Mid-Atlantic Wrestling (November 26th 1983)

 Mid-Atlantic Wrestling---(November 26th 1983)

CHAMPIONS:
NWA World Heavyweight Champion---Ric Flair (11/24/1983) 
United States Champion---Greg Valentine (5/1/1983) 
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion---Rufus R. Jones (8/5/1983)  
TV Champion---Charlie Brown from Outta Town (11/24/1983)  
Tag Team Champions---Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (11/24/1983)  

Literally just TWO days after Starrcade ’83! 

Hosted by Bob Caudle. 

Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Rufus R. Jones vs. Tom Lintz
We waste no time, as the match is already underway.  Rufus gets off to a hot start, as Bob Caudle hypes up the show, AND promises to talk about Starrcade!  Lintz works over the arm, but Rufus re-takes control with a leg grapevine.  Rufus works over the arm, and goes crazy on Lintz, and hits a back body-drop, a bunch of shoulder tackles, and an … eye rake?  I think!  And gets the pin?  Sure.  Rufus wasn’t without his charm, and crowd seemed to love him. 

-Tony Schiavone interviews Wahoo McDaniel, who cuts a good promo on trying to find a partner to even things up with the Assassins as well as Paul Jones, and indeed since Charlie Brown has gone back to town, Jimmy Valiant is “back” and will team with Wahoo to help him get his revenge.  Yes, Valiant is still going to feud with Paul Jones.  Thankfully, Wahoo’s career would get a big shot in the arm in 1984 with an awesome heel turn. 

-We then get a montage of Valiant in action. 

Wahoo McDaniel vs. Ben Alexander
Now we see Wahoo in action, as he takes down Alexander with a hammerlock, and successive knee smashes.  Alexander tries for a comeback, but Wahoo hits an AWESOME chop to the head, which Alexander sells like a champ!  Side headlock takedown from Wahoo, keeps him in control.  Whip into the ropes, huge chop to the chest, and Wahoo gets the win.  The Chief definitely still had something to offer here, and thankfully his heel turn would further prove that. 

Dick Slater vs. Brett Hart
No, not THAT Bret Hart!  Who was still in Stampede Wrestling at this time.  But it is someone many old-school fans know, and that’d be Barry Horowitz!  Slater is of course fresh-off the hot angle, that set-up Starrcade, putting Ric Flair out of action along with Bob Orton, on behalf of Harley Race.  Also he and Orton are fresh off of a victory against Mark Youngblood & Wahoo at Starracade.  Slater looks sharp early on, applying a front face lock, then picking up Hart and hitting a big hiptoss!  Backbreaker followed by a bodyslam gets two, and then Slater applies a bearhug.  Slater decides Hart’s weakened enough to roll him up, but only gets two again.  Another big hiptoss, as Slater keeps targeting the back.  Gut wrench slam followed by a chin lock and a knee into the back.  Hart is finally weak enough for Slater to win with the face-first suplex.  Slater would become U.S. Champion just two weeks after this beating Greg Valentine. 

-Bob Caudle interviews Scott McGee who delivers a very babyface promo, and looks so lost, even Dora can’t help him back to where he wants him to be. 

-Bob points out how Dory Funk Jr. was supposed to be here this week.  But he was recently a victim of the Assassin’s and Paul Jones, and the International Object in the Assassins mask. 

-Bob is now standing by with Jones and the Assassins.  And while I don’t think Jones deserves as much flack as he gets, but having Jody Hamilton here, they really didn’t need a mouthpiece. 

Bob Orton Jr. vs. Ric McCord
Orton schools McCord with his master technical prowess.  Orton applies a few submissions, but McCord keeps trying to power out.  So Bob just decides to destroy him with some rights hands and boots to the face, and knee smashes.  Orton gets vicious with rakes to the face, and even rings his neck!  Yikes! Orton gets annoyed by chants of “We Want Flair!”, but shows off his strength by pressing McCord over his head, and hitting a vicious backbreaker.  He gets the win with the powerslam.  Orton eventually won the tag titles with Don Kernodle, but would drop them in March of ’84, the same month he left for the WWF. 

-Bob interviews Tom Lintz … who was just beaten quite easily be Rufus R. Jones.  Bland promo and very much out of place.  I’d understand if they were going to give him a push, but he was in Mid South like a week later.  Guessing maybe because a lot of big guns were resting up after Starrcade, they needed time to fill.  But Tom Lintz??? 

-Starrcade ’83 recap!  What more can you say, it was the show of shows for sure, a highly successful supercard!  After a classic bloody cage match, Ric Flair has beaten Harley Race to become a two time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood have also regained their tag team titles beating Jack & Jerry Brisco. 

King Kong Angelo Mosca & Mark Youngblood vs. The Magic Dragon & Bill Howard. 
Mosca’s best days were behind him, but he still had a strong following here in Ontario.  Mark Youngblood was meh.  The Magic Dragon was Haru Sonoda, who had a good run in World Class, and was best known for his time in All-Japan, and trained Kenta Kobashi, but tragically died in a plane crash on his way to his honeymoon, he was only 31.  Bill Howard is a long-time journeyman enhancement talent.  Youngblood starts off hot, but Howard begins to tame him.  Dragon & Howard do a good job of cutting the ring in half keeping Mosca from getting in the match.  That’s pretty much the bulk of this match, but not a bad story being told here.  Youngblood gets the hot tag to Mosca, and the crowd pops huge as Big Ang cleans house.  Mark Lewin tries to attack Mosca, but Gary Hart comes out and restrains him.  Lewin was taking a break from his run as Purple Haze in Florida.  Anyway, Mosca gets the win with the elbow.  As a Hamiltonian born and raised, Mosca will always have a place in my heart. 

-Bob interviews Wahoo who says it’s not hard for him to find a partner … which we pretty much heard earlier.  However, this time he teases Rufus R. Jones, and Tommy Rich as his potential partners.  Rich just came off the big blowoff with Buzz Sawyer in Georgia, so he was pretty motivated again. 

-We get a really good promo from Mosca, who calls out Lewin for injuring Mosca Jr, and that’s the end of the show.  Sadly we never got a payoff from this as Lewin was back in Florida by December. 

 Final Thoughts:

This was a fun show, but you could see it was hard for them to put something bigger together, without Flair, Piper, Valentine, Harley and others who all had hard fought matches at the big event.  Not sure if this was taped before that however, as I couldn’t find any evidence of a tape date, but even if it was, it was important to sell the severity of those matches, so that could also be a reason.  Either way things looked pretty good for Crockett going into 1984, but they’d have to deal with a lot, including losing the likes of Piper, Valentine & Orton to WWF, Harley left the territory to go back to Missouri, and have stints in the AWA & Japan, and his best days were now behind him.  But fear not, as Tully, was on his way in, and Wahoo was about to become a baddie!