The Midnights v America's Team!

Midnight Express v Dusty Rhodes & Magnum TA (JCP, 5/4/86)

I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that this had quite the raucous crowd. Handheld footage from around this time really captures how wild these audiences were in a way that the televised footage doesn't, the way it puts you right in the thick of things. The ambience, you know? The ambience here was batshit insanity for America's Team. It's almost trite to say that the babyface shine was great, but really it was great. Dusty's like a pig in mug in this environment as people will lose their mind for him shaking his hips and throwing elbows. Magnum will simply stand tall, shoulders straight, fists clenched, statuesque, a challenge extended, declined by the MX, and the people are in raptures. Just for standing there. The presence of Baby Doll at ringside gives this another edge, as everyone remembered Cornette nailing her with the tennis racket on TV. It led to an amazing early stooge spot, where Condrey scoots out the ring to get at her, 180s back to his own corner as soon as Magnum drops down off the apron, but at that point Eaton has already started making his way around for backup (or more likely to drag Condrey away from a beating) and they wind up crashing into each other halfway, Eaton flying backwards, Condrey bouncing into the guardrail. Mid match Dusty grabs the mic and asks Cornette if he wants a fight with Baby Doll, who gets in the ring and rids herself of her jacket to a massive pop. Cornette is amazing trying to make us believe he's toying with the idea of actually getting in there, hopping up on the apron, taking his own jacket off - but never dropping the tennis racket - before finally being talked out of fighting a woman by Condrey, who gives him a hug afterwards for emotional support. You really see how great a worker Dusty is after the MX take over on Magnum. He doesn't just come in and make a half-arsed attempt at interjecting. There's no "oh I'm trying to stop my partner from being double-teamed here, no wait 70lb referee please don't stand there blocking my path." He makes whichever Hebner brother is working on the night earn his fucking paycheque by keeping him away, and as Dusty gets more and more frantic so too does the crowd. HIS crowd, if we're keeping it a buck. And obviously the MX play off that. I don't know how often I've said they're the best ever at pulling the referee and opposing tag partners every which way so they can devastate someone, but they do it again with Magnum here. One of them runs around to get at Baby Doll, which drags Dusty's attention so the other can ram Magnum into the post, so Cornette can whack him with the tennis racket, while the referee does everything just to keep up, Magnum ending up covered in blood after two minutes of chaos. They're masters at it. Cornette was a devil during the heat segment as well, smug enough to make you puke and at one point a security guard had to jump the rail because someone wanted to get at him so bad. Cornette standing there spinning his racket and dusting his coat off was unbelievable and I absolutely believe all of those stories he'd tell about fans wanting to legitimately stab him back then. Honestly that Magnum in peril segment might be the most sustained nuclear heat I've ever heard. Dusty coming in off the hot tag is insanity, then Magnum gets incapacitated again and before long Dusty is the one being walloped with a tennis racket. Magnum eventually coming in with the chair and cleaning house was probably a more satisfying finish than a Dusty finish. Baby Doll was also about half an inch away from beheading Corny with that chair and I reckon if she'd connected the roof would've blown off the place. What an awesome bit of the southern tag wrestling.