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Cubed Circle Newsletter 198 – G1 Climax Nights 8, 9 & 10 and Ernie Ladd Returns!

In this week's newsletter we look at the next three nights of the 2015 G1 Climax, nights eight, nine, and 10, from Osaka, Nagoya, and Sendai respectively. Plus, Ben Carass looks at the April Fool's day 1982 of Mid-South TV featuring the return of Ernie Ladd, RAW from Monday, which was surprisingly good, and NXT from Wednesday!

– Ryan Clingman, Cubed Circle Newsletter Editor

NJPW G1 Climax 25 August 1st 2015 Night 8 Osaka Bodymaker Coliseum, Osaka, Kasai Ryan Clingman

Satoshi Kojima (1-2) and Yujiro Takahashi (1-2) kicked the G1 portion of the show off. There was the standard Hall beat down on the floor with Yujiro distracting the referee awkwardly. Hall pulled the referee to the floor after Kojima landed a lariat that looked to be the finish. Kojima cleaned house, but took a low blow and the spinning fireman's carry side-slam in a match that went far longer than it needed. (* ¾)

Karl Anderson (2-1) coming off of his first tournament loss to Ishii on night six battled (1-2). Anderson when working over the mid-section of Nagata did a cocky “Nagata! Nagata!” chant, which got some very light heat – I don't quite know if the majority of the audience knew what to make of it. Anderson slapped Nagata in the face repeatedly and saluted him, which allowed Nagata to fire back with a big knee to the gut. Nagata grabbed his Demon Armbar, which he hasn't won a high-profile match with in quite some time. Nagata sat up off of a gun stun landing a and enzuigiri. Anderson then popped up with a gun stun for the win. (***)

The first truly intriguing match of the card was next with (1-2) working Tomoaki Honma (0-3) in the battle of very over losers! Elgin for whatever reason began an “Elgin” chant. Honma “struggled” to lift Elgin before dropping him with a stiff . A deadlift falcon from the top rope got a very impressive reaction. Honma shot back with a headbutt, but missed the Kokeshi. A forearm and lariat battle followed, Honma kicked out of a huge lariat and Osaka rumbled. Honma broke Elgin's grip, and no sold a release German. Elgin picked Honma up out of a and landed the buckle bomb into a sitout powerbomb for the win. (****)

Next was one of the more exciting possible matches of the entire tournament with the return of (1-2) from injury opposite CHAOS stablemate and bosom buddy, (2-1). Nakamura landed some leg kicks, but Ishii, being low to the ground, caught one and

1 retaliated with a forearm to the knee. They exchanged some stiff forearms, which Ishii neutralized with a headbutt. Nakamura landed a big knee, but was dropped with a power slam for a quick double down. Ishii utilized hard chops numerous times throughout the match. Coming off more or less equals in a strike battle, Nakamura dropped Ishii with a big knee to the gut and facebuster before attempting his first major Boma Ye of the match, which was swiftly countered. The finishing stretch was intense, with Ishii kicking out of several Boma Yes, including one on the mat, and Nakamura busting out his lariat counter from the 2014 G1 final. Nakamura pinned Ishii with a giant Boma Ye before holding his fallen comrade's hand on the mat. This match was somewhat disappointing, although through no fault of the men involved with Nakamura's arm injured. (*** ¾)

Kazuchika Okada (3-0) faced (2-1) in our eighth night final. The match spilled to the outside fairly quickly, quite a lot quicker than I would have actually expected. The work was entertaining on the floor, however, with Goto lariating Okada over the barricade Foley style. Okada called for Goto to bring it with some strong chops. Goto began the lariat game with a couple that dropped Okada. There was a wonderfully timed roll-up battle with Okada kicking out of an attempted pin at amazingly close to three. Okada took a faceplant-style Shouten, but escaped from the Kai variant. Okada landed his mega German and went for the rainmaker, but was stopped with a headbutt to the face to chants of “Goto”. There was a fantastic, intricate exchange in the final stretch with Okada taking the Shouten Kai for the win in a finish that will set up a second champion versus champion match in the coming months – probably at in Kobe. (**** ¼)

NJPW G1 Climax 25 August 2nd 2015 Night 9 Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi Ryan Clingman

Aichi is a relatively important location of New Japan, and they did have a multi-camera shoot tonight, but did not include commentary once more.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan (1-3) and (2-2) were the opening match for the G1 Climax portion of the show. Tenzan was as slow as ever tonight, but took a large portion of the match. Ibushi has made a habit of stealing his opponent's moves, and everyone does the Mongolian chops on Tenzan, thus it was a given that we would see that spot here. Whilst that spot almost always gets booed, Ibushi is such a mega-babyface that Aichi simply popped for it and didn't boo Ibushi. Kota pinned Tenzan with a Phoenix Splash. (***)

Bad Luck Fale (3-1) and (3-1) were up next in a battle for an eighth point. Shibata played an underdog similar to Naito on 2014, but instead of working over Fale's knees chose to respond to Fale's acts of strength and brutality with his standard offence. The match's biggest spot came at the finish when Fale went for the Bad Luck Fall, but was chocked out and met with a PK bringing Shibata his fourth victory in what has been his best G1 to date thus far, win-wise at least. (***)

2 AJ Styles (2-2) was set to face his underling, Doc Gallows (1-3), in the next A-block match. They did the “too sweet” sign before the match, but unlike in WWE or TNA where they would have teased a Finger-Poke of Doom or mounting dissension, these two simply began to work a pro-wrestling contest against one another. Gallows landed a big on the apron and garnered the early advantage on Styles, working him over on the floor. Styles was the default babyface here, and he is talented and well-respected enough that he fit that role with this audience well. “AJ Styles” chants rang out during a headlock spot, which I sadly mistook for the dreaded misplaced “this is awesome” chant. They had a fantastic strike exchange in one of the more memorable Gallows' moments of the entire G1. Styles pinned Gallows with a Bloody Sunday in a finish that couldn't have really gone any other way. Gallows and Styles did the “too sweet” out on the floor in the post match. I very much enjoy Gallows as a character. (*** ¼)

Tetsuya Naito (3-1) was set to undress in front of Togi Makabe in the fourth A-block match of the night. The match was met to get underway, but Naito stalled, which got some good heat. Like Shibata, Makabe was not entirely willing to accept this, but unlike Shibata, Naito sent Makabe to the outside leaving the ring free for him to undress dramatically. Naito tied new rival, Red Shoes, to the outside and began his work in-ring. Makabe, unlike most everyone else in the G1 it would seem, remains true to himself, yelling expletives instead of the name of his opponent. They traded some counters, and Naito bumped all over for Makabe. Makabe, as you would have expected laid it in, and seemed to nearly kill Naito when shoving his head into the post – busting him open hardway and sending saliva flying everywhere. Makabe pinned Naito with the King Kong Knee following a spider . Naito's cut was terribly gruesome, and whilst it helped get him and the tournament over, the hardway was unnecessary, and generally quite worrying given our knowledge of concussions. Regardless, a bloodied Naito, smiled, and laid out in the post match. The Google Translation of the Yahoo Sports Japan headline for this match was "Makabe is blow up the Naito", which is actually astonishingly accurate.(*** ½)

3 (2-2) and current rival, Toru Yano (1-3), was our strange main event pairing. Everything you would expect from a Yano/Tanahashi match followed – nothing else. Yano escaped the top rope high-fly-flow by rolling under the ring. There was a tremendous teased double count out spot, which had me actually believing that Tanahashi may have been booked to go to a draw with YTR of all people. Tanahashi almost triple suplexed Yano and Red Shoes with Yano holding onto Red Shoes, who was promptly pushed into the top rope halting the HFF. This began to look like a mid-80s Crockett show with Yano busted open again, before taking a high-fly-flow for the win. There was a nice touch in the post match with Tanahashi holding three fingers up as Shibata had done earlier with four after his match. (***)

NJPW G1 Climax 25 August 4th 2015 Night 10 Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai, Miyagi Ryan Clingman

As in night 10 there was a multi-camera set-up here, but no audible commentary.

Starting the B block portion of the show was the bizarre combination of Michael Elgin (2-2) and Yujiro Takahashi (2-2), who was accompanied by . Elgin continued to get very good reactions for his spots and even some “Elgin” chants during the heat. Then Elgin began to bite Yujiro's hands for whatever reason, which of course turned the crowd somewhat. Elgin took a big fisherman's buster on the floor. Elgin landed his powerbomb parade for his sixth point. (** ¾)

Tomoaki Honma (0-4) was paired with (1-3) in what would be a match for Kojima's fourth point inevitably. Regardless of the fact that Honma's winning chances were slim in Sendai of all places, there was hope from this crowd, as there always is, which is, of course a sign of the gimmick's strange staying power. Predictably, Honma missed his Kokeshi. Honma was breathing hard following a major nearfall selling frustration. Honma no sold a German and countered a lariat, which he sold like death. Honma blocked a lariat with a Kokeshi , a terrible idea, and then ate a flush lariat for another loss. (*** ¾)

Tomohiro Ishii (3-1) and Yuji Nagata (1-3) were up next. Nagata bobbled his head cheekily at Ishii's slaps, as Ishii called for him to bring it. Many slap and firearm battles followed with Nagata giving everything he had to Ishii before taking a big forearm to the sternum. Nagata grabbed the demon armbar after a number of tough strike battles, on the injured shoulder of Ishii. Ishii no sold a backdrop, Nagata a lariat, but both then dropped back down to their feet. A slap battle of war, death, and destruction followed, a battle Ishii won with a big headbutt. Nagata kicked out of the sliding D. but Ishii then pinned him with his big in a fantastic outing. (****)

Block leaders, (3-1) and IWGP Heavyweight Champion, (3-1) were tonight's semi-main event under Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto. The 2012 G1 finalists exchanged a pair of polite rope breaks. Anderson had the early advantage with a powerbomb on the apron. sounded like screaming “come on Rainmaker come on” on the outside. They had an expectedly great closing exchange with Okada reversing a gunstun into a tombstone and then landing the rainmaker for the win. (*** ½)

Shinsuke Nakamura (2-2) and his recent rival, Hirooki Goto (3-1), were our main event from Sendai. Goto worked over Nakamura's stylishly taped elbow on the outside with stomps, kicks, and forearms. Goto was the clear working heel here, wrenching back on Nakamura's arm. Goto landed multiple Shouten variants each for two. He went for the Kai, but had it countered. Nakamura locked in his fantastic armbar from a lariat, which Goto ended up submitting to in a good, but not great main event with a surprising finish. The good news here is that Nakamura's armbar will have been

4 elevated by this submission victory and will get even stronger reactions in future matches. The major worry here, however, is the state of Nakamura's elbow given that he is one of the favourite's to enter the finals and perhaps even win the entire tournament. Of course, if he avoids damage other questions arise, such as whether he will have enough time to heal before entering into a Dome programme and beyond, and if he will be able to perform at the level expected of him. (*** ½)

RAW Ramblings – August 10th 2015. Xfinity Arena: Everett, WA Ben Carass

With no Undertaker, , or even Paul Heyman, RAW was still surprisingly enjoyable this week. Unbelievably, that makes it two weeks in a row where RAW has been an enjoyable show and in this day and age that is certainly a rarity. Also, if you go back four weeks to the show with the Undertaker/Lesnar brawl then you could argue that the WWE is on somewhat of a “hot streak.” Now, let’s not get carried away; WWE has had creative problems since at least the Fall of 2013 and have never really pulled themselves out of that slump they started when they thought burying , and the entire roster for that matter, was the way to go. We’ve seen some truly awful television from this company in 2015 alone, so two weeks of back-to-back episodes of RAW that didn’t make me want to claw my eyes out is at least a step in the right direction. And with Undertaker & Brock both on next week’s show, who knows, maybe we’ll actually get a decent go-home episode of RAW for a change. There was a lot of good wrestling on the show this week and they did a pretty good job of hyping SummerSlam, or at least the Lesnar/Taker match anyway.

The big story of the night was that John Cena, according to HHH, is “50/50” on whether he will be cleared for the title vs. title match against Rollins at SummerSlam. – I find it hard to believe that Cena will not be cleared for the match given that putting a substitute in that spot on a week’s notice is hardly a smart idea. Then again, with the Network model they can do whatever they want. Anyway, the show opened with the standard promo; he did the old Conan O’Brien talking mouth bit with a still picture of John Cena: IT SUCKED. , Kevin Owens and

5 all came out in succession and claimed they all deserved to be given a WWE title shot. HHH showed up and made the “50/50” remark about Cena then booked Cesaro vs. Owens vs. Orton with the winner getting a WWE title match with Rollins in the main event. – Remember when Brock Lesnar was the WWE Champion and never wrestled on TV and it was awesome? Now we’ve had two title matches on TV in as many weeks. So, they had the three-way and it was an excellent match; maybe even four stars if you are feeling generous. It was mostly guys just doing spots for 18 minutes, but it was super fun and the crowd were red hot for it. Finish saw Orton give both men RKOs and he pinned Cesaro clean as a whistle. – I would have gone with Cesaro, but this is WWE so of course they chose Orton. We had the Rollins/Orton WWE title main event and it was very good also, but not on the same level as the three-way. They did the spot from the WrestleMania 27 CM Punk/Orton match, with Rollins doing a springboard right into an RKO; ran down and attacked Orton for the DQ. Sheamus then hit Rollins with a Brogue kick and we got the first of what will probably be many MITB cash-in teases, however Orton came back and laid Sheamus out with an RKO before he could cash-in and stood tall to close the show. – They have given themselves another option if Cena isn’t ready for SummerSlam, which again I highly doubt, and Orton can be put in that spot as he had the title won here. Even if Cena is cleared they added some much needed heat to the Orton/Sheamus program with both men costing each other the WWE title, so all that was really good stuff. Owens/Cesaro wasn’t officially announced for SummerSlam, but it is clear that will certainly be taking place. They’ve already made Owens into just another utility upper mid-card heel, so they might as well put Cesaro over strong and actually do something with the guy.

Daniel Bryan was on Miz TV and was naturally over like a hero in, “Washington State.” – The term “Everett” was apparently banned, because the announcers claimed all night that they were in “Seattle.” Bryan plugged his book and Tough Enough and didn’t really say much else other than getting a few cheap hometown pops. Big Show & Ryback got involved and it ended up with Bryan throwing Miz in between the two big men and it didn’t take long for Miz to be tossed around like a goof. Ryback then got the better of Big Show and Bryan played cheerleader as Ryback finished off Miz with a meat hook clothesline. – Segment was fun, although the goal of having Daniel Bryan there appeared to be simply to give Ryback some much needed babyface rub. I suspect the three-way with Show, Miz & Ryback will not be any good. By the way, after being laid up with an horrendous staph infection, Ryback returned looking just as swollen as ever.

6 They shot the angle with the Arrow guy, Stephen Amell. Neville squashed King Barrett in 1:15 then Stardust attacked him after the match. Amell, who had been in the front row all night, jumped the rail after Stardust pie-faced him and took Stardust down. Security quickly intervened and pulled Amell off then led him to the back. HHH yelled at Amell because this wasn’t Hollywood and told him he crossed the line. Amell told HHH that he and Neville wanted to take care of Stardust and after some bantering, HHH booked Amell & Neville vs. Stardust & King Barrett for SummerSlam. – I usually don’t like most celebrity involvements, however this worked better than I expected. The match on the other hand will be a different story, I’m sure.

Filler: Team Bella beat Team BAD in 9:00; it was actually good and the fans were into it. Although, I am so sick of the Bellas being heels one week and faces the next that I found it hard to get into the match. , Charlotte & were on commentary; Paige said some stuff, but Charlotte & Becky came off like they had no personality whatsoever. They have also changed their name from “Submission Sorority” to “PCB”, because the former is some kind of adult entertainment company. New Day downed Los Matadores in 4:00; afterwards Renee told New Day that they would get a shot at the PTPs at SummerSlam, but she added that the Matadors & Lucha Dragon were also in the match. – So the team that just lost in 4 minutes is getting a PPV title shot! Unbelievable. They aired a really great video hyping Undertaker vs. Lesnar; it had a bunch of talking heads from guys like & Steve Austin putting over how big the match is. Luke Harper w/ over Dean Ambrose w/Roman Reigns in 10:45; match was decent. Reigns hit Wyatt with a superman punch and Harper pinned Ambrose with his discuss lariat. – The Ambrose/Reigns vs. Wyatt/Harper match is now official for SummerSlam and judging from the live crowd response, nobody really cares about this program. Rusev squashed in 1:00; Lana was on commentary and said would be back “after” SummerSlam, so I guess no mixed tag. Lana attacked Summer Rae afterwards for no reason whatsoever, but the valiant babyface, Summer fought back and put that cold fish Lana in the accolade and it was a million buys. Rusev’s look of joy while Summer stretched Lana was tremendous.

7 WWE NXT – August 12th 2015 Full Sail University: Winter Park, FL. Ben Carass

In addition to taping the go-home show for Takeover: Brooklyn this past Thursday, NXT went all TNA and taped two shows that will air after the Brooklyn special on August 22nd. In fact and Kevin Owens appeared with the women’s and NXT title respectively on the shows set to air after Takeover. It is highly unlikely that NXT would be as ass-backwards as TNA or even WCW from the early 90’s and reveal the results of two of the main events on their biggest show to date. Owens and Sasha appearing with the belts could simply be red herrings, or maybe they intend to shoot some kind of angle where Balor retains the title and Owens steals it afterwards. I’m fairly sure that Sasha’s match was a dark match anyway, so there is little need to worry about the women’s title. We’ll get into the full taping results after we take a look at this week’s show.

Aside from a very good main event between & Becky Lynch for the #1 contendership, there wasn’t a whole lot of in-ring to get excited about, although they did a fine job of hyping and building towards Takeover. A pre-tape opened the show and he made the stip between Owens & Balor official.

Solomon Crowe vs. Tye Dillinger. – Dillinger over in 4:37. Match was perfectly adequate, however Dillinger debuted his new “Perfect 10” gimmick and he worked as the heel but the goofy NXT fans seemed to love it and cheered him like a babyface. The Perfect 10 deal is basically that Dillinger does everything perfectly, like only nowhere near as entertaining. Dillinger won clean with a codebreaker- type move, which I’m sure won’t last long. – Crowe is now basically a complete jobber and I can’t really see him becoming much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a talented guy and I enjoyed the Switchblade Conspiracy team with Ambrose a lot, but it is near impossible to imagine him on the main roster performing in a big arena. He looks so out of place in the big WWE ring and that is in front of 200 people at Full Sail. Dillinger is another guy with a lot of talent, but I can’t see this goof Perfect 10 gimmick being more than a mid-card deal, which I suppose was more than he was getting before at least.

8 The Hype Bros were in the parking lot and Mojo was bragging about being at the club all night with, “TEN…No, TWELVE” girls. Ryder just walked off, presumably because he is as sick of Mojo as I am.

Baron Corbin squashed Axel Tischer with his move in 0:33. Corbin got on the mic and complained about the lack of competition; Steve Cutler ran down but Corbin disposed of him with ease then went back to cutting a promo about how nobody could stop him. showed up and told Corbin he couldn’t squash him like a geek and they got into a brawl. Corbin got the better of it, but Joe came back with the Rear Naked Choke, which Corey Graves gleefully called the, “Coquina Clutch.” – This deal was to set up Joe vs. Corbin at Takeover, which could be rough. Corbin was very weak on his promo and sounded nervous as hell. The brawl with Joe was fine; I probably wouldn’t have had Joe choke him out this first week, but that’s just me.

We got another Bull-Fit vignette; the inspirational message at the end of it was, “Iron Sharpens Iron.” pre-tape. He talked about beating “Yushin Thunder Liger” (Like Yushin Okami) then said, “Domo arigato, Mr Regal” for allowing him to become “the face of the rinsing sun.” – Are hackneyed Japanese references really necessary?

Non-Title Match: Finn Balor (NXT Champion) vs. . – Balor over in 2:43. Enhancement win for the champ before his big title defence. Louis got just enough stuff in to not look completely incompetent, but Balor came back to hit all his signature spots and won with the double stomp. Kevin Owens attacked Balor from behind on the ramp and ended up hitting his pop- up powerbomb in the ring. Owens then did Balor’s Demon pose with the NXT title before dropping the belt on Balor’s corpse. It was a nice little angle.

Greg Hamilton was with in the back. English said they had a plan to take care of . Alexa showed up, slapped both of them and walked off. The announcers ran down the card for Takeover and hyped all the matches.

#1 Contender for the NXT Women’s Championship: Bayley vs. Becky Lynch. – Bayley became the #1 Contender at 12:50. This was a really good match, kind of messy in places, but overall it was

9 worked very well. Sasha Banks was on commentary and was a million times better than she was on RAW recently. It was a total babyface match early, with lots of back-and-forth with armdrags and trading holds. Becky began to work on the arm and landed a wrist-clutch T-bone suplex. Bayley hit a sliding lariat then made her comeback and executed a running/walking for a near-fall. Becky got the Shirome armbar but Bayley made it to the ropes. Finish saw both women counter each other’s finish and Bayley rolled-up Becky to get the pin. Post-match, Sasha stood on the announce table and had a stare-down with Bayley, who was celebrating in the ring. – Becky was great and worked as a subtle heel here, grabbing hair and using the ropes illegally etc. Hopefully they bring up the history between Bayley & Sasha, which goes back at least 18 months or so to when Sasha turned on Bayley. It was a fun match, but probably not worth going out of your way to see if you missed the show.

NXT TV Tapings – August 13th 2015. Full Sail University: Winter Park, FL.

Taped for August 19th (Takeover Go-Home Show):

Show opened with a contract signing for the women's title match at Takeover. Sasha & Bayley got into a brawl and they did a pull-apart with some referees. (1)Tyler Breeze squashed a Jobber. Breeze put a Liger mask on his opponent afterwards. (2) , Colin Cassady & The Hype Bros over Aaron Solow, Mr. 450, Jesse Sorensen, & a fourth geek. (3) Blake & Murphy over Sawyer Fulton & Angelo Dawkins in a non-title match. Post-match, the Vaudevillains came out and Bliss slapped them again. (4) Samoa Joe squashed a jobber then attacked and laid him out with his move. Kevin Owens came out with a ladder and cut a promo about regaining the NXT title. The lights went out and Finn Bálor was perched on the top rope. Balor got the better of the ensuing brawl then said he would kick Owens’ ass at Takeover.

Taped for August 26th

(0) Sasha Banks squashed a jobber. She had the NXT Women's Championship with her, but like I said this was probably a dark match. (1) The Ascension beat & Baron Corbin via DQ. Regal came out and ordered the match be restarted. (2) Baron Corbin & Rhyno over The

10 Ascension. (3) Alexa Bliss downed Blue Pants. (4) beat Martin Stone. (5) beat (f/k/a Jessie McKay). (6) Chad Gable & Jason Jordan over Neville & Solomon Crowe.

Taped for September 2nd

(1) tapped-out Peyton Royce (f/k/a KC Cassidy). (2) & beat Bull Dempsey &Tyler Breeze. Gargano & Ciampa are working as freelancers and are not under contract, but still got the win anyway! Ciampa pinned Bull and afterwards Breeze attacked Bull. (3) Dana Brooke pinned Billie Kay. (4) Neville beat Kevin Owens via DQ. As noted, Owens had the NXT title belt, but don’t read too much into that. Finn Bálor ran down and attacked Kevin Owens, but Tyler Breeze showed up and he went after Balor. Owens & Breeze worked over Bálor then Neville came back and the babyfaces beat up Breeze to close the show.

Mid-South Wrestling (TV #134) April 1st 1982 Irish McNeil Boys Club: Shreveport, LA. @BenCarass.

After two weeks of providing commentary, promoter was once again at the desk with Boyd Pierce, who gave shout outs to the old Leroy McGuirk towns in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma that Mid-South acquired earlier in 82. Boyd welcomed Watts back by calling him, “the greatest colour commentator ever” and Watts talked about the mysterious disappearance of Killer Karl Kox from Mid-South and said Resser Bowden would interview Skandor Akbar later on to try get to the bottom of it. Watts then recapped the “double, double-cross” with Bob Roop & from two weeks ago and explained that Mid-South could not reverse the decision of the Roop/Dibiase North American title match because no other sport had sanctioned the use of video replay to retrospectively change decisions. They showed Roop beating Dibiase for the belt on episode #132 with the help of the One Man Gang and followed up with footage of Paul Orndorff turning babyface and attacking Roop last week.

Non-Title Match: Bob Roop (North American Heavyweight Champion) vs. Cocoa Samoa. – Roop over in 4:37. This was decent; the action was solid and the pace was relatively quick for the time. Cocoa got some shine and landed a crossbody off the second rope. Roop grabbed the hair and used closed fists to get the advantage. Cocoa got a swinging neckbreaker and for a hope spot and went for a monkey flip in the corner but Roop countered with an illegal thrust to the throat. – Antiquated Racism Time: Watts called the attempted monkey flip by saying that Cocoa tried to “climb” on Roop like he “was climbing them trees in Samoa.” 1982, people! Finish was real good, as Cocoa went for a crossbody off the middle rope and Roop caught him in mid-air with a sweet Belly-to-Belly to get the fall. – I’ve not seen a great deal of Cocoa Samoa, but he brought something different to the table and was certainly easy to get into with his fast paced style. Roop was great as always.

11 Paul Orndorff vs. Mike Boyer. – Orndorff over in 2:42. Orndorff was over like a total face, unlike last week when some fans didn’t quite know how to take to his new babyface demeanour. Orndorff dropped pretty much all his old heel tactics and worked 100% face, even throwing in the old-school wacky babyface fire-up. Orndorff squashed Boyer and won with Baba’s running neckbeaker drop and a powerslam – Nice win for the newly turned Orndorff. I really like that the two men in a heated feud were in back-to-back matches on the show, as it kept the program fresh in your mind without having to resort to run-ins and that kind of thing.

Before the next match, Resser Bowden interviewed Skandor Akbar in the ring. Reeser talked about JYD & Killer Karl Kox giving the Samoans a “shellacking” last week and said that Kox had missed a bunch of dates and had not been seen since. Akbar was a great heel and claimed Kox “could have had a stroke or heart attack” then he said maybe Kox ran into some trouble on the way to “Dallas”. “DALLAS?! What do you mean Dallas?” Resser remarked in an accusatory manner. Akbar got all defensive and said he had nothing to do with Kox disappearing and was glad he was out of wrestling. Akbar added that he wanted to add the Louisiana and Mississippi titles to his army then warned all the other wrestlers not to team with JYD because all of the Dog’s partners wind up getting injured. – Watts pointed out that Resser tricked Akbar into revealing he knew something about what happened to Kox with the “Dallas” line, which was a nice touch since Akbar didn’t just come out and admit anything which left it up to the viewer’s imagination.

Non-Title Match: The Samoans (Mid-South Tag Team Champions) w/Skandor Akbar vs. Jesse Barr & Buddy Landel. – Samoas over in 3:05. Hot start with the Samoans jumping the geeks at the bell. Landel & Barr did the old do-si-do and landed to the big heels. The young faces even got a couple of spots in on the monster heel champs, but it didn’t last too long and Afa pinned Barr with the Samoan drop.

One Man Gang vs. Rick Ferrara. – Squash for OMG in 1:46. Gang looked enormous next to Ferrara. Watts put Gang over for putting Mike George, , Ernie Ladd & Ted Dibiase out of action. Gang no-sold everything Ferrara tried and won with a big splash. – Back to back squash matches for Akbar’s monsters to set up the next segment; good, logical storytelling.

Resser Bowden interviewed the returning Ernie Ladd. Ladd had a cane with him but explained that he didn’t need it to walk and that he had it for protection. Ladd said somebody needed to stop One Man Gang & Akbar’s path of destruction and said he had found a mystery partner who would show up in two weeks to help him fight. Ladd said he tried to talk to JYD and offered him “10 grand” to be his partner but they couldn’t get past their differences. Ladd told Reeser he had found the next best thing to JYD and again said that Akbar’s army had to be stopped before more people got hurt. – NEWSFLASH: Ernie Ladd was a fantastic promo!

12 JYD (Louisiana Heavyweight Champion) & Mr Olympia (Mississippi Heavyweight Champion) vs. & Wayne Farris. – JYD & Olympia over in 3:39. Farris still had his amazing bleach blonde mullet from his time as part of the Blonde Bombers with Larry Latham in Memphis. Tully & Farris flew and bumped all over for the faces and made them look like champions. Olympia missed a and the heels got a little heat. As is usually the case with JYD tag matches, he ran wild and it broke down with all four men going at it. JYD pinned Farris with the Big Thump. – Fun little match; Tully & Farris worked hard to make the faces look good and seeing the two faces champions work together was nice, because in 2015 we all know the top babyfaces don’t have any friends at all. Farris gets a lot of flak for not being the best worker but he actually looked like a perfectly competent pro wrestler here.

Iron vs. Ron Cheatham. – Sharpe over in 1:43. Watts put over Sharpe as a “gentle giant” and they did some basic stuff. Boyd & Watts teased like the TV time limit was close to expiring, but Sharpe ended up winning with the Bruno-style backbreaker.

Boyd & Watts wrapped up the show and touched on all the important points, like the Roop/Orndorff feud and Skandor Akbar’s army running wild then they hyped Ernie Ladd and his mystery partner vs. the Samoans in two weeks.

A solid utility episode of Mid-South television. There was nothing that particularly stood out in terms of in-ring action, but the dots were joined up nicely with the Akbar’s Army/Ernie Ladd stuff and the Roop/Orndorff program was kept on the burner by having them complete in successive singles matches. I suppose having all the champions work on the same show was a cool little hook and we got the debut of the “greatest Intercontinental champion of all-time” which I suppose is a wacky trivia note. Something tells me that old Honky isn’t going to last long under the Watts regime, as he doesn’t really fit with the collegiate wrestler/football player, tough-guy athlete mould that Watts was renowned for promoting.

13 Bits & Pieces

Some may have noticed a slight change in the layout of the front page. This was of course an intentional change, and over the coming weeks I hope to make additional changes to the website, specifically in the realm of navigation, which requires some work. In addition, I also hope to improve load times.

Next Week's Issue

In next week's issue we will continue with our look at the 25th annual G1 Climax with reviews of nights 11, 12, 13, and hopefully 14, as we march towards the three final nights at Sumo Hall. Ben Carass covers RAW with further build to SummerSlam, NXT, and more!

Contact Subscribe Via Email: www.cubedcirclewrestling.com/subscribe-via-email General Questions/Feedback/Suggestions: [email protected] Ben Carass’s : @BenCarass Bryan Rose’ Twitter: @br26 Ryan Clingman’s Twitter : @RyanClingman

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