Portland Wrestling
1977-1979
VOLUME 13

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 9/15/79:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (8/26/1979)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Stan Stasiak (6/30/1979)
PNW Tag Team Champions: The Sheepherders (7/21/1979)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

Adonis is booting Rose out of Portland Wrestling!! (Portland Wrestling, 9/15/79)

Frank once again reminds us that Adrian Adonis LOVES Portland and has just purchased a home here right when the poor guy wants to fight Buddy Rose in a “loser leaves town” match. Adonis calls out to his fans for their support as he plans to send Rose packing this Tuesday night.

• Hair Match: Buddy Rose vs. Steve Pardee – (Portland Wrestling, 9/15/79)
  

As we learned in the last edition of Portland Wrestling, newcomer Steve Pardee with the support of Stan Stasiak has accepted the open challenge for a hair match. Rip Rogers combs Buddy’s hair in only what can be described as “homosexual”. Some security guys make sure he leaves the ringside area. Pardee shows he will go punch for punch and move for move with Rose to start. After Rose bails out, he comes back inside trying to send Pardee into the turnbuckle and fails. Pardee smashes Rose’s face off the buckle and whips him from corner to corner. Once again, Rose backpedals to the floor. Back in, Rose holds Pardee down with a headlock. When Pardee escapes, he armdrags Rose over for an armbar. As Portland babyfaces are known to do, he cranks on a wristlock as the crowd counts along with him. Rose avoids a corner charge causing Pardee to ram his shoulder into the buckle. He works the arm of Pardee who uses forearm smashes to get away from Rose. Pardee’s offense is like something out of the 1960s. Rose tries to keep Pardee on the floor by snapping his neck off the top rope. It gets so bad that ref Sandy Barr considers DQ’ing Rose, but Pardee is too FIRED UP for that. Rose goes after Pardee and gets thrown into the ringpost. Back inside, Pardee gives Rose what Bonnema calls “turnbuckle treatment”. A few jumping dropkicks from Pardee, but he misses a third one. Pardee surprises Rose with a sunset flip, but only gets two. Rose pounds the back and whips Pardee into the ropes again, but Pardee kicks him in the face. He grabs a headlock, but then Rose hoists Pardee up in the air and gives him the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER for the win. (14:41) Pardee was so boring that I was rooting for Rose to beat him. Rose tried to at least make him look like a worthy challenger though. You could be Mort Goldman going against Buddy Rose in Portland and the people there would cheer for you – just hoping you would embarrass that jerk Buddy Rose. Say goodbye to those long brown locks, Steve. **

Buddy Rose is getting rid of Adrian Adonis!! (Portland Wrestling, 9/15/79)

Buddy Rose mocks Steve Pardee playing with a handful of his hair. He says he underestimated how good Pardee was, but he didn’t underestimate his own abilities. Moving onto Adonis, there is no way he’s taking Rose out of Portland. He’s the biggest moneymaker this town has ever seen. He may have lost two straight falls to Adonis last Saturday, but the odds of beating Rose twice are pretty high. In fact, Rip Rogers has done the math. It is about one in 338,000 chances. GO AHEAD AND RENT THAT U-HAUL, ADRIAN. Rose refuses to lose to Adonis because he doesn’t want to lose all of his fancy stuff, but Adonis is fighting for his own family. Now that’s wrestling.

Rose still has his hairdryer!! (Portland Wrestling, 9/15/79)

Before they close the show, Buddy Rose comes over to show he can still use his blow dryer on his luscious locks. Oh that’s such an awesome dick move. The video quality gets pretty rough and the audio isn’t in sync, but you can hear what his last threats towards Adrian Adonis for the Tuesday night “loser leaves town” match. SPOILER ALERT: Buddy Rose wins so that Adrian Adonis can go work in the AWA.

Rose responds to Bastien’s Hair Match challenge!! (Portland Wrestling, 10/20/79)

Buddy Rose and the Sheepherders are hanging out with Frank Bonnema. Red Bastien has challenged Buddy Rose to a hair match, but Rose doesn’t accept the challenge because he feels Bastien hasn’t proven himself worthy of such a stipulation. Talk turns to the returning Roddy Piper. Rose assumed Piper wouldn’t be able to wrestle again, but he assumed wrong. Rose says he’s going to stay away from Piper for now. As for the Sheepherders, Rose says their little threesome is the latest incarnation of the Rose Army. Luke gets some mic time and stumbles through a challenge to Piper and Stan Stasiak and anyone else who wants to step to them. Butch seems like the sane one of the crew pointing out that Don Owen keeps bringing in these guys who he knows will just end up getting hurt real bad. Rose makes a point to challenge any three guys in the area and reminds us that Piper will *not* touch him. OH REALLY?

• Buddy Rose vs. Red Bastien – (Portland Wrestling, 10/20/79)
  

So apparently Rose signed a match with an unknown masked guy. The mask comes off and it’s Red Bastien. His best wrestling days are certainly behind him as he’s 48 years of age at this point. Anyways, Bastien jumps Rose and they play around with a headlock for over five minutes. Bastien kicks off the ropes one time too many and Rose brings him down on the mat with a back suplex. In traditional Rose fashion, he takes advantage and starts pounding the back. When Rose telegraphs a backdrop, Bastien makes his comeback and puts Rose out with a SLEEPERHOLD. (9:04) With a win over Rose, naturally this leads to a hair match. Since it doesn’t air on TV, we’ll never see Red Bastien lose those red locks. *½

Over with Frank Bonnema, Red Bastien congratulates the new mayor of Portland and gets his name wrong. Anyways, he says there is a pumpkin in Portland disguised as a rose – referring to Buddy. He says Buddy’s real name is Pumpkin Head and shows us a creepy looking jack-o-lantern. He reveals that Steve Pardee is his protégé and tells us he’s going to help him out by getting revenge on Buddy Rose in a hair match on October 30 when jack-o-lanterns are in style. When he puts the sleeperhold on Rose, Buddy will get his head shaved. Paramedics will need to be on location to help any weak-hearted fans who won’t be able to withstand the sight of him once he’s bald. Man, Red Bastien is hilarious.

Piper insults the Kiwis & Rose assumes too much!! (Portland Wrestling, 10/20/79)

Roddy Piper comes out to defend the Portland people over the comments the Sheepherders have been making about their town. He then responds to Buddy Rose’s comments from earlier and says he’s bringing back Sam Oliver Bass who haven’t seen since he was beating up Buddy Rose in 1977. Between Piper, Red Bastien, and Sam Oliver Bass, Buddy Rose and the Sheepherders will be pretty busy. He drops the famous “you don’t throw rocks at a guy who has got a machinegun” line. Just watch it.

The Rose Army is fed up with Bass & Piper!! (Portland Wrestling, 10/20/79)

Buddy Rose and the Sheepherders complain about Sam Oliver Bass coming to town. Luke and Butch threaten Roddy Piper since he’s never faced the likes of them. NEVER INSULT NEW ZEALANDERS EVER. Rose says he’ll let the Sheepherders concentrate on Bass and Piper while he’ll take care of Red Bastien. He says Bastien put him out earlier with a chokehold trying to choke him to death. I’m looking forward to this six-man – I know that much.

• Buddy Rose vs. Steve Pardee – (Portland Wrestling, 10/27/79)
  

We JIP to Pardee working over Rose’s arm. With as exciting as Pardee can be, this could take days and never go anywhere. Nah, I kid. When Rose finally escapes about five minutes into that, he drops a few knees on Pardee’s head for two. Rose grabs a headlock with the injured arm and Pardee elbows out as Rose starts to backpedal and beg off. A hiptoss and a pair of dropkicks gets two on Rose. Both guys try splashes and both guys hit knees. Rose sets him up though and hits the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER out of nowhere, but he lifts Pardee off the canvas at two. He gives Pardee one more backbreaker and pins him in the center of the ring. (8:49 shown) Once again, I’d still root for Buddy against this ham-and-egger.

Red Bastien is ready to shave Rose’s head!! (Portland Wrestling, 10/27/79)

Red Bastien tries to get over this pumpkin head nickname for Rose. He then says he’s going to shave Buddy Rose’s head OFF on October 30, which I’d pay to see.

Roddy Piper on Buddy Rose at an orgy!! (Portland Wrestling, 10/27/79)

More awesomeness from Piper. The best line is Buddy Rose is the type of guy who goes to an orgy and complains about the cheese dip. He brings up the Sheepherders and makes some ugly jokes. He tells the people how much he enjoys their love and attention establishing himself as a babyface. He’s just on another level than everybody else in Portland.

• 2/3 Falls: The Sheepherders & Buddy Rose vs. Roddy Piper, Red Bastien & Sam Oliver Bass – (Portland Wrestling, 10/27/79)
  

FIRST FALL: Alright, let’s get this going. Bastien shines over Rose to start. Piper gets a tag and goes after Rose, but Rose stays away from Piper. The Sheepherders can’t deal with Piper as they get punched around. Some fans are balling up paper cups and throwing them at the wrestlers. Bonnema calls them “idiots” and tries to remind the TV audience that when they come to see wrestling to just stay in your seat. Hilarious. Bass tags in and punishes Luke with elbows. Back to Piper, he jabs Luke in the throat using his thumb behind ref Sandy Barr’s back. Rose and Butch have a fit over that. Piper finally gets cornered on the wrong side of town to be triple-teamed. He does a good job picking his spots as he tries to fight his way out. When Piper is down, Rose will come in and hit a jumping back elbow for two. More damage on Piper, but Rose lets him tag out to Bastien. Whoops. He’s a house of fire and locks on the SLEEPERHOLD on Rose. The Sheepherders try and break it up, but Bass and Piper hold them off at the pass. Rose goes down and out as the good guys win the first fall at 10:06.

SECOND FALL: Bastien goes for the SLEEPERHOLD on Rose immediately, but he’s nailed from behind by Luke. The Rose Army works over Red’s back and finish him off with a series of backbreakers in 11:56 total.

THIRD FALL: Owen tells us there are four minutes remaining in the show. The Rose Army picks up where things left off working on Bastien. Luke comes flying off the top rope with a double sledge on Red. Rose misses an atomic drop and receives one by Red. Hot tag to SOB, he is cleaning house until the match breaks down. Sandy Barr restores order and gets Piper and Bastien to return their corner while Bass gives the Sheepherders the DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER. Rose ends up catching Bass in the face from the apron and helps turn the tide. Bass fights off Butch though and tags in Piper. Only about a minute left. Piper unloads on Butch in the corner and brings Rose over for a DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER. The Rose Army looks beaten tonight. Bastien tackles Luke as the Sheepherders are whipped into one another. The fight continues until we run out of TV time. (16:00 total) Fun little match with lots of heat and tag team psychology. ***

Rose wants no part of Stasiak!! (Portland Wrestling, 10/27/79)

To close the program, Bonnema announces that the PNW heavyweight champ Stan Stasiak has challenged Buddy Rose for next Saturday night whether he’s got any hair or not. Buddy Rose talks about the hair match instead, but Bonnema wants to know about the match with Stasiak. Rose says he can win the heavyweight title whether or not he’s got hair. So there ya have it. The Sheepherders blabber on about who knows what to end the show.

Final Thoughts: The Piper promos are can’t miss and the six-man main event was pretty fun. Steve Pardee is unfortunately for all of us in his prime and Red Bastien is WAY past his prime. Even though Rose makes them look good, the matches aren’t much to see.

Next time, we’ll visit November 1979 and see Buddy Rose and Stan Stasiak go at it over the PNW heavyweight title!