Found Footage Friday: CHICANA~! FARAON~! MAYNE~! VENTURA~! SAVAGE HANDICAP MATCH~!

Jesse Ventura vs. Moondog Mayne Portland 5/7/77

MD: Savoldi footage here but on youtube. Definitely new to me and among the earliest Portland I've ever seen. We just get eight and a half minutes but it's great. Watching old Portland wrestling always feels like going home to me. It's just the atmosphere. Just such a family set up. Ventura here has a mask because he lost his hair so that's novel. Mayne is the One Man Gang, the Blond Bomber, scruffy and a local legend even by this point. 

Ventura controlled early with pretty conventional stuff. We don't see how he took over on either fall that we get unfortunately. Mayne's comeback is great as someone gave him coffee and he just blatantly tossed it into the mask. He took the first fall with the bombs away kneedrop, that stalwart of the west coast (used by Stevens, Patterson, Mayne). When we come back in the second fall, he's trapped in the ropes and takes this great bump through them as Ventura frees him. He comes back with an eyepoke after a little bit of king of the mountain though and we leave off with Snuka having tossed him a cowbell from outside and him going to town on Ventura. Just a nice snapshot. Hopefully even more of this 77 Portland shows up. It's always wild to see pre-Buddy Portland.

ER: I thought this was pedestrian stuff until the moment Moondog graciously accepted a fan's cup of hot coffee and threw it in Ventura's face. Throwing beer or getting hit with a soda is always great wrestling, but you never get guys utilizing hot coffee or cocoa. Hot coffee to finally kick the main event into gear is so great. Lonnie Mayne is only 33 years old year but looks 60, so it looks cool when he takes the Harley Race bump to the floor. It looks like an old man falls head first on the concrete or an old man jumped off the rope onto his knee and it makes Mayne a more compelling babyface. It means he's the kind of great babyface who got loud cheers for eye raking and bashing Ventura with a cowbell. So we only get the first 7 minutes of a 20 or 30 minute 2/3 falls draw, which is not much. I want to know if there was blood, and what Ventura did when/if his mask got torn off, and how he looked. We need to go further back to establish when Sandy Barr firmly established his trademark look that he carried through the 80s.   

Randy Savage vs. Danny Doyle/Buddy Landel ICW 1980

MD: New footage Allan uncovered and posted to Twitter. This is fascinating because it's Savage against two real undercard guys. This isn't even on Cagematch. The earliest Landel we have noted there is 81. Roop (injured) is on commentary with Izzy Slapowitz and a little of the latter goes a long way. Doug Vines is in the crowd watching. There's a 10K bounty on Ronnie Garvin who Savage (the champ) is dodging.

Like I said, it's Savage, as a vulnerable but dangerous champ against two undercard wrestlers, saying he can beat them both in the ten minutes, elimination style, and they really play up the numbers advantage and just how high a hill Savage has to climb against two guys. It's a while before he gets any offense at all and then even after he gets it, it's hard to keep it. 

He hits the top rope axe handle to the floor on Landel and they note that while a top rope move into the ring is illegal, there are no rules against jumping to the floor since no one's ever done it. He then finishes off Landel by suplexing him back in. Doyle immediately rushes him and while Savage takes over, the bell rings as the time limit expires. Then Savage has a fit at the commentary booth, threatening everyone until Vines offers to take out Garvin next week for just $5000. Pretty engaging stuff that really made Savage look like he could be beaten and that he was edging ever closer to losing his mind and just accepting a challenge from Garvin. Very cool find.

ER: I never think much about the handicap as a match structure, but it might be our least explored "common" match structure. I say least explored, because they are not often worked like Savage works here, which is approaching the match as an actual obstacle. Yes, these two men are undercarders who Savage would have no trouble with in a singles, but the match takes an honest look at how tough it would be to face off against two men. Handicap matches are most commonly used to put over one man dominating two men. The Andre handicap matches are entertaining, brief looks at Andre stacking boneless men like cordwood, but rarely used as a way to actually just double (or triple) the danger Andre was in. It's like fighting a zombie. Easy in theory, but throw in another and it's suddenly easy to get overwhelmed. Savage was facing a couple nobodies and not getting overwhelmed, but he's treating it like being outnumbered and it's a fascinating approach. 

Buddy Landel looks like Gino here and I love it. This is teenage Buddy Landel! Savage hits this kid with a middle rope elbowdrop that's weird because it's different than how Savage hits his top rope elbowdrop. Buddy takes two massive bumps to the floor, both through the ropes: the first bounces the side of his head off the apron, the second is after he's pinned and Savage sends him into a sprawling bump onto the concrete. Seeing No Kneepads Buddy Landel bumping this big is like a DVDVR version of the Can't Powerbomb Kidman joke.

Bob Roop is a real scary type. He's the most dull man you've ever heard on commentary, getting just trampled over by Izzy Slapowitz, who dominates him with his routine like Robert Smigel on a red carpet, and Roop just takes it with the sad little quiet responses of a man playing by the rules. It freaks me out man. Do you know how tough Bob Roop is? It's chilling to hear a real shooter and killer sound this soft, like finding out some guy who works at your mom's office has broken multiple mens' bones. Slapowitz and then even Savage call Roop a gimp and a "stupid cripple" when Savage's 10 minute time limit is legitimately shorted by a minute and it made me want to see Roop/Savage so bad. We probably don't have that. 

Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraon CMLL 11/23/85

MD: This was a hell of a find. Yes it's anticlimactic but it's anticlimactic because they're trying to kill one another with a bottle which is the very best reason in the history of wrestling for a match to be anticlimactic. Props to Roy for finding this and the associated full episode of 85 EMLL That we will get to eventually.

Chicana is wild to start, massive hair bouncing around his head, the sort of hair that you'd pay a week's salary to watch him lose, that kind of hair, and he's relentless to start, guzzling Faraon's throat on the top rope, just all over him in the short, direct primera stretching him a couple of times before the ref calls it (though none of his trademark punches; those will come later). Then, for good measure, he decides it wasn't enough and that he needed to find a glass bottle.

The ref tries to intervene and he does stall things just long enough for Faraon to get his windback. He sells beautifully here, staggering but less and less as he gets his balance. He has this great trademark way of moving where he slides down through the second and third ropes to get to Chicana more quickly, and after an attempt at it that fails, the second hits and he gets the bottle and gets his revenge. 

Eventually things make it back into the ring, and Faraon takes the segunda, but things go even again in the tercera, with Chicana firing back with some of the biggest, best sweeping punches you'll ever see. It all devolves to the floor and given the blood and chaos and mayhem the ref calls it off to no one's satisfaction. You get the sense this led to an even better match but at least we've not got to see this one in full.

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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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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: Andre in Portland

Andre the Giants & Hack Sawyer vs. Rip Oliver, Dizzy Hogan & Matt Borne 5/8/82

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only Andre in Portland match that exists to the general public. I haven't seen anything else pop up in matchlists. And really I just wanted to see this because I love the idea of Andre wandering around Portland. It's such a wonderful little city, and yes I do realize I'm picturing Andre wandering around CURRENT Portland, going to great breakfast places, drinking Stumptown, going to a bar that makes their own bitters to try a house Manhattan; just picturing "local weirdo Portland celebrity" Andre makes me smile. Like if he wasn't Andre the Giant, legendary wrestler, and instead worked at a hardware store and lived in a cottage near Burnside. Andre as the owner of an Air BnB. Andre as local guy ordering one of everything off the Pine State menu. Portland Andre just sounds wonderful.

And the match was good! It was really smartly laid out, and while I didn't get as much Andre running amok as I wanted, I was still satisfied. First fall was mostly Hack and Andre, with Hack trying to keep the heels at bay and the heels all dying once Andre tagged in. The second fall was really great, with Andre stranded on the apron as the heels cut off the ring and took apart Sawyer. There were a couple really great spots of Sawyer coming so close to tagging Andre in, with one spot seeing him reaching out but Oliver grabbing Sawyer's close arm and pulling him away. Also a great spot of Andre leaning WAY in on the right part of the screen to tag Sawyer practically halfway across the ring. Rip is great and crazy, taunting the giant, and I loved Borne going up top for a splash on Sawyer only to catch knees. I didn't see that coming. Sawyer was really good as a babyface fighting from under, knowing his gigantic get out of jail free card was looming over on the apron. Sawyer was a really important factor here, as the focus of most of the match was on him and his struggles to get to Andre. And yes this was a fine fine babyface performance from him. His hope spots were good, the alllllmost tags to Andre were good, the selling was good. This is maybe the most I've loved Hack Sawyer. Third fall sees the heels wisely draw Andre away from the ring, with Borne and Hogan luring him out into the crowd. Andre going wild down the aisle of the Portland Sports Arena, bodyslamming dudes while tiny humans looked on, while Oliver held Sawyer into a full nelson that would surely end the match. Andre fights his way back and every time he'd roll in to save Sawyer would believably get drug out by Hogan or Borne. Andre would ram them into each other, kick them off, but both men were really good about just holding all their weight onto Andre's legs since Sawyer's time was running out. I was excited to see how it would end but alas, it ends with men running in. I don't know why heels would run in when the heels would clearly have won anyway. I guess because they're jerks? Probably because they're jerks.

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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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