Hi everyone and welcome to another installment of my look back at Southwest Championship Wrestling.

We are going to take a look at 1982 which was the beginning of some great wrestling for this area with the arrival of many stars and future stars.

The year began with Dick Slater as the Southwest Champion and on the tag team side the Dynamic Duo Tully Blanchard and Gino Hernandez were the tag team champions.

The area also was visited on a regular basis by the AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel who defended his title various times throughout the state of Texas.

The regulars in the area were faces: Tiger Conway, Tito Santana, Buddy Landel, Scott Casey, Bruiser Brody, Dick Slater, Tom Pritchard, Mil Mascaras, El Gran Apollo. The Heels were: Bob Sweetan, Killer Brooks, Hacksaw Duggan, Mongolian Stomper, Gino Herandez & Tully Blanchard.

Midway thru the year after a face turn by Sweetan he was to be challenged by another master of the piledriver Jerry "The King" Lawler, they fought various battles throughout the state do see who had the better piledriver.

Lawler won many of these wars and this was before his famous feud with comedian Andy Kafuman, but still Sweetan won over the fans with his toughness and his ability to fight off any challenge.

One of the biggest surprises in the area was the appearance of a new tag team of Ken Lucas and Ricky Morton (pre Rock N Roll Express) in no time they became a top tag team and eventually in time would beat the Dynamic Duo for the Southwest tag team belts. This would set the stage for a hot feud between these two tag teams.

On the singles side Don Carson brought in the Mongolian Stomper to challenge Dick Slater for the Southwest Belt, and in time the Stomper would win the belt and this would set the stage for a battle for the Southwest title between these two superstars.

In early part of the year, one of the top wrestling stars in the world made an appearance in the region when Tommy Rich, a big star in the Georgia territory, came to San Antonio to take on Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA Title. This match attracted nationwide attention, so much so that it was the cover story of Pro Wrestling Illustrated Sept 1982 issue. Rich was on his way to a possible victory when the Dynamic Duo interfered and cost Rich the belt.