Found Footage Friday on Saturday: LAWLER~! IDOL~! RICH~! BAM BAM~! ROSE~! HENNIG~! SHEEPHERDERS~! NIGHTMARES~!

Sheepherders vs. Nightmares CCW 1/17/87

MD: Charles has received a new set of DVDs in the mail. He's going through it and has already identified some very interesting sounding lost matches. Be sure to follow his work in general. Here's one of the matches and it's a very straightforward, very solid tag. Got to love Solie here, first calling the Sheepherders "twisted steel" which made me wonder where he was about to go with that, and then refusing to differentiate Butch or Luke or Davis or Wayne for the entirety of the match, just calling them "A Nightmare" etc. Thanks Gordo.

This hit all the right notes balancing being grounded and maintaining a slightly chaotic feel throughout. During the shine, the Sheepherders kept rushing out of the ring every time the Nightmares got the better of them. It put a certain sort of punctuation on everything and really got across the slickness of the Nightmares. I'm pretty sure it's Wayne that works FIP here, and the transition was this great over the top bump due to the rope being pulled down. He got color as time went on and had some really well timed hope spots. When the fans started to chant USA, he'd reward them by giving them hope. That's exactly how these things should work. Always be struggling to get back into it but struggle the most when the fans are getting behind you. Some nice cutoffs too, including him going to the wrong corner. Plus a missed tag due to drawing the ref. They did a bit where the Sheepherders chair use backfired to set up the hot tag and had everything thrown out on the comeback as they used a chair successfully this time. The Nightmares got the best of them on a subsequent attempt and everyone brawled to the back. A good use of thirteen minutes of your time.

ER: Love this kind of 10 minute forward moving simplicity. When I think of Nightmares tags I think of minimum three great Danny Davis bumps. This had no Danny Davis bumps and instead had one great Ken Wayne bump that built to a great Davis hot tag. In between that bump and that tag we got the Sheepherders clubbing and kicking ass. Aggressive Sheepherders were a thing man. What a cool team. I would have loved to see heel Bushwhackers in WWF. Heel Bushwhackers during that couple month of '93 when Rock n Roll Express was in. Do we have any of the Well Dunn house show tags? They have such a great asskicking look here. I've always appreciated how clean Butch Miller's bald spot was. He had that young Bob Hoskins cut. Luke Williams had great pop and execution that you'd never expect even if you were familiar with some of their best brawls. He had this nice missed Hitman elbow off the middle buckle (more like a diving forearm smash) and paid it off later as they're cutting off Wayne when he hits a truly excellent falling elbow on him. You don't think of "precisely worked offense" when you think of the Sheepherders or Bushwhackers. Ken Wayne's backwards bump over the ropes to the floor was a cool Big Bump of a match to set up the nice long heat, which had one of those really well done moments when a ref cuts off a freshly tagged babyface with a near spear, making for a waist tackle and actually holding Davis in the air for a moment as Davis is reaching past his shoulders to join the fray. The eventual hot tag was hot, Luke bumping these nice careening pratfall bumps while getting punched around by both Nightmares. As they fight to the floor, Butch monkey flips the ringside commentary table onto himself in the chaos after getting smashed into it. It's all hot. 

Jerry Lawler/Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Austin Idol/Tommy Rich Memphis 3/9/87

PAS: Lance Russell saying "Tommy Rich is split wide open" is my love language. Incredible stuff, one of the best matches we have unearthed in the history of this project. Wild bloody Memphis brawling with three of the greatest ever to do it in Rich, Idol and the King. Add in a green but game Bam Bam Bigelow, who came off as such a force of nature. 9 minutes bell to bell with the wild pushed pace of a bar brawl. So much of this feud was built around nasty ball shots, and I loved how they teased the posting on Lawler, and then had Lawler finish Idol with a top rope fistdrop to the nuts, an awesome NO DQ finish. Bam Bam flying through the hard ringside wood table was wild and unexpected and the post match beatdown and bloodying of Lawler was tremendous, especially considering how rarely Lawler bled. Pure joy, the platonic ideal of what I want from wrestling and a hell of thing to wake up to. 

MD:  I feel like you could watch this a dozen times and see something remarkable that you hadn't noticed yet each time. It's great that Russell is not looking on some sort of monitor but calling what he's seeing, so we hear different tastes of chaos than what's right in front of us. I've seen this a couple of times now but on my last watch the things that stood out the most were the way the heels just charged into every bit of offense, Lawler's ability to create organic and interesting violence from all sorts of obtuse angles at any point, and how well a guy as relatively early into career as Bigelow knew when to give and when not to give. There was a sense that Rich and Idol really needed to get either Lawler or Bigelow (the latter being more of a challenge) down and out of the match to control 2-on-1, but they simply couldn't. Lawler was too savvy and Bigelow was just too much. The big moment in that case was when Lawler more or less blocked the chair shot and came back to even the odds. Maybe my favorite bit of all of this from bell to bell is when Lawler scoots up from the second rope to the top to hit the very low fist drop as Solie notes it's legal in this match. The way the table bounces and contracts as Bigelow hits it post match is a wild bit of physics to really cap everything off. You can read about this one but it's really best experienced yourself.

ER: Our 1980s DVDVR sets were so comprehensive. The first time Phil and I met, we hung out in his parent's apartment watching 4 hours of handheld 1989 Memphis footage and made the historic decision to each vote YES to include the match that would go on to place 125th out of 125 matches on that set. The Memphis set was better for having Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett, and Freddy Krueger vs. Dutch Mantel, Master of Pain, and Ronnie P. Gossett. Just like it was better for including Buddy Landel vs. Freddy Krueger. Also, what kind of idiots were voting on that thing who thought there were 121 matches better than Jackie Fargo vs. Jimmy Hart? Anyway, if that Ronnie Gossett trios match had been unearthed in 2024, you would be reading about it on Segunda Caida. Instead, we're talking about a match that could have placed in the Top 10 of that Memphis set if we had it then. If we had it then, one of the Freddy matches wouldn't have made the cut, so this is for the best. It's incredible we're still getting new matches of this caliber. What a powerhouse, even better than it sounds on paper. 

I've watched this thing three times now and I've come away with a new favorite thing each time. Well, that's not true. My favorite thing ever single time is Lawler piledriving Austin Idol and dragging him spread eagle to the turnbuckles, climbing to the middle buckle, doing that perfect pause that Lawler does to build suspense on whether or not he thinks he needs to come off the top rope, then doing that perfect no look step to the top rope he does (that is one of my favorite signature movements of any wrestler in history), before flying off with the greatest fistdrop ever committed to tape. If there was one man in the world I trusted to safely fistdrop me in the balls from the top rope, it would be Lawler, but it's still a real Wheelbarrow on a Tightrope situation and I don't know if I can name a wrestling finish I've ever loved more. Look at the way Idol straightens and kicks his legs! Look at the way Idol holds and rubs his balls with his left hand during every second of his post-match spike attack on Lawler! I might have been too bearish in thinking this was only a Top 10 Memphis set match. 

So my favorite thing is locked in. But Matt's right about seeing something remarkable each time you watch. By the third viewing I was wondering if I had ever seen a babyface physically chasing a heel through the crowd during a brawl. I've seen a hundred ECW matches where guys walked together in the crowd while holding each other's hair, but I don't think I ever saw anyone getting punched in the face and running from the back of the arena for the safety of the ring only to run directly a Bam Bam Bigelow punch. God I wish I could have seen Chris Candido do just that, even if Candido was no Tommy Rich or Austin Idol. Rich and Idol took offense, ran into offense, and turned violent as great as any heel team of the 80s. Lawler and Bigelow were great at surprising them with a punch or a knee, and it's incredible how well everyone in this match had a constant innate sense of where everyone else was at all times. I've never seen such precise, out of control chaos. 

Everyone in this match was constantly turning around into a punch or turning around to punch someone, and there was more struggle in these 10 minutes than I see on entire wrestling cards now. Not every punch came easy, a face didn't get smashed into a guardrail every time someone tried. Lawler held onto the ropes to prevent Idol from pulling his balls into the ringpost like he was fighting against being pulled into hot lava. Bam Bam shoved Idol's head back by the chin before punching him and it looked like violent mafia shit. I couldn't believe Bigelow's bump through the ringside table, and was astounded that a match that ended with The Greatest Finish Ever wasted no time moving into the biggest bump of the match and some of the most violent sharp stake work we've seen. If Lawler punched one ball of Idol's he was going to take it out on his face with a broken piece of wood, and Lawler's gusher after being run face first into Idol running at him with a stake tells me that fistdrop crushed nuts. Tommy Rich is like Bobby Eaton for me, a guy who I love more with literally every new match I see. If there was a wrestler today who moved in and around and through a brawl the way Tommy Rich does here, I'd show you my favorite wrestler in the world. I watched this match a fourth time while writing about it. 

Buddy Rose vs. Curt Hennig Portland 7/2/88

MD: This was a special "Curt Hennig returns" episode of TV. He commentated on a match, cut a promo with the babyfaces, wrestled Buddy, and then came out at the end to explain to the ref how the heels cheated to have a result overturned. The appearance was setting up a match against DeBeers who he said was part of why he lost the World Title two months earlier. My memory is a little iffy on that one though. Rose was primed for a loser leave town match with the Assassin. The stakes on this particular TV match, however, was that the loser would end up a dunk tank later that weekend. Curt would be in WWF by the end of the month after a few more AWA shots, but here, he felt like a very big deal. In some ways it reminds me a little, thematically, of that post-world title match between Martel and Race right before Martel goes to WWF. Just a last burst of someone being a certain sort of star before they ended up stamped by the WWF machine for the rest of their career.

The match was very fun but obviously, coming in at just ten minutes, wasn't going to live up to the previous Hennig vs Rose feud. Some of the usual brilliance though. Buddy started by turning a rear bearhug into a dropping body scissors. Then after Curt escaped, Buddy dodged something with a cartwheel only for Hennig to get him in that self same drop down body scissors. They did a tit-for-tat bit with Buddy bumping off the top with a press, only for Curt to turn it into a great small package when Buddy tried to get him the same way. Cute finish where Hennig was able to eat a Superplex but hook the legs at the last second and get a shoulder up. That meant Buddy thought he won and started to gloat only to realize what had happened and that he had a dunk tape in his future. Just a fun glimpse of something that had been out of our reach for a long time.

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Found Footage Friday: ROSE~! WISKOSKI~! BASTIEN~! ZULU~! MARTINDALE~! ARAKAWA~! MARKUS~! DANDY~!

Tommy Martindale vs. Mitsu Arakawa NWA Chicago 10/22/54

MD: According to our buddy Ohtani's Jacket, Arakawa was Japanese-American and his gimmick in territories (though not here) was that he was a Hiroshima survival hellbent on revenge. This went about twenty in one fall and was solid stuff. During the pre-match stomping and bowing Martindale flew forth with a dropkick to get things going. He was a chippy and fiery babyface, always trying to work his way out of holds. In that regard, they seemed fairly evenly matched. Arakawa controlled the first third with a series of headlocks, constantly switching from one side to the other and taking him over. Eventually he used a "back bend" that he had been working for to get a reverse headlock in and break it up. You have to love the struggle. The fans did too. When Martindale went for a chinlock later and Arakawa had to escpae by going to the ropes, he drew big boos for it. These fans were conditioned to see wrestlers fight to get out of holds and everything was better off for it. Towards the end, Arakawa started to fight dirty with throat shots. Davis said Martindale had a boxing background but he didn't get to show it here. What he did get to show was that perseverence in constantly trying to fight out of holds, as he turned a body slam attempt by Arakawa into a pin and scored a banana peel victory. Nothing groundbreaking here but you have to love that underlying sense of struggle that could make six minutes of headlocks enjoyable. 

Buddy Rose/Ed Wiskoski vs. Red Bastien/Ron Pope Big Time Wrestling 11/4/78

MD: I don't know how new this is in general but it's a recent Orcutt upload and it's new to me and I've seen as much Rose as I can find. This was to establish Dr. Ken Ramey as Rose's new manager. Pope was a black strongman with a headbutt and a bearhug who I'm not super familiar with.The first five minutes of this were all worked around headlocks and while Wiskoski is good feeding and stooging for them, you can see the difference with Rose. He goes over perfectly for Bastien's walk up headscissors takeover in the corner, the legs going over in a picture perfect manner but one that still feigns impact and heft as opposed to seeming cooperative. Rose had a way of making over the top bumps seem completely natural. Likewise the way he'd flail his arms as far as was humanly possible during headlock cranks; it was for the last row, incredibly memorable, but still somehow felt like that's just what his body would do. Wiskoski was clunkier going over and more artificial on the flailing and it's not like he didn't bring things to the table. He just wasn't Buddy Rose. That's the thing though. No one was. He just instinctively knew what to do at every moment. 

The heels took over when Bastien went to the well once too often and Rose turned it into a belly to back. They got heat for a few minutes before a big comeback where Buddy ended up slammed by Pope and in Bastien's fireman's carry. When he got put in it a second time, they had a great finish of Ramey pulling Bastien's tights behind the ref's back so that Rose would go sailing over the top to draw the DQ. Very creative and it reminded me a little of the moment a few years before when Heenan debuted as Bockwinkel and Stevens' manager. Obviously this didn't have the same staying power, but it was a very effective capping of a pretty entertaining and purposeful TV match.

ER: I've probably been to Sacramento more than 98% of people who write about pro wrestling and I have zero familiarity with the Roy Shire Sacramento shows. I dated a girl whose uncle worked for KTXL as a camera operator. He was not a wrestling fan, he just filmed whatever was being filmed that day at KTXL. He viewed pro wrestling no differently than he viewed news broadcasts, talk shows, or people renting the studio to record their own paid programming. But he was still someone with up close wrestling stories from the sidelines, who did remember a lot of guys who came through Sacramento. Rocky Johnson was a name he brought up the way you'd bring up a college roommate's name, the way an old boss of mine used to talk about Pepper Gomez. This era of wrestling is underwritten about in general, and the Bay Area territory is way underwritten compared to other territories. Red Bastien is under-talked about because his career ran from 1950-1980 instead of 1960-1990, so most of the footage we have is from him in his late 40s. Ray Stevens too. The Bay Area guys all peaked in years we don't have, but now we get to watch Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskoski working a Sacramento TV studio within their peaks. 

Matt talked about Buddy Rose because Rose is a guy always worth talking about and seeking out. He takes multiple backdrops from Big Ron Pope and swung his loose floppy arms around in a side headlock like the Mighty Zulu had hit him with a second tranquilizer dart. Buddy is great, and this is a great Buddy match. But I love Ed Wiskoski and Matt shit all over him. Ed Wiskoski is great because he had two really great wrestling names: Ed Wiskoski and Col. DeBeers. He has some of my favorite wrestling posture. I love how he stands board straight like a Marine, like late 70s Nick Nolte. I love how he has a mustache and flattering shag cut, like late '70s Nick Nolte. His haircut and posture make him look like a Shakespearean surfer, and I love when he does his full rigid body flip over bump. Ed Wiskoski is a hulking version of Tom Atkins in Halloween III, the kind of guy who would show up to a street fight in brown corduroys. When he fights Bastien, he looks like and wrestles him like he's Bastien's younger, bigger brother. Buddy Rose is a guy who can and does steal many of the matches he's in, but Wiskoski wrestles like Chuck Connors would have wrestled. I get something out of him I don't get from any other wrestler. 

Gran Markus Jr/Monje Negro/Milo Caballero vs. El Dandy/Apolo Estrada/Monarka CMLL 1989

MD: Sometimes we get a 13 minute match and it's the full thing. Sometimes, like here, we come in at the start of the segunda. There's a short bit to begin where Markus does a pretty good job basing for Estrada's flashier stuff (think that was the main pairing) followed by a bit of dissension, I think because Dandy didn't like Estrada kicking Markus out of the ring (a tecnico taking pride in being a tecnico?) but then I got that from the commentators and they are unreliable narrators as usual. Regardless, that dissension helped the rudos take over. Of note, Caballero is a rudo here, which isn't what I'm used to and Monje Negro has to be up there in age, but he cut a forboding oversized figure, especially when put next to Markus. He had a knife kneelift and lawn darted Dandy right into Monarka, so that was fun. 

During the beatdown Markus really leaned on Estrada, bloodying him, gnawing on him, and tossing him into the third row in the most satisfying way. I don't remember Markus gnawing on bloody people often but the aftermath was a great visual with the white mask. The comeback was pretty great too as Estrada dodged a Markus knee as Monje Negro was holding him and the two ended up on their knees throwing shots at each other. Estrada got a few pin attempts in before Markus just jammed him, slammed him, and crushed his face with a nonchalant kneedrop. They cycled through after that, with Dandy and Monarka finally locking the other rudos into La Estrella, but Markus caught an Estrada body press, tossed him onto the mass of bodies in the submission, and then pinned said mass. I have to admit that Markus kind of looked like a beast here. Anyway, post-match kids got to hang out with the tecnicos in the bloody ring, so all's well that ends well, I guess?

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New Footage Friday: ROSE! TENRYU! TAKASHI ISHIKAWA! FINLAY! FUNK! WAR GAMES!

Buddy Rose/Alexi Smirnoff vs. Tenryu Shimada/Takashi Onome Big Time Wrestling 9/2/78

MD: This was a TV match to get over the Rose/Smirnoff tag team and build to more Texas Red/Dean Ho matches where Ishikawa and Tenryu (with their modified names) were there to put up a fight but put over the heels. What's so fascinating about it to me is how naturally Tenryu worked in this setting. You could see him take a different path and be an ethnic babyface throughout a bunch of territories into the 80s. After some pretty good armwork, he comes in off a hot tag and he was like Tito Santana or Rick Martel for a couple of minutes. I know the prevailing thought is that Tenryu doesn't become Tenryu until after Choshu comes in and it's true; this was a different guy, but he was a more interesting guy than we usually see before the transformation and it was his role and his setting. You just don't have a lot of hot tags and "house afire" moments in turn of the 80s AJPW tags. Here he generic babyface stomped instead of the sharp kicks and had the generic wind-up punch. Just a different world from where he'd be ten years later, even if he did get to to the sumo palm charge and rolling cradle as well. If he was going to be this version of Tenryu, he would have done a lot better with it in the States. The heels looked good, with Smirnoff having a couple of interesting submissions, and Rose maximizing every moment, jawing to the announcers about what they'd do to their future opponents and just making everything look vicious and entertaining. You're watching this because it's a Buddy Rose match you probably haven't seen, always worth watching, but also to see a weird Americanized babyface version of Tenryu that might have been.


Terry Funk vs. Fit Finlay vs. Tiger Steel EWR 5/18/01 - GREAT

MD: We're working off of two data points, but from what we've seen lately, Finlay was pretty damn good at being in three-ways. A lot of what makes this work is the interplay between he and Funk, the way they reacted to things and were presences in the match. Funk headbutting people. Finlay broaching no foolishness. Them working together only to turn on each other. Tiger Steel is Butch Masters and he makes a really expansive canvas for getting beaten on here by two of the real experts. He had some good moments of striking down upon Funk's skull too. The use of weapons was generally fun, with my favorite bit being a big piece of wood used as a springboard for Funk as it hung all the way across the ring on the bottom rope. There's a set up for a fire extinguisher that never gets paid off but that's chaos for you. The post match promo where Funk works to get the crowd to turn on him is almost as fun as the match.

PAS: Tiger Steel kind of wrestles like a poor man's Kevin Nash, and poor man's Kevin Nash is actually a pretty great third guy in a Finlay and Terry Funk 3-Way. He is there to get pounded on by both guys, gives each of them a little break where he works the other guy and lets Funk and Finlay catch their breath. This was a pretty fierce pace for guys in their 50s, and Funk and Finlay really vamp, it is a cool contrast with Funk being one of the great maximillist wrestlers of all time and Finlay being the ultimate minimalist, it isn't a contrast at all, it works in concert. Funk is pinballing himself in the ropes wilding around flinging punches, and Finlay is dropping short sick knees and hard forearms, while Steel is there to be hit.. It really works well, and the formlessness keeps it from being an EPIC, but I enjoyed every bit of it


Team Anarchy (Slim J/Azrael/Brody Lee Chase/Jeremy Vain/Iceberg) vs. NWA Elite (Geter/Jagged Edge/Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 3/30/13 - EPIC

PAS: Always glad to see another Anarchy War Games match show up as the NWA Wildside youtube account has been dropping gems lately. This is a nifty bookend to the War Games matches in my book, as like 2006 Jerry Palmer has a 5 minutes in the cage stipulation, except this time as a heel, and like 2007 this is Jeff G. Bailey vs. Rev. Dan Wilson, although Rev. Dan was purely a babyface and didn't have a huge role in the match. Lots of great performances and a ton of blood, Slim J and Azrael and the Urban Assault Squad had been feuding and they are the first four in the cage and I really dug all of their interactions, including all of the ways Azrael used his partners body as a weapon throwing him into a flippy splashes. Vain was the big surprise and gets a big pop, I really liked Jagged Edge coming in with a cowbell and wrestling like a Black Bunkhouse Buck (Blackhouse Buck? Bunkhouse Black?). Geter is enormous and laid everyone out with some really punishing looking power offense. When the Match Beyond starts the face team really goes after Tempers, spraying him in the eyes and Slim J applying a sick looking STF for the tap out. Iceberg says he has too much history with Palmer to beat him up in the 5 minutes, but turns it on him and brings out Mikal Judas who lays waste to Palmer (including a sick kick to the face, which a littler birdy told me was a receipt for Palmer potatoing guys). This really had a lot to love about it, and it is the same neighborhood as the 06 ad 07 classics. 

MD: You knew you were going to get good stuff here anyway, but when it was Slim J coming down for the opening 5 minute period, that was basically cemented. He shined during the first couple of periods, wrestling evenly but gaining advantage at first, leading to the early blood from Jackson, then just getting lawn darted into the cage and bleeding himself once the Urban Assault Squad was at full strength, and finally showing off a hundred double team moves in a two minute span once Azrael made it in to even the odds. He was able to show off a full range of what you'd want from a War Games participant here, down to the big dive and nasty submission (and subsequent emotion with Palmer) at the end. There was so much local history in that ring and the weight of it made everything resonate all the more. The weapons added a bit of variety and made the blood flow even more conveniently. I liked how they handled Vain's return, as he had to clean house and get some shine but couldn't overshadow either Iceberg battling cleanup after him or the surprise for the Palmer 5 minutes. There was a real sense of attrition and advantage from the Elite having the numbers game for so long so even though he made a difference, it made sense that he got swept under even before his period was over. The post-match was a tricky balance. They needed to have Palmer get his comeuppance and take enough damage, but not take so much that the fans were elated and frothing to the point of not accepting the reconciliation; I was a little iffy as it was playing out but it worked for the crowd in the end.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY

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The Joy of WWF Saturday Night's Main Event 7/28/90

During this era, there was no program I looked forward to more than Saturday Night's Main Event. My dad would tape it for me and I'd watch the tapes over and over, and this episode was one of my favorites. It's a loaded episode with all the belts on the line, and several memorable performances. Let's see how much I like it 30 years later. 

Rick Rude vs. Ultimate Warrior

ER: A smokin' great Rude performance in front of an unhinged crowd that loved every single thing Warrior did. Warrior's entrance reactions were at their peak here (and it's kind of amazing how loud this crowd stayed for this show considering they had already sat through THREE long Superstars tapings) and Rude was almost certainly Warrior's best ever opponent. This isn't one of their greatest matches, and Rude doesn't get much offense, but Rude stooged his way through this and built to him almost winning the belt. Rude took big bumps on Irish whips into turnbuckles, got tossed by a press slam, ate axe handles like they were dangerous projectiles, and gave us two immaculate atomic drop sells. I can't imagine having more fun as a professional wrestler than getting atomic dropped in front of 8,000 loud fans, then sticking your tailbone out and duck walking across the ring on your tiptoes before getting laid out with a clothesline. Rude's atomic drop selling is probably the greatest stooge sell of all time, and it's amazing how uniquely he treated the bump and always found new gags to add in. I love the heel aspect of Rude coming back by wasting Warrior with a belt shot, nailing him with a convincing nearfall Rude Awakening, leaping onto his back to really sink in a sleeper (Warrior hilariously getting his leg lifted by the ref like he's doing Jan Fonda glute exercises), and of course all the distraction and interference Heenan ran from ringside. I loved Heenan stopping the count and then walking all the way down the entrance way like he was just minding his own business, not interfering in a pro wrestling match. The finish is a big mess with Warrior taking it all out on Heenan (Heenan gets his face bounced off all the turnbuckles and takes a wild bump to the floor after getting tossed) and the match gets called a DQ. But what a tremendous Rude performance, the kind that keeps moving him up my list of favorite wrestlers ever. 

They play *that* Hulk Hogan tribute video, and watching it again with adult eyes I kind of forgive myself for thinking that Hulk Hogan had actually died because of Earthquake. If you showed this to someone who was unfamiliar with the angle, I can only assume that they would think Hulk Hogan died, or at minimum was seriously injured. The entire video really plays like Hogan got crushed to death by Earthquake. I liked the in ring Hogan promo and the intensity of Earthquake/Dino Bravo surrounding the ring, with a big tumbling save from Tugboat. I'm really surprised they didn't run the Hogan/Tugboat vs. Earthquake/Bravo tag match sooner (they ran it a few times on house shows, but not for several months after this aired, and this tag didn't air on TV until 6 months later), but this angle played out really well on TV. 

The Rockers vs. Demolition (Smash/Crush)

ER: Crush is kinda clumsy and doesn't have great timing, and this probably would have been better with Ax and Smash. But Ax gives a strong ringside performance and Smash puts in a great performance. Barry Darsow was a real goofball but was good at creating openings for the small Rockers and good at directing tags with Crush. Rockers looked good, had a couple nice headscissors and dropkicked both Smash and Crush to the floor. Eadie hits a great lariat on the floor to allow Demolition to take control, and the simple control segment is good. Crush hits big backbreakers on Marty Jannetty and even hits a cool press slam to throw him from the floor over the top rope. Michaels and Crush probably mix up less than anyone in the match, but Crush was fun as a big lug taking cruiser offense. The finish run is really fun with the Rockers hitting a great tandem superkick on Smash, then hitting the spot of the match with a gorgeous tandem fistdrop. Michaels hits an O'Connor roll on Smash but Ax comes in and nukes him with a clothesline, fun use of the masked heel finish. 

Mr. Perfect vs. Tito Santana

ER: This was great, a rematch of the finals of the IC Title tourney (after Warrior vacated the title), and even better than that match. Tito gets such a wonderful, loud babyface reaction throughout the match, with especially loud cheers coming from women. The cheers were higher pitch and loud, and Perfect bumped all over the ring and floor in a way that really made it look like Tito had a chance. Sure, it's not surprising to hear that Perfect bumped his way through a match, but these bumps came off like Tito was a serious threat, almost all of them felt like an actual extension of the move he was taking and not like athletic showing off. He flew to the floor two different times, really flying out past the top rope no his way to the floor; he took a couple of his signature flip bumps that land him on his head, getting his leg swept on the floor and in the ring. The in ring leg sweep bump is Perfect's signature, but I don't remember seeing him use it on the floor like this, not often. 

We get a long stretch of Earl Hebner selling a leg injury, and it takes a lot for Tito and Perfect to not let him overshadow everything. Hebner got run up on and he drags himself all around the edges of the ring as if he took sniper fire from the rafters. He's a wounded soldier in there and hilariously, Perfect has to overact just to try to combat Hebner's extreme overacting. So Hennig is selling Tito's figure 4 as if acid were being slowly poured up his legs, and we build to a nice dramatic moment where Tito hits the flying forearm and Hebner laboriously crawls over, bleeding out, leg likely already lost, and only makes a 2 count. Fans really want Tito to take this, and it's a great moment when Tito finally gets his new referee, running triumphantly down to the ring to gently nudge Hebner out to the floor. Once we get the new ref, the home stretch is brilliant. Perfect takes TWO atomic drops, meaning this show had TWO Minnesotans (the biological best bumpers on the planet) each taking TWO atomic drops and creating FOUR unique atomic drop bumps in the process (Perfect's silliest involved him getting bounced face first into the turnbuckle). The finish itself is so well executed and felt like one of those cool Arn finishes: Tito ducks down for a backdrop that Perfect scouts, Perfect stops short and grabs him for a Perfect Plex, Tito expects that and blocks it with a small package, and Perfect reversed the small package and narrowly escapes with a 3. I could easily see someone lifting this finish today, except Perfect and Tito made it look like actual logical reversals and not two dance partners over anticipating movements that haven't yet come. This is one of the more fondly remembered matches in SNME history, and it earns that acclaim. 

Buddy Rose vs. Kerry von Erich

ER: This is von Erich's TV debut, and really there aren't many cooler things in wrestling history than Kerry von Erich's long shag underneath a headband. Buddy Rose is a really fun but opponent for a debuting von Erich. Rose is gigantic and has two of the more memorable bumps on a show that had Rick Rude, Shawn Michaels, and Mr. Perfect in full title matches. He slaps Kerry to start and spends the rest of the match getting his ass kicked in and out of the ring. It's great. Kerry slams him, Buddy stumbles around and gets caught in the ropes, does that crazy huge fat guy Harley Race bump where he hangs off the bottom rope by his feet and falls on his head, and he leans right into a spins into the mat after taking the discus punch. This match and a two minute Superstars match are the only two times these absolute wrestling legends crossed paths, two stars from different worlds orbiting each other for merely 5 total minutes. 

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WWF 305 Live: Earthquake! Buddy Rose! Yokozuna! Mabel! MORE!

Big Bossman vs. Buddy Rose WWF Wrestling Challenge 7/22/90 - FUN

ER: Buddy wasn't someone who was going to get much of a match during his 90s WWF run, but he knew all he had to be was a big fat guy who flew around the ring. And my did he fly. Most of this match is Bossman making Buddy run all around the ring, and it's great. He leaves his feet to bump a Bossman uppercut, bumps upside down into the turnbuckles in a crazy moment, bumps to the floor, eats a backdrop, does the silly teeter-totter spot with him sitting on the middle rope, and is thrown into the ropes multiple times. He was a big fat guy who could run, and it was cool seeing Bossman pivot and toss him into the corner, and plant him with that Bossman Slam. Even looking blobby as hell, Buddy deserved more in '90 WWF.

Earthquake vs. Bastion Booger WWF Wrestling Challenge 2/20/94 - FUN

ER: This was Earthquake's short-lived return to WWF, presumably because those big WCW checks came a'callin', but they know what they're doing and so really early in his run they throw him in against a big fat guy. Booger wasn't that good, as far as big fat guys go, but it's cool seeing Quake against a biggun. Booger wasn't super fleet so him running into corners looked awkward, but it's hard not to smile while watching these two. Booger had a couple decent legdrops and a not as good kneedrop/splash (it looked like he was going for kneedrop but then just kind of fell forward on Quake's face/chest), but this was all about what Quake could do in his comeback. He was smaller than his WWF peak 4 years earlier, so his quickness wasn't surprising, but still impressive to see. He picked Booger up for an awesome powerslam, dropped a big leg, great elbowdrop, fans flipping out for the Earthquake splash...and I think back to a simpler time, when my friends and I were playing King of the Colloseum and I got a critical doing John Tenta's butt drop. We all lost it, and I still think about it.

Mabel/Typhoon vs. Yokozuna/Crush WWF Wrestling Challenge 7/31/94 - GREAT

ER: God would you look at the absolute BEEF on display in this match?? Crush was a damn cruiserweight compared to the rest of these hunks, and this whole match was as good as you hoped. This whole match is filled with the constant sound of waterbeds being dropped onto each other. Honestly it was so much fun that I went back and watched it again, immediately after watching it the first time. Typhoon was a really fun rope runner, a guy who really trusted the ropes and always leaned way into them, and we got a great spot where he leaned deep in the ropes and then hit a double lariat on Yoko and Crush. Yokozuna was really fun, taking three of his big back bumps, hitting the corner hard on a missed running butt splash, hitting a nice headbutt, and even swiping Mabel's ankle from the floor (there's something endlessly amusing about a 550 pound dude cheating against a 550 pound dude). Crush really brought something different as the wee lil guy in the match, throwing a couple nice kick combos, working a big ass triangle on Mabel, for some reason trying an atomic drop on Mabel (he kind of went up, barely, awkwardly, but I dug that because it *shouldn't* be easy to hit an atomic drop on Mabel), and Crush missed a crazy kneedrop off the top. The finish was a cool idea, with Crush hitting a tall superkick to the back of Tugboat's head, sending him into a Yoko belly to belly. Tugboat didn't get up great on the suplex, but again, none of these guys should get up for anything.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWE 305 LIVE!

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New Footage Friday: Santo, Casas, Panther, Eddy, Fuchi, La Ola Blanca Jrs.

Buddy Rose vs. Tenryu Shimata Big Time Wrestling 1978

PAS: Two all time greats in a well executed television studio match. Most of the match has Tenryu working a really tight side headlock, Rose is a guy with lots of great, in a tight headlock, shtick. He gets on his tiptoes to relieve pressure, holds his breath to make his face red, flops around a bunch. Meanwhile Tenryu was relatively new in the sport, but he knew how to grab a headlock until the ears flower up. Rose finally breaks the headlock and bangs away at Tenryu's back with a suplex and a couple of nasty backbreakers. Simple match but really well executed and a cool early look at Rose and Tenryu.

ER: I had no idea these two crossed paths at any point, and if I was told they had then I would have assumed it happened during the period of the 80s that Baba was working a bit with AWA, not 6-8 years before that! This is a lean lump-free Tenryu against a lean Buddy Rose. Naturally we get some talk about how Tenryu is a martial arts expert, a martial arts expert who apparently practices the deadly art of the side headlock takeover. This match feels like it could be older than it is, as it's worked strike free and most of the spots are worked out of a side headlock. And it rules. Early on Tenryu gets a cool ankle pick while Rose goes in for a go behind, and Rose was engaging in the headlocks as Phil said. Tenryu wasn't going to hold a loose headlock, and I'm always going to love when someone holds onto a headlock after the guy in the headlock tries to shoot them into the ropes. I dug all the headlock stuff, and the payoff builds nicely: Tenryu gets dropped with a back suplex out of the headlock, and later misses a dropkick which aggravates the damage done to his back with that suplex. In the 90s and 2000s I always thought Tenryu sold spine/neck damage better than maybe anyone, especially piledrivers. Here he is just a couple years out of sumo and already selling his back in interesting ways. Buddy smells blood and drops him with a couple of brutal backbreakers for the win. Totally simple stuff where the key is the execution and knowing how much of one spot you could keep engaging. They knew.

MD:  The advantage we have in Buddy Rose, relative to some of his contemporaries, is that we have a few years of week-in and week-out TV footage. We don't have that for everyone. What makes it all the better is that it's also arena footage where you have a middle ground between legitimately great, big matches, and Buddy letting lesser guys hang with him. what I've learned from that, as much as anything else, is that Buddy Rose is never, ever boring. This is the guy who supposedly got flack in New York for giving the TV jobbers too much and trying to have exciting matches with them. Anyway, this isn't the Saturday Portland TV show, but the idea is sort of the same. Here he led a pretty green Tenryu through a straightforward headlock-driven match from underneath, moving in and out of the hold and making his opponent look good. Buddy, maybe more than anyone in the history of wrestling, could shift gears on a dime, clowning for two-thirds of a match and then presenting himself as dangerous, vicious, and legitimate. There's such a great example of that here as he just brutalizes the back. This was just a really fun laser-pointed crossroads TV match. Boy would I have loved to see it five years later though.


El Hijo Del Santo/Eddie Guerrero vs. Blue Panther/Negro Casas Juarez 1987

PAS: What we have here is an unearthed tag with four of top 20 greatest wrestlers of all time as kids going out there for 20+ minutes and having a banger. This was super grappling heavy, with several long mat sections with Panther and Eddie and Casas and Santo matching up. It is normal for the first fall in lucha matches to be on the mat, but we get a long Segunda mat section too. So many cool little moments, Santo does a front flip off of Casas back into a rana on Panther to win the first fall. I love the Casas fights out of holds in this match, he really struggles to avoid Santo's Cabello and he is amazing the way he tries to avoid getting thrown by Eddie. Casas is the all time greatest at small moments, watching him struggle and adjust, it is like he is on a whole different level of performance then nearly anyone else ever. 20 year old Eddie was a monster, he was throwing multiple great looking suplexes, and had this great mat section with Panther where he applied a bridging Indian Deathlock, Eddie became such a great performer during his prime, here he was a full speed ahead wrestling machine, almost like Dynamite Kid or Benoit. We get a couple of nifty dives in the very end (although the camera man misses Santo's mostly) and a vicious Cabello on Panther for the win. This didn't have any brawling which made it feel a little more like an exhibition then most all time great lucha matches, but man was it an epic all timer exhibition.

ER: This was not the match I expected to show up, but who at all would be disappointed that it did? It's four of all of our favorites breaking out some tricks that you may have forgotten about. I believe this is definitely the earliest Eddy match I've seen, so it's neat to see a 20 yr. old throwing fast kicks trying to ape Negro Casas, take it to the mat with a mid-20s Blue Panther, delivering a no hands dive over the top to the floor that looked so different than the dive style we got used to from him (and he took quite a landing on his knees, so that might be why). Santo brings both the most gorgeous moments in the match, and also the most violent. His front flip rana on Panther would look spectacular if done by anybody today, and while I've seen Santo do plenty of graceful flying I don't think I've seen him do this, and it looked amazing. Later in the match he pulls off three consecutive headscissor/head and leg drags to Panther, all different, all looking like they were making it up as they went. Santo hits a flawless torpedo headbutt off the top to set up la Caballo, and earlier he flies out right past the ringpost and cameraman to hit a huge dive (that we don't see, because he went right past the cameraman). But the violence is always there.

Phil mentioned that this never devolved into a brawl, but there were several moments of struggle that felt as violent as any brawl. My favorite segment of the match was Santo going for a sub - any sub - on Casas, while Casas tried his damndest to turtle and oppose Santo's force. Santo goes for a surfboard, Casas strains his body to bring his momentum forward, so Santo goes for a bow and arrow and again you can see Casas straining to not go back, so Santo goes for Caballo and Casas suctions those arms close to his body and to the mat. Later Eddie blew me away by repeatedly grapevining Casas' legs while Casas was going for throws. We often see a guy block a throw, but it's typically so that he can get an immediate reversal. Here Eddie just snaked around Casas and kept purposely tangling him up, later hitting a Saito suplex of his own. The great struggling and flexed tension of the grappling exchanges looked far more like something you'd see in UWFI, not what I was expecting here. I don't think you're going to find two better Santo opponents than Casas and Panther, and he looked like an absolute legend in this match. There was so much to love here, really an incredible find.

MD:  I'm completely convinced that there's a treasure trove of 80s Juarez TV out there. A few years back, there seemed to be some local TV showing classic matches and we had a couple of uploads on a youtube channel, one being Hijo del Santo y Octagon vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Negro Casas. I don't think this was the other but I could be wrong.

What this is, however, is an absolute gem. Maybe it never QUITE picks up like I'd hope. I wanted a rudo beatdown in there somewhere and we never quite get it. They never quite stop trading holds to pick up the pace completely. This is us though, and in general, we're more than okay with that, because most of the hold trading is awesome in a number of different ways.

It's got to be a little bit who he's in there with, but Eddy looks so good for someone so young here. He has a ton of stuff, suplexes especially, and adds plenty to the exchanges with Blue Panther, though I do think some of that has to be Panther moving him around. He's pretty much always where he needs to be doing what he should be doing (like his perfect positioning at the end of the primera to let Santo bound over him).

Panther, in general, looks like the all-timer that he is but simply hasn't been for a long time. One of the first things I ever did on SC was looking at whatever Santo vs Panther matches I could find. There aren't a ton out there and here, they don't match up all that much, but when they do it's gold. They have such mastery over their bodies and their craft that they can seemingly pluck one another out of midair and into the next spot. Casas was just off his hair match loss and it's really cool to see him playing up respect with Santo, even if we never do get that beat down.

Plenty to see here. This is why we do this.


Masa Fuchi/Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Dr. Wagner Jr./Angel Blanco Jr. AJPW 10/24/87

PAS: Wagner and Blanco's fathers formed La Ola Blanco, one of the great tag teams in lucha history. This Jr. version of La Ola Blanco seemed like a bit of weak sister, although this has to be some of the earliest Wagner Jr. footage we have. There was some really awkward flying attempts from Ogawa, who definitely was better off as a sleazy cheapshotting dirtbag then a workrate junior. The were a couple of great moments when Fuchi and Wagner started going after each other, they are both pretty great charismatic brawlers and Wagner Jr. lived up to the "White Wave" moniker when he got rolling. Still more of a snapshot, then a great match.

MD: I was expecting an emptier sort of exhibition match here, even with Fuchi involved, and along those lines, I was happily surprised. They flew all over the place, but there was definitely some oomph and heat to everything. Blanco and Wagner played to the crowd as boisterous bad guys. Ogawa was a plucky flying underdog and Fuchi seemed like he wanted to tear off his opponents' heads, not just their masks. It never quite came together, but there was a lot of motion, some meanness, and ultimately it was just cool to see two of the most charismatic wrestlers ever go at it before they were two of the most charismatic wrestlers ever.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SANTO AND CASAS RIVALS

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1980 Match of the Year

Buddy Rose/Ed Wiskoski v. Roddy Piper/Rick Martel PNW 8/2/80

PAS: This is for the vacant PNW tag titles and is a master class in tag wrestling.  First falls opens with the heels doing some off the charts stooging, both Rose and Wiskoski are great in-ring bumpers and fly all over the ring for both babyfaces. Then the heels take over and Piper has one of the best Face-In-Peril sections I can remember seeing,  frantically spinning and tumbling and leaping to try to get the tag, just awesome intense timing. There is a wrestling multiverse where Roddy Piper is the great 80’s babyface tag worker, and Ricky Morton is doing Ricky’s Rountable and smashing Snuka with a coconut. Second fall has the heel team working over Martel’s back, including using the broken bottom rope bolt to jab him in the kidneys, the rings in Portland must have been really flimsy because Rose was a maestro at improv work with a busted ring. Third fall is an awesome wild brawl with it all breaking down and the ref throwing out the match. This had all the parts you want in a great tag match. I could easily see this being a legendary feud which spanned decades like MX v. Rock and Rolls.

ER: Simple match, and a real good match. I have never seen fired up underdog Roddy Piper before and it's a blast. We've all seen fired up Piper, but context is key and Phil is right: He was a really great Ricky Morton. You really could see the alternate timeline. Although after the match you hear him screaming unhinged into the mic and you knew he was going to be more than an underdog. I so wish I lived in Portland in the 80s. The personality of the city bleeds into its wrestling and it's so charming. Sandy Barr was wearing a colorfully striped shirt even by Sandy Barr standards, both large heels have ridiculous Prince Valiant haircuts, women bring flowers for their favorite hunks (with one woman bringing flowers for Wiskoski AND Martel!), and these women are rabid from the opening bell despite just the basics being on display. Buddy and Ed get bumped around early, with Wiskoski especially taking an awesome stooge bump into the turnbuckle and then flipping feet over crown all the way across the ring. But pretty soon Wiskoski takes over on Piper with a snug body scissors, and Roddy trying to fight to Martel is so great. They draw it out soooooo long, with Piper inching closer and closer, going crazier the closer he gets, wildly swinging his arms to try and get to Martel. The heels were great at cutting off the ring the whole match and later there was a spot I loved just as much  with Martel knocking Rose down, but before Martel can tag in Piper Rose just punches him in the gut, right off the apron. It made so much sense, as the way Rose was positioned it was far easier to knock Piper off the apron than it would have been to stop Martel. It reminded me of SUWA pushing the ref into the ropes to stop KENTA's springboard. It's just logical quick thinking from the heels. We get plenty of great moments the longer this goes, like Martel taking the nastiest catapult into the ropes, dropping back down across Buddy's knees, or Buddy and Ed bumping all over the place (with Buddy taking two fast and hard bumps over the top to the floor, one of them almost off camera but looking nuts), and then a wild brawl around ringside with Martel and Piper looking legitimately like one of the best American babyface tag teams you've seen. Don Owen comes out and talks about being sick of all this and sets up a No DQ lumberjack match and Rose flips out and grabs him by the jacket and almost swings at him until he's belted and then things break down again. You got Barr holding down Martel, Piper flipping out, Wiskoski getting popped, great stuff.


ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

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Fire Fundraiser: Buddy Rose/Curt Hennig/Billy Jack Haynes vs. Dynamite Kid/The Assassin/Rip Oliver 9/10/83

Buddy Rose/Curt Hennig/Billy Jack Haynes vs. Dynamite Kid/The Assassin/Rip Oliver 9/10/83

1st Fall

2nd Fall

3rd Fall

Now this is a rematch of an earlier match I wrote up with these same 6 guys. The other match happened in June '83, here we are 3 months later. Don Owen before the match announces that Andre will be flown in from New York in a couple of weeks. The thought of Andre wandering Portland is glorious to my brain. It's a 3 fall match as is the way of Portland. That must have been so strange live just sitting there while guys went to the back between every fall. How long were they back there? You'd think it would really interrupt the momentum of a match. But, the crowd is just as hot at the end of this as they were at the beginning so obviously Owen understood his little bubble. And one thing I love about these Portland 6 mans is my favorite guy in the match changes so damn often during the match. Even a guy like Billy Jack who's clearly not as good as the others at least knows how to work face real well and knows what the crowd likes. Rip Oliver knows how to feed and he stooges hard for Jack's clotheslines. We don't get tons of Buddy in this, but we DO get tons of Curt Hennig giving one of his best performances I've seen. His work in the 3rd especially is just tremendous. Once he tags in he starts throwing the best punches of his life, these beautiful and violent short right hands, looking like a total wrecking ball, and then does the greatest sunset flip I've ever seen. Ever. No hyperbole. It looked gorgeous and felt like something that could actually finish a match. He leaps way into the air and arcs perfectly into rolling up Dynamite, but Oliver saves him. Assassin continued looking great. I enjoy Dave Sierra, but I've NEVER seen him like this. He throws out multiple backdrop bumps a match, works super quick, I love the loaded headbutt gimmic, perfectly plays up the strength of BJH by getting pressed way off on kickouts. And sheesh Dynamite has been so damn good in these Portland matches. Everything he does hits with force. He tosses out just the nastiest fistdrop into Hennig's throat. God it looked brutal. He and Hennig match up beautifully, love the finish with Dynamite's perfect kneedrop being treated like a death blow. Dynamite even takes a massive bump to the floor, getting thrown by Buddy. Just a super fun match. Also, everybody here knows how to throw a nice elbowdrop. Dynamite has a quick one, BJH throws a better one than you'd guess. And I'm a guy who likes elbowdrops, so that was just tasty pointy icing for me. I am loving this Portland. I may wind up in a dangerous Portland rabbit hole...


I want to thank Pete again for the donation, and continue urging others to donate. I'll link again to my original post, and I'll post an update on things soon. I love all the requests I've gotten, and I'll continue writing all of it up!! You guys are awesome. Thank you so, so much. Seriously.


***I'm probably sounding like a skipping record (like my Metal Health LP that awesomely skips during the first chorus of "Cum on Feel the Noize", so it just gets stuck perfectly on Kevin DuBrow yelling "Mooore moooore moooore") at this point but I'm still trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down, completely disappearing every single one of her possessions. The donations have slowed but no matter, I still have plenty of neat requests to fulfill and WILL be continuing to fulfill them! I'm matching EVERY contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. You donate $1? That's awesome. Whatever you can do, and then you get to make a request. This means SO MUCH to me and you all are making me so happy***

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Fire Fundraiser: Buddy Rose/Curt Hennig vs. Dynamite Kid/The Assassin

Buddy Rose & Curt Hennig vs. Dynamite Kid & The Assassin - Portland Wrestling 11/12/83


Another 2/3 Falls Portland tag, requested by Pete who was nice enough to donate to my co-worker Jan's cause.

Last Portland match we watched saw Dynamite looking like a fairground demolition derby speed dealer, here he looks more like the sergeant at arms for the Creativity Alliance. He has a bulked up body, Bic'd head and red lightning bolt tights (ohhhh so close to having two little lightning bolts right next to each other), but it was another fine Dynamite performance. His work with Hennig was real good, especially once he started with the leaping headbutts. He hits his perfect middle rope knee drop, really probably has the greatest flying kneedrop in pro wrestling, and here it actually wins a fall! That was wonderful. I've seen plenty of matches where he hits this skull crushing knee drop, far and away the most violent thing on the whole card, and it gets a two count. Here he launches into camera frame with a middle rope kneedrop right into Hennig's stomach, really looks like Hennig is going to start coughing up blood. And - as it should - it ends a fall.

Assassin was a real revelation here, again. I did some digging and realized it was likely not Jody Hamilton, but more likely David Sierra. That would make sense as Assassin is super spry in both these matches, really flies into moves at a crazy speed. I doubt a 45 year old could be moving like this...but I've also never thought "Cuban Assassin? Oh yeah, super fast bumper." But I've also never seen Sierra when he was 23, so maybe he had a young masked deathwish. I am more used to differently enjoyable chubby bullshit artist Sierra. Either way 1983 Assassin was awesome.

We really don't get a whole lot of Buddy in this, which is disappointing. We do get him during the smart/unique/horrible finish. I didn't really understand what happened during the finish, or more what was *supposed* to happen. Depending on what was supposed to happen it was either executed perfectly, or one of the worst ways to end a match. It started awesome. Assassin grabbed Buddy in a waistlock, with Buddy ducking just in time to allow a Dynamite missile dropkick to nail Assassin right on the point of the chin. It looked brutal. So Buddy locked Assassin in a waistlock after dumping Dynamite, then Hennig hit his own dropkick. I assumed Buddy would then German suplex Assassin, but instead he just fell backwards and awkwardly lay there with his legs in the air while Assassin lay on top of him. So, either Buddy was supposed to act knocked out, which is kind of a good finish even if it looked awkward...or it was supposed to be a "both men get their shoulders counted down" and instead it was just Assassin lying on Buddy. It looked weird. I don't get it.

Sandy Barr, like he does, looked like a dental lab technician showing up for work.

Also, one of the announcers had a call that made me laugh just because it was such a failure and he still kept committing to finishing the horrible train of thought. Hennig launched Dynamite into the buckles and the announcer went "THAT'LL reset your...uh...clock...back to uhm...daylight savings time...or whatever." I love how he started out excited for his declaration and by the end, just one sentence later, he just kind of loathed it.

Thank you again PETE for the donation! You're awesome.


***I'm still desperately trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down. The donations are coming in and the requests are getting weirder and I fear they're going to start purposely torturing me. BUT NO MATTER! I'm matching every contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. This means a lot to me and you all are making me so happy***

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Fire Fundraiser: Buddy Rose, Curt Hennig & Billy Jack Haynes vs. Dynamite Kid, The Assassin & Rip Oliver

Buddy Rose, Curt Hennig & Billy Jack Haynes vs. Dynamite Kid, The Assassin & Rip Oliver (6/25/83)

I am a Portland novice, familiar with the guys who worked other territories, unfamiliar with the local heroes. But Portland is a city I've been to many times over the years, as we've always had friends who lived there and it made for a great excuse to go visit. I love the town and would have loved to have been alive to experience the territory days in such a neat little community. Territory wrestling always takes these large cities and makes them seem like little bubble communities, when you can see the same fans showing up each week, the same families sitting together. Portland just seems like the perfect place for a territory. And this match was a real hoot. I'm a guy who really strongly disliked a lot of Dynamite Kid as "New Japan revolutionary junior heavyweight" but as scummy shitheel with bad skin and bad hair and who bumps like a loon? Yeah, I'll take that Dynamite. Here he looks like a dude selling weed in the parking lot of a Molly Hatchett concert. His elbows look great, he throws nice kicks to the stomach, he always has one of the finest kneedrops, takes a mammoth backdrop bump, flies to the floor off a big Rose dropkick. I'm kinda loving stateside Kid. Assassin looked great in this, and if this is the same guy I'm thinking of (Jody Hamilton) he must have been in his mid-to-late 40s here. You'd never know it by the way he was moving. He had a real immediacy to everything, threw a great kneelift, really knew how to bump around for the good guys, went fast at Hennig and Haynes. Billy Jack is a guy I never enjoyed much in WWF, but here you can tell he has his place with the Portland crowd. He's got a crazy build and knows how to connect, Dynamite throws himself into a stiff arm BJH clothesline, and Haynes even takes a backdrop bump of his own. Hayne's powerlifting Dynamite up into a press slam was impressive as all hell. I didn't remember Haynes having such a gorgeous press slam, and I'm a guy who LOVES press slam spots. He drops Dynamite down from a crazy height, onto a mat that doesn't give an inch. Ouch. Buddy had unreal agility and he clearly loved showing it off, leaping over the top to the floor, throwing out some kip ups, cartwheeling, really trying to show off his speed. You could tell he loved working Portland crowds. This says it's 2/3 falls but I couldn't find the other falls. What we get is a blast though. It should also be noted that Sandy Barr looks like every single photograph of everybody's father.

THANKS FOR THE DONATION PETE!!


***I'm still desperately trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down. I'm matching every contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. This means a lot to me, guys***

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