- JYD-Mr. Olympia vs. Ted DiBiase-Matt Borne. Mid South Tag Titles. Loser of fall leaves town. 10-28-82, Shreveport. Famous match where Jim Duggan is reported to be in legal trouble so the Big Cheese flies in Matt Borne from Atlanta to be his partner. Watts: "Could Ted be conceding defeat? If he sacrifices Borne then nothing is lost because the man doesn't wrestle here anyway." Borne actually is beginning a stint in MSW and so Duggan-disguised as a gorilla-interferes to lead to JYD losing and having to leave town for 90 days. But it is the great fake, as we shall see.

- Stagger Lee vs. Ted DiBiase. 11-6-82. Shreveport. I like the previous match and think of it as a bit of a classic, but this to me is just silly. First the future Pee Wee Anderson hits the ring sans his shirt, sporting no body and a killer birthmark on his back. As Ted laughs, Anderson unveils a sign that says, "S. Lee is Stagger Lee." Ted says who cares. Then Dog hits the ring in his new suit, a full body, half and half striped mix of green and red. Maybe this angle got over for Dusty the first time in Florida, but I have hated it every time I have seen it replayed and that covers Watts, Jimmy Valiant, Dog, Windham, Pillman, Magnum and Dusty. Dog looks silly too. And in this match Stagger Lee debuts by completely squashing DiBiase.

- Bob Stabler vs. Tony Atlas. 11-6-82, Shreveport. Match is a no-go as Duggan hits the ring and demands a push-up contest with Atlas. Duggan struggles while Atlas does all sorts of physical tricks. Duggan jumps Atlas. Stabler joins in. Atlas shreds them both. A young Arn Anderson, called Marty Lunde here, makes a cameo as the guy that Mr. USA throws aside.

- Tony Atlas vs. Jim Duggan. 12-11-82, Shreveport. The big surprise of this tape to me is 1982 Jim Duggan. You can clearly see he is going to be a big star. He has an energy both wrestling and even more on promos that outshines everything around him. If you only know WWF Duggan (or worse, WCW Duggan), you should see his MSW stuff to see him in his prime. And if you only know his top flight face run, you might want to look at 1982 to see how good he was as a heel. And how over is Atlas? When he sells, the fans chant "JYD."  And when he comes back, the fans chant "JYD." Man, that's a pretty clear sign Watts should have seen, long before the remakes. The Rat Pack interferes and Duggan gets a victory over a big name star. Watts gives a great call in exasperation, "The Rat Pack... The Rat Pack..."

- Mr. Wrestling II vs. Kamala. 12-18-82, Shreveport. II is over huge here both with the crowd and in the action. After three straight kneelifts, Kamala falls out of the ring and the crowd goes crazy. From there it is all group violence as Friday and Akbar pile on allowing a Kamala splash from the top. They try to pull off II's mask--II turns violent when that happens, Watts reminds us--and with II out cold, you'd think they could just yank it off. Nope, not our bad guys. They fumble like Eddie Gilbert looking for a piece of contact paper, until Stagger Lee and Mr. Olympia, the apparent brotherhood of the masked men, make the save. Leads to ...

- Stagger Lee-Mr. Olympia vs. Ted DiBiase-Matt Borne. Mid South Tag Titles.  Loser of fall leaves town. 12-18-82, Shreveport. Now this is just silly. What happens if Stagger Lee loses? He leaves town again and comes back in Blue and Gold as AizzStay Eeizzlay. Oh, he unmasks and then once we see he is Dog, he really, really can't come back into town. Well, not to worry, Olympia, subbing for the injured II, does the honors and takes a stint in Alabama before coming back to turn on II.

- Tully Blanchard vs. Mr. Wrestling II. 12-10-82, Houston. Again II is super over with the crowd and superman in the ring. Tully does a rubber legs for the rubber man that would make Terry Funk proud. II gets DQ'd but sends Tully running. II has no body and must be 45 here, so I understand why he faded after a hot 83, but the crowd is thunderous here for him.

- Stagger Lee-Chavo Guerrero-Tony Atlas vs. The Rat Pack. Two of three falls. 12-10-82, Houston. A weird spot early in the highlights as Atlas has Duggan begging, but tags out to Lee without hitting Duggan. Lee then lets go of Duggan so he can tag DiBiase. So neither face hit Duggan, and Atlas, in a hot feud with Hacksaw, tagged out of his chance to beat on his rival. Chavo really pulls the first fall together, going though a smooth series with the heels and ending with a Boston crab on DiBiase. Birkholz repeatedly calls it the backbreaker, which may have been the regional name for it, but Gino Hernandez shows up and hits Chavo with a chair for the DQ. Gino holds the legs out and swings that way, something I rarely see. Chavo sells for dead and has to be replaced in the final two falls. II joins the face side and the crowd explodes again, but the match is just a backdrop now and ends abruptly in the second fall. Watts tells us that DiBiase "claims" he unmasked Lee in the match, but that the rest of the tape has disappeared. 

Um, the rest of the tape? DiBiase, smelling a conspiracy, has put money on the mask of Lee.

- Next week, Gary Hart and Kabuki show up and try to claim DiBiase's money.   "They've only got until Jan. 27," Watts exclaims. So for 90 days the fans are supposed to pay to see the heel try to unmask the face and fail. I just don't get it.

- Overall: I'm 50-50 on this tape. If you buy it, it will be for a lot of the reasons I did: lots of highlights to give a broader view of a time I didn't know very well and specific clips in MSW of non-regulars like Andre, Atlas, Mil, Gino and Tully. You'll see more of Duggan, II and the Rat Pack to be honest, but that could be a good thing too. The tape is only an hour and you lose the weekly soap-wrestling that is MSW. However the action is good and it is jammed packed for an hour program.