[1984-02-10-Houston Wrestling] Mr Wrestling II & Magnum T.A. vs Midnight Express

[Superstar Sleeze]

Mid-South Tag Team Champions Mr. Wrestling II & Magnum TA vs Midnight Express - Mid-South 2/10/84

 

After exacting some revenge from Butch Reed by taking his tag team titles, fans and Magnum TA thought it would be a sweet honeymoon for the beloved teacher/student partnership. However, as Magnum star grew, the fans clamored for him to get a North American Championship shot and jealousy reared its ugly head. Let me say, green is not a good color on Mr. Wrestling II. In the meantime, a new heel tag team from Memphis burst on the scene and would go down as perhaps the greatest tag team in the history of wrestling, Jim Cornette's Midnight Express and this version is "Loverboy" Dennis Condrey and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton.

 

Midnight Express matches should be played for those with clinical depression because if you don't smile after one of these then I don't know what could make you happy. The MX is just so awesome at stooging, bumping and generally making the babyfaces look like a million bucks. I think my favorite part of the early match was how every sequence ended with Mr. Wrestling II giving a knee lift to a Midnight Express membrane and then selling it dramatically and fantastically. This is where Mr. Wrestling II has a little Dusty in him with his booty shaking as the heels keep scurrying. After ten minutes of getting their asses kicked, Condrey is rightfully terrified of II's kneelift and backs up in the corner. Condrey is able to lure him into the corner and force II to make a tag, but he prematurely tags out to Eaton. Mags goes after Eaton's injured shoulder (rammed into the post earlier). Mags gets caught running as Eaton ducks and Condrey chops him in the neck. At this early point in his short career, TA is clearly better at selling and the MX go to town with a great revolving door attack on his arm even Corny gets his licks in with his racquet. Mags powers out and desperately gets to Mr. Wrestling II, who fights out of his corner to earn his way into the ring. II's Eaton-seeking knee lift is on target, but the ref is distracted and Condrey throws powder in his face. The ref throws out the match, but MX kicks the ever loving shit of Mr. Wrestling II and Magnum TA especially with a belt. There is some mega heat on MX and Watts is out to lay down the law as MX finally exits.

This is a really fun match where MX were just on point working their match with ton of popcorn, fun spots early to feed to the babyfaces. Mr. Wrestling II looked huge in there. Magnum really does not have much in the way of offense and again he was out of place on multiple spots. He is really good at selling, but not much else. It will be interesting to see how he fares in singles matches with Ted DiBiase shortly. The match was mostly a backdrop for the hot angle to set up a tag team title match with the stip of belt lashes for the losers. Mr. Wrestling II completed his heel turn by walking out on Magnum costing them the tag titles and forcing Magnum to take all the belt lashes. Mr. Wrestling II would go to win the North American Championship to set up Magnum TA to get his revenge by beating him for the title. Setting up the major title match between the rising star Magnum TA and lead heel, Ted DiBiase. The match was a really fun Midnight Express match that got to show off their stuff and get in an excellent beatdown. ****

[shoe]

This is the 2nd show this matchup has headlined SHC. The 1st show drew a 51,000 dollar house. This show drew a 45,000 house. This match up would headline Houston 4 times. We now have 3 of the 4 matches from this run.

 

We start with the babyfaces essentially mugging the heels to start. Bobby punches Dennis by mistake. This sets up the shine. Mr. Wrestling 2 is shucking and jiving. We see Mark Curtis/Brian Hildebrand shooting pictures. Condrey returns the favor to Bobby and nails him with a knee. Mr. Wrestling 2 nails both members of Midnight Express with the illion Dollar Knee lift. The Mr. Wrestling 2/Bobby Eaton arm drag/hip toss /Million dollar knee lift segment was about as good as it gets. Magnum gets tagged in and is a house of fire. He gets cut off after a 12 minute shine. The Midnight Express were methodically tagging in and out and wrecking the arm. Jimmy even gets in on the action. We get a hot tag to Mr. Wrestling 2, Million Dollar Knee Lift. Cornette throws powder in his eyes. Super heated beatdown of the faces post match.Cornette whipping TA with a strap which sets up the stip for the next match. The heat is getting nuclear during the beatdown. Paul Boesch comes out to try to diffuse it. Great stuff. 4*