musings on the first two months of 1982 in mid-south wrestling

This was planned to be a month-by-month overview of my thoughts on mid-south as I watch from the beginning of 1982. I was not expecting my pace of consumption to overtake my initial plan so here we are two months in and honestly most of the way through month three. I want to very consciously take note of the non-wrestler portion of the roster first. Boyd Pierce deserves more respect as the early anchor for mid-south commentary especially with the way his partners tend to rotate. Of Pierce's commentary partners maybe the least favorite of them for me is Dibiase but that's cause he has to carry the neutral respectable tone which kind of makes him a bit bland in the role. Watts and Ross are both great and Jr feels shockingly well defined in his first few episodes. Onto the in ring. For as meh as Dibiase is as a face commentator he's my favorite babyface as a total package deal. No shade on JYD at all his star power is undeniable and he's always fun just a matter of preference. Mr. Olympia is a really interesting case as even though he's not a junior heavyweight in the way we think of that today his move set kind of feels closest to that of the babyface stars of note. The Samoans rule even if the way they are spoken about in terms of the culture of Samoa gives me pause. The thing of note for me on the foreign heel end of things is how the animosity towards Skandor Ackbar lacks the religious connotation we would expect it to have post 9/11. To be clear it's still xenophobic but less than I was expecting from Watts. Of the three non foreigner heels my preference would be in order Orndorff Roop and Orton Jr but that's by dint of Orton jr kind of coming off like a third wheel narratively. I even like the job matches which is a minor feat in and of itself for me. It feels like the faces are a bit more giving with the heel jobbers than the other way round even if it's only a matter of degrees