Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia v Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne (Loser Leaves Town) (10/27/82)
Pretty much the perfect TV main event - great pre-match set up, great match, great angle, great post-match. I love how they bring Borne into this. Watts and Boesch do the pre-match interview where they explain that Duggan (or Doogan) is out of the picture right now and that he's probably in jail because he's a crazy bastard, so DiBiase has brought Matt Borne in from another territory as his stand-in partner. The loser leaves town stip only affects the person that takes the fall, so Borne is DiBiase's "sacrificial lamb"; he doesn't even work in Mid-South, so why should he care if he has to leave? They also put his Bombs Away finisher over huge, saying that Ted might have brought him in just to take someone out with it. It's an off the top rope move that would normally be illegal, but this is a no DQ match so it's fair game tonight. Match itself has tonnes of great shit in it. JYD is a good chief ass kicker, Olympia is a great face in peril, and DiBiase and Borne are awesome at both taking and dishing out a beating. I can't wait for the Portland set to see more Borne. He's a guy that I'll always make a point of watching now whenever I come across a match he's involved in, and this was the thing that really made me take notice in the first place. I got all round eyed and giddy when he popped up on the Texas set last night teaming with Buzz fucking Sawyer. The Bombs Away spot in this comes off as spectacular as it should, and JYD is great at reacting to it like he needs to get his partner out of there ASAP. Finish is just a tremendous swerve/angle. Duggan's involvement is so great, mainly because of the way Watts and Boesch handled the pre-match. Something like that would be hilariously telegraphed in most companies and you'd be able to see it coming a mile away. The one thing you probably could see coming a mile away - Borne being the fall guy - is then flipped right on its head and the actual fall guy winds up being the one you'd least expect. Just awesome booking, and a big example of why Watts was so good at it. Also gotta love the post-match interview. Watts is too disgusted to conduct it so Boesch takes over, and by the end he's walking away in disgust as well. DiBiase's spectacularly un-PC line on JYD is an absolute corker, too. This would probably be top 5 on my TX ballot.
Stagger Lee & Mr. Olympia v Ted DiBiase & Matt Borne (Loser Leaves Town) (12/18/82)
Neat enough match, but probably bottom of the pile from everything I've re-watched so far. Plenty heated and DiBiase and Borne are pretty kingsized in their bumping and stooging, but at 6 minutes long, it just won't stack up to some of the better stuff on a set that's full of amazing shit. Finish is good again, though. JYD comes back under a mask and is looking for revenge. No way he won't get it. Except his partner just took the fall and now he's gone for 2 months. How fucking great is that? These Irish Boy's Club matches all seem to have intricate and at least cool finishes. I wonder who was in the Patterson role.
Mid-South Project
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