid Atlantic Television Champion, who is Ron Bass.  Bass has been the focal point of the shows we have seen recently.  He has just won the title, he defeated Greg Valentine just a couple of weeks ago.  This TV title goes on to become the main NWA TV title.  The Mid Atlantic Tag Team Champions are the Imperial Russians, Nicolai Volkoff and Chris Markoff.  We have yet to see the Imperial Russians on any shows yet, but hopefully we will see them soon.  The won the titles from Johnny Weaver and Dewey Robertson, who is more famously known as the Missing Link.

That then brings us to the NWA titles.  The NWA Tag Team Champions are Ole Anderson and Gene Anderson.  We have seen Ole Anderson on the shows but no Gene.  I believe Gene is injured at this point.  They won the titles on May 1 1981 from Paul Jones and the Masked Superstar.  The Masked Superstar is Bill Eadie, also known as Ax in Demolition.  The tag titles end up a bit of a mess at this point, but we will chronicle that as it happens.

For the US Title and World Title, there are updates to these titles on the show we are away to watch, so we will get into that as it happens.  Thanks again to Josh for the question, and if anyone else has any questions, send them to me retroreviews@hotmail.com and I will try my best to answer them.

Lets get on with the show.

Mid Atlantic Wrestling 26 September 1981

David Crockett & Bob Caudle open the show at the desk.  Crockett is wearing a green jacket like he has just won the Masters.  They are both incredibly excited and we soon find out why.  There is a new NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion.  That man is The Nature Boy himself, Ric Flair!  This is his first of many World title wins.  He defeated Dusty Rhodes in Atlanta.

This week on the show is Ole Anderson v Jay Youngblood, Jake Roberts teaming with Bad Bad Leroy Brown and the Super Destroyer and the Grappler teaming together.  Also Austin Idol, Ron Bass and a taped match with Sgt Slaughter.

Jake and Bad Bad Leroy Brown come out for an interview.  Brown is going to be watching Jake’s back since Ole Anderson has been interfering in his matches.

First match is Austin Idol v Scott McGhee.  Idol is 100% ripping off Superstar Billy Graham’s gimmick here, apart from the tie dyed tights.  I’ve not seen a lot of Idol, but I believe he is a great promo and had most of his success in the Memphis area.  I actually see a bit of early Steve Austin, during his ‘Stunning’ era in Idol, not too sure if Austin grew up as a fan of his or not.  Idol wins with the figure 4, although the time keeper forgot to ring the bell so there was a bit of confusion.

Ron Bass v Jim Nelson for the TV Title.  Again the belt is only on the line for the first 15 minutes of the match.  Bass after impressing me with his show closing promo last week, is back to being his boring uninspiring self again.  This guy really needs to be a heel.  There is maybe 100-150 fans in the studio, all sitting there in silence as Bass and Nelson go back and forth.  Bass finally gets the win with a running powerslam and the crowd goes wild with apathy.

Back to the desk and Bob and Dave throw to a taped match of Frank Monte v Sgt Slaughter.  Frank Monte you may remember from last week is the guy who looks like Ross from Friends in all the flashback scenes.  This is from the same studio that the show is normally taped in, but there are different commentators who’s voices I don’t recognise.  Slaughter spends most of the match working over the arm of Monte and then finishes him off with the Cobra Clutch.

Back to live action and David Crockett is with Scott McGhee who he calls “the loser of the match but I have to call you the winner”.  David asks him how he got to the top of the Jr Heavyweight division and McGhee talks about his amateur background.  David asks who he would like to face apart from the Jr Heavyweight champion Les Thornton and of course McGhee starts talking about wanting to face Thornton for the belt.  Finally David asks a good question about the figure 4 that Idol used on McGhee and where it hurts and McGhee gives a good breakdown about the hold (pain is above the knee).

The Grappler/Super Destroyer v Johnny Weaver/Ron Ritchie.  Weaver is working about 90% of this match, just dominating Destroyer and Grappler, I’m wondering if the heels will end up getting any heat here.  Grappler finally cuts off Weaver for a heat segment.  The crowd are getting behind Weaver more than they do for Ron Bass.  Weaver gets the hot tag to Ritchie and it breaks down into a 4 way, Weaver and Grappler end up outside and Destroyer hits the superplex on Ritchie for the win.  For some reason Jake Roberts is out moaning about a tag that didn’t happen.  Strange run in to say the least.

Grappler and Super Destroyer are back out for an interview with Caudle.  Grappler calling out Roberts for interfering in their match, and to be honest he has a point.  Austin Idol is out challenging Flair for the title.  Ole Anderson next, and he challenges Flair too.  

Bad Bad Leroy Brown/Jake Roberts v Ricky Harris/Mike Miller.  Harris and Miller back again, maybe this week they will be more successful.  Brown is dressed in overalls and a yellow hard hat.  Looks a bit like the Shockmaster’s gimmick.  Bob and David announce during this match that Wahoo McDaniel, due to his injuries suffered against Roddy Piper, is having to vacate the US Title.  A tournament will be held shortly to crown a new champion.  They announce that Pat Patterson, Dusty Rhodes and Killer Khan will be involved in this tournament to be held in Charlotte.  Jake and Leroy dominate the match and Brown gets the pin on Miller after a big splash.

Jim Nelson is being interviewed by David, he wants another shot at Ron Bass and the TV title.  Harris and Miller are there too, unhappy about losing, saying it was two on one.  Miller claims he is going to counter the big splash.  Harris predicts one day they will win.  Wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.

Main event.  Jay Youngblood v Ole Anderson.  The Grappler joins the commentators.  Calling out Jake Roberts again.  Caudle calls this a main event match anywhere in the world.  Love when commentators say things like that about random matches, Gorilla Monsoon was the best for that one.  Doesn’t go too long before Grappler interferes for the DQ, double team is going on until Roberts, Bass and Brown come out for the save.  

Show ends with an interview with Bass, Roberts, Brown & Youngblood.  Bass saying they will all be looking after each others backs.  Its good to see babyfaces who like each other and willing to look out for their friends.  Its something you don’t really see nowadays, everyone is so unlikeable. 

Well thank you once again for joining me on this journey though the yesteryear of wrestling.  I hope you are enjoying these shows.  I will be back again next week but unfortunately we are going to be skipping forward a few weeks to the 17 October 1981 episode, as the WWE Network is missing a few shows.

Take care of yourselves and I will speak to you again very soon.