Portland Wrestling
1977-1979
VOLUME 9

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 5/19/79:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (2/6/1977)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Roddy Piper (2/17/1979)
PNW Tag Team Champions: Adrian Adonis & Ron Starr (4/3/1979)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

• NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race vs. Jumbo Tsuruta – (All Japan Pro Wrestling, 6/11/77)
  

We get the closing moments of this 2/3 falls match on the May 19 edition of Portland Wrestling. Not sure why this exact match is being shown because as far as I know, neither man is coming to the area any time soon. Maybe they just want to remind us who Harley Race is since the NWA world champ hasn’t been to Portland in a very long time. Poor Tsuruta crashes and burns trying the High Knee and Race gets him with an inside cradle for the pinfall. (1:20 shown) For anyone interested to watch the whole match, this is a pretty easy find on YouTube. Just to let you know if you want to shy away from this sort of match because it’s 2/3 falls and you think it’ll be too long for you, the whole thing is only about 25 minutes. Not too bad. Bonnema tells us that Jimmy Snuka could be in line for an NWA world title shot very soon. Ahh, so there’s why we got to see this matchup. It won’t happen though as Race doesn’t return to wrestle in Portland until January 1980 to defend against Rick Martel.

• (Lumberjack Match) PNW Heavyweight Championship: Roddy Piper (c) vs. Buddy Rose – (Portland Wrestling, 5/19/79)
  

The lumberjacks include Ed Wiskowski, Adrian Adonis, Ron Starr, Matt Borne, Johnny Mantell, and Stan Stasiak. Killer Brooks is conspicuous by his absence as he has been rumored to be returning tonight. Unlike most Portland matches, this will be just one fall to a finish. Piper’s game plan is clear: he’s going after Buddy Rose’s arm. Once Rose backs Piper into the corner, Wiskowski trips up Piper so Rose can get an advantage. Rose stomps Piper on the head and tries wearing him down with a chinlock. When Piper starts to come out of the hold, Rose sends him from corner to corner and then throws him out. Stasiak makes sure Wiskowski puts Piper back inside the ring. Rose lands an atomic drop, but only gets two. Piper punches Rose back, but gets whipped into the ropes for a backdrop. Rose wants another one, but he telegraphs the move and gets booted. They trade punches and Rose falls out of the ring. THERE’S NO ESCAPE! Now here comes Piper. He snapmares Rose and gives him a good stomp on the head. Mr. Wrestling II knee lift connects and Rose tries to bail out again. Since he seems to want out of the ring so bad, Piper throws him clear over the top rope to the floor. Back inside, Piper shows us his sparring skills only to miss a dropkick. Piper shoves a bulldog off into the corner and gives Rose an airplane spin. Too dizzy to quickly pounce on Rose, the slow cover only gets two. They both end up brawling on the floor. While Piper is the first man back in the ring, Rose is kept on the floor while Wiskowski jumps Piper in the ring. Ref Sandy Barr doesn’t seem to care. Meanwhile, KILLER BROOKS returns and whips on Wiskowski with a dog collar chain. The crowd is going nuts. The lumberjacks put Rose back inside. Brooks legdrops Rose and puts Piper on top of him for the 1-2-3. (13:52) After the bell, Brooks throws Wiskowski and Rose out over the top rope before embracing his buddy Piper. The match was okay; nothing really all that special. You could see the finish coming, but still very fun. **½

From 5/19/79 over the crow’s nest, Piper gets us all excited about the return of Killer Brooks. If Ed Wiskowski and Buddy Rose want some more, just bring it. Brooks says he hasn’t worn the boots he’s wearing since he came home from Vietnam. He put those boots on to come here to FIGHT. He and Piper plan on fighting Wiskowski and Rose every night and in every city if that’s what it takes to settle this. Brooks will take out Wiskowski first and then Rose. Awesome.

• 2/3 Falls: Buddy Rose vs. Johnny Eagles – (Portland Wrestling, 5/26/79)
  

FIRST FALL: This is the only match we’ll be watching of Johnny Eagles. He’s one of those fancy old timer British wrestlers with their own fancy British style. Ed Wiskowski is at ringside and he’s not supposed to be since he’s not a manager. Rose takes forever trying to get his shirt off. He pokes his head through the ropes to talk to Wiskowski and when he turns back around, Eagles jabs him in the face and O’Connor rolls him up for the three-count at 1:34. They love doing this finish to Rose because the crowd gets a good laugh at his expense.

During the break, Killer Brooks holds up his dog collar chain and tells Buddy Rose that he’s going to get the dog collar match with him and it’s going to happen right here in Portland.

SECOND FALL: Rose finally takes off his t-shirt. No Wiskowski this time either. Eagles spends 80% of this match showing off his fancy escapes and counters to all the basic holds Rose tries to apply. Around the six minute mark of the match, Rose tries to apply those same escapes and counters to the holds and Eagles has a counter to the counter making Rose look even more foolish. Since Eagles is clearly the superior wrestler, Rose gives up on wrestling and starts kicking and punching and stomping. He then decides to go after the arm which is wrestling, but Eagles starts throwing forearms at him. He charges Rose one good time in the corner and runs into a knee. Rose delivers an Atomic Drop and Eagles kicks ref Sandy Barr in the face by accident. Rose refuses to let that deter him from pinning Eagles. He drags Sandy Barr over to Eagles and Barr slowly counts the pinfall to give Rose the second fall at 9:15.

THIRD FALL: It sounds like the announcer says only four minutes remaining at the beginning of the third fall. Eagles starts off strong until Rose catches him trying a dropkick and catapults Eagles into the top rope bouncing him backwards onto Rose’s knees. That’s enough setup for the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER for the win. (11:57 total) Well, that second fall was at least really fun. I would go higher if the other two falls weren’t so short. **½

After the bell, Killer Brooks attacks Buddy Rose from behind with the dog chain. He continues to abuse Rose with the chain busting him open in the process. Once he has the chain wrapped around Rose’s neck, Brooks drags Rose all the way up to the crow’s nest to Frank Bonnema. Brooks beats on Rose until he agrees to the dog collar match. Now that he has got what he wants, Roddy Piper comes over to calm Brooks down. Rose is still gagging after being choked the way he was. Ed Wiskowski comes to his aid and speaks up for Rose. Apparently he was locked in the dressing room during the match. Wiskowski tells Rose he never should have said yes because he’s going to kill you. Rose says he’ll face Brooks because he refuses to be embarrassed by the people. If this match goes on TV, Rose says he’ll never wrestle here again. Welp, the dog collar match is coming next Saturday, folks. It should be awesome.

• Dog Collar Match: Killer Brooks vs. Buddy Rose – (Portland Wrestling, 6/2/79)
  

Buddy Rose reminds Don Owen that he said he wouldn’t wrestle in Portland anymore if this match airs on the tube. Owen is fine with that, but Rose still signed a contract for this match. Either start the match or leave. DANG. I don’t know where this match originated, but you gotta think Roddy Piper had this match in mind when he came to Mid-Atlantic. Rose decides to head for the door until Roddy Piper stands in his way. He backs Rose into Brooks where Rose finally gets collared. Owen says he regrets putting this type of match on TV. Bonnema says this is a type of match Brooks discovered down in Texas. Brooks uses the chain to his advantage just choking, whipping, and punching Rose. Since he can’t do much else, Rose low blows Brooks to get him to stop. Now it’s Rose’s turn to use the chain. He wraps the chain around Brooks’ mouth and throat to get him to nearly pass out. His arm drops once, twice, but NOT THREE TIMES. Brooks low blows Rose this time. He starts punching Rose in the forehead with the chain wrapped around his fist and busts open Rose. He wraps the chain around the cut and takes Rose over to the corner for a turnbuckle smash. He punches Rose back down and Rose takes a long bump that it jerks on his neck. As if it wouldn’t hurt enough on its own, don’t forget that Brooks just came back from a neck injury at the hands of Rose and Wiskowski. Just awesome storytelling here. So Rose catches a break, but it’s short lived as Brooks fires back and slams Rose. He misses a legdrop as Rose bails out. Brooks comes with him and chokes Rose’s neck up against the ringpost using the chain. That’s when Ed Wiskowski appears and stops Brooks with a chair. He takes the dog collar off Brooks and beats him up inside the ring as the ref calls for the bell to throw out the match. (8:45) Roddy Piper comes back out for the save. Rose gets pulled into the ring as Piper and Brooks give Wiskowski and Rose a DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER. When Piper and Brooks pick up the chain, Wiskowski and Rose get the heck out of Dodge. Sandy Barr awards the match to Brooks since Wiskowski interfered. If you enjoy the Piper/Valentine match, there’s no reason you won’t love this. ***½

Roddy Piper and Killer Brooks (with a cigar in his mouth) head over to talk to Frank Bonnema. Piper wants a tag match with Ed Wiskowski and Buddy Rose this Tuesday night in Portland. Don Owen comes over and tells Piper to “pipe down”. He postpones the tag match until next Saturday night and makes a CAGE MATCH between Brooks and Rose to settle this once and for all for Tuesday night. If either Piper or Wiskowski interferes, they will be suspended. Piper says he can promise Don Owen one thing: Wiskowski will be nowhere near the ring.

To respond to the cage match idea, a bandaged up Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski meet with Frank Bonnema. Since Wiskowski says he has superior Polish intelligence, getting into the cage this Tuesday night and helping out Buddy won’t be a problem. As Roddy Piper and Killer Brooks come over to talk more smack at Wiskowski and Rose, Owen gets in between them and threatens suspension. He makes a change to the Tuesday night main event: Owen now puts ALL FOUR MEN in the cage match. So much for worrying about interference. Wiskowski promises Owen he won’t interfere if he’ll just stick to the original plan. HAHA. Rose brings up a cage match they were involved in against the late Moondog Mayne and Sam Oliver Bass. They are undefeated in tag team cage matches. No more interfering. No more running. They aren’t scared. They are scarred up and worn out, but they have more heart than Piper and Brooks combined. Wiskowski tells us to keep this mind: they are WINNERS in cage matches. Rose and Wiskowski keep on talking and hyping this match, but I think Bonnema is ready to move on here.

So Killer Brooks would have his revenge in the cage match Tuesday night and he’d shortly after head back to Texas – never to be seen in Portland again.

Next time we come back to Portland, Hustler Rip Rogers comes to town! It should be a fun time.