Portland Wrestling
1977-1979
VOLUME 11

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 7/14/79:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (2/6/1977)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Stan Stasiak (6/30/1979)
PNW Tag Team Champions: Adrian Adonis & Ron Starr (4/3/1979)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

“Disco” Buddy Rose is a helluva dancer!! (Portland Wrestling, 7/14/79)

Buddy Rose is all dressed up and has no place to go. He still has his hair, which is MOST important to him right now. After the match last Tuesday, Rip Rogers says that he and Rose went to Las Vegas where they saw Donna Summer, former boxing heavyweight champ Leon Spinks asked for Buddy’s autograph, and they even got to spend some time with Ike and Tina Turner. Where they even together in July 1979? Anyways, Rogers discovered that Buddy Rose was quite a wonderful dancer while they were in Las Vegas. Buddy points out what a great physique Rip Rogers has and then they flash a bunch of letters from the chicks who are asking to go out with them – just so we know they aren’t light in the loafers. Send in your picture, write something nice to them, and they will pick out themselves a girl in four weeks. Rip makes sure to tell us they don’t like ugly girls. HA!

• 2/3 Falls: Adrian Adonis & Ron Starr vs. The Sheepherders – (Portland Wrestling, 7/14/79)
  

FIRST FALL: This is the Portland debut of the Sheepherders. Just to check up on Don Owen’s claim that this is the first time they have been in the US, I believe that is true. They mostly only spent time in Japan or western Canada at this point. Strange seeing them with long hair here. Frank gets Butch and Luke confused a few times during the match, but I think we’ll give him a break on that. Another note to add is this is non-title since the Sheepherders are unproven in the area. As Luke and Adonis circle each other in the ring, Butch reaches in at Adonis from the apron, which gets the crowd RILED up. When they tie up, Luke gets the better of Adonis on a few occasions. Once Adonis counters into an overhead wristlock, Luke is right there to tag Butch. He can’t take the crowd noise (?) and tags out. Adonis and Starr take turns twisting on Luke’s arm. When he gets close to Butch for a tag, Butch is down the apron yelling God knows what at the crowd to shut them up. Eventually, Adonis makes a mistake and gets sent into the Sheepherders corner. In comes Butch, he seems to have a seizure every time the crowd gets loud. Back to Luke, he continues to work over Adonis. Butch gets another tag and ends up making the mistake for his team. Starr is nailing Butch from the apron while Luke comes in and rips on Adonis. He fights out of the Sheepherders corner by dropping Luke off the apron with a back elbow and dropkicking Butch down. HOT TAG TO STARR! He does just fine until Luke catches him with a knee from the apron. The Sheepherders double clothesline Starr. While Butch is fighting with Adonis, Luke jabs Starr possibly in the throat. He’s got the pin and Barr is late, but he still get the three count at 7:28. The Sheepherders HAD to win that first fall with all the hype the promotion put behind them.

SECOND FALL: Not available on the tape.

THIRD FALL: We pick up somewhere in the early part of the third fall. There’s a fun double whip for the Sheepherders. The good guys do-see-do and dropkick them back. Awesome. Now Butch is in trouble and Adonis sets him up for the dreaded Spinning Toe Hold. Luke punches him off Butch though. Butch runs Adonis into the top rope to take back control. Piledriver to Adonis! That gets the win. Starr was just too late making the save. (9:19 shown) Can’t really rate this since we haven’t seen the second fall. Knowing Portland and the way it seems to work, it was probably shorter than the first fall. We can’t say that for sure though. Anyways, fun introduction to the Sheepherders as they will be warring through Portland for the next year. We don’t seem to have any footage of the title change, but next week the Sheepherders get a PNW tag titles match and beat Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr again to win the belts. Adrian Adonis will stick around in Portland for a little while longer for a short feud with Buddy Rose, but Ron Starr will be heading out to Kansas City for a while where you know he’s going to make the big bucks. Har har.

Kiwi Sheepherders debut in Portland Wrestling!! (Portland Wrestling, 7/14/79)

In their own crazy way, the Sheepherders gloat about beating Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr before revealing their lofty plan of eventually winning all the tag team championship belts in the US. After about a minute of that, Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr come over and run them off by pointing fingers at them. Starr admits they underestimated the Sheepherders, but will give them a tag title match next Saturday. Adrian is so disappointed after losing the match that he’s SHEDDING TEARS because he feels he let everybody down. He promises to never let the fans in Portland down again. Never make a promise you can’t keep, Adrian! Oh boy.

Buddy Rose: Fortune Teller!! (Portland Wrestling, 7/14/79)

Buddy Rose comes out and predicts the Sheepherders will beat Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr next week for the tag titles. He predicted he would beat Roddy Piper and look how *that* turned out. He also predicts that Stan Stasiak will remain the PNW heavyweight champion until Stasiak defends the belt against him. He closes with a jab at Dutch Savage. Rose meets him later in the show for a coal miner’s glove match, which of course Dutch wins.

• Buddy Rose (w/Rip Rogers) vs. King Parsons – (Portland Wrestling, 7/21/79)
  

Before the match, Buddy Rose makes a challenge to Stan Stasiak and his PNW heavyweight title. The crowd boos the challenge, but then he lists off all the top guys he had knocked off when they came through Portland: Piper, Boyd, Ventura, Youngblood, Hector Guerrero, and on and on. Looks like Buddy has spent more time in Hawaii. This is very young King Parsons. No fancy hairdo, no chest tattoo, no sunglasses. Just plain old King Parsons with a cool afro. He’s much larger as well than classic Iceman. As far as I know, this is his first promotion he has worked outside of Texas. Onto the match, Rose can only control Parsons and his arm for so long before Parsons counters and starts yanking on Rose’s arm much to the delight of the fans. I mean, they’re really digging it. Being the veteran over Parsons, Rose catches him in the back with a knee clearly with his Billy Robinson backbreaker in mind. Since Parsons is of the African persuasion, his skull back in these days and well into the 1980s is much thicker than that of the inferior white man, so a turnbuckle smash is a bad method of attack. Parsons fires back on Rose with headbutts. He gives Rose a backdrop and he’s begging off. Only three weeks in Portland and Parsons is already looking like he can hang thanks to Rose. Parsons misses a dropkick though as Rose holds onto the ropes. He starts dropping knees on the back of Parsons and we have come to the end of our tape here. (9:24 shown) According to the results, Parsons does win the match via DQ. How you ask? I have no idea.

Buddy Rose: A Perfect Physical Specimen (Portland Wrestling, 7/28/79)

Buddy Rose and Rip Rogers talk with Frank Bonnema. Rose is looking for tag team challengers. Rogers has his mind on beautiful girls and Buddy Rose’s physique, which is pretty fruity. He thinks Rose has the looks of Robert Redford, Clark Gable, and John Travolta. Rogers then points out all the things Rose has going for him in the muscle department. Probably seemed super straight in 1979, but it feels super gay in 2016.

• (2/3 Falls) PNW Heavyweight Championship: Stan Stasiak (c) vs. Buddy Rose – (Portland Wrestling, 7/28/79)
  

FIRST FALL: Rose tells the crowd he was originally supposed to play the part of Rocky Balboa because of the body he has and the things he can do in the ring. There’s a fun fact for ya. He does some one-armed pushups to anger/impress the crowd. At first, Rose thinks he wants to trade punches with Stan Stasiak. Yeah, that’s a BAD idea. Rose ducks out and tries to regroup or rethink his strategy. Rip Rogers comes down to psyche him up, but Dutch Savage and Adrian Adonis run him off. Rose thinks about leaving the match altogether a time or two, but Savage and Adonis force him back inside the ring. He turns around into a left jab from Stasiak. He takes a few more shots and has to take another powder. It’s not just stalling for the sake of stalling, there’s psychology there. Back in, Rose shoots on Stasiak and stretches him across his knees working the back. Rose’s work on Stasiak’s back gets so bad that even he has to roll to the floor. Rose meets him on the outside and slams him on the concrete because hey why not. Stasiak slowly gets back in the ring only for Rose to back body drop and slam Stasiak to set up the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER to win the first fall at 6:36. Good stuff.

SECOND FALL: Like the wrestler he is, Rose goes right back to work on the injured back. He once again stretches Stasiak across his knees, but Stasiak uses the ropes to stand up and drops his knee on Rose. He puts Stasiak in a bear hug, but that leaves Rose vulnerable to be punched in the face. Rose still manages to whip Stasiak from corner to corner for a powerslam. That gets two. Stasiak reverses a whip to the corner and knees Rose in the gut so set him up for the HEART PUNCH at 10:05 total. Good night, Rose. Rip Rogers comes in and tries to massage some live back into his partner.

THIRD FALL: Rose is still suffering from the Heart Punch. Bonnema wonders if he’s not just kidding around. He also wonders why Rip Rogers is being allowed to remain at ringside here. More backpedaling from Rose. Once Sandy Barr has enough of the stalling, he speeds up the twenty count. Back inside, Stasiak hammers on Rose and pounds on the lower back before tossing him out over the top rope. How is that not a DQ? Back in again, Rose and Stasiak try and miss their finishers on each other like it’s 1998. When Stasiak tells the ref that Rip Rogers should not be out here, Dutch Savage and Adrian Adonis physically carry him to the back. Now Stasiak is on fire! He backdrops and slams Rose all over the place before tossing him back out over the top rope. Stasiak follows Rose out and gives him a slam on the floor as payback from the first fall. Rose crawls around ringside to try to surprise Stasiak, but it doesn’t work. Stasiak goes for the Heart Punch in the corner, but Rose ducks and Stasiak punches the turnbuckle. Rose starts stomping Stasiak’s right hand, but Stasiak refuses to lose his title this way and jabs at Rose with his left hand. After Rose backs him up with an eye rake, Stasiak fires back with one big right hand blow across the chops causing Rose to go down. Cover, 1-2-NO! Rose gets his foot on the bottom rope. Double KO ensues. Rose rolls over on top of Stasiak for a cover, but Stasiak taps him on the shoulder at the two-count causing Rose to get up to celebrate. Bonnema calls this the oldest trick in the book and maybe it is. I’ve seen it once before looking back at 1979 Memphis. Anywho, Stasiak knocks Rose through the ropes as we come to the time limit draw. Stasiak retains the gold. (16:58 total) Just an overall fun match here. I always mark out for the way Buddy Rose either sets you up for that backbreaker or immediately capitalizes on any mistake you make. Rose is SO GOOD. Even for Stasiak being near the end of his main event career here, he’s not bad. ***¼

Ladies love Playboy & Hustler!! (Portland Wrestling, 8/4/79)

Time to decide on a girl for Buddy Rose and Rip Rogers to take out on the town. They have it narrowed down to 100 girls from 700 total. HA! Rogers makes a comment about most people are either too fat from eating too many carbs or too skinny from not getting enough protein. He’s such a body man. Rose talks about how he can do anything in professional sports. If he and Stasiak had an hour to wrestle last week, he would be the PNW heavyweight champion right now. Back to Rip, he continues to talk about how lame the average man is and how desirable he has become. He’s the Austin Idol of Portland for sure. Before we go, Rose makes a sharp comment about Adrian Adonis not having Ron Starr around.

• Buddy Rose vs. Sal Martino – (Portland Wrestling, 8/4/79)
  

FIRST FALL: Did I understand Don Owen correctly? The Portland wrestling timeslot is moving from 11PM to 12:30 AM? That’s terrible. WWF fans of the 1980s will no doubt recognize Rose’s opponent as Salvatore Bellomo who was a TV jobber for many years. However, here he shocks Rose with a crossbody block and pins him in :28.

SECOND FALL: Martino gets an inside cradle and almost wins this match. Martino controls Rose with a headlock while Rose uses the trunks to try to get the pin. The old lady in the front row gets up to let ref Sandy Barr know what injustices are being done here. Rose bails out and meets Rip for some encouragement. Back inside, Rose goes right back into the headlock. Rose pulls the hair and yanks Martino down into a headscissors. Of course, Rose would never pull hair. Alright, well our tape cuts out here and goes to the third fall.

THIRD FALL: Bonnema explains what we missed it seems. Rose works the midsection and grabs a bear hug. Martino ear claps his way out, but Rose baits him into the corner. Martino reverses the cross corner whip though and shoulder butts Rose. Martino knocks Rose down with a shoulder block and hits another crossbody block for 1-2-NO! Rose sets him up again and catches Martino charging at him with the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER for the win. (8:40 shown) Another fun little contest from Rose. This reminded me of Ric Flair psychology where when Martino thought he had Rose, Rose had Martino. **½

Well that’s all she wrote for this edition of Portland Wrestling. When we come back for part 12, we will be visiting the Adonis versus Rose feud.