Portland Wrestling
1977-1979
VOLUME 16

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 12/8/1979:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (11/7/1979)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Buddy Rose (11/17/1979)
PNW Tag Team Champions: The Sheepherders (11/9/1979)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

Rose has the belt & Bastein’s hair!! (Portland Wrestling, 12/8/79)

Buddy Rose pulls out a bunch of Red Bastien’s hair that he saved from their hair match. Well, isn’t *that* a tad creepy. The sponsors of Portland wrestling (particularly Tom Peterson) are putting up $1000 to any wrestler who will accept a hair match with Rose. Buddy names some Portland guys, but wants Roddy Piper the most. JUST ACCEPT THE MATCH, YOU BUNCHA COWARDS. As Rose continues to win hair matches, he’s going to keep collecting scalps like a complete and total weirdo.

Rose gets Piper in a Cage Match!! (Portland Wrestling, 12/22/79)

Because this is how you properly sell a cage match, Buddy Rose cuts a promo in front of some cyclone fencing. He pulls a tomato out of a paper sack and grinds it into the fencing to show Portland what he plans to do to Piper. Simple yet effective.

Piper breaks a beer bottle on his head!! (Portland Wrestling, 12/22/79)

For a rebuttal directed at Buddy Rose, Roddy Piper puts on some Santa Claus gear and talks to some kids. He tells everybody to reach into their pockets to help out some kids who won’t have too great of a Christmas. He then throws a wad of money into the audience. Awesome. He sends the kids away and talks about Rose squashing tomatoes into the cage. That doesn’t scare Piper one bit. Look how tough he is. Some young fellows named Matt Borne and King Parsons hold up a towel behind Piper to prevent anybody in the crowd from getting hit with glass and beer. Piper takes a glass bottle of beer and smashes it over his head. There wasn’t any blood pouring out of Piper’s head here like the one he does in a few months up in Vancouver. Piper uses some ZZ Top lyrics to describe how he feels and we are onto the races.

Ya know ZZ Top sings about how women love a sharp-dressed man. But you know what women don’t love? Men with long, disgusting beards. Just a little Norm Macdonald humor for ya.

• 2/3 Falls: The Sheepherders & Buddy Rose vs. Rick Martel, Stan Stasiak & Yaqui Joe – (Portland Wrestling, 12/22/79)
  

FIRST FALL: I don’t really have any information on this Yaqui Joe character. He’s very Chief Jay Strongbow-esque. We see him here in this match and one more with Buddy Rose (of course) in the following week, but that’s all we see of him here. Bonnema announces that since Rick Martel has beaten Bull Ramos in two straight falls, he will be receiving an NWA world title shot against Harley Race in January 1980. Since that match appeared on TV, we will be recapping that one which I am looking forward to seeing. Stan Stasiak needs no introduction. Martel looks good against the Rose Army to start until he’s suckered and maneuvered into their corner. He blocks a turnbuckle smash though and returns the favor to Rose. He grinds on the headlock a bunch and elbows Rose down for two. Tag to Joe, he cranks on the headlock a whole bunch more than Martel. Rose staggers into the wrong corner and gets punched by Stasiak. More headlockage from Stasiak and he punches Rose down. Luke tags in and he gets the same treatment now from Martel. Stasiak cranks on the headlock until Butch saves the day. Okay guys, let’s do something besides the headlock bit. Rose walks in and takes a headscissors takedown out of the ring by Martel. Backdrop to Luke gets two. Tag to Butch, they fight back and forth in the corner until Martel runs into a boot. Luke covers Martel for two. Martel leaps over a backdrop attempt and crossbody blocks Luke for 1-2-NO! Butch yanks Martel to the apron. Rose tries putting Martel away with the jumping back elbow, but doesn’t get the three-count. We get a false tag spot for the face team. The Rose Army work over Martel with chinlocks until Rose misses a jumping dropkick. Rose misses a jumping elbow drop as well. HOT TAG TO STASIAK! Rose takes a nasty bump in the corner there. Joe wants to put away Rose, but Rose reaches his corner for a tag to Luke. Joe escapes the Rose Army corner and rolls to Stasiak for a tag. Stasiak is all about bearhugs for Luke and Rose, but Butch keeps breaking them up. Even though Butch wasn’t the legal man, he covers Stasiak to win the first fall at 11:50.

SECOND FALL: We pick up where we left off with Butch and Stasiak. Immediately, the Rose Army corners him and cuts the ring in half for a bit. Martel gets the hot tag on Luke. Rose tags in, but Martel is virtually untouchable in this match. Back to Joe, he gets stuck on the wrong side of town as the Rose Army work on the arm. Eventually, Joe just runs across the ring and tags Stasiak. Hmm, I wonder why nobody has tried that since 1979. Anyways, Stasiak punches the Sheepherders around while Rose remains on the apron. Stasiak tags Martel who then catches Luke coming off the ropes. Luke staggers around as Martel leaps into the ring with a sunset flip to win the second fall at 5:06.

THIRD FALL: A fight erupts in the crowd before the bell sounds. As Bonnema tells people to stay away from the wrestlers, it appears a fan tried to go after Rose or something. Anyways, Martel continues to look strong as he is already being billed as the #1 contender to the NWA world title. Well, as far as Portland is concerned. It looks like the good guys will put away Luke, but it doesn’t happen just yet thanks to Joe. He gets his butt handed to him by the Rose Army until Rose puts him down with the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER for the win. (22:19 total) Despite the Rose Army continue their winning ways, seeing Martel absolutely blow away (no pun intended) everybody else in this match was pretty awesome. I want to see Martel versus Rose now, but the match with Harley Race comes first. ***

Buddy Rose admits defeat!! (Portland Wrestling, 12/29/79)

The camera zooms in on a giant cut on Buddy Rose’s forehead after his loss to Roddy Piper in the cage match on the previous Thursday night show in Portland. Rose admits he lost the match, but Piper collapsed on his way back to the dressing room. Rose challenges Piper to a hair match now as retribution for the cage match – that is if Piper has got the guts.

• 2/3 Falls: Buddy Rose vs. Yaqui Joe – (Portland Wrestling, 12/29/79)
  

FIRST FALL: Bonnema mentions that Roddy Piper and Rick Martel will be joining forces to take on the Rose Army. It takes Rose about two minutes before he locks up with Joe. When he does lock up with Joe, Rose goes for the pony tail hair. Ref Sandy Barr sees what he did and yanks Rose down by his blonde locks. HA! Joe hiptosses away a waistlock. Rose complains to Sandy Barr about Joe pulling the tights. Sorry, pal. Joe takes Rose down in an overhead wristlock, but Rose pulls the hair to take Joe back over. Sandy Barr doesn’t see it even though the old lady at ringside lets him know what happened. Joe eventually chops his way out and whips Rose from corner to corner. Here comes the Sheepherders for the DQ though at 7:17.

SECOND FALL: Bonnema mentions something about Sam Oliver Bass interested in teaming with Buddy Rose. WHAT. Apparently Bass has voiced that the clean way of doing things isn’t getting him anywhere so he’s returning to the Outlaw status. The Sheepherders are at ringside and they promise they will sit in the front row. Barr threatens to DQ Rose if they don’t leave so they finally do. Rose stalls a bunch and heads to the dressing room door to meet Butch. It looks like he hands him something. Rose is tucking whatever Butch gave him into one of his boots. Oh boy. A test of strength ensues between these two until Rose pulls on Joe’s hair. Rose shoots on the leg and tries to bar the knee, but Joe body scissors Rose and tumbleweed rolls him for a two-count. Rose escapes and starts stomping Joe on the head. He whips Joe into the ropes and trips him up so he can bury knees to the back. BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER at 8:33.

THIRD FALL: Joe is all about working the left leg of Rose. After all that, Joe starts whipping Rose into the corner. He charges Rose one good time, but misses. Rose gets the missionary pin for the three-count out of nowhere. (20:01 total) If you can’t have a good match with Buddy Rose, just go ahead and leave Portland. ½*

Piper’s favorite Christmas present!! (Portland Wrestling, 12/29/79)

We see what Roddy Piper looks like after the cage match. He had a good Christmas. Somebody out in Portland sent him 23 pairs of XXL-sized plaid boxer shorts. The best Christmas present he got was getting Buddy Rose in the cage. Now that Rose knows who he’s dealing with, he’ll think twice before he burns something that’s important to Roddy Piper. He responds to the hair match challenge. Piper says he’ll give Rose a hair match when Kermit the Frog becomes a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Sam Bass joins the Rose Army!! (Portland Wrestling, 12/29/79)

So Rose makes a big announcement here. He challenges Roddy Piper, Rick Martel, Dutch Savage & Stan Stasiak to face Buddy Rose, the Sheepherders, and SAM OLIVER BASS. You would think Bass would be smarter than to trust Buddy Rose after what was done to him back in 1977. He is sick of playing second fiddle to the promotion. He now knows who his friends are and the Rose Army is where his allegiance lies now. Rose puts over the Sheepherders and Bass as crazy workout partners looking to bench press 700 pounds. Before we go, Rose expresses a need to get Sam Oliver Bass a belt even though the Rose Army already holds all the belts.

Well that’s it for the 1977 to 1979 Portland project. 187 CLIPS~! I really hope you have enjoyed it. It’s been fun looking into a territory on the other side of the country.

1980 is going to be much more awesome though. We’ll see more from Roddy Piper, Buddy Rose, Rick Martel, Stan Stasiak, the return of Ed Wiskowski, the Sheepherders, and the debut of Rip Oliver!