Soon after, Volkoff found himself in the ring with All-American Steve “Dr. Death” Williams, when the referee was knocked out. Williams was sent out of the ring, met by Darsow. Instead of checking on Williams, as the announcers thought he would, he attacked Dr. Death before sending him back into the ring, where he was easy prey for Volkoff’s backbreaker drop.

Darsow ran in the ring and raised Volkoff’s arm. Cowboy Bill Watts summed it up for many fans, speaking to fellow announcer Boyd Pierce.

“Darsow’s shown his true colors,” he said.  “Boyd, this makes me sick.”

Later, Ross interviewed Darsow, who said he was mad JYD never paid him back for saving him from Akbar. Darsow said he was now training him in wrestling and power lifting. 

The next week, the denim shorts were gone, replaced by Soviet red trunks, and the head was shaved like Volkoff’s. After his first victory in his new attire, Volkoff presented Darsow with a Russian flag that he would wave proudly for months.

Volkoff and Darsow went on a reign of terror, double-teaming everyone in sight and brutalizing many of Mid-South’s top faces. Along the way, Darsow sent Hacksaw Duggan out of Mid-South in January, after Volkoff helped him win a coal miner’s glove match that left Duggan bloody and beaten.  

A couple of weeks later, however, young Terry Taylor debuted, defeating Nikolai Volkoff in his first appearance. The win put Taylor in the Russians’ crosshairs.

After several weeks as Volkoff’s protege, the supreme Soviet wrestler gave Darsow a second gift from his mother country -- a new name. Henceforth, he announced, Krusher Darsow would be known as Krusher Khruschev Taylor feuded with Volkoff and Kruschev up and down the Mid-South territory for months. During one match in March, the two Russians had Taylor in a noose when Hacksaw Duggan ran out and attacked the two Bolshevik baldies with a 2 by 4.

Duggan screamed that he was back in Mid-South for only one reason -- revenge. And he was not immediately recognizing his foe’s new name. 

“I get up in the morning, I think of Krusher Darsow. I eat my cereal, I think of Krusher Darsow. I brush my teeth, and I think of Krusher Darsow!,” he shouted to interviewer Jim Ross.

The Russians might have had a new threat in the form of a returning Duggan, but Khruschev set his immediate sights on the newly created Mid-South TV title.

No one could deny the Krusher was a superb athlete, but his road through the TV title tournament was not exactly an arduous one. In the first round, he beat Junkyard Dog but forfeit. Dog had vowed to leave town if he lost a match to Mr. Wrestling II. When II turned on the Dog and pinned him with a loaded kneepad, Dog honored the agreement and left the territory (not for long, though, but that’s another story).

In the second round, Darsow was battling Magnum TA, when Wrestling II again played a role in the outcome. II had been Magnum’s coach, but tension between the two was rising, and their breakup was imminent. Khruschev had TA in a backbreaker when II began jawing with the referee. Just as TA reversed the backbreaker into a pinning predicament, II threw in the towel, and the referee awarded the match to Khruschev.

The finals pitted Khruschev against nemesis Terry Taylor. Everything seemed lined up for Taylor to win the match and the new title, but Butch Reed had other plans. An attack by Reed the previous week had resulted in a DQ win for Taylor, sending him into the finals. Reed retaliated with a piledriver on the floor on Taylor just before the final tournament match. Taylor fought gamely, but was too injured to provide much competition for Khruschev, who became the first Mid-South TV champion. (See three months ago for  the column on Butch Reed, which contains more details).

Taylor chased Khruschev around the horn, but came up short. Soon, Khrushchev issued an open challenge, met by Steve “Dr. Death” Williams.  Williams, evidently remembering the turn Khruschev executed on him months prior, thrashed Khruschev until Volkoff ran in. Taylor, Reed, Duggan and others followed, resulting in the kind of ring-filling brawls that Mid-South was known for.

When the dust cleared, the Russians were retreating, but Khruschev left a key item behind him -- his Mid-South TV title medallion. Williams picked it up from the corner post where Khruschev had hung it and claimed it as his own, challenging Khruschev to take it back.

He tried, but the Minnesota turncoat could not get his medal back from the former All-American, but at least he still bore the designation of champion. For a couple of weeks, anyway. Terry Taylor finally upended Khruschev for the championship at a non-televised event. At about the same time, Duggan was beating Volkoff in a series of matches in which Volkoff was made to pledge allegience to the American flag. Humiliated, Volkoff left the area.

The wrestler formerly known as Barry Darsow was without a title and without a leader. He continued to campaign in the Mid-South mat wars for another few weeks, but did not enjoy a great deal of success.

Steve “Dr. Death” Williams and Terry Taylor had both extracted their revenge on Khruschev. For his last major appearance on Mid-South television in August 1984, it was Hacksaw Duggan’s turn. Duggan put up his hair against Khruschev’s most prized possession, the Russian flag.

The battle went back and forth, but Duggan caught him with a spear and finished him off. The show ended with Duggan roasting wieners over a makeshift barbecue pit fueled by the power of burning flag.  Khruschev would not return to Mid-South. He headed for Florida, where he became the recruiter, drawing Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart into his evil web of communism. The two captured the U.S. tag titles there briefly. From there, Khruschev became the third member of the Koloff-led Soviet team in Mid-Atlantic/Jim Crockett Promotions. That area was the last in which Barry Darsow portrayed the Communist role.

NEXT MONTH: 

Akbar vs Cornette -- Comparing the two most notorious managers in Mid-South.  We’ll stack them up, and declare a winner!