Mid Atlantic Wrestling 19 September 1981

On this week's episode we continue on with our look back at Mid Atlantic Wrestling from 1981.

This week includes Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood, Jake the Snake Roberts, Ole Anderson & Roddy Piper and Sgt Slaughter.  We also look at what wrestler reminds Gus of a Friends character and how Ron Bass is doing as a top babyface.

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

https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Mid-Atlantic-Championship-Wrestling-3535

You can contact me via email retroreviews@hotmail.com

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

Transcript

Hello everyone, I’m Gus Edwards and welcome back to the Retro Wrestling Reviews podcast.  This week we are going to be continuing with Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling and the episode from 19 September 1981.

I just want to quickly start off by thanking everyone who listened to last week’s episode.  The show did so much better than I could ever have dreamt of.  I had downloads from all over the world.  So if you are enjoying the show, hit me up on Twitter @retrowrestling4 or email me at retroreviews@hotmail.com and let me know where in the world you are listening and I’ll give you a shoutout in the future.  

If you missed last week’s show it is available in the archives so check it out and if you enjoy this week’s episode then please subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends.  Lets get on with the review.

Mid Atlantic Wrestling 19 September 1981

The show opens as usual with Bob Caudle and David Crockett at the desk.  David tells us that people are demanding to see Roddy Piper, Abdullah the Butcher and Wahoo McDaniel, so they are allowed back on the show.  They tell us that we will see Ron Bass, Jay Youngblood, Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper and Ole Anderson on the show this week.

Ron Bass the Television Champion comes out for an interview.  Not much to it again, he puts over the Piper/Wahoo feud and offers his help to anyone who wants to clean up the territory.

The first match is Mike Miller and Ricky Harris v Jay Youngblood & Ricky Steamboat.  Steamboat and Youngblood of course will go on to become one of the most famous tag teams of the early 80s.    I’ve always been a big fan of Ricky Steamboat.  I don’t think there has been a better seller in wrestling than him.  Everyone knows about his famous matches with Ric Flair and Randy Savage, but even in the early 90s I loved his tag team stuff with Dustin Rhodes and then Shane Douglas, especially working with the Hollywood Blondes.  Back to the match and Youngblood hits some stiff slaps to Miller’s chest, not chops, just straight up slaps him as hard as he can in the chest.  Commentators talk about Jake the Snake Roberts appearing later, I didn’t realise he went with the Snake nickname at this point as it wasn’t mentioned last week.  There is some really good tag team psychology in this match.  Harris and Miller are bigger, so Youngblood and Steamboat are using quick tags to tire them out.  Steamboat gets the pin with his top rope crossbody.

Back from the break and Sgt Slaughter comes to the ring for his match with Ron Ritchie.  The match didn’t really click at all.  There was one bad spot when Ritchie came off the ropes, I’m guessing Slaughter called a dropkick, but both went for it.  Sarge didn’t really get up and ended up dropkicking Ritchie in the stomach.  Somewhere a young Erik Watts saw that dropkick, took some notes and knew he had to emulate it.  Sarge wins with a gutbuster.

Next up is Jake The Snake Roberts v Jim Nelson.  A little bit of foreshadowing here, as they mention Jim Nelson’s crewcut looks like he should be in the army.  Ole Anderson comes out to watch, followed by Roddy Piper.  I mentioned it last week but Jake’s punches are incredible again.  In fact there was a lot of great punches on the show this week.  For a territory that seems to be built on mat wrestling there are a lot of really good punchers here.  Piper and Ole are on the outside giving Nelson encouragement and the crowd in return are chanting “We Want Wahoo”.  Jake hits a DDT which pops David Crockett huge, he just lets out this giant scream, but its not even a finisher at this point.  Nelson gets up and Jake gets the win with a knee lift.  Ole considers getting in the ring, but Ron Bass comes out and Ole and Piper bail.

Back from commercial and Ole and Piper are being interviewed by Bob Caudle.  Cocky heel Piper is the best.  Sgt Slaughter then comes out.  Hopefully he doesn’t try to spell this week.  Slaughter says he is going to win every title.

Charlie Fulton v Ron Bass (TV Champion).  Title is only on the line for the first 15 minutes of the match.  I love this gimmick and its something that AEW should consider doing with their TV Title, especially since Miro is a heel, as you can have a babyface beat him after the 15 minute mark to set up a future title shot.  Bass is such an uninspiring babyface.  Tries some matwork for a while, then it turns into a bit of a brawl before going back to the mat again.  It feels like Bass legit wants to go 15 minutes to save his title here.  You can also add Charlie Fulton to the list of guys with really good punches.  Bass finally finishes him off with a running powerslam.  On the replay it shows Bass nearly dropping Fulton on the back of his head with the powerslam.

The final match of the show is Ole Anderson & Roddy Piper v Frank Monte & Paul Jones.  Piper starts the match by going outside and playing his bagpipes, an interesting way to get heel heat, but I could see it working.  Paul Jones is coming to the end of his career at this point, he becomes a heel manager soon.  Frank Monte looks like Prom Night Ross from Friends and once you see it you can’t unsee it.  David Crockett’s excitement is great though, I know some people aren’t a fan of his but I think it really adds to the show.  He acts like a fan would act at a show.  He screams at the top of his voice when Jones his a crossbody on Piper thinking it might be the finish.  You just get the feeling he really loves wrestling.  This breaks down into a 4 way fight and Tommy Young is shoved by Piper for the DQ (I guess Frank Monte needed protecting here).  Ole and Piper double team Jones before Bass and Steamboat come out for the save.

Bass and Steamboat interview time.  Bass is wanting falls count anywhere matches with Piper and Anderson.  Nice firey promo by Bass, which I’m going to play for you now.  Of the two episodes so far I’ve not really been a fan of his, but this was a really good promo, without a doubt the best promo on the show by far

That closes off the show for this week.  That just flew by, excellent show this week.  Might have to change my mind on Ron Bass, maybe he can be that babyface we can all get behind!

Thanks again for joining me this week, its really appreciated.  Remember if you have enjoyed yourself, then please subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends.  Take care of yourself and I’ll hopefully speak to you again soon.